Cumberland Mountain State Park

We met Dad and Mom at the Cumberland Mountain State Park in Crossville.  They brought their motor home over and we parked in the campground for an overnighter.  After a good visit we headed over to the boat house to rent some kayaks.  When we got there the boat house was closed so we went to the visitor center and found that the pool and boats were closed due to manpower during the week and where only open on the weekends.  So we headed to the trails.

We walked the Pioneer short and long loops for a five mile hike around Byrd Lake and creek.  We saw lots of varieties and colors of mushrooms and wildflowers. We saw fish, lots of frogs, and one snake. It was warm and quite muggy so we didn't mind when we got a light rain towards the end of the loop.  We headed back to the campground and grilled out some steaks.  It was a nice evening to sit around the campsite visiting.

The next morning, after breakfast, we hiked the 2.1 mile Byrd Creek trail and .5 miles of the Cumberland Plateau nature trail.  Again more flowers and mushrooms with a treat of ripe persimmons.  All the trails were in great condition with lots to see.  We stopped by the park store for an ice cream and after a grilled out lunch we packed up and headed home.

Great weekend!

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Dale Hollow Lake - Star Point Marina

Lora and I went to Dale Hollow Lake for an overnighter.  We put in at the Star Point Marina on Jouett Creek.  Our reservation was for campsite #29 Jouett Point.  We paddled out following the lake shore out to our campsite.  After setting up camp we headed across the lake going through the gap by County Line Island and headed up the East Fork of Ashburn Creek.  There were lots of boaters and jet skiers out today!  We saw lots of wildlife including deer, turkey, waterfowl, fish, and turtles.

It was a good night sitting around the fire watching the boats go by.  The next morning we woke up to the crows overhead crowing.  We got up and after breakfast we got loaded up knowing that we had until noon before the rain came in.

We headed across Jouett Creek and went up the shoreline exploring up to Muddy Branch.  Then we headed back to the Marina.  We miss calculated by about twenty minutes which yes, we got really really wet!  We made entertainment for all of those boaters at the marina as we paddled by in the downpour.

We got in 10.6 miles the first day taking 3.2 miles to camp.  The second day we got in 6.8 miles.

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Dry Branch - TN River

Lora and I headed back to the TN river for a canoe trip.  We put in at Cottonport Road boat ramp off Hwy 30 again.  This time we headed to the TN river and went North a mile to Dry Branch.  It was time for lunch as we entered so we found a tree to hang out under and had our picnic.  A fisherman came by that we talked to and he headed up stream.

After lunch we headed up Dry Branch and ended up at yet another yacht club.  Again there were no boats? We paddled around the lake and then headed up McKinley Branch.  We passed by the fisherman and then the creek opens up to a very large lake.  We spent some time exploring, but never did get it all in.  We got in around five miles.

This is a great place to explore if your out with a kayak or canoe.  We swam in the the main river and headed back to the car.

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Cummings Falls / Burgess Falls TTA

I met the Plateau TTA group at Cracker Barrel in Crossville and we carpooled 17 hikers to Cummings Falls State Park. I haven't been there in a while so the area looked a lot different. A huge parking lot has been built plus bathrooms. Signs posted and a decent trail to the creek. There are a couple of ropes in a steep section of the trail. Steps would work better, but we appreciated the ropes. They said last time they were there the water was thigh deep and only 3 hikers could cross so they gave up. Today the water was no more than ankle to knee deep. The falls were beautiful, no swimmers this morning yet. It is a popular place for the locals and college kids.

We departed the park headed for Cookville along the backroads of Tennessee. One missed turn made for a scenic route. We had lunch at Cinco Amigos; good food, and then visited the Railroad Museum. John's birthday gave us a good excuse to visit the ice cream shop across the street. I scream, you scream,......
I had Loaded Butterscotch ice cream and OMG it was good!

On to Burgess Falls. The hike down was not too bad, but the hike back up made me pay for all the calories consumed. I told the Plateau folks they get a lot of hikers for the waterfall hikes, they said they get a lot of hikers for the lunch included hikes. I understand.

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Goodfield Creek - TN river

Lora and I did 5.8 miles on Goodfield Creek of the Tennessee River.  We put in at the boat ramp on Cottonport Road off of Hwy 30.  We went under the bridge and looped around the lake counterclockwise. We paddled up Goodfield Creek as far as the water would let us.  While cooling off in the creek a young boy came up on his four wheeler and we talked a bit about his hunting and fishing.  He was trapping Coons, but had a opossum in his trap.

We ate lunch in the creek and then continued back to the lake and finished our loop.  We went back under the bridge and explored the sloughs on the Northern side before going out on the TN river.  We then headed back to car.  There were some young kids jumping off the bridge when we got back to the boat ramp.

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Wisconsin 2014

We headed up to Oconomowoc Wisconsin for my nieces' High School graduation party and a family get-to-gather. We got up there Friday night to start with a pizza party and bonfire.  The following day was the graduation party. We got to visit with a lot of family and friends.  She starts Michigan State next month.

The next day, the visiting continued after church and then we headed to Delafield for the Derby Days festival. We watched a parade, enjoyed a couple of different bands preform, and watched some of the frog jumping. We got some card playing in as the "shark" sharpened her skills.

Monday was a hiking day.  The ladies went shopping, except Lora who did some hiking with us in the Kettle Moraine State Forest.  There was a lot of cross country ski trails and we visited the observation tower.  Lots of wildlife and wild flowers.  We climbed the second highest peak in Wisconsin.....Not too high.  Afterwards some of us headed over to see McKinley's horse riding training.

Tuesday we headed we headed out to the Nemahbin lakes area and did some kayaking.  We paddled a few different lakes connected by creeks doing lunch on the shore.  We checked out six different kayaks to get the feel of them. Dad put on a show for us and was surprisingly the only one to flip over.  Mom finished up being towed back to port by Steve.

Steve, Kathy, and Betty left Wednesday.  We had a down day and did a little shopping.

Thursday we attended the Oshkosh Air Show.  We had a great day for it and they had a great show for us. The highlight included the Thunderbird's, and a wing walker who tweeted while on the wing.  Lots and lots of airplanes.

Friday was clean up day and headed down to Golden lake for some swimming and a boat ride.

We managed to get in chicken and sliders and the homemade beef soup traditions.

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Hunter Bend - Tennessee River

Lora and I went back out Hwy 30 to the bridge over the Tennessee River.  This time we went straight across the river next to where the Old Washington Ferry used to cross and went up the creek next to it.  The old ferry was actually at the ramp which is a bit of history.

There are a couple of unnamed sloughs here, but they have also put a gravel road in which cut's you off from paddling the sloughs.  So we did all the exploring we could and had lunch there.  While we were eating, we got to see a gray fox swim across the creek just down from us.  Lora also got to see the biggest snapping turtle she has ever seen, which of course came with a scream as it was by her paddle.

From there we went East on the TN river to Clear Creek and paddled up it.  It does a complete circle around a cow pasture and then opens up to a small lake.  We got to see a four point buck in velvet and Lora got to see, with another scream, a snake while she took a potty break.

We did not get to finish the East side of the split as we needed to head back.  We stopped for a swim on the way back to the car and we also got to see a raccoon climbing the bank along the way. We also got to see a flock of turkeys in a field.  Lots and lots of ducks, geese, and water birds.

We got another 8 miles in.

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Armes Gap trail - Frozen Head State Park

I kind of invited myself on a hike with Pete, Lillian and Hix at Frozen Head State Park. I met up with them at the old Brushy Mountain State Prison and followed them up the mountain road to the Armes Gap trailhead. The 4 of us started climbing the old jeep road and took a spur trail on the left to the old prison mine. There are some small buildings still standing, the guard shack has a fence around it. The mine openings are gated. Very cool area to explore. Lillian told us about the history of the mines and how Brushy Mt Prison came to be built.

Back on the jeep road we kept climbing. A pickup truck came up behind us, it was a park Ranger. He didn't offer us a ride, just kept going. Before we got to the top of the mountain, he came back down and stopped to chat. He told us he had spotted a Canada Lily on the jeep road and gave us directions on where to find it. Lillian asked him about the old mining area and if they were going to include it as part of the history when they open the prison as a visitor center and museum. He agreed that it was a good idea. He gave us some info about an old home site on Hwy 62 that may be preserved by the Historical Society of Morgan County. He said good bye and we kept climbing.

When we got to Tub Spring we looked at all the trail junctions and decided to stay on the jeep road. We found one Canada Lily growing right by the side of the road just a little past all the junctions. We walked until it was lunch time and that was at the Coffin Spring trail junction. It looked overgrown, must not get much foot traffic. After lunch we started back the way we came. We took another short spur down to the Panther Branch Rockhouse. Heading back down the jeep road we found a lot of blackberries; that held us up for a while. Back at the trailhead, plans we made to meet up at Sonic in Wartburg. Turtle pecan Master Blast....yum!

After saying goodbye to everyone, I went back to the park and waded in the creek for a little while to cool off and get the dust off my feet. It was a beautiful day with 75 degrees for the high; a cool breeze, and good friends to hike with.

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Pete's Pictures:

2014 4th of July Trip

Lora and I headed out to do some trails on her to do list.  It was a great few days that we got to spend with Dad and Mom as well as celebrate our United States Independence.  Of the 150 trails in the Smoky Mountain National Park, Lora had 67 more trails to hike.  After our three days out her new number is 71     trails to hike.  Doesn't add up very well, but you will see why.

We started out at the Sugarlands visitor center.  We hiked the Old Sugarlands trail from the Headquarters building out to Bull Head trail.  After we got going we found the Two Mile Lead trail.  After we hiked to the Bull Head trail we headed down the Two Mile Branch trail which is also not on the map.  We took it to the Grassy Branch trail , which is not on the map, back to the Two Mile Lead trail.  So we completed one of her trail and added three.

After we got off the trail we called Dad and Mom who were working the Patriot Festival in Pigeon Forge. We got to Pigeon Forge Patriot park in time to catch the last three bands playing.  We got us some dinner and were extremely upset to find that there were no cotton candy vendors anywhere.  Anyway the concert was great and there ended up being around 60,000 people there.  The main band was Lonestar and towards the end of their concert we could see Dollywood's fireworks going off.  After the concert, Pigeon Forge put on their fireworks display with music to accompany it.  It was amazing to hear 60,000 people singing America the Beautiful at the same time.

With every large gathering, the exit took quite some time.  We wondered around for a while and then walked up to Dad and Mom's car which was still sitting in line in the parking lot that they started at.  We visited a bit longer until the traffic started moving.

Day two, we got up and took Dad with us.  We dropped off a car at Greenbrier at the Grape Yard Ridge trailhead.  Then we headed to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature trail for the other end of the trail.  We did some exploring of the local neighborhood, before finding the wrong end of the one way nature trail.  We then found the right road and followed the many many cars heading around the loop and squeezing between parked cars to the trail head.

We hiked a couple of miles and stopped for lunch.  Mom had made us some mighty fancy trail sandwiches which were really good.  We met up with some hikers looking for the locomotive parts just up from Campsite #32.  We showed them on the map that they were at the wrong point.  We went to check out the campsite and the others followed us and then kept going down the trail.  Well we followed them looking and not finding the same site.  When we got to the end of the trail we were at the wrong trailhead.  We had taken the Injun Creek trail, which is not on the map, and ended up at the ranger station in Greebrier.  So between the three of us experienced? hikers, none of us had read the signs at campsite #32.  We had to hike the two miles of road to the car.  Dad showed us where the Rhododendron Creek trail was which also, not on the map, goes up to the Grape Yard Ridge trail.  Thus, we had completed one half of a trail and added two more to her list.

Day three, after church, we headed to the Top Of the World and the Gold Mine trail.  This was Mom's hike and another trail.  We hiked down to the Cooper Road trail and took the Cane Creek trail.  This finished Lora's Cane Creek and we didn't add any trails this time.

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Trail Maintenance N. Chickamaga Segment

Lora went back out to the North Chickamaga segment of the Cumberland trail to help with more trail building.  They are still planning on opening it back up on schedule, but did not accomplish all they had hoped to do.

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