Piney River - Cumberland trail

Lora and I went to the Piney River Segment of the Cumberland trail checking out wildflowers. It was a beautiful day to be out. We hiked out to the suspension bridge and back.

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Piney River Segment of the Cumberland trail

Lora and I did a backpack of the Piney River Segment of the Cumberland trail. We got a late start on the trail and did three miles in to the Piney bridge crossing and camped there. There were lots of wildflowers blooming along this section. We also saw a hawk, a deer, and a bat. We collected wood for a fire, set up camp, and ate dinner. It was a wonderful night under the stars and bright half moon. 

The next morning after breakfast, we packed up and continued along the trail. We saw more wildflowers, butterflies, and woodpeckers. We hiked another two and half miles to the Spiders den and went down to check it out. It had been a while. Then we headed back to the trailhead stopping at the Hemlock Falls and the Picnic area where Lora and I climed in the river for a quick bath. It was another wonderful backpack.

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Duskin Creek

Lora and I headed up to the Piney Creek section of the Cumberland trail. We started at Duskin Creek and hiked to the Piney River Picnic Area on the trail. It was loaded with wildflowers. We stopped at Spider Den for lunch which had lots of flowers as well. 

Blue Cohosh, Dwarf Crested Iris, Baneberry, Red Trillium, Gaywings, Wood Vetch, Little Brown Jugs, Chickweed, Foam Flower, Spring Beauties, Phlox, Yellowroot, Barren Strawberry, Anemone, Wood Sorrel, Alumroot, Cumberland Spurge, Mandarin, Firepink, Perfoliate Bellwort, Jack in the Pulpit, Purple Phacelia, Red and Yellow Buckeye, Mayapple.

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Piney River Segment

 

Lora and I headed to the Piney River Segment of the Cumberland Trail today. We hiked down past the bridge from the lower trailhead and then did the Twin Rocks loop. Lot's of trees down across the trail. It was a beautiful day to hike!

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Piney River Trail - Duskin Creek Trailhead

Crisp and cool this morning, perfect for a hike. I met Crystal at the Walden Mountain Road entrance for the Duskin Creek trailhead of Piney River Trail. Two vehicles at the trailhead looked like they had been here all night. 

The mountain laurel was blooming along the creek and we found some pretty wildflowers and some cool places for future splashing or swimming holes. Beautiful hemlocks and a full canopy overhead, the shade and cool air along the creek kept us cool. 

We met 5 backpackers coming out, two kids and 3 adults, they said they enjoyed their night out in a good campsite. They had come across a rattlesnake on the trail the previous day, and warned us to watch for snakes. We didn’t see any snakes but found their campsite and warmed our hands by the still warm ashes. There was a roasting spit, handy for cooking, or maybe drying socks. The rock chairs around the fire were nice (and rocky J). We found a sunny spot on a big rock in the creek to have our lunch.  The CT website only lists one campsite but we saw 3 or 4 by the time we reached Hemlock Falls. We hiked back the way we came, no snakes.

Thanks Crystal for a good hike.

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TTA Piney River

On a cloudy Saturday that threatened rain, 5 intrepid TTA hikers set out on a trek of the Piney River Section of the Cumberland Trail, near Spring City, TN.  We left a car at the picnic area on Shut-In Gap Rd. where we would come off the trail and drove up the mountain to the Newby Branch Trailhead where we began.  The trail  passes through dense mountain laurel, rhododendron, hemlock and hardwood forest.  The first scenic landmark we encountered was White Pine Cascades, (where there are no White Pines), a beautiful multilayered cascade that was in full glory.  We passed quite a few spur trails leading to rockhouses, picnic/camping areas and other waterfalls but did not choose to take them at this time.  We crossed Deep Pool Bridge, Rockhouse Branch Bridge, Pine Branch Bridge and the amazing Piney River 100 ft. suspension bridge.  These bridges were constructed by the Bowater Paper Company when the land was owned by them.  Our last landmark/obstacle before trail's end was MacDonald Branch, a boulder scramble across a wide drainage.  It was a little late in the season for wildflowers but we did see bluets, wild geranium, laurel, skullcap, hearts-a-bustin', spicebush, rattlesnake weed, stonecrop, partridge berry, milkweed, and one very frequent mystery flower.  And it didn't rain!

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TTA Piney River Backpack

Stinging Fork  3 Miles
Twin Rock's Nature Trail 1.8
Flat Rock Loop Trail  0.7
Piney River Segment 8.46
Total Miles: 13.96

The Murfreesboro chapter hosted a backpack on the Cumberland Trail.  We met up at the Piney River trailhead on Shut In Gap road.  Lora and I got there early and hiked the Twin Rock's Nature trail and Flat Rock Loop trail before everyone got there.  When we had finished, the last car of hikers had pulled up.  There were three from Murfreesboro; Sara, Faith, and Jenny and four from Memphis; Deena, Lea, Jeff, and Ricky. That's not counting  Lora and I.  We loaded up into two cars and left the rest of the cars at the trailhead parking area.

Our first stop was Stinging Fork Falls Trail.  The trail starts at the gravel parking area on Shut-in Gap Road. This three mile round trip trail is rated moderate and leads the hiker through a managed pine plantation into the 140 acre Bowater Stinging Fork Pocket Wilderness.  There is a spur trail that leads to Indian Head Point, which is a scenic overlook of the rugged Stinging Fork Gorge.  The main trail descends into the gorge and ends at the 35 foot Stinging Fork Falls.

We didn't lose any hikers until just as we started the decent into the Stinging Fork Gorge.  Being the proud sweep I kept everyone in eyesight, when Deena asked where is Faith?  With a quick and calculated head count of eight I quickly figured we had lost one.  How in the h---?  We just started on the trail??  Well then it came out; one of the men said she had gone to use the bathroom before we left the parking area.  She had a fifty-fifty chance of picking the right trail and she went to the overlook instead.  So two of the girls went back for her and the rest of us continued on down to the falls.

We had lunch at the falls and our barefooted hiker went wading in the Fall pool.  After lunch we headed up and took the side trail to Indian Head Point.

Our next stop was the Piney River Segment.  It has been four years since I hiked this section so once again the search was on for the trailhead.  There is a 4x4 sign pole at Walden Mountain Road, which is an upgrade since the last visit.  The first road off of Walden Mountain Road is a gated road.  The next split is the Newby Branch Road and it also now has a 4x4 sign post.  You take the second entrance into the campground which is a "better" road and the trail kiosk is on the right.  All of the roads in this area are washed out as before.

A quick check of the packs and off we went.  When we got down to the Duskin Creek trailhead there were three trucks there from Rutherford County.  After we crossed the metal Duskin Creek bridge, we proved that the snakes are out.  I, being the fine sweep, showed everyone after they darn near stomped on him, a small water snake just to the side of the trail.  We also found a large lumber chain on the side of the trail.

When we got to the White Pine Cascades, I said my goodbye and headed back to the truck.  I only had the day to hike and the rest were there for an overnighter.

The rest of the story:

After Craig turned back the rest of us stopped at White Pine cascades to fill up water bottles. A little further down the trail, another snake was found, a baby, light brown with teeny spots, not that I got close enough to see the spots....

We passed by the Spider Den Bluff spur, no one wanted spiders, and headed on toward our camp. We found the junction for Rock House Branch but the trail sign was on the ground. We tried to prop it back up but the signage didn't make sense. No matter which way you turned the sign, it was wrong. If you pointed the arrow toward the Piney Picnic Area Trailhead, the arrow for Rock House pointed the wrong way. If you pointed the arrow toward Rock House Branch the sign for Picnic area pointed the wrong way????????Who made this sign????? Deena ran down the trail to make sure it was the campsite and ran back up to get all of us.

This is a great area for group camping. We had 8 tents and there was room for more. We had a huge fire ring with rock chairs for everyone right on the riverside. There were rock walls along the river bank on the other side and a rock wall along Rock House Branch. Old logging roads. We set up camp, gathered wood for the campfire, all stacked nice and neat.

We cooked supper, and had Belgian chocolates for dessert thanks to Ricky. The fire was big enough that the Outcasts would have been proud. Deena kept us entertained with ghost stories of Tennessee State Parks, and doing a little dance when her Jetboil boiled over. You are on fire girl! The stars put on a show for us too.

The next morning we were up and eating and packing up, and realized three of us were still sleeping to the sounds of the river rushing by. We woke them up and then Deena demonstrated again how a Jetboil  boils over.

We hiked on crossing more creeks flowing down the mountain sides and then at the suspension bridge crossing Piney River we heard Dueling Banjos and hiked a little faster. We got to see some of the first wildflowers blooming. We found trout lily, yellow and white violets, Hepatica, Blood root, Anemone,Spring Beauties and a few more white flowers I haven't identified yet.

Thanks to Sara for arranging the backpack and to the Memphis folks for driving so far to backpack with us. It was fun.

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Spring City - Canoe and party

Lora and I headed out to Spring City.  We had a church picnic to attend and thought that we would go early and do some canoeing in Watts Bar Lake.  It happens to be the Piney River section of the lake.

There were lots of Islands just out from the Spring City boat ramp.  We traveled around them and saw lots of wild life.  We saw fish, deer, and lots of birds.  We checked out a couple of campsites on the islands as well.

We canoed over to the party and were entertained by the Mt. LaConte band.  Lots of fun, dancing, and games.  Not even to mention all the food you could want.  Life is good.

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