Mushroom Rock to Signal Point TTA

 

Deb led a great hike from Signal Mountain HS area, trail goes to Mushroom Rock. Then followed Cumberland Trail to Signal Point. It was a beautiful hike. Gotta love those rocks in the Tennessee River Gorge section. Great views of the river and surrounding ridges and forest. A quick moving black snake nearly scared the pee out of me. And yes I screamed... Cynthia found some ripe persimmons for us, yummy. There were some mushrooms that looked like brown velvet. Cindy found a lions mane. The wooden steps going up to Signal Point need a little work, some of the steps are missing. 

Fun group of hikers. Thanks to the short hike folks that moved our cars to Signal Point for us. 

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Signal Point to Edwards Point

I met Sara at Signal Point for a Sunday hike. We managed to miss the Rainbow Falls path, so no waterfall today. We could hear it but didn't see it. There were lots of hikers and lots of four legged hikers, most of them unleashed. The dogs should try harder to keep their people on leash...

The views were beautiful looking into the creek gorge and the TN river gorge. I looked at the Outcast Hiker Blog to see the waterfall we missed.

We will have to go back.

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Signal Point Backpack

Nov. 19
Prentice Cooper to Signal Point
13.4 miles

Looks like a beautiful weekend for a backpack. I drove to Signal Mountain to meet up with Charlotte, Sara, Ann and Kim from the Boro. We left one car and then drove to Prentice Cooper to the Cumberland Trail parking area. There was a big group of backpackers already there and getting ready to start on the trail. They were headed for Mullen’s Cove. We started down the trail towards Suck Creek. The Indian Rockhouse and Stone Door are some of the interesting sights on this trail. There are pretty views of the Tennessee River and overlooks into the gorge all the way to Hwy 27. You better watch for traffic zipping up and down; the motorcycle riders like this mountain road. We hiked on another mile or so to the big suspension bridge and set up camp on the other side. There was plenty of room for our 5 tents and maybe room for a couple more. Good group site.

As we gathered firewood for the night, a big group of hikers from the Plateau TTA Chapter came thru. It was good to see a lot of folks enjoying the Cumberland Trail.

As it got dark we were cooking supper, a screech owl talked to us as it swooped by the camp. We caught up on trail stories and enjoyed the campfire.

It didn’t get too cold that night and hiking up out of the creek gorge the next morning it warmed up real quick. Mushroom Rock was a cool photo op. This whole section of trail is so beautiful-all along the rim following the creek, stream crossings, seeing a couple of waterfalls. Then to Edwards Point for lunch. And right after lunch finding Edwards Point. Hmmm. There are so many rock formations to see along the rim; a natural bridge and the start of another one, I think. Just before dropping into the gorge we came to someone’s smoldering campfire from last night. Not good. Sara had some extra water and poured it on the log. We crossed the creek and started the climb out of the gorge up up up to the views of the beautiful Tennessee River at Signal Point.

A beautiful weekend and the rain didn’t start until we picked up the other car from Prentice Cooper.

Thank you Charlotte for the backpack trip!

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