Honey Creek/Twin Arches

I drove to Big South Fork to meet up with the hikers from Highland Rim, Nashville and Murfreesboro. I was also looking for the road to the Double Arches I had heard about from the Nature Conservancy. I found the road, then drove to Honey Creek. 9 hikers today, most had been here before, some had not. We had a few creek crossings, with a couple of wet feet, but we never changed into our water shoes. We managed to rock hop and log hop, and maneuver our way thru and across. Lunch was at a rock house with entertainment from 3 young backpackers climbing and jumping and making us wonder if we would need Michael's big first aid kit. Trying to figure out meal times between two time zones could make a hiker hangry. But I made it.

When we got back to the parking lot we drove to the parking for the Double Arches. It's just a short walk in and you walk across the top of the arch then down and around to see the one underneath. Such a cool thing to see. Then 5 hikers headed for Nashville and Tullahoma, and 4 of us headed to Bandy Creek Campground. Marietta, Kathy and Jan had camped Friday night and had firewood and snacks ready. I set up my hammock and we started collecting firewood. Kathy got a good fire going and we kicked back and enjoyed our evening. We watched the stars put on a show and got to hear a whippoorwill sing.

Early Sunday morning I heard a Barred owl talk for a little while. It was a chilly morning so I got a fire started so we could warm our fingers while packing up. Kathy decided to head back toward home and sight see along the way, so Jan, Marietta and I drove up the Divide Road to the Twin Arches.

There were quite a few cars in the parking lot but we had room. We hiked the Twin Arches/Charit Creek Loop. We had a snack at the lodge while Jan checked out the facilities for a future stay. It was a beautiful hike with lots of wildflower sightings. Yellow and red Trilliums, Spring Beauties, Blood root, white, yellow and purple violets, Bishop's Cap, Cinuefoil Hepatica, Anemone, Columbine, Little Brown Jugs, Star Chickweed. If I missed some, someone remind me.

We said goodbye see you soon, I stayed and ate my lunch at the picnic tables in the parking area. I don't know when these were added but it looks fairly new. As I drove out I noticed a small shallow pond and stopped to check for salamander eggs, but found tadpoles instead.

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Gobbler's Knob Hike

DAY ONE:6.8
Gobbler's Knob Trail 0.8 Miles
Hatfield Ridge Trail 0.9
Hatfield Ridge Loop 1.0
Twin Arches Loop 3.1
Slave Falls to Charit Creek Trail 1.0

DAY TWO:11.6
Slave Falls to Charit Creek Trail 2.6
Slave Falls Overlook Trail 0.4
Slave Falls Overlook Trail 0.4
Slave Falls Loop Trail 1.1
Fork Ridge Road 0.7
Gobbler's Knob Trail 6.4
TOTAL MILES: 18.4

Lora and I headed out to Big South Fork for an overnight hike. We started at the Gobbler's Knob Trailhead off Terry Cemetery Road. Gobbler's Knob trail is a wagon trail as well as the Hatfield Trails.

We stopped at the Charit Creek Lodge which is a hike to or horse ride to lodge. They have a pretty cool set up that will feed you and everything. We did the tour.

The Twin Arches Trail is beautiful. It is also a very popular trail. There is plenty of water available. We checked out the twin arches and then hiked on to Jake's place which is really a pile of rocks where the chimney once stood on the side of a meadow. There was a large group of tents set up with campers on the side of the meadow.

We hiked down Slave Falls to Charit Creek trail and found a spot to set up camp along the Mill Creek. We ate dinner then got a campfire going. We waited for the stars to come out, but not before bed time.

When we got up to use the bathroom, the stars were shining. We even had a owl talking to us. Then the incident happened. We were getting comfortable and the headlamp was still on. I looked up to see an eight legged enemy on the inside top of the tent. I set off the alarm as practiced in the pass. My brave Little Outcast bravely stated that she had it. I watched expecting great things......then I saw the plastic container. Warnings went off in my head along with the great "WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING?" I later found out that she had intended to smash it with the container. I thought she was going to try to catch it. Anyway she swung, the spider fell, I screamed.....I mean I was going to take action, but had the headlamp in my hand. The enemy was crawling over the sleeping bag. She swatted with her bare hand....HER BARE HAND! She missed, I yelled, I mean told her she missed. She swatted again with a deadly blow. Success! She followed up with a Kleenex clean up. I cleaned up too.

Somewhere in the night, I finally got back to sleep. We woke in the morning to the owl singing a song. We got up, had breakfast and headed out.

We took both overlook trails to the 60 foot Slave falls. The Needle Arch is between the two overlooks. From there we hiked to the Sawmill Trailhead and took the road to the Middle Creek Equestrian Trailhead. Then we hiked Gobbler's Knob trail back to the car.

Great overnight hike.

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