THE OUTCASTS HIKE AGAIN

Future Trails

2012-12-29T20:02:00.000-08:00

February 4-8 Frozen Head State Park (40)
March 11-12 Tennessee River Gorge Segment (16)
March 29-April 2 Big Ridge State Park (40)

October 4-8
October 28-29
October 27-December 1

(All hikes are subject to change at any time)
Appalachian Trail
Bridgestone/Firestone
Benton MacKaye Trail
Pinhoti Trail
Bartram Trail
Big Ridge State Park

Savage Gulf Natural Area

2012-01-12T08:10:00.000-08:00

Savage Day Loop to North Plateau Trail 2.2..Outcast Total Miles: 1285.84
North Plateau to Mountain Oak Trail 1.2
Mountain Oak to North Rim Trail 0.8
North Rim to Hobb's Cabin 3.5
Day One: 7.7 Miles

Connector Trail 6.7
Big Creek Trail 3.1
Day Two: 9.8 Miles

Greeter Falls Trail x 2 2.8
Big Creek Rim Trail 3.2
Big Creek Gulf Trail 0.9
Connector to Saw Mill 3.2
Day Three: 10.1

Connector 0.4
Stagecoach Road Trail 1.6
South Rim Trail 5.8
Day Loop to End 1.5
Day Four: 9.3

Total Miles: 36.9

This hike was to get everyone in the group to finish hiking all the trails in the Savage Gulf. Didn't work out that way, but here we go...

Troy, Marco, and I headed out after work. We drove to the Savage Gulf ranger station to start our hike. We were going to hike five days around 50 miles. The weather was looking wet!

We had some misting rain up to sprinkles on the way to Hobbs. We passed two groups of two hikers each that had stayed at Hobbs the night before. Both said that there was fire wood at the cabin.

We got to Hobbs cabin around two o'clock. The bunks were calling our name. I took a nap and then Troy joined in. We got up and collected fire wood for the night. After a lot of thought, we decided to go ahead and stay in the cabin tonight. We sat by the fire out front taking cough medicine and telling lies. We made it a challenge to see who would spot Ranger Lightfoot before he got to camp. The ranger never showed so we were a little let down. We did hear an owl talking.

DAY TWO:

We got up in the morning and headed down the Connector trail. The rocks were wet and slippery. A definate challenge. By the time we got to the swinging bridge, Troy had made up his mind. His knees were hurting and he would call it off. When we got to the Stagecoach Road trail he headed off taking the South Rim trail to the car.

Marco and I headed on. We passed up the trail to Ranger Falls as we had both done that and it was getting late and dark with the heavy fog. It was almost a night hike by the time we got to Alum campsite. The fog was heavy and wet. We set up camp, ate, and called it a night. I got ready to lay down and asked Marco if he was still awake. All I heard was ZZZZZzzzzz.

DAY THREE:

We got up early after an early night and headed off to Greeter Falls. The falls were wonderful with all the rain. We met an older man and his grandson at the falls. The grandson was in school for photography and was taking pictures.

We hiked back to Alum campsite and then took the Big Creek Rim trail to Stone Door. There were a couple of people there. We took some pictures as the fog was actually gone from the gulf. We went down through the Stone Door down to the Connector trail.

While on the connector trail, we met a ranger that was hiking through. We asked him if he heard anything about Troy and he hadn't. We told him about all the trees down on all of the trails. He said that was what he was doing as well. We asked about Ranger Lightfoot (George) and he said that it was unlike him to not stop by camp. He told us that there were some thunderstorms coming in tonight.

We stopped at the Historic Savage Cabin on the way. Then off to Sawmill campsite. We went the 0.3 miles to the Schwoon Spring to get water. We didn't know at the time that we could collect water while sitting by the fire pit in the morning. This spring is actually uphill in a cave. There is no telling how far down the water falls, but you are very cautious while your hanging from the rocks trying to get your water.

We went back to camp and collected fire wood. We sat by a warm fire eating our meals. After we were enjoying our cough medicine, we heard owls and coyotes talking. Then Marco said he saw a light. He though it was Ranger Lightfoot, but it was coming from the wrong direction. We both stared at the light. It looked to move up and down, but really fast and far when it did. After a while we decided that it had to be a tower off in the distance and the cough medicine wasn't helping us. It actually made my tongue go in wrong directions while talking. Marco ask me if I was buzzing? Yep, Marco I was!

DAY FOUR:

Sometime in the night we woke to lighting and thunder. WOW what a show and what a downpour. In the morning, Marco came over and said this pack was soaked under his hammock. A river was running through the camp. He moved under my tarp and we ate breakfast. Water was running everywhere as we hiked out.

We had decided yesterday to hike out today. We had both done the Collins Gulf. On the Historic Stagecoach trail there were two water falls that I had not seen before. They were beautiful. Of course the trail was a creek too! We climbed up and took the South Rim trail. We stopped at on overlook where Marco turned to leave, hitting me with his backpack shoving me toward the edge. He said he was getting me back for Lora. I have done this a couple of times to her. You forget how far you stick out in the back.

Then Marco tried to take me out again at the campground spring. He had taken a picture and wanted to show me. When he step next to me, he stood on a rock and slipped. He hit the ground on his butt while hanging onto me. We both slid towards the creek. Luckily we stopped before splashdown.

We stopped for lunch when we heard the thunder. Oh no, the race was on. The storm was faster. Lighting hitting all around us, no place to take shelter. It poured and thunder crashed. We hiked on. It slowed by the time we got to Savage Falls. We found a backbone from a deer on the trail. We said that the deer probably got in Troy's way on his way out.

Overall it was a great hike. We even saw a toad, a lizard, and a horse hair worm. That is January hiking! Marco did get all his trails in.

Pictures:

Grassy Cove Segment- Cumberland Trail

2011-12-20T10:12:00.000-08:00

Day One: 6.7 Miles..............Outcast Total: 1248.94
Day Two: 5.6
Total: 12.3

Marco, Dad, and I made this hike. We met at the top of Black Mountain and Dropped our cars. Then we loaded up the van and headed to Jewett Road to start the hike.

You can see maps at the Cumberland trail website.

From the Jewett road trailhead, its a pretty good climb to the top of Brady Mountain. The first overlook, Donnelly Overlook, is off to the right at the first split after the top. It has a slight uphill climb to it. Not marked well!

Lost Overlook is right off the right side of the trail.

The airplane crash site is even harder to find. When you go by some major big rocks on your right, there is a four wheeler path off to the left of the trail that looks like it goes over the edge. You will not see the crash site unless you go to the end and look over the edge. It is a steep slope that the wreckage is on. This is not marked on the trail. After you pass the large rocks if you look back to your left the four wheeler trail comes back up here.

Brady Bluff Overlook is the hot spot. The trail runs to the right. You can see to the Smoky Mountains. Grassy Cove is below you and you see all the farms. Beautiful spot. This is where we found our first people. A family of four.

We camped on the way down Brady Mountain on low gap. We saw the only other couple where we made camp. We made camp and told lies around the campfire. It was a beautiful starry night.

The next morning we hiked down to Hwy 68. Dad showed us how to slide down the trail. Experience I tell you!

We did a road walk to the Cox Valley Road trailhead. The creek was flowing so we filtered our water. Then we walked the creek, or I mean trail up to Windless Cave.

There are a couple of turns you need to know. First you get to a five way split. Turn right. There is a sign, but it is misleading. When you get to the bottom and cross the creek, turn right on the service road. No sign there. Just past this point you come to Windless Cave. They have the cave closed now for white nose syndrome. See picture as Marco didn't believe.

From here you go up to the top of Black Mountain. Look for the trail off to the left. It's a good climb to the top.

We ate lunch at the campsite on Black Mountain. Then we went through the big rocks and up the stairs which are similar to the "Stone Door", but narrower.

At the top there is a loop trail. The Cumberland trail goes to the right. The Southern Overlook is great! You can see all the way to the Smokey's here too. We continued on to the parking lot. Just before you get to the parking lot there are a couple of chimney's and a spring house from day's gone by.

Pictures:

Hobb's Cabin- TTA Hike

2011-12-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

North Rim Trail to Hobb's Cabin...8.2 Miles...Easy..Outcast Total:1236.64
North Plateau Trail to Office.....9.4 Miles....Easy
Total: 17.6 Miles

The Outcasts hiked with the Tennessee Trail Association to Hobb's Cabin at the Savage Gulf.

Craig, Paula, and Marco are members of the Murfreesboro TTA, Lora is with the Soddy Daisy chapter. Dad also joined us as well as Pam. This was Pams first backpack.

We got on the trail around 9:30. We took the day loop trail to see the Savage Falls and then head down the Rim trail to Hobb's Cabin. It was a beautiful day and we got some great views in. We met up with the Upper Cumberland Chapter lead by Margaret that were doing a day hike in the area.

After we got to Hobb's Cabin, George joined us for the night. He had hiked in the Connector trail.

The first real entertainment was setting up Pam's tent. Of course this was the first time she set it up. We got some laughs as the four of us tried to figure it out.

We were then entertained by Pam as she carefully picked out a rock, wrapped it up in tin foil and then placed it over the fire. We were all thinking that there are other lightweight meals with more flavor. She was thinking that she was going to warm up her sleeping bag with this. We explained the melting of fabric and she changed her mind. She made a good comeback with making smores for everyone.

There were stories told from pies to chickens and some cough medicine taken. Ranger light foot stopped by to visit as well. Lot's of laughs all night. We apologized to other campers in the morning for our wild behavior.

The next morning we hiked out on the Plateau trail. We took a good rest break at lunch and Paula waited until the last bit of the trail before she showed Pam the correct procedure to use while falling with a backpack on. Always the teacher.

Pictures:

More Pictures:

The Hundred Mile Hike

2011-11-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

North South Trail, North End 31 Miles...Outcast Total Miles: 1219.04
Canal Loop Trail 11 Miles
North South Trail, North End 31 Miles
North South Trail, From Golden Pond to Sugar Bay and back 28 Miles
Total Miles 101

I am writing this story with a lot of pride. Six years ago, Troy asked me to hike with him. He had been reading my hiking stories and had done some backpacking before. He told me then, that if we ever went over five miles a day that he would just have to back out. He had bad knees. Last year he asked me what the longest hike that I had ever been on and I told him seventy miles. He said that he wanted to do one hundred.....I said OK! Marco started five years ago and had never backpacked before. Not to mention that this is the most distance that Greg and I had ever done. I am proud of my fellow backpackers!

We headed out with the plan to place a car at the South end of Land between the Lakes and start hiking from Golden Pond going North. We were going to hike to the North end, do the Canal Loop and then hike to the South end of the North/South trail.

Day one:
We got on the trail at noon. Right off the git go Greg saw a green snake crossing the trail. The wildlife was on. When we took a break, I sat on a log and leaned against the tree behind me. The tree fell over. The entertainment was on. We made it to Rhodes Bay the first night. As we were setting up camp the owl started talking. All night long the wildlife continued. We had owls talking, Coyotes calling, and deer blowing. Not much sleep the first night.

Day two:
We got to see our first Eagle before we left camp. The Seagulls also came in that morning. Blisters on feet and chaffing were the topics today. We have never had major issues with this before and now three of us had issues on the second day of a hundred mile backpack. Not Good!

We made it to Smith Creek for the night. As we were making camp a deer hunter came to visit us. Four of them were hunting the field 100 yards from us. That is why we were in the orange. We got baths in the creek and another great campfire. We were entertained by a screech owl and the coyotes. The owl would screech and the coyotes would yelp. They sounded like hyenas so we figured the owl would wait until they got settled and then screech. The coyotes would laugh and say "you got us" and then they would do it all over again. All night long.

Day Three:
We woke up to a thunderous "CRACK". What the hell? I looked over and the fire was going. Greg had broke a branch off a fallen tree that made so much noise it scared him. Greg got up every morning and got a fire going. Then he would wake us up so we could get on the trail at daylight.

We took our lunch on Pisgah Bay. We had a nice beach, the sun was shining, and we were airing out the equipment. We set up our hammocks and got a nap in. Life was good!

From there we hiked to just short of Moss Creek Day use area and set up on the bay. Once again the Hooters and Screamers at night. Another evening of sitting around the campfire telling lies and taking cough medicine. Sometime after Troy had gone to bed he came bounding out flashing his light through the woods. He said he heard man size critters in the leaves. We looked around and decided it was probably a coyote.

Day Four:
Troy woke us up. You have about twenty minutes before the thunderstorm comes in. We got up and made sure everything was set up good. We ate breakfast and got the fire going good. We went back to bed as the rain started and the major storm blew by. The only casualty was Greg's sleeping bag got wet. He would spend the next two days trying to dry that out.

We got on the trial facing gentle Gail force winds as we walked the riverside. The trail had spots that felt like quicksand with the mud. When we dried out our stuff at lunch time, we could barely hold on to put them on the clothes lines because of the winds. We had to find shelter behind a fallen tree to eat our lunch. COLD!

We hiked the Canal Loop Trail around by the North Bridge. At break we argued about what day it was. My watch was off by one day. Troy pointed out that in a couple of days we would be starting our five day hike not counting the first five days.

We made camp just before Nickell Branch Backcountry Area. It was a misty and foggy night. Right at dusk some bikers went by. The first people we saw on the trail. The campfire would keep the mist off us but you got wet every time you went to the hammocks. I went for a swim in the bay. It felt good to get clean. In the fog I could almost hear the Jaw's music and the bell ringing on the buoy. Quick swim!

We listened to the owls and coyotes again. Marco and I stayed up late with our cough medicine talking. The moon was trying to shine through, but no luck.

Day Five:
It was a misty morning. We jumped up alot of deer today. We stopped by the North Welcome Station to check on the springs on the South end of the North/South trail. Not good news. They were dry. There were some hunters there that were camping in the area. We noticed as we were standing there in our shorts and short sleeves that they had long pants and heavy coats on. Must be Southerners.

We set up and dried out at lunch. Still overcast and Greg was still trying to dry out that sleeping bag. We made camp at the far end of Pisgah Bay. We had a good fire and it was dry enough to clean some clothes. That night some hikers came down the trial as we were going down for the night. Two had headlamps on and I could see the backpacks. They were hunters coming in for the night. Marco said that he saw four hikers. I told him that he was drunk. We teased each other for the night.

Day Six:
Greg had gotten up in the middle of the night as his wet sleeping bag had let him down. He got the fire going to warm up. Marco got up with him thinking it was morning. After some time he asked Greg what time it was. He said three thirty. What??? They both went back to bed.

The next morning as we headed out we passed a tent with three backpacks next to it. The Hunters were by the lake trying to warm up around a fire. Another hunter with a backpack was on the trail. I guess I was the drunk last night. I did not see the other two hikers which did not have headlamps on.

We had a great day to dry up equipment today. Greg's bag finally dried out. We were going to set up camp by Sugar Bay camping area. It was packed full of hunters. They had cases of beer and the foam shooting targets. We decided to move on and made camp at Higgins Bay. There was a small house boat in the bay and two campers on the other side of the bay. We spent the night listening to the owls and coyotes.

Day Seven:
The two campers across the bay had been singing Marine songs, so first thing in the morning Greg went to visit them. He found out that they were Army aircraft mechanics. They were having a very cold morning. Their gear had gotten wet during the night and they were shivering. One had spaghettio stains on the shirt where his can had blown up on the fire. We heard the screaming last night.

We passed some bike riders on the trail. The first one put his hand out like he wanted a high five? Greg wasn't sure what to think about that and when he passed me I was thinking, that would be stupid.

We passed an older gentleman that we had seen on the trail up North. This time he had his dog in his backpack. He was 81 years old and he was section hiking the trail. He had his wife with him this time. He had been doing twenty two miles a day. WOW! He is the man.

Now the challenge for the trip. I had to get the guys past the car. We got to the car to resupply and all was well. We saw another ranger and he too said that the springs on the South side were dry. Our plans had to change. We went and got the car from the South Welcome station and brought it up to Golden Pond. We needed twenty seven point six miles. It was fourteen miles to Sugar Bay. We headed out.

We set up camp around Bush Arbor Camp. We were just about out of food when we made it to the car. Now we were all overweight with too much food for this part. Troy popped out the first surprise, apple rice pudding for all. We did the owl coyote thing again and just added deer. There were some headlights out in the woods off a distance. We figured that it must have been some hunters gutting a deer.

Day Eight:
We got up and on the trail. We were headed for Sugar Bay. I told Greg when we got to where we ate lunch yesterday, stop and get my clothes line. I forgot it. We also agreed to stop at the spring that we got water at the day before.

We took lunch at Higgins Bay. This is where Troy broke out the second surprise and made brownie's on the trial. He is the man! Tessa had put the brownie's in the bag with a note for all.

After lunch Troy headed out saying he would see us in a while. When we got packed up Greg headed out after him. Greg is always in the front! Marco and I caught up with Greg his head hanging low. He couldn't catch up to Troy and had to quit. We found Troy at Sugar Bay laying on a bench waiting for us. Greg had to pay him homage as he was the hiking king. We had a celebration at this point because now all we had to do is hike back to the car. We had done it.

We hiked back to Higgins Bay, where we took a break. I said it would sure feel good to go swimming, when I heard the splash. Troy was in. Before long we were all in. Only sixty degree water, so we cooled off fast. We decided to stay here the night and hike out in the morning. Another peaceful night of Hooters and Screamers. We never did find that spring we were looking for.

Day Nine:
This was it. We hiked out and completed One Hundred and One miles of trail. We stopped by the last campsite and picked up Marco's stakes for his hammock on the way.

Pictures:

Long Hunter VI

2011-10-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Long Hunter...........Trail Rating......Outcasts Total: 1118.04Miles
Volunteer Trail...6.0 Miles.........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Volunteer Trail...6.0Miles..........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Total………………16.0 Miles

We have started again! We did our usual pilgrimage to Long Hunter State Park as our first hike of the season. This is the start of our Sixth year of hiking together. Our partner Greg couldn't make it this year as he had scheduling conflicts.

This wasn't much of a warm up since our next hike is 100 miles at Land Between the Lakes. There was talk of the weather being this warm on that hike.....yea right! We were a little off this year as we are not used to hiking without the freezing rain and snow. Kinda like a culture shock.

We left straight from work and headed to the park. We were laughing about our pack weights and being so light with the lack of cold weather gear. There was one camper on the trail, they told us when we signed in. Troy whipped out the famous fried chicken and handed each of us a half a bird. We headed out down the trail looking through tears of happiness.

We had some great weather for walking and we got to see a lot of deer. Lots of different birds too. We saw one lady walking her dogs on the day loop and then passed our camper on the overnight trail. He was a Hero who hikes back and forth during the day and sometimes stays out here a week at a time. He didn't have any campfires and lived off the wild. I added that "Live off the wild myself." Sounds even better. He didn't know if he would be back tonight or not. OK?

We set up camp and gathered firewood. I set up my hammock and while I was checking it out something happened. I woke up an hour later thinking "WOW" I slept through the day. The guys had taken naps as well.

We got up and made some dinner. After dinner Marco and I head out to film the sunset. On the way back we thought that the camp had caught fire. Troy had a fire with flames four feet tall. We had to move the sitting log back four feet to keep from getting burned. He said he was sorry, just used to having to make a fire for survival.

That evening we sat around the fire telling lies and taking cough medicine. The stars were shining and the moon glowing over the lake. That night we heard an owl getting some dogs tore up.

We got up the next morning and hung around camp just soaking it up. Then we packed up and headed down the trail. We didn't see anyone until we got to the day loop. Then we saw lots of walkers. We even were entertained by two ladies in bikinis that were washing their boat out in the lake. We are just men.

When we got back to the trailhead there was a lady getting her pack ready to go. I told her that she was late, but we did leave her some firewood. The Ranger pulled in and got after another lady about not having her dog on a leash. It was amazing how it turned out to be his fault. Women have a way of doing that. She kinda made me proud. He stopped and talked to us after that and we thanked him for the job he does and how nice the park is. We told him that we were on his side.

Another great hike starting another great hiking season full of adventure.

Pictures:

Mt. LeConte

2011-04-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

Appalachian trail 2.7 miles................................Outcast Total:1102.04 Miles Boulevard trail 5.4 miles
Day One 8.1 Miles
Boulevard trail 0.6
Rainbow Falls trail 0.5
Bull Head trail 5.9
Old Sugarlands trail 4.1
Day Two 11.1 Miles

At 6,593 feet elevation, Mount LeConte is the third highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This would be Marco's first hike here and my third.

Marco and I headed out after work to the Smoky Mountains. We stopped at the Ponderosa for lunch. Dad couldn't make this hike so he took us up to Newfound Gap and dropped us off at the trail head for the Appalachian trail. We dropped off the Outcastmobile at Sugarlands Visitor center on the way.

There were a lot of people at New Found Gap. You get a lot of day hikers that go to Charlie's Bunion and most of the people are just there to look at the view. We did meet a through hiker, trail name 501, on the trail that was on his nineteenth day heading for Maine. Mainly we were discussing different foods to take on the trail with him.

We hiked the AT to the Boulevard trail. Once on the Boulevard we saw no more people. The Boulevard trail is a trail full of wonderful views of the Smoky's. It curves just enough that you can see Mt. LeConte most of the way there. We stopped at one of the viewing places to have a snack and just take a break. This trail has lots of ups and downs as you follow the ridge line towards Mt. LeConte.

Marco stopped at one point and asked if I saw that. I asked him what and he said that it was either a bird or a lizard............. I ponder that thought. Later on when we saw a turkey crossing the trail and he asked me if I saw it, I said yes, but it could have been a lizard. I thought that he would feel better if I put it that way. We got a good laugh about that.

We had gotten dropped off around 2:30 and when we arrived at the shelter it was around 7:00. We thought it strange that we were the only ones there. We claimed our bunks and hung our packs. We took our water bag to the LeConte lodge to fetch some water. We talked to some guests there and they said that it was now $120 per person to stay there. From there we hiked up to the cliff top where people go to see the sun set over the mountains. We visited with some guests here as well. After that we headed back to the shelter.

When we arrived at the shelter there were two other fellow there. One was from Nashville and the other Memphis. This was their first backpacking trip and they came up the Alum Cave Trail which is a 5 mile trail. They had gotten on the trail at 10:30 and just gotten to the shelter. We had a good evening of visiting with them, eating dinner, and watching the stars. No campfires are allowed on Mt. LeConte. Of course someone screwed up so they had to make that a rule....people!

The wind picked up over night and we had some wind gusts that blew against the tarp so hard that it woke us all up a few times.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast. There were a few people that headed to Myrtle Point to see the sun rise. We got to see them as the trail runs right by the shelter. After breakfast we said goodbye to our new friends and headed toward the Bull Head trail.

The Bull Head trail was a steady downhill trail for us. The views were spetacular and the wild flowers abundant. We stopped and had a lunch on the way down. When we got to the bottom we took the Old Sugarlands trail, which is an old roadbed, back to the visitor center. There are alot of old rock fences and fireplaces in this area. We also got to see another wild turkey who put on a show for us, puffing out his chest and showing those tailfeathers. The last little bit we hiked along the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. From the trailhead we hiked across the bridge and to the visitor center.

Pictures:

Cooper Road- Smoky Mountains

2011-03-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Day One:6.5 Miles...............Outcast Total: 1082.84 Miles
Cooper Road Trail 5.5
Beard Cane Trail to campsite 11. 1.0
Day Two:9.0 Miles
Beard Cane Trail 1.0
Hatcher Mtn Trail 2.8
Abrams Fall Trail 4.2
Wet Bottoms Trail 1.0
Total Hike: 15.5 Miles

It was like something that we had not seen in a long time! It was something different. There was no snow, there was no ice, there was no rain, no storms, no tornado, no blizzard. It was like walking in a dream. We didn't have to break our candy bars and hold them in our mouths until they melted. We didn't have to dive right into setting up shelter and praying for fire. We didn't even have to break the ice to take a bath. What's up with that?

After work Marco and I headed to the Ponderosa to meet up with Dad. There we were served a three course lunch, given brownies, and sent out the door. We headed to Cades Cove. Our origal plan was changed as the Abrams Creek was higher than expected. Instead of going up Rabbit Creek Trail we reversed routes and took Abrams Falls trail out.

On our drive to the trailhead, we got to see turkey and deer in the cove. We got on the trail at 1:30. Cooper Road Trail is an old road bed that would take you all the way to Abrams campground if you stayed on it. It's an easy climb. When we got to the Beard Cane Trail junction we met a day hiker that had come from Abrams campground. We had a nice visit with him and his family has been hiking the Smoky's for generations.

We took Beard Cane trail to campsite #11 which is along the creek in rhododendron. The weather was cooling down with a strong breeze which made us put on pant legs and a windbreaker. We hung out around the fire and watched the stars. We didn't have to put tarps up so we slept under the stars. In the night a full moon lite up the woods like daylight.

The next morning we got up and headed out after breakfast. We took Beard Cane to Hatcher Mountain trail. We came across a couple of turkeys and a Barred owl on the trail.

When we got to Abrams creek we took a break and enjoyed the view. From here we hiked to Abrams Falls where the traffic began. We ate lunch at the falls and visited with a few folks. From here all the way to the trailhead we met people. I figured that around 50% of them would not make it all the way to the falls.

As we went down Wet Bottoms Trail we somehow managed to get off the trail. I felt like Troy was with us as my Dad headed for the road and we road walked the rest of the way to the Van.

Wow, what beautiful weather!

Pictures:

Savage Gulf- Connector Trail

2011-02-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

Day One: 8.5....................................Outcast Hikers Total: 1067.34
Stone Door Trail 0.9
Big Creek Gulf Trail 0.9
Connector Trail 6.7
Day Two: 13.7
Connector Trail 6.7
Big Creek Gulf Trail 3.1
Ranger Falls Trail 1
Laurel Trail 2.9
Total Miles: 22.2

The original plan was a five day hike at Frozen Head State Park. Marco was recovering from a five day illness and Troy called in sick. With the bad planning on my part, I had scheduled a hike on Superbowl Sunday, we went with plan B.

Marco and I headed out Tuesday to Savage Gulf. There were some trails there that he had not hiked and I had never made it to Ranger Falls. We started at the Stone door ranger station and hiked down through the Stone Door and took the Connector trail East to Hobb's Cabin. The Connector trail is described as the most challenging and strenuous trail in the Savage Gulf Natural area. Several Climbs and seemingly endless rocky slopes are crossed.

The weather was great for hiking. They were calling for 3 to 4 inches of snow the next evening, but the sun was shining today. We kicked up two flocks of Turkey before we got to Saw Mill campground. At Saw Mill campground we stopped and had lunch. We made it to Hobb's Cabin and had plenty of time to search for firewood. The Ranger had said that last weekend they had thirty some people at Hobb's Cabin. The woods looked like they were vacuumed and we had to go a distance to find some wood. We got camp set up and the fire started in time to enjoy the evening and watch the stars come out. It got down to nineteen degrees that night.

The next morning we got up, had breakfast, and then started down the trail back to the Big Creek Gulf Trail. At Saw Mill campground we kicked up the two flocks of Turkey again. We ate lunch here and then headed out.

We got to the Big Creek Trail at one o'clock and headed to Ranger Falls. Big Creek Gulf Trail is described as this rough, challenging trail leads through the gorge below and to the west of Stone Door. Due to its difficulty, an overnight hike is recommended, although it can make a long, tiring but rewarding day hike.

I couldn't get across the river last time I was here. The river was down so we rock hopped across and got to see the falls. It was cold here and the trees all had ice on them. We stopped for a snack and then headed up the gulf to Alum campground.

When we got to the campground our original plan was to camp. Instead we filled up on water and headed to the car down the Laurel Trail. It started to snow on our hike out. Knowing they were calling for three to four inches we decided to head home and not have to drive through the snow tomorrow.

Pictures:

Sheltowee Trace Part VIII- The Finally

2011-01-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

Day one: 5.5 Miles....................................Outcasts Total: 1045.14
Day two: 9.9 Miles
Day three: 10.65 Miles
Day four: 11.63 Miles
Total: 37.68 Miles

As usual we dug up some wild weather for our backpack. Since this was the last part of the Sheltowee Trace and we have so much time invested in this trail, we dug up a whopper! The snowstorm that shut down the South! What a beginning.

We started the morning with four inches of snow in Murfreesboro. As we were finishing up our shift, we were watching the news as first schools were closing and then roads were closing. As we all gathered at Headquarters they were shutting down I 75 and I 40. We only had to make it to Kentucky.

I took the broom to Troy's car and we made the final decision to go or bust. The interstates were closed, but the back roads were open.....kind of?

We headed off to Cave Run Marina where we planned on meeting Doug and he was going to drop us off at the Cave Run dam where we left off last hike.

Doug was extremely helpful as were all of his employee's at the Marina. He had heads up on our last hike and drove over to the dam to make sure we got picked up safely. He offered to let us leave our car at the marina and he dropped it off at the trail head the day we were coming off trail. Not only that, but he sent us weather reports and checked up on us by text messaging during our hike. We appreciate you Doug!

After Doug dropped us off we hiked down Ky 801 and got back on a trail in the woods. The whole North end is large rolling hills. It's amazing that they found connecting ridge tops to put this trail on. We got to watch two does and a buck follow each other up the hill side from a hill away during one break. We camped just South of US-60 in the woods before Triplet Creek.

I had to use a large rock to break a hole in the ice which was almost 2" thick to get water out of the creek. We got a campfire going and enjoyed the peaceful evening. It snowed.......and snowed....and snowed.....it snowed for the next three days.

Day two:
We got up this morning and just as we were leaving camp, two hikers came down the trail. One was a thru hiker, the other a section hiker and they were both locals. They were getting off the trail due to the snow storms coming. They caught their ride at 60 and we said goodbye. Then the battle was on.

We battled cars and snow plows hiking down US-60, KY 3319, and KY 32. We had seven miles of road and the snow was coming down big time. The fourth snow plow just about buried me and Marco as we ran for the Hardee's which was our last water source for the next 13.6 miles. Since it just happened to be lunch time we ate and answered questions from all the employee's and costumers there.

From here we hike down KY32 to a washout in a rock wall. Yes you climb the washout until you find some 4x4's which keep the trial on the side of the washout. Just for fun, try this in snow and ice......ya, and then add a backpack! The trail here is narrow following the hillside with trees fallen all over it. The next half mile is in bad shape. After that it turns into a four wheeler path and gets alot better. We went up and down and up and down and then when you couldn't get anymore higher we made camp. The only flat spot in the area is where the Eagle trail joins the Sheltowee. Somewhere on one of the downs, Marco landed on his butt. All I knew was that I couldn't catch up to him as he skidded off down the trail. He had some minor injuries and a bent hiking pole when it was over. I was really glad that he stopped.

With the snow falling fast and the high winds, we called it an early night with no campfire.

Day three:
We got up an saw where a coyote had walked by camp in the snow. We had plenty of fresh snow to plow through today. The trail turned into forestry roads and we got to walk them for seven miles. If you had to get water, there is a side trail to Rodburn Campground that is a mile off trail that has water.

Towards the end of the road walk we came across two young men cutting wood and loading it in a pick up truck. They took one look at us and said "Your alot tougher that we are!" We stopped and talked to them for little while. When they passed us a little later they stopped and asked us what kind of boots we were wearing cause their feet were wet and cold.

We finally got off those roads, crossed US-64 and got into some real snow. It was over six inches in this part of the woods. Drifts over Marco's knees or 12". We had a steep drop off into the valley and followed the stream bed until it got deep enough for our water supply and we made camp. This area here could use some bridges as you cross over the creek many times and on steep slopes.

Now I don't know how, but we had stronger wind gusts down here than we had on top of the mountain last night. It pulled Marco's stakes from his tarp out four times. It was uphill every direction that you looked. It was too windy and the snow was coming down too hard to make a campfire. Troy accused me of walking them too hard. He said Marco couldn't even eat dinner and I literally walked the sh-- out of him.

Day four:
We had 11.6 miles to go. Doug had sent me a text letting us know that it was going to be 7 degrees tonight. A vote was taken.....or Troy said that we WILL make the car tonight even if we night hike! So we uhh hiked! And we hiked hard! God had mercy on us. The wind and the snow both stopped or at least slowed down for the day.

We had camped just short of Holly Fork. So over the river and through the woods we went. The climb out of the valley is a steep one. Next you drop down into another valley. We stopped at Clark Park and filled up with water at the well pump. The climb out of there will work those legs as you go back up to the ridge. We kicked up two grouse and a flock of turkeys as we were hiking along.

We only stopped a minute when we came upon two "No Trespassing" signs. One on either side of the trail at mm 275.45. There was a small side trail, but after some investigating we found that the trail goes on. There is another sign at mm 275.73 from the other direction. Must be some bad neighbors. We hiked into the sunset and after dark made the descent down to the Northern Terminus. We had to stop at the bottom and try to climb through a fallen tree just to make sure we earned this trail.

Doug had left our car there so we did the celebration dinner and stayed the night at the hotel.

Murfreesboro must have had about the same strength wind as we did. When we got back, Marco's truck and my car had blown against the block back porch of Headquarters sideways where you couldn't get into the driver side doors. Ain't that weird?

Pictures:

Big Ridge State Park-Cancel

2010-12-13T17:29:00.000-08:00

Due to the freezing rain coming in Wednesday we regretfully have to cancel our hike to Big Ridge. Now we get to have a makeup hike.

Sheltowee Trace Part VII

2010-12-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

Day one: 6.13 Miles..........................Outcast total: 1007.46 Miles
Day two: 13.17 Miles
Day three: 12.61 Miles
Day four: 9.36 Miles
Day five: 9.19 Miles
Total Miles: 50.46

After work Troy, Marco, and I headed to Kentucky for another section of the Sheltowee Trace. We headed to Natural Bridge State Park where we were supposed to meet up with Luke to drop us off where we got picked up by the rangers last hike.

After a small change up, Stephanie from the Natural Bridge State Park Hemlock Lodge was nice enough to drop us off and even offered us a ride back Friday if we needed one. Since we were losing daylight earlier this time and we would be hiking back to the car, we left our packs in the car and did a day hike of Natural Bridge State Park.

We put Marco in charge of the Thru Hikers Manual of the Sheltowee Trace. The only draw back was every time you asked him where we were, he would start from Natural Bridge and go all the way through the manual. This added alot of entertainment, especially by the end of the trail.

We passed a guy cutting wood on the way. He asked us where we were hiking from and we told him Tennessee. He said that he had wanted to hike the whole trail and was called back to work after he had all of his plans made. He was a little surprised that we hiked this far with no packs.

The Sheltowee passes over White's Branch Arch and next to the Natural Bridge. We then hiked to Balance Rock and down the many many stairs back to the parking lot. It was getting dark now so we packed up and headed to Red River Gorge with headlamps. Once we got past the Whittleton Campground we made camp.

As I was testing my hammock I heard a loud zipping noise. This was indeed my bad day as my hammock ripped completely through about a quarter of the way down the length. As any Outcast would do, I cut the remaining part off and tied a knot, rehung and tested again. Not much room anymore as the length was now the exact length of my body. No stretching out for me over the next four nights and it had a really bad lean to the left which I still can't understand why.

We ate dinner and then got ready to start a fire when the rain set in. We knew it was supposed to rain that night and were hoping it would be done by morning. I let them know that we would hike as long as it wasn't a down pour in the morning.

The next morning we hiked out in the rain. Troy and I had different ideas of "down pour", but as all Outcast do, he went along. It rained all day and into the night. Sorry about no pictures that second day. It was through the beautiful Red River Gorge. This area is rough terrain with beautiful overlooks, rock formations, waterfalls, and of course water crossings. There were six that were at least two feet deep. We ended up the day with a minor misreading of the guide book causing another headlamp hike to the next creek and place to make camp. The rain went into the night replaced by snow in the morning.

Day three started out cold with the tarp ropes frozen to the trees. We hiked in the snow with flurries on and off all day. We tried to air out in the afternoon, but everything was just frozen.

Knowing that we were not going to have water in camp, we started filtering about a mile from where we were going to make camp. There was a house right there so I walked up and asked if we could get some water from them. They were more than willing and wanted to hear our story. I did notice as I walked into there driveway that I had my picture taken by a deer camera at the entrance.

There was a lot of road walking today making sore ankles and feet. We crossed over KY 1274, climbed the steep hill and made camp. We actually got to have a campfire and see the stars. That meant dry feet, shoes, and socks. This was the first night we stayed up past 7pm. We even had a fire in the morning which was nice with it being as cold as it was. We were even in camp before dark....or right at it.

Day five was probably the toughest day of terrain. Lots of steep ups and downs with some beautiful sights including a natural bridge. We got some of our highest points today looking over the other mountains. We got to air out today and dry completely out. We made it to Clear Creek where we filtered water as it began to snow. Darkness was coming on and we had to use the headlamps to cross FR 129 and get into the woods to make camp. The snow was coming down heavy and you could still see the stars bright and beautiful. We agreed to finish that we would have to get up and on the trail early in the morning. We set alarms.

The next morning, no fire, pack, eat, and walk. We had a very long steep climb up to the road that we were not supposed to cross. OOPS! Look for correct trail, study map, look for correct trail, study map, study map, study map........Ohhhhhh! Road walk to find trail. This was the only place that we saw deer. We kicked up one doe in five days of hiking. We all found the trail at the same time different ways. I found the sign for the boarder of the wildlife management area, Troy found the county line sign, and Marco found the Turtle sign. Back on the trail again.

After getting back on track I called Luke and talked to our backup man Doug from Cave Run Marina for our pick up this afternoon. After I got them lined up, the memory kicked in. They are on Eastern time! Guess what guys.......we are an hour behind already. LET'S GO!

This part of the trail was all ridge walking. The Guys said it was more like a forced march. We stopped for lunch at a spot where we had a good view of Cave Run Lake far far below. We then started the descent down to Cave Run. At the end of the lake where we took a break, we saw our first person since we started the hike. It was a bike rider who stopped and Marco and I both thought we recognized him from the Sheltowee Trace Facebook. He knew of Steve from the Facebook. From here you start the long hike around the end of the lake.

At a quarter of a mile from the end we came across ten rangers coming down the trail. They were "checking the trail conditions". They wanted to know all about our hike, but weren't interested in hearing about our account of the trail conditions.

We hiked out to the Cave Run Lake Dam forty minutes early and waited for Luke to pick us up. Doug stopped by too, just to make sure that we had a ride. Great guy. We are going to use him on the next section of hike. The FINAL hike of the Sheltowee.

Pictures:

Big Hill Pond II

2010-11-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

Day One:5 Miles.....................Outcast Total: 957 Miles
Big Hill Pond Access trail
Big Hill Pond trail
Azalea Spring Day Loop trail
Dogwood Point trail
Day Two: 10 Miles
Dogwood Point trail
Azalea Spring Day Loop trail
Boardwalk trail
Horse Trail
Dry Ridge trail
Total: 15 Miles

Marco, Troy, and I headed out to Big Hill Pond State Park. Marco had to stay late at work trying to get his Engine back in service after a Semi fire on the interstate, so we got a late start.

We swung by the Visitor Center to sign in. Just like last time, the Ranger said that all he needed was to know is what truck was ours so when he did rounds he would recognize it. No paperwork necessary.

We headed to the boat ramp and parked in the overnight lot. We got out and while we were organizing our packs Marco found a large rock that a fellow firefighter had hid in his pack. The firefighter had committed about his pack being heavy and Marco thought that he was up to something.

We went down to the boat ramp and then hiked across the bridge. On the other side we started to come across horse back riders and we saw plenty of them until we got to the Azalea Loop. One group had stopped and the one rider asked if we were going to stay out here tonight. He had that look that we are so used to. The "are you crazy?" look. "You know its going to get cold tonight." We've heard this sooooo many times.

The trail was marked pretty good and in decent condition until you get to the pond. From the pond there is many trees down and the horses have made other trails and the marking is bad. The Azalea Loop needs alot of maintenance including the bridges. When you get to the Dogwood Point trail you are on your own. It was in bad need of maintenance two years ago. Now it is two years past needing alot of maintenance.

We were running out of daylight so we called camp at the Pipe Rock shelter. This shelter sits at the top of a very steep hill which the river is at the bottom of. The shelter of course was in poor shape, but the bat population was going strong. There was bat dung on all the bunks and all over the floor. There was a dead bat on one of the bunks and two live bats on the ceiling. Oh yea, we didn't stay in the shelter.

We had a nice campfire and enjoyed the owls talking and the peaceful sounds of the train whistle when it went by. The stars were out and it was suppose to get down to freezing tonight. We had cough medicine and cleaned up scars from the brush we battled on the trail.

The next morning after a good breakfast by the campfire, we headed out and finished the Dogwood Point trail. We took the Azalea trail to the boardwalk trail. You could see where they had been repairing the boardwalk.

We stopped at the break area on the boardwalk for lunch. Just after settling down, Troy let out a damn. His water bottle had rolled off the bench and off the boardwalk. Just like a superhero, he climbed over the rail and hugging a tree he slid down like a fireman on a pole. He grabbed his bottle and climbed back up the boardwalk before I could even get my camera ready.

After lunch we headed to the end of the boardwalk where the light drizzle started. We practiced our single man poncho deployment skills and headed to the tower. Do to the rain and limited visibility, we skipped the tower climb and headed down the horse tail to the Dry Ridge trail.

The rain had stopped as we continued our hike. The last couple of fingers on the Northwest side of the lake would be a good place for a bridge. As before, no changes had been made in the last two years and you are still balancing on tree branches crossing over water and mud.

On the North end of the lake where the trail crosses, it is mainly swamp. There is a variety of makeshift bridges in this area. One is actually just under the water level. It makes you wonder how a park that has a boardwalk over a mile long over a swamp wouldn't be able to make a couple of short bridges.

We made it back to the truck and celebrated later at a Waffle House.

Pictures:

Sheltowee Part VI

2010-11-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

Day one: 6.7 miles………………..............……Outcast Total: 942.45 Miles
Day Two: 12.56 miles
Day Three: 12.52 miles
Day Four:7.29
Total: 39.07 miles

For our first five day hike of this season we decided to keep up a couple of traditions including the no sleep the shift before and snow on the hike.

We had a lot of time to study on this section of the Sheltowee and even some more information about the trail has been put out. The Thru-Hiker's Manual for the Sheltowee Trace by Scot Ward is a gotta have for this trail. You can get it from the Sheltowee Trace Organization

After sleeping an hour and a half in a row the night before, we started our five hour drive to the Natural Bridge State Resort Park in Kentucky. Troy drove while Marco navigated. In between snoring, I tried to interpret for Marco so Troy could understand where he was driving to. Greg and Shadow could not make this trip.

As we pulled off the road to get some lunch, Troy saw a man on the side of the road holding one of those signs "Will work for food". Troy stopped and told him to hop in. Well it turned out that it was an advertising sign not a work for food sign.

Right about the time we were going to stop for lunch, I noticed the time change. That is also the time that I realized that we would be missing our ride to the trailhead by an hour. Oops. Luke Moffett was going to meet us at Natural Bridge and take us to Turkey Foot campground. He runs a taxi service out of the Natural Bridge State Park area if anyone needs a ride to trailheads. A super good guy! A phone call was made and we met shortly after the scheduled time.

There was a lot of smoke in the Natural Bridge area as they were fighting a wildland fire for the last month just North in the Red River Gorge area. They had a ban on burning and gave us two numbers to call for more information. Of course no one would answer either phone number.

When Luke dropped us off at the trailhead, I noticed that his trunk was a little wet. The mouth piece on my bladder had gotten squeezed and I lost two liters of water into his trunk and his down sleeping bag that he keeps in the trunk. My bad!

So after Luke left, we picked up our stuff and headed out. I filled the bladder at the first water source which was at mm 154.84 at the cave. We made it about a half mile short of Alcorn Branch when we ran out of day light. We found us a spot and called it camp.

I don't think anyone had trouble sleeping the first night on the trail. We got to listen to owls while we ate dinner and see the stars shine.

The next morning we got up at daylight and hit the trail. Alcorn Branch was dry! I looked down stream and saw a drop off. After some investigating, there is a spring over the drop off with about three foot of water in it. We stopped and filled up.

As we hiked this section we noticed that there was smoke all through the river gorge below. We thought that this was a long way off for smoke to be traveling from the Red River Gorge area.

At mm160.68 There is an overhang with a spring in it if ya need some water too. Shortly after that there is some big rocks in the trail that Marco loss his footing on and did an old fashion face plant. I held his pack still until he got his footing back so he wouldn't do that face scrape maneuver.

We walked through the big town of Arvel. There is zero stores here if you need anything. At Hale Ridge Road we chose to hike the road over the 1.6 mile of trail that is overgrown. When the trail came back to the road I wanted to get on the trail and Troy wanted to hike the road until it met up again. We decided that Marco would have to make the deciding vote. Marco asked for a secret ballet. After a much needed laugh Troy headed down the trail.

Other than needing some trees cut in this section, the trail was well marked and clear. We stopped at a spring in the otherwise dry creek bed for lunch. We were going to air out the tarps and sleeping bags. As soon as we got the tarps set up it started to rain. OK plan B sit under tarps and eat lunch. It sprinkled on us the rest of the day.

We made it to Heidelberg that night and camped on the South side of the bridge out by some corn fields. We ate under tarps and went to bed. It poured that night beating the tarps.

By morning the rain had stopped and we headed into town across the bridge. Heidelberg has a post office about the size of my living room. It looks more like a small shed. There is no store in town and obviously no one has a cell phone as there is no service. We started out big climb up the mountain on hwy 399. Hwy 399 is a dangerous road to hike. There is limited view and no shoulders to walk on. At the top there is a grave yard where you get a phone signal. We called and checked in.

Conveniently Country Mart and Deli is a good place for resupply, or in our case lunch. The lady working there let us use her trees to hang our stuff out to dry and offered the water spigot out back to fill up.

After lunch we hiked on to Mays Food Mart where they have a resturant as well as a store. This would be a great place for lunch or dinner if you got there at the right time. She also offered a spigot between the house and store if you need water.

The next part of the trial is not marked so you really need the trail discription to find your way. You walk down a paved road to a gravel road which desends down into the gorge. From there you walk a four wheeler path to a trail to a creek bed. The campsite at mm 182.82 is the only campsite until the oil storage at 183.98.

We stopped after crossing the Bald Rock Fork at the overhang as it started to rain again. We heard a large bang which sounded like a blasting but too long. After a couple of more we figured out that it was lightning and it was echoing off the bluffs around us. We stayed a little longer as the rain poured down.

After the storm, we hiked to where the trail goes down the creek bed. I don't know what you would do if the creek was running. There are bluff walls on either side of the creek.

We got to the Oil storage area and found a place out in the woods to make camp. It was wet and after we ate and got in the bunks, the rain let loose again. Between last night and tonight, we did us some sleeping.

We got up and hit the trail. We stopped at the creek by the bridge at mm 184.47 and filled up with water. We hiked to Big Bend Road and found us spot to air out our goods again. We had one fellow stop and ask if we were fighting the fire. No, we are just hikers from Tennessee.

After getting things dry we hiked on to mm 188.52 where we came across two forestry trucks sitting in the middle of the road with a load of fire trucks and vehicles on the other side of them.

When we walked up to them I told them that I wasn't expecting to see them yet as the fire was North of Natural Bridge. They informed us that we had hit the end of our hike as a new fire was burning here involving 1700 acres. Soooo after they tackled Troy who tryed to run past them yelling "you can't stop me"! They gave us a ride back to our car. We were about five miles from hiking to the car.

Pictures:

Longhunter V

2010-10-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Long Hunter.........................Trail Rating.............Outcasts Total: 903.38 Miles
Volunteer Trail...6.0 Miles.........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Volunteer Trail...6.0Miles..........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Total………………16.0 Miles

Of the many many people that said that they were going to show up and start hiking with us this year, the original outcasts were the only ones at the trail head this year to start the annual beginning of the season hike.

Greg and Troy were talking about their lightweight backpacks and passing them around. They had made some progress!

The four of us and Shadow headed out. We had some gentle gale force winds blowing, but the temperature had not dropped out the bottom of the thermometer yet. The trees were showing color and there were areas of yellow leaves that we got to hike through.

The trip to camp was pretty much uneventful as we basically walked and caught up on where we were in our lives. For some reason my recent marriage was brought up alot. Not really sure why, but it provided entertainment.

We had gotten on the trail by 10am and figuring that we would be first to camp being a Friday, we were surprised to see a hammock hanging in camp along with a number of coolers. Well, surprise to me and Marco....... Craig had taken his boat to the camp and brought beer and burgers. LIFE IS GOOD! This also explained why Greg and Troy's packs were so lightweight.

Greg not only showed off his new Crocks, he showed us how he can collect fishing lures with them. Cool new benefit. Thinking about a new pair myself now.

There might have been some cough medicine taken while the burgers cooked and we suffered through another survival camp as the season began.

After the campfire got going Greg provided us with much entertainment as we worked out our sides with laughter. We had a peaceful night except when an owl did a little screeching and flew through camp. The next morning we headed out.

Pictures:

Mammoth Cave

2010-09-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

Total Miles 16.98 Miles....Easy..............OUTCAST TOTAL: 887.38 Miles

Mammoth Cave Lantern Tour......3 Miles
Good Springs Trail.............4.21 Miles
Collie Ridge Trail.............0.67 Miles
DAY ONE: 7.88 Miles

Collie Ridge Trail............2.02 Miles
Good Springs Trail............2.08 Miles
Service Center to Mammoth Dome Sink Trail 1 Mile
Mammoth Dome Sink Trail.......2 Miles
Overlook plus Heritage trail...2 Miles
DAY TWO: 9.1 Miles

Marco and I headed to Kentucky for an overnight hike. Neither of us had been to Mammoth Cave so we thought that we would check it out. They have 300 miles of cave, 60 miles of hiking trails, and 27 miles of river to explore.

We left straight from work and caught the first tour they had when we got there which turned out to be the three mile lantern tour. They had some really cool guides that fed us a lot of information about the cave. We were amazed as to how large this cave is. It took us three hours for the tour. While we were waiting for the bus the one tour guide about talked us out of hiking with his warning about the snakes and ticks. He was pretty descriptive about what the bites would do. We ate lunch at the restaurant there and then headed to the hiking trails.

We got to take the Green river ferry across the river which can take up to three cars at a time. From there we headed to the Good Spring Church trailhead parking. Since we didn't reserve a spot we took the available campsite which was the Collie Ridge Campsite. Marco went to sign in at the trailhead marque. The last person to write in it wrote down "WASPS" in big print. Marco looked up to see a swarm of wasps looking him in the eye. He slowly backed away from the marque. Needless to say we didn't sign in.

The trails were in good condition and as we hiked we were thinking about the tour guide's warnings. We passed a couple of horse back riders who asked if we had seen any yellow jackets. They told us that in the last week they had to haul two different people off the trail because of stings. Well isn't that nice. It wasn't a quarter mile more down the trail when Marco said the dreaded words.....SEED TICKS! And the panic began. We picked, swiped, and finally drowned them in DEET.

We hiked on the the campsite. They have a good size site and there was water flowing at the spring. We washed first to finish off the ticks and then set up camp and collected firewood. The temps finally dropped down to where we could get a fire going so we could tell some lies and take some cough medicine. We also tried out Marco's new platypus gravity filter which turned out to be pretty impressive.

The next morning we got up and hiked out. When we got back to the car there was another couple that were heading out on the trail. They had a blow up double size air mattress carrying between them. He was carrying a gallon jug of water and she had a backpack on. Kinda makes you wonder.

We drove back to the Visitor center area and parked at the camping store. From there we hiked to Whites cave and then the Mammoth Dome Sink trail. We hiked back to the restaurant for lunch. After lunch we headed out for home.

This park has a alot of activities to enjoy and I know we will be back to do some more hiking.

Pictures:

Sheltowee Trace Part V

2010-03-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

Day one: 4.7 miles……………………………………Outcast Total: 870.4 Miles
Day Two: 17.3 miles
Day Three: 11.3 miles
Day Four: 10.5
Total: 43.8 miles

Well Marco is out for the season with his ankle. Troy, Shadow, and I went ahead with the five day hike scheduled for the Sheltowee Trace. Since Troy got picked up at Camp Wildcat on our last hike, he wanted to start again from that location. I just wanted to hike so I agreed and that is where we started.

Aaron from Holly Bay Marina dropped us off. As he was driving the three miles up the one lane road to Wildcat, he said something about this being a rough road with all the pot holes. I told him that this was the easy part. The hard part would be backing all the way back down to the main road. What a look I got. Troy jumped in and said not to be so rough on the man. There is a turn around on the top. Aaron said that there were no bets being placed this time as the weather was too good.

Off we went. Got on the trail around two o’clock. The 2.8 mile section of trail between 4078 and 490 crosses Denny Branch 24 times. This is where the “two seat” hunting stand is in the woods. Two car seats mounted up on a platform. We stopped before the last two crossings and made camp. It was a wonderful night with the stars shining. This was the coldest night in the low twenties and we had frost on the inside and outside of our tarps.

DAY TWO:

We got up a little late this morning. We hiked up the hill and back down to Parker branch which we just rock hopped this time. Then we hit the pavement. What is worse than road hiking? Road walking with spiders! I guess that spiders think it is spring. They were all over the road. I guess that We hiked 490 to 89 and this time just kept going on pass Horse Lick Creek, knowing from our previous hike that the water was too high to cross. I was going to take a picture of the shed by the road with the stove pipe coming out, but when we got there the man was standing outside. He had hair down to his waist and a beard to match. The only way to tell his front from his back was the nose that stuck out. He seemed like a nice guy as he said hi as we passed.

We cut off the road and took the four wheeler trail up to 431. Some more road walking, all the way to S-Tree campground. We knew that there was no water at the campground so we hiked to the Sheltowee and headed west a half mile to Raccoon Creek. We made camp there. Some cough medicine was taken and lies told. This was the night that Troy threw his raisins into the fire. Actually, his stove did as he laid them on top of it and when it came to a boil the lid bounced and the raisins flew. That night the coyotes sang to us.

DAY THREE:

The section from S-Tree campground to Turkey foot campground is open to four wheelers and motorbikes. I would suggest that you do not hike this section on a weekend. Especially on a really nice weekend. We got to see a lot of both. The trail is in good condition and only needs marking at intersections.

We stopped for a good old creek bath before 421. Luckily we managed without being interrupted by four wheelers. After we crossed 421 and hiked the road the trail heads off by Elisha Branch Road. Troy wanted to walk just a little farther up the road. I was trying to see what he wanted. Finally he said that he had found a restaurant on line that was supposed to be right in this area. We found out that it had moved down town.

We collected our water from Elisha Branch then hiked up the mountain and camped on top. We had an owl talk to us and then it was a peaceful evening.

DAY FOUR:

We slept in again and then headed out. The trail follows the road most of the way. After you get away from the road it goes downhill and follows the middle and Elsam fork. Since we were a day early getting to Turkey Foot, we called and Randy was able to pick us up that night. We hiked another two miles up to 587 to meet Randy and of course he came in the other way off 89.

Another wonderful hike.

Pictures:

Sheltowee Trace Part IV

2010-02-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

Day One: 4.6 Miles.........................................Outcast Total: 826.6
Day Two: 17 Miles
Day Three: 13 Miles
Total Miles: 34.6

On this hike Marco, Troy, Shadow and Craig went. We started out the usual way with running fire calls all the night before. As we headed out we watched the weather as Memphis had already gotten four inches of snow that morning. What were the chances that it would go all the way to Kentucky?

We headed to Holly Bay Marina again as Randy was willing to help us do the shuttle to the trailheads. We were starting out at I-75 and heading North to Hwy 421. For some unknown reason, the further we go North the longer it takes to get to the trailhead. This part of the Sheltowee Trace is a lot of road hiking.

We started out with some beautiful weather for hiking. Marco was having problem with his ankle from a previous hike. As the famous words of Greg, "Pain is Fear leaving the body." We hiked to the Camp Wildcat Battle Monument the first day which is about five miles. This is all road hiking. There is a monument at the railroad crossing, then a sign half way up the hill, and another monument on the top to include a pavilion and outhouses. It's a pretty good uphill climb. There is a small spring on the top of the hill. I don't know if it runs all year long or not, but it had water this time.

We ran into two ladies from Ohio at the pavilion. They were heading home from Georgia when they saw the sign and stopped to check it out. We had a good visit with them and then they headed out.

We found us a place off the trail to make camp. We got camp set up and a fire going before sitting down for dinner. After dinner, we started to get a light dusting of snow. We were all tired from the long night before, so it didn't take long for us to call it a night and go to bed.

I got up some time that night to find about an inch of snow on the ground. Later I woke to the sound of rain hitting the tarp. It was a steady rain that lasted all through the morning.

Marco and I got our breakfast going under the tarps and packed up. When I got with Troy, he said that he was soaked, his clothes were soaked, and his tent was soaked. He said that while he was stuffing his tent in the bag, that water was running out the other end. He was wet and with the rain supposed to keep coming all day he was ready to head to the house. We hiked back to the pavilion at Wildcat and made a phone call to Greg to come pick up Troy. Knowing that all was well, Marco and I headed out in the rain.

The next section of trail is all dirt or jeep road. This road had large mud puddles all down it and you wouldn't think that anyone could drive down it unless they had four wheel drive. Well, here comes a little Toyota pickup with a guy and gal in it. They stopped and asked what we were doing walking in this kind of weather. We told them and they said that they were out picking up trash as this was their fathers land. I don't know about that, but we asked them to offer Troy a ride to the restaurant when they drove by him. When we got further up the hill we found a spot with a view. You could tell that they had stopped here with the truck and then turned around. There was some fresh tissue on the ground too. I don't think it was trash they were after.

We hiked this jeep trail in the rain to road 760 which was paved. You definitely want a map to follow all the road sections. There are some interesting trailers in this area and where you turn on road 4078. From there we got on the three miles of actual trail. During these three miles you cross Denny Branch about twelve times. None of these crossings has bridges and some are rather challenging. The last creek crossing is Parker Branch with an old fashion foot washing. Put on the crocks and go about knee deep.

From here you are hiking Road 490 to Lamero, which is a collection of houses. Once you cross the bridge over Rockcastle River you turn right on Road 89. The rain had stopped and we got to view some interesting Kentucky homes. We passed one 10x12 shed that had a smoke stack out of the top. There was smoke coming from it, but it had no electricity or for that matter any windows. As we went by, the traditional dogs started barking and we passed the front which had a single door on the front made of rough cut lumber. There was one space between the boards that was about two inches wide. Well, when I looked back at it again, I saw a person pulling his head back in and closing the door.

You turn off of Road 89 onto White Oak Branch Road which is a dirt road. On the corner was another of these fancy sheds with the stack out the top. This one had a single dog house next to it. A dog stuck his head out and started barking. He came out and another head stuck out and started barking. He came out and another head stuck out and started barking. He came out and another head stuck out and started barking. He came out and another head stuck out and started barking. In all, five dogs came out of that little house. On the other side of the road there was a small camper trailer. In the window was a sign that said "Dog food inside". Not sure what that was all about.

We followed this road until you cross the bridge and take a right on another jeep trail 455. This road followed Horse Lick Creek until you came to a river crossing. Well this crossing was way over our heads and about thirty feet wide. We studied the maps and saw where there was suppose to be another crossing up stream with a concrete plank. On we hiked. When we finally got to where this crossing was and I pulled myself out of the knee deep mud, the water was way over our heads and about twenty feet wide. If there was concrete, it was deep. There was no safe way to cross and this was the end of the road I guess you could say. Well the road ended.

It was getting dark and we decided to make camp. We got a fire going and ate dinner. Then the snow kicked in. It came in strong with big flakes. We gave up and headed to the hammocks. Enough was enough. I studied on the maps and the only way I saw to get across was to go back to Road 89 and hike an unnamed road to road 431.

After a good LONG sleep, we woke up to three inches of snow and snow still falling. The wind had beat the tarps against our hammocks most of the night. It takes a while to get the ambition up to get out of bed in these conditions. Both of our boots were froze so solid it took us forever to get our feet in them. Finally we got packed up and started back tracking. We had to hike 5.7 Miles back to Road 89

We got to go by the dogs again and then headed East on Road 89 to an unnamed unmarked road. I was worried about leaving the trail because we hadn't had a phone signal since we left Wildcat. We passed a trailer with the traditional dogs barking and a lady came out to yell at them. We asked her about the road and of course there was no such thing to this lady. On we hiked.

Finally we found a two rut road that fit the description with a no trespassing sign on both sides. It ran along a farm fence so we walked down to the farm house to ask permission. A lady answered the door and said to go ahead. She gave me a description that matched the map, so I felt like this was the right one. I tried one more time for a signal and got one on the phone. I called my people so they knew where we were and what our plan was.

It was a steep climb to the top and about a hundred mile an hour wind when we got there. The logging road across the top was in really good condition. We finally found a dirt bank that was high enough that we could get out of the wind and eat some lunch. After that we walked on to 431 which other than the four inches of snow and high winds, was easy walking.

We walked to the S-Tree campground where Marco called it quits with his sore ankle. He had lost enough "fear". We called Randy to pick us up at the campground. We got under a pavilion and sat at a picnic table in our sleeping bags drinking hot chocolate until Randy showed up. We did have another car stop by which made us feel good that they could make it through the snow. These people were just out joy riding.

Randy and his brother showed up and gave us a ride back to London where our car had been prepositioned for us to get on I-75. At one point I thought that we might have to give Randy a ride as his transmission was acting up. It ended up that he was low on fluid.

Pictures:

Collins Gulf-Unplanned Group Hike

2010-01-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

Collins Gulf Rim Trail to Stage Road Campground 7.4 Miles
Stage Road Campground down Stage Road to exit 7 Miles
Total 14.4 Miles

This is the story of curly locks and the three bears. Millette has made many trips to the Smokey Mountains and has yet to see a bear. As another attempt to see a bear in the wild, she took Marco, Lora, and I out to Collins Gulf where there are suppose to be three bears living in the area.

We met after shift and head out. We met Lora at the Savage Gulf visitor center to sign in, then we headed to the Collins Gulf trail head. We got on the trail around 9:30am. We hiked to the split and then we headed East across the swinging bridge and up to the rim trail.

I had practiced my bear call with a couple of whistles and then "Here Bear, Here Bear". I tried it numerous times while we were hiking with no luck. I think that the bears got tired trying to keep up with Millette as she smoked down the trail. She even tried to starve me to death, until I finally caught up to her and begged for a lunch break.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day for hiking and once you get across the bridge and up on the rim it is easy hiking.

We hiked into the Stage Road campground and made up camp. We got a pile of wood collected for the night and then set in to burning it. Some stories were told as cough medicine was taken. We were talking about the bears when I heard something coming up behind me. I turned around to see Ranger Litefoot walking up. He didn't say anything until he saw me looking at him. He had walked up with his light off and not letting us know he was coming. Good thing we don't get excited! As always in the Salvage Gulf, the rangers were extremely friendly and we had a good visit.

We just happened to carry in three stuffed bears for Millette and waited patiently for her to take a potty break from camp so we could plant them in her tent. She got a bit of a surprise when she went to bed.

The next morning we got up and Millette fed her new friends and attached them to her pack for a nice hike. We hiked down Stage Road and took a break at Saw Mill campsite. The trail through the Gulf was very pretty and a nice hiking trail. As you get toward the falls the trail gets more difficult with a lot of uphill. There are bluffs and water crossings before you get to the falls.

The ice formations get better as we reached Horsepound Falls. When we got to Suter Falls we were almost overwhelmed by the sight of the frozen falls and all the ice. It was a bit challenging to get to the trail here let alone make it along the trail covered with ice and having to go around large icicles.

We never did get to look at any real bears, but I think that Millette was happy to see the ones she did.

Pictures:

Sheltowee Trace Part III

2010-01-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

Day One.......4.3 Miles......Easy.........................Outcast Total:792 Miles
Day Two......11.1 Miles......Difficult
Day Three.....8.4 Miles......Difficult
Day Four.....8.15 Miles......Difficult
Day Five.....1.75 Miles......Easy
Total........33.7 Miles

Crazy, Insane, Lost your mine, what the h___? Just a few of the things we heard as we carried our packs out through the snow to the truck. Yes, there were two inches of snow on the ground in Kentucky and another inch falling while we drove to the trail head. Troy, Greg, Marco, and I headed out. Shadow was left behind because of the snow, which would mean wet dog for five days. She made her point as she tore something up every day that Troy was gone. Shoes, trash, another shoe, something every day.

Well on the way to Kentucky I had to explain to the guys that they had nothing to worry about. Yes, we were driving through snow, but the further north we go the warmer it gets. I told them that we would be driving out of the snow. Well when we got to Corbin, the snow had stopped. We went to a Wendy's for lunch which was a mistake. The guys saw that Corbin had a Holiday Inn Express. So every time the trail got hard they reminded me that they had a blue card and platinum card and Corbin had a Holiday Inn Express. Yes, I heard that alot.

We drove up to Holly Grove Marina wwwhollybayMarina.com to start this hike. Randy, the manager, was planning on picking us up and bringing us back to the Marina on day five. There was plenty of snow when we got there and the lady at the office was very polite as she never called us nuts to our faces. We dropped off the truck keys, picked up our packs, and started hiking.

The scenery was beautiful with the fresh coat of snow on the ground. We made it North of Laurel Lake by Road 775 when we called it a night. The snow fell as we made camp and got a fire going. The trail up to this point had been gentle rolling hills and well marked. Make sure that you take a left and the North end of the lake and don't go over the earthen dam. It's not marked.

We got done with dinner and tried to stay warm by the fire. The guys made fun of me for sitting barefoot by the fire. They were still in the learning process of becoming Outcast tuff. Some lies were told and cough medicine was taken.

We were woke up at one point in the night by a couple of coyotes that were celebrating a kill. Everyone but Marco got to hear them. It brings one to immediate attention even from a dead sleep. During one of those many bathroom breaks in the middle of the night, I saw a million bright stars shining down on the new inch of snow that had fallen.

Greg had gotten up first and got the fire going. It was going to be another beautiful snow day to hike. We hiked into the Cane Creek Wildlife Management Area, which is a beautiful area to hike. One of the prettiest areas on this hike. It was especially cool to see all the snow on the evergreens. We got pictures of the frozen solid Van Hook water fall.

You really need the map when it comes to the road hiking sections of this trail. They are not marked very well at all. Especially when you get to a spilt in the road or have the option to go either way.

We met one of those "Road Hunters" while we walked down the road. He said that he was hunting coyotes. We figure that he was hunting anything that moved and that might also include hikers. After a short visit, we hiked down to the Big Dog Branch and camped at the campsite there. Another wonderful campsite along the creek with icicles hanging all along the other side.

We had a little trouble keeping the fire going as the wood was damp and the temperature was dropping fast. Marco impressed us again, by picking another dead branch for the bear bag. Yes, it broke again. Greg gave up and just hung his on the tree by the fire. I know it was a good five feet in the air. If a bear would have come into camp, it would have hit him on the head. His reply was that if the bear ate his food he would go to the Holiday Express.

We did some visiting and took a little cough medicine for health reasons. This was one of the 0 degree nights. When I woke up to my face hurting, I knew it was cold. I zipped up the old bag and went back to sleep. Sometime in the night, Troy heard a four legged visitor heading through camp.

We woke up to some very cold temperatures. It didn't take long to get the fire going, but it sure took a long time to get the guys away from the fire. We got a late start this morning. We started with a couple of good water crossings. One right at the camp. Luckily we didn't have to get wet. We did a little bridge building and rock placing to get us across. As soon as we crossed the first one and figured out which way to go at the split in the trail, we came to the second. This one was wider and deeper and frozen over. A little exploration and talent and we got across.

Just after the bridge on Sinking creek there is a campsite where we got a fire going for lunch. It was the longest lunch we had on this trip due to us freezing every time we stopped. The trail involved some road hiking and then headed down to Pine Creek where we had to break the ice and do some old fashion foot washing. While we were figuring out how we were going to cross, Marco changed into his crocks. I was so proud of his training. Couldn't hop this one. It did build some character. We made camp just on the other side.

We got flurries while we sat by the fire. This was one of those fires that put Marco on the second row. The tree we were sitting on had two branches. Every time the fire got up, Marco moved to the other branch because it got so hot. This was also the night that Greg made the mistake of hanging his hammock on the same tree as I did. Yes, he got to enjoy my snoring and breathing breaks. He didn't sleep all that well for some reason.

Today we had a lot of hills to climb. Just to add to the spirit, it snowed all day. We crossed the Poison Honey Fork and Hwy 80. We had a short but cold lunch on the other side down in a valley.

When we hiked down to Hawk Creek, we got to see some things! On one of the hills, we stopped for a break. Troy walked by us repeating over and over "My name is Troy, there is B shift tuff and then there is Outcast tuff!" He always comes up with something. The ice formations were wonderful as well as the frozen water fall. We also got to see the chimney rock formation.

Once you get past Hawk Creek you start doing some "road hiking". I use this term loosely cause it is mainly four wheeler trails across the top of the mountains. No sooner did we get on the road, I turn around and Marco has his pants off. I guess his zipper broke, but he wasn't scared of the cold!

There is no water there so make sure that you fill up before you leave the waters of Hawk Creek. We camped somewhere where the map shows a Laurel Branch off to the west. We never saw this branch but assume that it was down at the bottom.

Another very cold night around 0 degrees. The same guys that were making fun of me on day one about being barefoot around the campfire all had their shoes and socks off. I guess it's something that Outcasts do for comfort.

Marco entertained us with holding up his cup to wipe the snow off the bottom. When he did, he tipped it and spilled water right on top of his stove putting it out. That brought on some horse laughter. Then he tried to light it again. He ended up having to dump the water out first. We all stayed up late that night just having a good visit.

Over all our campfires claimed more equipment than ever. All of our clothing got burn holes in them. The prefilter of my water filter fell off into the fire. Greg melted the leg darn near off one pair of pants. A water bladder had a hole melted into it. My inflatable seat got two holes in it. And at the end three out of four pairs of shoes were shrunk. Guess who's wasn't......HEE HEE HEE! Oh yea, Marco caught Greg when he lost his balance and almost fell into the fire himself.

The next morning we hiked to I-75 and stopped at Spur Oil RV Park. They have a really good restaurant there where we could get some good old fashion burgers. It is a clean place that offers showers along with the fine cooking.

Arron from Holly Bay Marina picked us up there and took us to our truck. What a wonderful hike. At the end, I proved my point. The further we hiked North, the warmer it got!

Pictures:

Hobb's Cabin III, Savage Gulf

2010-01-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

North Rim Trail to Hobb's Cabin...8.2 Miles....Easy........Outcast Total:758.3
North Plateau Trail to Office.....9.4 Miles....Easy
Total: 17.6 Miles

Troy, Shadow, Marco, and Craig were able to make this hike. Yes, they were calling for snow. Yes, they were calling for a 11 degree low and highs in mid twenties. WE AIN'T SCARED! We were trying to decide if we should bring both sleeping bags or just one.

After work we headed out to do some hiking. Originally we were suppose to hike Virgin Falls and Bridgestone/Firestone. The river is over four feet deep right now and flowing fast. So, this brings us to plan B. Where do you want to hike? Marco had never hiked to Hobb's cabin so here we go.

We got on the trail by 10am. We decided on the way in to hike the Rim Trail to Hobb's cabin and hike out on the Plateau trail. On the way in we met a couple of new hikers that were just getting into backpacking. We like to see more people get into backpacking. It's a great sport and there is so many places in Tennessee to see. We can take pictures, but you don't see the true beauty unless you are standing there.

Shadow was so excited on this hike she just kept running back and forth between us. I don't know if it was the cold weather or just her love for hiking. We did have to use gloves and some face protection from the temperature. The views were beautiful as always out here. The guys pushed me on past my lunch time til we made it to the next overlook. When I refused to leave the overlook until I ate, they gave in. Marco had brought some baked chicken for our lunch and dinner.

We past three hikers that had been at Hobb's cabin for the last two nights. They were heading out. They said that there was still some firewood left.

A few miles before we got to the cabin, we had another couple of guy's pass us heading to the same spot. We would meet them at the cabin.

We arrived at Hobb's cabin around 2:30pm. Our camping partners were there and already had smoke coming out the chimney. That's always a good sign. After introductions we started the collecting of wood. This area had been cleared out pretty well.

After we got a good stack of wood and collected some drinking water from the creek, the decision was made to have an outdoor fire as well. We needed to burn some of the longer wood in half so we could use it in the cabin. Also, the fire warmed the cabin up, but we needed something to warm ourselves up a little faster. This provided some entertainment as the wood, leaves, and twigs were all frozen and did not want to burn.

After the fire started, Marco and I set up our hammocks. Troy, Shadow, and the other guys were going to stay in the cabin. Marco and I are the stupid, I mean diehard backpackers. We came to camp!

First things first. Dinner! We got our dinners going and Marco boiled his water twice as he used his first cup to wash down the table top. Always cleaning! After dinner we gathered around the multiple fires and started taking cough medicine. The temperature dropped as we looked at the extremely clear sky filled with an amazing amount of stars. Lies were told and the fire building class was entertaining as ever. I have never seen a fire rearranged and rebuilt as many times as this. Sometimes you just have to stand around a say WOW! We had multiple fire designs with rolling logs and gear burns. Yes, I had plenty of laughs.

After the last killing of the outside fire, I went in to watch Troy working the inside fire. It was bed time and out to the hammock I went. I asked Marco if he was warm enough as I passed his and he said yes. He was snoring by the time I got in my bags.

We woke up to snow. What a beautiful morning. Marco had gotten up and got the fire going in the cabin. The water in the back of the cabin was frozen, but our bladders that we left by the mantle were not. We thawed our water and filter while making breakfast and packed up for another day of hiking. Our new friends never stirred so we left them with a warm fire.

The snow that was falling was so cold that when it landed on your clothes, you could see the individual design of each. It was beautiful. Our trip out was pretty much non eventful. We saw the rangers driving through the woods, but that was it for other people.

Pictures:

Shaltowee Part II

2009-12-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

Trail........................................................Outcast Total: 740.7
Day One: 5 miles
Day Two: 10.6 miles
Day Three: 8.3 miles
Day Four: 7.5 miles
Day Five: 4.5 miles
Total: 35.9 miles

In attendance were Troy, Shadow, Marco, and I. After shift we headed to Troy’s house where we loaded up in Troy’s car and headed to the trailhead on Hwy 27. It had rained all night and we had gotten soaked on the fire runs during the night which had us worried about the weather. We drove up in a light rain, which turned to a fog mist by the time we got to the trailhead. Needless to say, water source was not a problem on this hike.

The first section of the trail was mainly ups and downs with a lot of rock cropping along the Railroad Fork of Indian Creek. We had one deep river crossing at road 679. We ran out of daylight by the time we reached road 678 going to the 4H camp. So we camped there for the night. Not a good camping site, just one of those times you have to make due. The trail was detoured at this area due to a wash out. We had to do a little wood drying after we got the fire going, but the stars were out and it turned into a wonderful evening.

The next morning we got on the trail by 8am and headed out. There is a major climb going up to 700 and there is no marking saying that is where you are. The side road is labeled as Catsron, which is road 6050 on the map. We crossed road 700 and ate lunch down by the creek. The trail here is old roadbed.

The trail climbs back up to road 700 and then its time for some road hiking. The next couple of miles is blacktop where you go down to Indian Creek and up to Road 6239, which starts out as paved and ends up a washed out dirt road at the Cumberland River.

Where 700 and 6239 cross, we stopped for a break. There was a gate there with a 4x8 sheet of plywood next to it. On the plywood was painted “If the gate is closed your not welcome.” Well, as we were standing there an old Willie Jeep pulled up and a man got out to unlock the gate. Troy and I walked up to him to ask about road 6239. He was a middle aged scruffy looking guy that kept an eye on Troy and an eye on me even though we were four feet apart. He was a nice enough fellow and after talking awhile, he invited us to stay at his camp that he had set up on the Cumberland River. He even told us a short cut to follow to get there. Troy and I thought “NO!”

We hiked down to the Cumberland River where the river was running extremely fast and was that good old brown color. Trash was piled on either side as the river had carried it down with all its power. When we got to Pitch branch, where we had previously picked on the map to stay, we came across “scruffy's camp.” There was a tent pitched and a blue tarp next to it. There were coolers, empty fuel cans, stoves, chairs, and clothes spread everywhere. There was a tree with pots and pans hanging from it and a sign referring to our man as “You son of _______, why don’t you stop by some time. You know who this is!” We hiked on! The trail turned into a dirt road, so we hiked to the end of the road and then some, to make sure that we didn’t get any visitors. We hiked past the last branch on the map and set up camp in the dark.

We got a fire going and ate some dinner. It started to sprinkle so we put on our jackets. It stopped so we took them off. It started to sprinkle so we put on our jackets. It stopped so we took them off. It started to sprinkle so we put on our jackets. It stopped so we kept our jackets on.

We heard dogs barking from down the river. The echo off the river made it sound louder. After a while, Troy says someone is coming and we see the headlamps on the trail. The lights disappear so we spread out. It’s a while before we see the lights again and then once again they disappear. So we knock down the fire and spread out again. Finally the lights come on and head toward our camp. Troy yells to them as they approach and the two hunters came into camp.

The hunters told us that they were looking for their dogs. They were out coon hunting and the dogs got away. Both guys were carrying 30-30’s and that wasn’t coon-dogs that we heard. We talked to them for a while and then they headed down the trail. I told them that their dog’s had not passed us and there was a bluff wall on one side with the river on the other. They walked down the trail a short distance and then came back. They hollered before they came back through camp and then headed back to where they came from. A short while later we heard the dogs bark again and heard the hunters yelling. We never heard anything after that. We then drank some cough medicine and called it a night.

The next morning we were entertained by a couple of white ducks on the river. It was flowing so fast and those ducks would dive under, come up down stream and then fly back to where they started to do it all over again. They did this until we left camp. I know they were tired and could picture them lying on their backs on the riverbank panting after we left.

We hiked up to Hwy 90 and crossed the bridge to Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. Two things stuck right out in our minds. One, the bathhouse had hot water. It is amazing what a hiker can do in a sink. The second thing was after seeing an ice cream sign it was lunchtime. The visitor center was open and after the let down that they didn’t have any ice cream this time of year. They told us about the lodge on the mountain that served lunch. Would the guys hike up the mountain for a lunch? The guys whistled as we all hiked up the mountain to indulge.

After an all you can eat buffet, I needed a come-a-long and winch to get them out of that lodge. The wateress brought two to go boxes and put them on the table. Marco asked what those were for and of course Troy and I told him that we bought us dinner to take with us. Marco couldn't believe that we would do that. Actually it was a loaded bacon cheese burger and fries for Shadow. Yes, she gets the same treatment that we get. She is an Outcast you know. Needless to say we lost two hours of trail time and we felt like swollen ticks as we rolled, or hiked back down to the river.

The Cumberland falls were beautiful and powerful which turned out to be some good pictures. This is where we got our first warning sign that the Bark Camp creek bridge was out and the crossing was hazardous. It didn’t say closed so we headed on. Our new goal was the Star Creek shelter. This section of the trail is all up and down along the riverbank. There is a lot of rock hopping and climbing. There is some kind of water crossing about every hundred yards through here. There is no phone service from Cumberland park until you get out of the river gorge at Mouth of Laurel boat ramp.

Right before we got to Star Creek, it looked like someone just dropped a huge pile of trees around the trail. It must have been some serious wind damage and it must have taken a long time and a lot of man power to cut the trail through this maze after the damage occurred. Right next to the trail with trees lay all around it, was the Star Creek Shelter. There was a tent set up in it with all sorts of supplies lying around. We didn’t find the people staying there so we hiked across the creek and stayed in the grass field on the other side. There is a beautiful water fall here that we got pictures of. We set up camp and started a fire, as it was getting cold and then ate dinner. Some cough medicine was taken and lies told around the fire as the temperature dropped into the twenties. Later on that night we saw headlamps across the creek where our neighbors must have come home.

We hit the trail that morning wondering what we were getting ourselves into with the bridge being out. We had enough days to hike back out if we needed to.

There were more ups and downs along the river that day. The Bark Camp shelter sets up off the river a bit and then as you round the corner you hear the fast moving water of the Bark Camp creek. It is a large creek with lots of large boulders in it. When we arrived at the cascades, you could actually wade it with no problem. It was a good day for this, as the temperature never got up to freezing. It kind of makes you tougher. We hiked another hour and then stopped for lunch. We had kicked up two flocks of turkeys that day so far.

It was kind of neat after you listen to the loud noise of the Cumberland River and then hike around a bend and it lies so peacefully that you could hear a mouse fart. We passed a swampy area where the ducks were lounging around and batches of small trees were growing like someone had a tree farm there.

We hiked up to road 1277, which is paved. We then followed that to Mouth of the Laurel boat ramp. There is an outhouse here. Marco can’t pass an outhouse.

From here you hike straight up out of the river gorge. You could see the clear water of the Laurel River mix with the dirty water of the Cumberland. It is strenuous. After you get out of the gorge, you hike an old roadbed through the woods over to the Laurel River Lake Dam. We stopped at a campsite on a creek in an evergreen grove just before you get to the dam. This turned out to be our coldest night so Troy put the magic in the campfire. We ate, took cough medicine and told lies. The last night on the trail and life was good.

The next morning after getting everything unthawed, including ourselves, we headed out. We made plans on meeting my parents at the Marina on Laurel River Lake. We hiked across the dam and took the trail around the lake. The trail is gravel all the way around and it is a beautiful park. When we got to where we could see the Marina we followed the lake trail around to it instead of hiking up across the road.

The Holly Bay Marina, www.hollybayMarina.com, is a really nice and clean place. The manager Randy is a super guy and not only let us stay in the warmth but he also made a fresh pot of coffee for us. Randy also offered a parking spot to use when we are hiking the trail. In the summer time they cook all sorts of food and in the winter they have pizza. Check them out and make sure you stop by when your hiking, if nothing else, to say hi.

Just to let you know, there are two marinas on the lake. Only the Holly Bay shows up on the Sheltowee Trace map. Mom and Dad found the only other one. As we waited on them at Holly Bay, they were waiting at the other one. Finally after asking enough questions, I figured out what happened and called the other marina to locate my parents.

On the way back, we stopped by the Cumberland Falls Resort Park again to show my parents the falls. After we ate lunch and my folks went home, we stopped by the ranger station on 27 to see what they had for information. After we found out that we knew more than they did, we got the opportunity to meet a real live archaeologist to ask him a couple of questions. We wanted to know the difference between an Indian rock house and an overhang. We also wanted to know the difference between an arch and a natural bridge. We found out what four years of college will teach you. They are the same thing with different terminology. ????????????? I was not impressed.

Pictures:

Prentice Cooper WMA

2009-11-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

Trail................................................Outcast Total: 704.8 Miles
Day One:
Main trailhead parking to McNabb Gulf Campsite 8.2 Miles
West side heading South

Day Two:
McNabb Gulf Campsite to Main trailhead Parking 10.6 Miles
East side heading North

Total Miles: 18.8 Miles

Well Marco, Troy and I headed out to Prentice Cooper WMA for an overnighter. As usual the weather didn't kick in until we reached Mount Eagle. It started with a light rain and gradually got stronger and stronger. Pretty soon I see Troy catching up with me and then pulled up beside me signaling me to pull over. I pulled over at the next exit and stopped at a store. Troy had made up his mind that he was done with this trip. He didn't feel like being wet and saw that the rain was not going to stop for two days. We visited a few minutes and then Marco and I continued on with the "call it at the trailhead system" that we are used to.

We pulled in at the Main Trailhead Parking in a light drizzle. Marco immediately jumped out and said "Let's go!" I said "OK." We signed in at 9:15.

With ponchos on we headed out going counterclockwise around the double loop heading to McNabb Gulf campsite. The rain stayed light with occasional stops until around one o'clock. The trail goes up and down most of the way with rocky trails leading to the multiple creek crossings. There were no views from either Mullen's Cove or Ransom Hollow overlooks because of a fog. We stopped and made a poncho cave to sit in for lunch.

We used the maps off the Cumberland Trail website which we were guessing at around 8 miles. According to the trail signs it came to 8.2 miles to camp. We got to camp at 3pm. The rain had stopped so we started collecting firewood for the night. It didn't take long and we had camp made and a nice fire going. Marco made quick use of his hiking chair, getting comfortable as I used the back rests that someone had taken the time to make at the campsite.

As we fired up the stoves, Marco enlightened me with a new technique. He heated up his water then poured it all over him and the ground. After some words I can't repeat, he started heating up more water. I still don't know what I learned from this, but it has to be good. We ate dinner, took some cough medicine, and told some lies. Marco did entertain me with a fire side dance. I was amazed that at the end of the day that he still had so much energy. I mean he danced. When he finally stopped, he took off his crock and told me that he had an ember go in the hole at the top of his crock.

At around 9pm our relaxing took a break as I had seen a couple of headlamps coming down the trail. It turned out to be a couple of hikers that were looking for camp. They had gotten off work the night before around 10pm and got dropped off at 27. They hiked to Popular Springs Campsite that night and picked up a TTA hiker off the trial on the way in. They had gotten into that camp around 3am and slept in the next morning. They were getting picked up at the Main Trailhead Parking the next morning. We visited a little as they set up camp just down the trail. We never heard from them again. We got a good nights sleep in.

I woke up with the sound of Marco getting the fire started. I got up and eased on over to the fire and got my stove going. I sat down in my makeshift chair watching the fire when I saw a little head peek out from the rocks in the fire ring. Just as I recognized it as a mouse he took off heading between my legs. I jumped up, to Marco's excitement and entertainment, as the mouse went over my seat and out the back. Now, that will get you going first thing in the morning! We ate breakfast and hit the trail at 7:45am.

We got alot of good views today at the many overlooks. We ate lunch at the Natural Bridge, which you really have to climb all over to appreciate it and then headed to Snooper's Rock Overlook. This by far has the best view of all. We then head on to the Indian Rockhouse and Stone Door, before going back to the truck. The trail was pretty much the same ups and downs throughout and in and out of the coves to cross the many creeks. It was a beautiful trail and we would suggest it as a good overnighter. It gives you a pretty good workout too.

When we got to the truck we found a note from the TTA wishing us a great hike with some happy trail dancing. Yes, we did some traditional trail dances on the way. We also met a couple of other hikers that were out for a day hike.

Here are some mileage points:
Parking to Haley road 2.2
Haley road to Hemlock Branch 3.2
Hemlock Branch to Ransom Hollow 1.3
Ransom Hollow to Tower Drive .8
Tower Drive to McNabb Gulf .7
McNabb Gulf to Raccoon Mtn. .8
Raccoon Mtn. to Pot Point Rd. 1.5
Pot Point Rd. to Natural Bridge 2.1
Natural Bridge to Snooper's Rock 2.8
Snooper's Rock to Indian Rockhouse 2.7
Indian Rockhouse to Parking .7

Pictures:

Sheltowee Trace Part I

2009-11-16T06:10:00.000-08:00

Trail……………Rating…………Miles…………………….Outcasts Total: 686.0
Day One:
Rock Creek Loop…..Easy…..…..2.25
Sheltowee Trace…….Easy…..….4.35
Total……………………………..6.6

Day Two:
Sheltowee Trace…….Moderate….6.44
Gobblers Arch……..Difficult….…3.86
Total……………………………..10.3

Day Three:
Sheltowee Trace…….Moderate…11

Day Four:
Sheltowee Trace……Moderate….10.9

Day Five:
Sheltowee Trace……Moderate…..5.8

Total……………………………..44.6 Miles

We knew that something was wrong when we actually slept through the night at work. What were the chances that on a planned five-day hike that a hurricane would come to Tennessee? We got up and headed to Big South Fork in the rain.

Greg, Chase, Troy, Shadow, Marco, and I were going to start the Sheltowee Trace. It is a 260-mile trail that runs from the Big South Fork to Northern Kentucky through the Daniel Boone National Forest. We had hiked the first 9.4 miles when we hiked the John Muir trail last season, so we started where we left off and took the Rock Creek Loop trail to get where we needed to start.

Troy, Marco, and I came in one car and signed us all in. Greg got caught up in traffic on I-24 so we didn’t get started until 1pm. We also did a little extra off road driving getting to the trailhead just for practice. You know the Outcast way.

The rain stayed steady as we made our way to Kentucky. This made the trail slick and added the challenge that we always like. Chase and his dad took turns trying to outdo the other with trips and falls. Chase ended up on his back one time. There was one section of trail that was completely washed out and we lost Chase and Troy to slipping and sliding. Then as Greg was attempting to cross a downed tree, he did a fancy dance which one step took out Marco’s hiking pole. He managed to stay up, but the pole was totaled.

The rain did stop by the time we got to our first stop at Great Meadow campground. We forded the river to get to it. We set up camp and Chase actually got a fire going. Some stories were told and cough medicine taken.

The fun started at bear bag hanging time. Greg, Marco, and I gathered all the food and headed to a large tree. The target was a four-inch in diameter branch about fifteen feet off the ground. After a couple of attempts we got the makeshift rope over the branch and attached the bag. The one section of rope was stretching and not sliding over the branch.. It didn’t help that we were trying to lift about two hundred pounds of food. We swapped out some rope and tried again. We finally got our food bags up where we wanted when snap…………….the whole branch broke off the tree. Well, this kinda hit my funny bone a little. The other two started laughing at me laughing and this dragged out for quite a while before we could regroup. Plan B. We found a limb on the other side and took a vote on if this branch was alive or dead. We had to use the branch that broke off to help lift the massive amount of food into the tree. We smiled with joy about the same time that the rope broke. Plan C. We used two ropes and two bear bags and life was good.

The stars came out and we had a beautiful night. Some time in the night the hurricane passed through. I woke up to the flapping of my tarp wondering what was going on. The next morning we collected the articles that had blown away in the night.

Day two started out with a ford across the river. It’s a good way to start the day and get everyone going. We hiked down to where the Gobblers Arch trail intersects. A vote was taken. The Sheltowee crosses Mark Branch numerous times. Troy said about 17 times or we could take Gobblers Arch, which is the high water route. It is described as the driest, but most difficult alternative. I got out voted so up we go. When you got to the base you could look straight up the mountainside and that was your trail. No switchbacks for the half-mile climb. Then you got a short brake before you started going up hill. It added a mile and a half to our hike and kicked some butt. We took a lunch break at Gobblers Arch.

Once we got on Divide road, we hiked the rest of the day on the road. We got our water from the Punchencamp Branch where we saw our first hunter in the woods next to a couple of caves off the North side of the road. We stopped for the night at a large rock shelter with a pool beneath it. It had been used as a campsite before.

We listened to an owl talk as we set up camp and made dinner. After the stories were told and meds taken, the bear bags were hung and everyone hit the sack. I stayed up by the fire and listened to the wildlife. It started with the frogs. They all talked at once then they all stopped about fifteen minutes later. Then the bats took off. I thought that they would come through camp and crap on me, but I just heard them all flapping at once with the high pitch squeaking. After that the birds came through camp. Not sure what they were, but they were perking like Turkeys do. After all that excitement, I went to bed.

Day three; we got off the road. A little while after the initial climb, Greg just hit his knees in the middle of the trail. We assumed that it was time to pray, but we found out that he just fell over a hole in the trail. Then while on break Marco took a picture of Troy and the truth was caught on film. You could actually see Troy’s pack refilling with the lightweight fairy dust that we had all heard about. Lots of climbing today until we finally reached the top with a rock climb and wonderful view.

After we reached the top and ripped our shins on the thorn bushes, we started down. We did some more road hiking and then headed on down to Grassy Creek where we did a little bathing and airing out of the tents and hammocks.

After the break we headed back up the mountain to go back down the mountain and after many creek crossings we went on to the crossing of Big Creek. We got some pictures of Troy carrying Shadow across the creek. The trail then climbs up to and we cross the Yamacraw Bridge. We camped just on the other side of the bridge at a campsite by the Big South Fork Cumberland River.

Greg made connections to get picked up here in the morning. His back was acting up and he had a serous foot injury that let him know that it was time to call it quits. Luckily it happened by a good road and easy to find location.

Stories where told and cough medicine taken by the fire. At bear bag time Chase headed out to a tree to hang their bag. Shortly after he left, we heard some screaming and hollering going on. We all ran to see what had happened to Chase, when in his light beam you could see two sets of eyes bouncing down the trail toward him. What the ___? When they finally came into the light of the other headlamps, you could see that they were two dogs and with the screaming had finally pulled of course and headed through the woods. That was exciting. A short time later we saw some lights up on the hillside and knew that they must have brought the dogs. The people never came down or hollered at us. The lights disappeared and later we could hear the dogs barking up by the parking area. Chase and I made a night hike to check things out and everyone was gone.

More cough medicine was needed. You could have used Chase to mix up drinks with all the shaking he was doing. Finally one by one everyone headed to bed.

Day four; we said our good byes to Greg and Chase and headed down the trail. We hit all the mile markers Lick Creek, Negro Creek, Cotton Creek, and Alum Ford. There is a large flat campsite just past Negro Creek. A shelter, which is not on any map, past Cotton Creek. Alum Ford is a regular campground with roads. We stopped here for lunch and hung everything out to dry. We saw two different deer during this section of the hike.

From Alum Ford we hiked on to Yahoo Falls. The actual fall was not impressive, but the rock formations were. After you hike out of the cove back to the Cumberland there is an outhouse and a flat area by the river to make camp. After this the trail doesn't have any water on it and you cannot get to the river until Big Creek. The trail is rugged in this area and the first camping spot with water is on Big Creek in a rhododendron patch. Here, there was just enough room for the two hammocks and a tent if you have a campfire.

We celebrated our last night out with an overdose of cough medicine. Marco was buzzing. I told the guys that there was good news and bad news. The bad news being that we were at an isolated part of the park, we might see a bear. The good news being that we probably won't hear it because of the river. They felt alot better after I told them that.

We got up the next morning and headed out. There were alot of water crossings and the trail was mostly uphill. We climbed uphill to the swamp and then climbed uphill after that. The area at the start of Big Creek is a waterfall that you hike behind. It is a very beautiful area with the rock formations, but we had some major tree falls in the trail. From here we hiked to 27 where we got to wait for a train before we could cross the tracks. You hike between the church and daycare up the road to get back into the woods. My folks picked us up at the 27 trailhead with some homemade apple pies. Life is good.

Pictures:

Fall Creek Falls- Upper Loop II

2009-11-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

Fall Creek Falls................................Trail Rating...Outcasts Total: 641.4 Miles
Upper Loop Overnight Trail 13.0 Miles.....Easy

Craig joined us for another hike. He brought his other dog named Hailey this time. Marco, Troy, Shadow and I were ready to hike. Troy picked this trail as we are heading out next week to start the five day section hike of the Sheltowee Trace. It had been a couple of years since we hiked this trail, but it is a repeat.

This year for a change we didn't hike it in the snow and 14 degree weather. The water was up too, so we got to get a couple of water crossings in that we didn't have the last time we hiked this trail.

Once again we hiked it in a clockwise direction, doing the up hill last. Troy decided to twist his ankle right at the beginning just to show how tuff he is. I think he said "anyone can hike this trail on two good legs."

Later on the trail, Craig stuck a foot and a pole in a hole and did the old trail praying on his knees routine. He prays pretty regular, which is a good thing. Just kinda different that he always does it in the middle of the trail while we are hiking.

We had a rather uneventful hike. Just taking in the beauty of nature and that calming thing that the trail does to a person. It was beautiful weather for hiking and that night we had a full moon where we didn't eat even need a flashlight.

We got to camp and collected some fire wood. We did a little maintenance like taking the tree off the top of the outhouse. Troy got a good warm fire going as the temperature dropped down. It got below 30 with the clear sky. The stars were wonderful as we told lies and took cough medicine around the fire.

There was an owl that messed up one of my bathroom breaks in the night. Your body does funny things when you get spooked.

We got up and hung around the fire the next morning. We got on the trail around 8:30 and hiked to the car.

Another beautiful hike.

Pictures:

Piney River Segment- Cumberland Trail-TTA Hike

2009-10-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Trail.....................Rating........Miles.......................Outcast Total: 628.4
Day one:
Piney River Trail.…Moderate…..10 miles
Spider Den Spur…..Difficult…….1 mile
Rockhouse Branch..Moderate…...2 miles
Total: 13 miles

Day two:
Piney River Trail….…Moderate…..10 miles
Twin Rock Overlook...Moderate……1 mile
Spider Den Spur……..Difficult……..1 mile
Stinging Fork Trail…..Difficult……..2 miles
Total: 14 miles
Total Trip: 27 miles

This turned out to be a last minute trip by the Outcasts. I was planning on leading a hike for the TTA at Natchez Trace State Park, but could not get any takers. When no one signed up, I decided to hike a trail that I haven’t done yet and got some hikers to join me.

Marco(TTA), Craig, and I(TTA) were going to do the full trail and Lora, from the Soddy chapter of TTA, was going to join us the second day and do a day hike with us.

After a night of running we headed out. It rained all the way to Dayton. My boys had no confidence in my hiking plan. It cleared up, as we got closer. Our first mishap was looking for Shut In Gap road off Hwy 111. It runs of Hwy 68.

Well after we found Shut In Gap road we found out that Walden Mountain Road doesn’t have a street sign. We also found that Forest Camp Road doesn’t have a street sign.

Not sure that we were on the right road we drove it down to Duskin Creek Bridge and then turned around and drove back up to Forest Camp Road. Well the campground doesn’t have a sign either and after some investigation we found the only sign anywhere is at the actual trailhead.

So if you are looking to hike this section of trail, the first left after Stinging Fork Wilderness Area is Walden Mountain Road. Take the first right off that and you will find the unmarked campground on the left. Take the second entrance to the campground and the trailhead will be on your right.

We got on the trail at noon. There is a bridge on this first section that is slippery when wet. I told Marco just in time for him to do some dancing. We were impressed.

We stopped at the first campsite just before White Pine cascades for lunch. We found that there are a lot of campsites that are not on the map. There are two before White Pine cascades. This first campsite has a spring that runs water right through the fire pit in front of the rock chairs that someone has made. You probably would only camp here in dry season.

The trail is beautiful and has a lot of ups and downs. There is a marked spur trail to the North of White Pine cascades that is not on the map and we are not sure where this one goes.

We took the spur trail to Spider Den. This goes steeply down to the river where there are two more campsites that someone has taken the time to make chairs and tables from rocks. You also see the diving platform, which is a flat rock that sticks out over the bluff wall. Spider Den, which luckily doesn’t have spiders in it, is like a large rock house. The trail is about a half mile long. It will take your wind on the way back up to the main trail.

There is another campsite just before Deep Pool Bridge. We took the short spur trail to see Hemlock Falls, which is a very small fall. We were more impressed with the cascades that we had seen.

When you get to Rockhouse branch, the trail cuts off to the right and down. Before you get there you are hiking the old rail bed and if you are an Outcast, you are libel to hike it all the way to where the branch starts. First off we noticed that the trail wasn’t as worn and then finally it ran out all together. We decided to backtrack to find where we missed the turn off.

Pine Branch Bridge is in a little need of repair, but with all the recent rains all the water was pretty.

There are two campsites just across the suspension bridge at the Piney River Crossing. On the way to McDonald Branch Craig took a knee. This was nothing like what the next day would bring. McDonald Branch is a tricky crossing where you might have to do a little tree hugging to get across.

From McDonald Branch to the Twin Rocks Nature trail you look down at the river. Right after the junction you go down to the camp and picnic area next to the river where we stayed the night. We gathered firewood and set up camp. It was time to eat and cold enough to get the fire going. This was the first time that the sky cleared and you could see a million stars. Some lies were told and some cough medicine taken. We had an owl tell us a couple of times to keep it down.

It had gotten below 30 during the night. I got up and started the fire so the other two would get out of bed. Shortly there after, Lora came walking down the trail to camp. We visited while we ate breakfast and broke down camp. The sun was shining and we new it was to be a beautiful day.

We got on the trail and hiked to the parking area and got on the Twin Rocks Nature Trail. We hiked up to the Twin Rocks Overlook for a wonderful sight. The color changes were wonderful with the sun shining on the mountains.

We hiked back to the Piney River trail to enjoy the sights one more time. Lora had hiked the Piney River trail, but none of the spurs or the overlook.

Craig tried to impress Ms. Lora while crossing McDonald Branch. He reached for the tree to hug and then did a backwards somersault over a boulder and landed on his butt against a second one. He did get his arms up in the air for points afterward.

Shortly after crossing McDonald’s Branch Ms. Lora decided to put on her show and landed on her butt after tripping over a rock. She then called out Marco stating that his turn was next. Not to be outdone Marco stepped on a flat rock that slid off the trail and took him with it. He ended up doing a 360 and planting his butt on the ground. I told him to hold still for a picture. He actually ended up with a leg injury that needed some nursing. I did not want to impress Ms. Lora after seeing the competition and gracefully bowed out.

At this time a group of boy scouts hiked pass us that had stayed the night at the Logging campground. They said that they had had a great trip.

We stopped at the suspension bridge for a snack while the sun shined down through the trees above.

We took the Logging camp spur and looped up to the Rockhouse Branch spur which the sign said picnic area. We must have missed the part that went to the campsite. Shortly after that we stopped and ate lunch along the trail.

We hiked the Spider Den spur to show Lora the sights and then continued on. She had also not hiked the trail from Duskin Creek Bridge to Newby Branch campground.

On the way to drop Lora off at her car, we drove by the Stinging Fork Wilderness Area and decided to go ahead and hike that down to the falls and back. This is a strenuous trail, but a beautiful waterfall.

Another beautiful trail to recommend to everyone and a wonderful hike to write about.

Pictures:

Longhunter IV

2009-10-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

Long Hunter.........................Trail Rating.............Outcasts Total: 601.4 Miles
Volunteer Trail...6.0 Miles.........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Volunteer Trail...6.0Miles..........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Total………………16.0 Miles

We have numerous folks that say that they want to join us each year. We always tell them, if they have little to no experience, to join us on our first hike of the year to get started. So, after notifying everyone that had mentioned hiking to us, we started off this year with just us. Marco, Troy, Shadow, and me. Craig, who had hiked once with us last year, hike with us this time and is planning on hiking with us on a regular basis. He brought his dog Kuippo.

As per our regular routine, we did a long day and then ran all night at the firehall before setting out to hike. We met at the trailhead and hit the trail at ten o'clock in the morning.

The weather was beautiful and as usual we were ready to get the season started. After the seed tick attack on Marco and I the last hike a week ago, we bathed in DEET before we hit the trail. Then, just as we got our packs on, Troy said "hold on a minute, I forgot something." He went back to his car and pulled out a large cooler which he opened to reveal to us a pile of Troy's famous fried chicken that a show dog couldn't jump over. Well, as usual, being the emotional guy that I am, I started crying at the beauty of it as Troy passed each of us a bag containing a chicken each and some biscuits. He had fried up enough to feed eleven plus us and only about seven ate the night before. Yea, it added three to five pounds per pack, but who really cared?

When we signed in at the ranger station, they told us that a boyscout troop had been out last night. We met them at the split of the day loop and overnight trail. We figured that when we got to camp there wouldn't be any firewood for atleast five miles. From there we really got into the wild flowers. We got into camp at one forty.

We set up camp and collected firewood. We enjoyed the lake and some stories as we waited for dinner time to come. After dinner we got the fire going, and then just before sunset Marco and I hike down to the end of the cove to catch the sunset on film. It was quite the show that mother nature put on for us. You pretty much had to be impressed.

Craig had brought his Sawyer Point One water filter, which we were impressed with. It is a gravity fed filter which really pours out the water. The only draw back that I can come up with is that you have to have a good enough water source to collect in a bag for filtering.

That night, we sat around the fire with our cough medicine and told some lies. We though about keeping up with Marco's words of wisdom. For example: "It gets colder as you walk away from the fire." He might be famous some day.

Some time in the early hours of morning we got some light rain. By morning it had stopped and we had a fire going for breakfast, which also included chicken. We got on the trail at eight thirty this morning and had a beautiful hike out. We got to see squirrels, and those green headed ducks as Marco called them. I had just told Craig that I never see any deer on this side of the park, when we scared off three.

Another fine start of a hiking season. Looking forward to many a snow fall this year.

Pictures:

Honey Creek Loop, TTA Hike

2009-09-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

Day One:
John Muir 2.3....Easy
John Muir 1.8....Easy
Leatherwood Ford Loop 3.1....Easy
River Overlook 0.2....Easy
Total: 7.4 Miles

Day Two:
Honey Creek Loop 5.6....Difficult
Honey Creek Overlook 0.2..Difficult
John Muir 5.0....Easy
Burnt Mill Bridge Loop 1.4...Easy
Total: 12.2 Miles

Total Miles: 19.6 Miles

This was a Tennessee Trails Association hike that Marco and I went on. We are both members of TTA and we joined Millette and Lora of the TTA.

Plan A: Sara planned this hike as hiking the Honey Creek loop and car camping Saturday night.

Plan B: I suggested we hike Sunday as well and do the John Muir trail. Sara agreed.

Plan C: Sara broke her ankle so Millette was the hike leader and due to rain planned to go the campground Saturday night and hike the Honey Creek loop Sunday.

Plan D: We headed out Saturday morning in the rain and this is how it went:

Because the rain was more of a down pour, we all met up at the Bandy Creek Visitor Center. After a doing a little visiting we decided to hike in the rain as it had changed from a down pour to a light rain. We decided to go for a safe rain hiking trail and picked the John Muir out of Leatherwood Ford to the O&W Bridge. As it turned out with all of the water falls, it was a beautiful hike. There were water crossings and they were quite high as the rain built them up. We found a nice overhang to eat lunch under. It cleared up a bit by the time we got to the O&W Bridge and we got some beautiful views.

On the way back, we decided to take the Leatherwood Ford Loop up to the River Overlook and back to Leatherwood Ford. We were already wet and there was still day light. Millette showed us a few fancy steps today, but nothing like Sunday.

We camped at the Bandy Creek campground, where the girls set up in one site and the boys in the other. We enjoyed some chicken, with Lora's family secret sauce, and tator's. Life was good. We followed up with some marsh mellows over the campfire. Cough medicine was taken and some stories were told.

The rain decided to show up again after I went through all the work of getting the moon and stars to shine. We decided to have a tarp party. We all sat in a row with a tarp over us as we watched the last of our campfire being put out by the rain. The last thing was the car camping as we sat and listened to CD's as the rain came down. Finally we decided to call it a night.

The next morning we got up, had a warm breakfast and headed to the trailhead. Millette was going to do the Honey Creek loop no matter if the water was over our heads. We dropped a car at Burnt Mill Bridge and headed to the Honey Creek trailhead.

Now Millette showed us some moves yesterday, but she was dancing with the stars today. Marco, who was not to be outdone, did a 360 on the trail that was quite stunning. So, I had to show them how to hit the trail and I did a good job.

The trail was challenging with the high water and wet rocks. The water crossings were deep and took a little talent. The trail led us astray a couple of times with inadequate marking. The lizzards were out and even a couple of snakes. The waterfalls were beautiful and we got some wonderful views from the Honey Creek Overlook where we ate lunch.

After the loop we took the John Muir trail to the Burnt Mill loop to Burnt Mill Bridge. The John Muir trial was mostly old road bed until we got to the river. At one point when I was leading, I came upon a large rat snake that not only surprised me, but decided to challenge me as well. He had a little attitude. I turned to Lora who was behind me, but had levitated about three feet off the ground and passed everyone to the back of the line.

We finished up the hike with a good long and deep water crossing where the river had flooded the trail.

We got another surprise when we got back to the truck, as we found that we had gotten into a nest of seed ticks which ate us all up.

It was a great hike. Sorry that Sara couldn't make it, but she was with us in all of our minds.

Pictures:

Frozen Head

2009-09-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Story

Little Possum Creek Bridge Building

2009-06-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Marco and I spent the last two days working with the Cumberland Trail Association along with the Tennessee Trails Association and other volunteers, building a bridge over Little Possum Creek. Talk about a real good group to work with, we got a lot of work done and had a good time doing it.

We left from work Sunday morning and drove down to Soddy Daisy. We got to the work site around 9:30am. It was impressive to see how they built all the scaffolding, trails, and cable systems just to start this project. They hauled in a lot of supplies including cement, wood, scaffolding, tools, and rocks.

When we got there the main bridge supports and spanners were already in place. We helped put up the sides, stringers, tighten the bolts, and start putting the wooden walking planks down.

The first day there were about eighteen volunteers. It was nice and shady in the morning, but that afternoon sun hit hard and you felt the heat! By 3:30 we were ready to call it a day. Marco and I had planned on just camping by the work site, but Tony started describing the benefits of the church camp and we had to change our minds. It started with showers and air conditioning, then went to swimming in the lake, canoeing, and free food. I had to call Mercy and give in.

We got to camp and started with a few refreshments. Then we went swimming until the dinner bell rang and we ate stir fry and hot dogs with the sides. Pretty good start. We followed up with a few games of pool and good old visiting with some occasional cough medication.

The next morning we got up to a breakfast of pancakes and oatmeal. We headed to the work site and got at it again. We had some new faces this morning and over the day had around fifteen come and go. Today we had the entertainment of Marco swimming for tools. Nancy wasn't going to be out done so she swam for some tools as well. By the time we left, it was looking like a bridge. There is plenty of work to be done as they still have to haul out all the scaffolding and fix the trail back.

As I said before, we had a great time and everyone was so friendly and helpful that it made it a wonderful project to be a part of.

Pictures

Possum and Rock Creek, CT

2009-05-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

Trail.................Rating......Miles.................Outcast Total:585.4
Possum Creek Trail…….Moderate…….10 Miles
Rock Creek Trail………..Moderate……..9.9 Miles

At work, getting to sleep until 2:30am was like getting a treat before hiking the next day. Marco and I headed out to meet my cousin, Austin, and my Dad at the Lower Leggett Road Trailhead. We left the van at this trailhead and drove my truck to the Heiss Mountain Road Trailhead.

We got on the trail by 11:00am and were immediately impressed by the Blanchard Creek waterfall right off the get go. Just past the falls we met the only other hikers on the trail. They said that they had hiked in three miles the day before and had gotten soaked by the rain. The trail had some slippery spots and the rocks were even more slippery. Even though it was his first hike, Austin jumped right in to doing the trail dance and even included the trips. It must run in the family.

We were glad to see the bridge over the Big Possum Creek, as the water was deep and fast. We were quite impressed to see the new fiberglass type bridge. That is real nice and I'm sure will last a long time. We ate lunch just past the bridge where the old narrow-gage railroad grade connected with the trail.

The short side trail to the overlook of the Tennessee River valley is worth the time. You can see all the way to the Appalachian Mountains. Then you descend to Little Possum Creek.

Dad and Austin impressed me with walking right over a two-foot long Copperhead snake. After investigating, we found out that someone had already cut the head off the snake, which I guess was a good thing for those that don’t look down.

Little Possum Creek was anything but little. We ended up crossing on a fallen tree that stretched between two boulders. With the slippy rocks, it turned out to be a good workout on the nerves. After crossing the creek, we hiked back to the trail.

On the way to Stack Rock, Austin with his snake fetish stepped on a small gray snake with an orange bottom. Of course Austin didn’t realize what he had done until I let him know.

Stack Rock was impressive and after you reach the top, there is a good campsite with a stream running next to it and a stack of firewood. Way too good for us. We head on.

Between the Stack Rock and the Imodium Falls we had some impressive falls. Marco put up a fight, but Dad took the all time prize with imitating the swimming sidestroke across a flat rock as he grabbed for anything he could grab while he was traveling across it. That is where experience pays off and we had to bow to the Master.

Crossing Little Possum creek below the Hughes Branch, we had to take to wading. Put on the Crocks and go for it. It got up to the thighs and you know what that means for poor all Marco!

We camped just after descending from Coalbank Hill in a flat area of pines next to the Coalbank Branch of Possum Creek. It was about a mile short of Retro-Hughes Road. It was time to eat and we got a pretty good workout with all the ups and downs of the trail.

When it finally got dark enough for a campfire, we had some entertainment lighting wet wood. Marco found an old Cedar that really helped us out. We sat around sipping medicine and telling lies. They were calling for 47-degrees for tonight, so we went for the 35-degree Outcast temperature instead. Oh yea, Austin did it again and found a snake under his tarp before it got dark.

We got on trial at 8:30am and crossed Retro-Hughes Road to start the Rock Creek Section. The blackberries will be good this year and I know the place to pick. After about a mile you start down into Rock Creek gorge. The trail was not nearly as slippery today, which was good because I know where Rock Creek got its name.

We got to climb the wooden ladder on the way to the fiberglass bridge over Rock Creek. The Leggett Branch cascades were beautiful and we stopped at the Rock Creek Overlook and ate lunch. It was a beautiful day and we watched the hawks flying over the gorge.

We decided to take the Upper rim trail to see Leggett Point Overlook. It was a good climb, but the trees block most of the view. We got to the Lower Leggett Road trailhead at 2:00pm.

This is a wonderful hiking trail and I commend the many people that helped to build this trail. The flowers were all bloomed out putting on a show. You definitely want to visit the Cumberland trail website to print off the maps and trail descriptions as well as register to hike.

Pictures:

Big Hill Pond State Park

2009-04-28T15:37:00.000-07:00

Big Hill Pond Trail …….Moderate…..3.6 miles………………Outcasts Total:565.5 miles
Azalea Spring Trail …….Moderate…..1.3 miles
Turkey Call Trail ………Moderate…..1.9 miles
Day One………………………………6.8 miles

Turkey Call Trail ………Moderate…..1.9 miles
Azalea Spring Trail …….Moderate…..0.8 miles
Board Walk …………….Easy………..0.5 miles
Tuscumbia Trail………...Moderate…..1.3 miles
Dry Ridge Trail…………Moderate…..5.5 miles
Day Two……………………………..10.0 miles
Total………………………………….16.8 miles

Marco and I took this trip, which we started after the usual all night of running at the fire hall. We started with our first wildlife being Geese walking down Walnut Street in the Boro. It takes about three and a half hours to get to Big Hill Pond State Park, which is south of Jackson in Pocahontas TN. They have a map on the Tennessee park website which gives a small amount of information. The visitor center is closed on the weekend so you need to get a hold of them during the week and have them put one of their good maps out for you to pick up. You need the good map, which we have a picture of, to follow their different color hiker dudes that they mark the different trails with. We got lucky and the Ranger stopped by the visitor center so we got in to get the map.

The back country, or not as popular, trails are in rougher shape than the popular ones do to manpower according to the Ranger. The trail parking is across from the picnic shelter down by the boat ramp. We got a kick out of the sign there listing backpackers separate from hikers.

We got on the trail at 11am. We took the Big Hill Pond trail around the East side of the park down to Big Hill Pond. You cross a long wooden bridge over Travis McNatt Lake and then head up through the woods. We were a little disappointed that you cannot see Big Hill Pond from the trail, as the woods are too thick. There is a little waterway at the end of a dirt road that you can load your boat in and go out to the pond. All of the area Southwest of the hills in the park is swampland. The area around Big Hill Pond needs some trail work. The Trail skirts the swamp along Big Hill Pond and then goes back through the woods. This is where Marco got to see his first snake and excited he did get. After you cross the train tracks, where I picked up my track splinter, you drop back down and follow along the swamp on the Dogwood Point Trail, which is also labeled Turkey Call Trail.

The first shelter we came to is Pipe Rock shelter. All of the shelters are wood structures with three bunk beds in each. Pipe Rock and Dogwood Point both have outhouses. They do have a wood bee and wasp problem. Pipe Rock shelter is a good climb from the trail and you need to be looking for the trail to spot it. The water source is the muddy Cypress Creek, which is at the bottom of the hill. We did find a spring just past this shelter trail at an old road site. We continued down the trail to the lowest point of the park. Since we figured that the Dogwood Point shelter would not have any water, we found the Tuscumbia River by following an old road bed due West of the point about one hundred yards through the woods. We bagged our water and carried it up to the shelter where we stayed the night.

Marco was proud to see the outhouse, with a manual flush I must add. Of course he couldn't get it to work. It might have been neglected for a while. We suffered through a steak and baked potato dinner with pudding for desert, but we were still roughing it. We enjoyed the wildlife, picked ticks, and listening to the bees work the shelter over. Marco got some pictures of the local frogs and toads. We didn’t hang around the fire too long. It was more of just a small light maker as the temp was in the sixties. We told a few lies over cough medicine and called it a night. At one point the bees stopped buzzing. It was like they got a signal and they just all stopped at once. We saw a bat later on flying around.

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and were on the trail by 8am. We hiked North across the train tracks and followed the Azalea Spring trail to the half mile boardwalk. It is listed at lengths from one mile to a half a mile on different park items. The boardwalk crossed Dismal Swamp where we got to see deer, squirrels, and a mud turtle swimming the creek. We were fast enough to get a picture of us hiking the boardwalk and that was about it.

From the Boardwalk we hiked to the observation tower. This is a 73’ metal observation tower that offers a panoramic view of Travis McNatt Lake and Dismal Swamp. We got some good pictures from the top and Marco got a good picture of a large bird.

From the observation tower, we took the Tuscumbia Trail over to the Tuscumbia Bend shelter. This shelter is located on a small stream. There is a sign there, but it points in the wrong direction. Walk along the stream and you can find it. I don't know if this stream runs all summer or not. From there we hiked to the horse trail and ate lunch at the Dry Ridge Trail head. We did get to see a grey snake cross the trail and I actually kicked a box turtle that was on the trail. He didn't come out of his shell, but I would imagine he had a headache and wasn't interested in visiting.

The Dry Ridge Trail goes over to Travis McNatt Lake and goes around the North end of the lake back to the boat ramp.

We got pictures of the Dipping Vat. We had no idea what a dipping vat was used for until we looked it up on the Internet. They used the vats because of the tick infestation back in the late 1800,s. They were required to dip all of the farm animals and have them inspected.

The Grassy Point shelter has a lake front view and a half a picnic table. They need to clean out an access for swimming here. We continued around the lake. The North end of the lake you do some board, log, and bridge jumping across the swamp. After that you hike along the shore back to the boat dock.

We visited with the ranger after our hike and he said that they have a steady flow of hikers, but never many at a time.

On the way back we stopped at the Pinson Mounds which was pretty cool to check out: http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/homework/historicsites/pinsmoun.html

Pictures

North South Trail

2009-04-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

The guys are scared of a few tornado's and have cancelled our hike for today. It's kinda sad because I have brought them so far through rain, sleet, and snow. I guess I will have to toughen them up a little bit more.

Angel Falls Trail, River Trail East, Big Island, and Pilot-wines loops

2009-03-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Trail.....................Miles..........Rating.........Outcast Total: 548.7
Day One: 8.1
Angel Falls Trail.....2 Miles.......Easy
River Trail East......6.1 Miles.....Easy
Day Two: 15.3
Station Camp..........0.2 Miles.....Easy
Big Island Loop Trail...5 Miles.....Moderate
Indian Dome Rockhouse...0.4 Miles...Easy
Pilot-Wines Loop Trail..9.7 Miles...Moderate
Day Three: 14.2
Pilot-Wines Loop Trail..3.1 Miles....Moderate
Big Island Loop Trail....9 Miles.....Moderate
Station Camp...........0.1 Miles.....Easy
River Trail East.........2 Miles.....Easy
Day Four: 6.1
River Trail East.........4.1.........Easy
Angel Falls Trail.........2 Miles.....Easy
Total Miles......43.7

We didn't mean to out run the horses!
Troy and I were the only ones that could make this hike. We headed out after work and made our way, after signing in, to Leatherwood Ford Trail head parking. We got on the trail at noon. We used 100 Trails of the Big South Fork by Russ Manning for our trail description. There is a lack of signs on these trails, but they do use metal trail markers which are few and far between. Red for the Loop trails and red and green for the river trail.

Angels falls trail is an easy hiking trail running along the Big South Fork Cumberland River to Angel Falls. River Trail East connects Angel Falls with Station Camp crossing. We did have two creek crossings that required the donning of the old Crocks. The weather was beautiful and it only called for rain on our second day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the ticks were after us. Yes, there were plenty of ticks on this hike.

That evening as we started looking for a camp site, we walked into Station Camp Crossing. There are a few camping sites here and Station Camp Road ends here. It was 5pm and we were ready to eat.

We set up camp, collected fire wood, got our water, and settled in for the night. It was only suppose to get down to the mid forties tonight. The owls were out tonight and a friendly coyote called in the night. About the time we got ready to call it a night, here comes the truck. It was a few young kids out having some fun. Luckily they didn't stay long and we got to bed around 11pm.

We got up the next morning and no rain. Yes, things were looking good. We only had a coyote visit during the night and he just headed right through camp. I got some pictures of the Station Camp Crossing which you can only cross the river during dry weather. At 8:15am we headed across the parking area and started the 600 foot climb into the hills on the Big Island Loop.

We made it to the Indian Dome Rock house around 11am. It is basically a cave like opening with a big room that has a dome shaped ceiling. Pretty cool to check out. We hiked an hour longer, got on the Pilot-Wines Loop trail and did lunch at a creek crossing. This is when we hung out our stuff to air out and also where I left my clothes line.

I went to the creek, found a deep spot to fill my bucket, leaned against a tree and reached out only to notice that I got no resistance from the tree and it followed me into the creek. I looked like a cat heading into a bath tub. I was reaching and scratching for anything that I could get a hold of. I managed to get only minor wetness of the foot during this episode.

As we finished lunch, a light mist began to fall. We packed up, put on the old poncho and headed out. The mist didn't last long and we had a beautiful day to hike.

We stopped at the Station Camp Horse Camp Trail head parking area. It is a very large gravel parking area which would make a good spot to park if you were hiking the Big Island Loop or the Pilot-Wines Loop for a day hike or overnighter.

After we left there, we came upon the Wilderness Resort, which we found out later was privately owned and operated, but has access to the Pilot-Wines Loop trail. It looks like some fancy log cabins and a large horse stable. For hikers there is a water source at the barn.

The last source for water before Pilot Rock is a creek that runs along a rock bluff just past the private land. We got lucky and found some water right at Pilot Rock and spent the night at the camp there. We ended up hiking 15.3 miles by the time we found the water source to camp by. We must have looked pretty bad because the vultures were circling us when we made camp at 4:30pm. Did I mention that the ticks were out?

There was ice on the water buckets the next morning. We had slept in an extra hour so we got on the trail at 9am. After Pilot Rock the trail drops 600 foot to the Grassy Branch which we got to try out the old Crocks again to cross. After crossing the river we did the 600 foot climb back out to join the Big Island Loop again.

We dropped the 600 foot to the the Big Island crossing and stopped for lunch. We aired out the packs and rinsed out some clothes. Big Island crossing is one of those river crossings that you can only do during low water. While we were eating three horse riders rode by. We saw them again at the cabin which is at the first river past the Big Island crossing.

The cabin is a good place to stop if you can work it into your hike. It has two bedrooms and a loft for sleeping. There is a big fire place and a picnic table inside the front room.

We left our horse riders and headed down the trail. They caught back up to us after going back and finding a lost jacket. They were surprised on how far we had made it. They said that we were more like trail runners than hikers. Well, we really impressed them when we came hiking into Station Camp crossing and they were there taking a break. I wished that I would have known that we were going to catch up to them. We would have picked up a couple of old beer cans and walked in drinking beer. Their reaction was "Holy Sh_t, I'm going to have to get a set of those hiking poles" when we walked up on them. They asked how much further we had to go and I told them that we had 8.1 miles to the truck, but only had an hour to get there before dark. You should have seen their faces then.

To avoid any more visitors we hiked down the River Trail East for a couple of miles before setting up camp. We got in a total of 14.2 miles by 5:30pm. We found some ticks and listened to owls as we sat around the fire.

We got up in the morning and hit the trail by 8:15am. We did have a small layer of ice on our water bucket this morning. Just before Angel falls we saw some people camping along the river and after Angles falls there were people all the way to the truck. A good day for hiking. We got to the truck by 11:30am.

Pictures

Franklin-Marion State Forest

2009-02-24T16:26:00.000-08:00

West Rim Trail 19.5 Miles Trail rating Easy...Outcast Total: 505 Miles
Sweden Cove trail warm up 1.0 Miles
Two Day Total 20.5

First off, it takes an act of God to get a map of this place. You will not get any helpful information on the Internet. You can get a map at the ranger station that is north of Hwy 41A on Fire Tower Road next to the fire tower. This is not in the park. They are not opened on weekends or most hours of the week. They will mail you a black and white copy of this map which will help you none at all. There is a trail description that is posted next to a map at the unused Ranger station at the park. You cannot get a copy of this description. I took a picture of it and typed it out when I got home. So now that we have that clear:

Troy, Marco, and I head out after work. As usual everyone makes fun of us because of the weather and sure enough as we head down I-24 we start with the snow flurries. They get heavier as we get closer to Sewanee.

We got on the trail at 9:30. Since anyone can hike the trail according to the description, we hike it backwards going counter clockwise around the park. It took us right at a half mile before we made a wrong turn. Since we didn’t know the name of the trail, which isn’t written on the map or description, we took a turn at the first sign that said Swedon Cove hiking trail. After we ended up crossing 156 again, I consulted the map, backtracked a half mile, crossed the campground and found a sign for the West rim trail. Yep, that’s the name we were hunting. We call that an Outcast warm up.

Once we got on the trail it was very well marked and at most road crossings you got a letter A-W in order that corresponded with the map. It is a very well maintained trail and easy to follow.

The first four and half miles were through the woods and then we hiked the rim of Crooked Tree Hollow. One of the concerns that we had was water supply. After we were assured that there was no water on the trail when we picked up the map, I copied the trail description and every other line was “Cross Creek.” We didn’t have any problem finding water.

Marco was again a source of entertainment for us on the trail. First off when we came to a split in the trail, he had warmed up and took off his jacket. We went on by him and a little while later he asked me if his jacket was still on the back of his pack. NO! He ended up hiking back to the split and found his jacket hanging on the sign where he took it off. He had tied it to his pack and then rubbed it off on the sign when he put his pack on. Next, he had bought a new camera and was proud of it all week before this hike. He put fresh rechargeable batteries in it for the trip. When we got to Crooked Tree Hollow where the scenery really got good, his batteries died. When he got home and read the instructions he found out that he had gotten the wrong batteries.

The campground that is marked on the map on the West side has a beautiful view but is literally trashed. It is sad that people will ruin a good thing. I did take a picture of the Red Neck toilet with the appropriate empty beer cans. We made camp around 4:00 at the ten-mile mark including our warm up. It is marked on the map as N.

We set up our camp and then collected firewood. I pushed over an old rotten tree that I thought we could use as a bench. I couldn’t move it by myself so I went on collecting wood. Marco walked by it and saw something move. It ran up a tree next to him and it looked like a chipmunk. As all three of us watched him reach the top, it jumped and flew to the ground by me about 30 feet away. It was a flying squirrel, which I have never seen other than on TV. We all got excited about that! Later when I was telling my daughter about that she let me know that “it doesn’t take much to get you excited”.

We got on the trail by 9:00 the next morning. The low was only 18 degrees. It was another beautiful day for hiking. We continued east, crossed 156, and ate lunch at Stromeyer overlook that looks over Sweeten cove at marker H. After a short siesta we headed on to the cars. Both of the campgrounds on the east side of the park were clean.

When I got to where we could see 156, I beat Troy to the punch and did the run while doing push ups with my hiking poles over my head as he had shown me in the past. You know that Troy joined in an ran to the end as well.

We would recommend this hike. Very well kept and beautiful.

Pictures

Trail description

Map

Cumberland Trail- Soddy Segment

2009-02-09T14:32:00.000-08:00

Cumberland Trail- Soddy section……………..Outcasts Total…..484.5
Trail Rating: Moderate with future bridge sites being difficult
Day one…..…8.6 Miles
Day two……7.4 Miles
Total………....16 Miles

Marco, Raleigh, and I made this hike. We headed out after work and dropped a truck off at the Heiss Mountain Road trailhead. We then drove back to Mowbray Pike and parked at the marked location on Millsap Road. It took us a little longer to find Mowbray Pike because the street sign is not there off Dayton Pike. You need to turn by the Dollar General store. We ended up going further south on Dayton Pike to Mountlake road and coming down Mowbray pike from the other side. You definitely want to print off the directions, maps, and trail description off the Cumberland Trail website. They are very helpful.

We got on the trail at 10:30. Shortly after you get on the trail, you go through the Little Stone Door and pass the Indian Rock House. The trail travels the side of the mountain until you go into the Little Soddy Creek Valley. We stopped and had lunch before Clemmons point where we could enjoy the great view of the valley below and see the peaceful looking Sequoyah Nuclear power plant.

Just before you drop down into Little Soddy Creek valley you pass above a house and then the trail drops down. There was a generator and some other stuff off to the side. There was an extension cord hooked to the generator running off somewhere. We didn't hang around to investigate!

Once you cross the Little Soddy creek you will find remains of the old Soddy Coal Company and the area where they have been trying to clean up years of illegal dumping. This is a very challenging area to try and remove a lot of tires, wash machines, and the likes. From here you climb up and cross Hotwater road.

Hotwater road is where we met the members of the Soddy Daisy chapter of the Tennessee Trail Association. They had been working a section of the trail from Hotwater road to Posey point. And a mighty fine job they had done. We talked to a few of the members at the road and then about eight members on the trail. Super folks and we just can’t thank them enough for the work they do. After talking a bit, we found out that Don Deankins and Caroline Woerner were the one and same people that had made the maps we were following. They also found out that we were the Outcasts and we were amazed by how many people follow our Blog. After we left their company, I wished that we had taken a picture of the group to put on our Blog.

After Posey Point you hike the side of the mountain over Big Soddy Creek. We did spend a little while checking which way to go after the pine farm where the trail splits and there is no sign. The next marker is down the switchback from the split. This is about the time Marco’s knee started bothering him real bad. Part way back into the Deep Creek Valley we started wondering if we were going to have to stop our hike and carry him out. He wanted to be tough and keep going. I think he only fell about five times on the way down to Deep Creek. Not too bad for Marco.

On the way down to Deep Creek you pass in front of an old coalmine portal with the timbers still visible and at this time water filling the bottom.

The only part of this trail that is difficult is the crossing of Deep Creek and Big Soddy. The switchbacks are short and the drops or climbs are steep. Hopefully when they get the bridges done they will rework the switchbacks and bring them out further.

Deep Creek is a large boulder crossing of the creek where Big Soddy is more wading. The only pain you felt while crossing is anything that touched the water. I was hoping for numbness, but none would come.

There is a spot where the dozers tore up the land before Deep creek crossing doing rock mining. They could make a future campsite down the river a little ways where the dozers flattened it out by the river.

In between Deep Creek and Big Soddy creek Marco tried to break his leg, the good one, by dropping his foot down between rocks and falling backwards. This gave everyone a good scare.

It was getting dark so just after we crossed Big Soddy and got our feelings back, we made camp for the night. There is no flat area around here so we camped on the slope. It’s nice when you have hammocks. It is a little rough collecting firewood at a seventy five degree angle. Marco did some meds and rehab while we told lies around the fire. We had a full moon and the temp stayed around 35 degrees.

We started out the next morning hitting the trail at 9:00. It was a good climb after breakfast, the way we like it. The trail continues along the side of the valley.

There was one large shelf that the trail actually goes under. We had been talking about how boulders have fallen in the past and how people have been killed. Well, as Marco was hiking under the shelf, a large clump of ice broke off the top of the cliff probably around fifty pounds of it. It was safely out to the edge away from the trail as I saw it fall, but poor Marco didn't know what happened and just assumed he was dead when it crashed to the ground. It was entertaining to watch.

We stopped for lunch at a spot just past the last bridge which would make a good campsite. It was along the river bank and you could tell where a couple of people have camped before.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. The trail covers alot of different type of forests and you end up hiking out along the highway and down Heiss Mountain road to the next trailhead. There were cars there when we dropped our truck off and then more cars there when we got to our truck Sunday. Must be a popular day hike out Possum Creek segment.

When we got back to the Mowbray Pike trailhead we had a note on our truck window stating "This is private property, do not park here" written on duct tape. It looked offical redneck. I will have to find out more about this.

The only wildlife we saw was the cows out in the pasture by highway 111.

Pictures

John Muir Trail

2009-01-29T06:19:00.000-08:00

Day 1………7.6 miles…………………………………..Outcasts Total: 468.5
Day 2……..10.9
Day 3………6.8
Day 4……..10.6
Day 5……..10.3
Total…..…..46.2 Miles
Trail rating: Moderate with the climb on rock creek trail in Pickett State Park as difficult

This is a trip that required a lot of preplanning and searching for information. The John Muir trail is not an easy trail to look up. There are actually three different John Muir trails that you will find on the computer. The other two have information all over the Internet. One problem was I have never been to the Big South Fork so I didn’t have any idea of the terrain or water situation. It came down to buying a topographical map from National Geographic and buying books. We ended up using the 3rd Edition, Hiking the Big South Fork, by Deaver, Smith, and Duncan as the best trail description.

Problem two was the crew. There were a few items that they got a hold of and would not let go. BEAR…. BEAR…. bear, FORDING rivers, and BIG hills. The length of the trail, 42 miles, was a new record for all of them to make. While I studied water sources, they studied ways to get out.

After packing, repacking, repacking, and repacking, we were ready to attempt the trail. We got off work, repacked, and hit the road. We went to Picket State Park, signed in, and dropped off one truck at the Hidden Passage trail parking. One car had headed to the Brandy Creek Visitor Center and signed us in there. Then we met at the Leatherwood Ford trailhead. We got on the trail at 12:00.

You start out crossing an old bridge over the Big South Fork Cumberland River. The panic didn’t really start until then. Yes, it was deep, but it was also almost completely frozen over. FORDING rivers? After numerous tackles and blocks, I managed to get them over the other side of the river. The first two miles were a steady climb along the riverside. After we crossed Fall Branch, we started the 400-foot climb to Angel Falls Overlook.

Greg put on a show for us; again, Marco was behind him one time and said that it was absolutely amazing to watch. He knew he saw the bottom of both of Greg’s feet at the same time at least once as he continued a tap dance along the trail.

It was an exciting climb to Angel Falls Overlook. One time we were hanging on by a cable that was mounted to the rock facing as we walked along a cliff. Another time we were climbing the rock facing where a ladder had once been, making our way through a crack in the rock facing up to the Grand Gap Loop trail. Once there, we hiked over to the Angels Falls Overlook for an amazing view.

Life was good, as everyone knew that they had conquered the first major climb. From here the trail was more rolling hills for the rest of the day. We stopped at a “Rock House” which is a rock overhang for the night. We had made 7.6 miles by 2:30. We had a good challenge collecting firewood off the side of a very steep hill. It got down to 20 degrees that night. You should have seen my bear bag. It was working with all of its might, as were Marco and I trying to hang it in the tree. It felt like 50 pounds. We weren’t going to starve on this trip!

Greg had decided to camp under the overhang that night, instead of hanging off the edge of the hill like the rest of us. Well our fire was under the overhang too. I wish I could have recorded his description of the night with his noises. Basically it started out warm and cozy. Then it got chilly, then it got cold, then he heard cracking of wood, then it got warm, then it got hot, then it got really hot, then it got warm, then it got chilly, then it got cold and started all over again.

DAY 2
We got on the trail by 7:30. After the first mile we found a bridge piled on the side of the trail with a broken sign next to it. We forded that stream. Around 10:00 we came across the first of many Hog hunters. We made our way 500 feet down to Laurel Fork passing two more hunters. We crossed Laurel Fork and stopped for lunch. We had gotten in seven miles today and I was feeling confident that we could complete the trail with no problem….. like we had a choice. We hung our stuff out to dry as we enjoyed the peaceful sound of gunshots and watching hunters walk back and forth by us. I don’t know what they would have done if they got one. It was a drag that I would not have wanted to attempt.

We crossed Parch Corn Creek at 1:15 and we wanted to get to Big Creek and ford the river before camp. We took a break at a campsite next to the Cumberland River where Marco showed off his makeshift chair. He put a board on two stumps and did his Humpty Dumpty routine. I had to take a picture before I helped him up.

We got to Big Creek at 2:30 and found that it now had a bridge over it. There wasn’t enough water in it to worry about a bridge. People were happy. We hiked up to where the trail leaves the Cumberland and came back to Big Creek to make camp. We had gotten in 10.9 miles and sat around a campfire and watched the snow as the temps dropped to 10 degrees. We just got some flurries and that was it.

DAY 3
We warmed ourselves in front of the fire on got on the trail at 9:15. Today’s goal was to get across the two biggest peaks and camp on the other side of the John Muir overlook. We started with our usual family tradition of uphill going the 400 feet up to Burkes Knob. I got pictures of the Large Chimney Rocks on the way along with the most berries I have ever seen on Holly bushes. We made it to Maude’s Crack, got some pictures, and then headed the 350 feet down to No Business Creek. We stopped at Tackett Creek for lunch with 3.2 miles under our belts.

After lunch, we started uphill the 500 feet to the John Muir overlook. We took many long switch backs, climbed a ladder, scrambled up the bluff and when the trail looked like it ended, we simply climbed straight up the sloping shelves of rock in front of us to the trail heading up. Marco and I stopped to rest as Troy came up with a big smile on his face just laughing at the easy trail I picked for him. The John Muir overlook was not as impressive as the Angels Falls Overlook, but it was impressive. We had made our goal and now just find water.

TICKS? What the ? There is ice on the ground and Marco, Greg and Shadow all got ticks. What is going on?

We stopped at a grove of hemlocks with a river and made camp. We had 6.8 miles in today with most of it up hill. It got down to 25 degrees tonight. We got a couple of sleet showers, but nothing impressive.

DAY 4
Once again we warmed by the fire. Our goal today would just be make it as far as we could. Marco started out the day by placing his oatmeal bag next to his stove. The bag caught fire. Marco grabbed the bag, which started the leaves on fire. While he was throwing his oatmeal bag into the fire, the leaf fire was working on his shoes and jacket. It was exciting to watch from across the fire.

We got on the trail at 9:00. Greg was a little or a lot concerned about the trail description I read to him this morning, mainly the water fording for some reason. Today was mainly rolling hills and we stopped for lunch just a couple of miles short of Divide Road. When we got to the road, I heard the plans that Greg and Troy had made, as this was one of their escape routes. They were still contemplating on it. After you cross the road you head into a beautiful valley following an old railroad bed along Rock Creek. This is where we found some wonderful ice sculptures and the longest icicle that I have ever seen. We hiked this valley all the way to Pickett State Park.

At one point on this section Marco lead us down the trail and down hill around a boulder. Soon after he disappeared, he came running back full speed yelling OH SH…T! You should have seen the shocked look on Greg’s face, who was right behind him. We all got a great laugh out of that one.

A little while later as things were just moving along, Troy came jogging past me doing pushups with his poles over his head. Again, he was making fun of my easy trail. Right after that the trail did a very steep climb, and I asked Troy to show me that move again. I have to give him credit, he showed out one more time. We decided to make the fording before camp again.

It was starting to get late as we finally made it to the fording point of Rock Creek on Rock Creek Trail. The boys were not impressed with the ice build up on either side of the river. We forded across the shin deep river and hiked to the next ford across Rock Creek which was closer to knee deep. We camped just across Rock Creek at the Thompson Creek split at 5:00. We had made 10.6 miles today.

We stayed up late celebrating the good hike that we have had. The bear bag was light tonight. It got down to 30 degrees.

DAY 5
I woke up at 2:00 with the sound of sleet hail mixture hitting the tarp. Bathroom break before it got bad. I woke at 5:00 with heavy freezing rain hitting the tarp. At 6:00 with the heavy rain I hear a voice. Greg woke me up saying that he felt we should skip breakfast and just hit the trail. I contained my laughter; as everyone knows I don’t skip breakfast.

The boys headed out as I finished my breakfast. The trail was grueling the first .8 of a mile climbing a mudslide. Just as I cleared the worst part, I heard that dreadful sound of cracking wood followed by a huge tree falling just behind me. A quick thank you to the lord above as I quickly caught up with my fellow hikers. We hit the Hidden Passage trail and headed to the truck. The trail was beautiful as everything was covered in ice. The draw back of course was the ice on the trail, which made climbing a challenge. As we like to do and even more in the freezing rain, we decided to add a few miles on our trip as a warm down. We missed the intersection and started doing the loop on Hidden Passage. Things were looking familiar with the hike we did a few years ago. Greg finding the sign showing our mistake came heading back and pointed us in the right direction. He then went back to the park rangers’ house and caught a ride, while the rest of us that were further behind, found the intersection and made it to the truck about the same time. We got in 10.3 miles today.

We headed back to Big South and retrieved our cars. They have a restroom there that we could change into dry clothes. Luckily there wasn’t any hot water. We were making fun of how we had been out in the cold for the last five days and now in a mater of minutes we became sissy’s complaining of the cold.

This was a beautiful trail and our thanks to the fine folks of Big South and Pickett for the trail.

Pictures

Fort Henry Trail

2009-01-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

Fort Henry N/S Connector Trail ...3.4...........Outcasts Total..422.3
Telegraph Trail..............3.9
Trip to road............6
Day one total........7.9

Volunteer Trail........2.2
Artillery Trail.......7
Peytona Trail......1.3
Telegraph Trail....2.3
Extra.............2
Day two total.........13
Total............20.9

This hike we had Marco, Troy, Raleigh and myself. We met up at the South Welcome Station at Land between the Lakes. We got on the trail at 11:30 after a small communication problem.

It was a good day for hiking even though it never reached the forties that the weathermen convinced us it would.

Once again with hiking this area, you want both the hiking and the hunting maps so you will know where you are. Some of the springs on this section are not marked either. We wondered off the trail twice. Once at the 230 crossing and once at the 230 crossing that we weren't suppose to take. You can walk by the cutoff trails rather easy and when they don't mark the trail it is usually at intersections. You might take note that we did this on purpose to teach Raleigh the art of finding one's location when separated from the trail.

We did get the chance to see some deer but not alot of wildlife. We did not make are planned camp at Infantry Pass as we were running out of daylight. So instead we made camp where Telegraph and Volunteer trails come together. We had a good water source and firewood.

We got camp set up, water gathered, and the fire started. Sometime after dinner while sitting around the fire, Marco said that he saw a light out in the woods. When I finally saw what he was talking about, I thought it looked more like a camp fire. Shortly there after it raised high enough that we all agreed that it was the moon. It takes alot to fool us.

We had a clear sky all night with the full moon. Luckily mother nature had pity on us and stopped the temperature drop at 20 degrees. We all slept well with no interruptions.

It took a little longer than planned to get on the trail this morning. Warming around the fire might have been the reason. We got on the trail at 9:20. We had to make up 2.2 miles today. Once again we showed Raleigh how to get back on the trail at number 17. I think that he is catching on now. It is good that we take time out to trail the new members.

Troy was quite impressed by the fact that not only did I start the hike going uphill from the truck, but I also managed to finish the hike going uphill to the truck. The things I do to make everyone comfortable is amazing.

This was a good easy trail with mild hills.

Pictures

Virgin Falls

2008-12-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

Virgin Falls Trail……4.5 .................Outcasts Total 401.4
Caney Fork River Trail……1.4 Miles
Day one total……………....5.9 Miles

Virgin Falls Trail………….....3 Miles
Polly Branch Falls Trail …..1.8 Miles
Bee Branch Overlook Trail….6 Miles
Connector Trail………….…..3 Miles
Chestnut Mountain Ranch Trail..1.9 Miles
Day two total………………….7.6 Miles

Total hike…………………..13.5

It ended up just being Marco and me on the hike this time. This is the first time in the area and we wanted to check it out. If you have never been here before, there are no signs anywhere on the roads until you get to the only entrance and then there is a sign for Bridgestone/Firestone.

There were three other vehicles in the parking area for Virgin Falls Trailhead. Being a Sunday and with a prediction of 12 degrees tonight, we figured that they were weekend hikers and would be on the way out. We were wrong.

The sign states that this is a very strenuous trail. It starts off with a nice flat 1.4-mile walk through the woods. This is where we passed six hikers that were going in. There are a couple of stream crossings before you get to the first water fall, Big Branch Falls. The trail starts down hill here and will continue until you get to Big Laurel Falls.

The waterfalls were beautiful with all of the rain that we had gotten over the last two weeks. After Big Branch waterfall you come to a major water crossing that they have put up a cable to hold onto as you step across rocks. With the water being up as high as it was, we had to look for an alternative route. We found one just down stream where you have to jump to the first rock, but after that it was easy.

From here you have to option to take the loop to Martha’s Pretty Point overlook or stay on the main trail. We went to the overlook. There is a wooden set of steps to take to get up to the top of the drop off. The view was nice, but it was a foggy day.

The trail down to Laurel Falls was steep and Marco was falling everyway a man could fall and slipping the rest of the time. Laurel Falls is a beautiful falls with a large cave behind it. We stopped here and had some lunch.

From Laurel Falls to Sheep Cave Falls is a rather flat hike with a few hills. The trail is a loop trail to Sheep Cave Falls, Virgin Falls, and back. We went to the right to Sheep Cave Falls. If you take the trail up to Sheep Cave; you find that the water actually comes out of Sheep Cave to the falls. This is where we saw the other two hikers and their dog. This is also where I found that my camera batteries were going dead.

From this point we headed to Virgin Falls, which was really beautiful. There is a campsite at each of the falls on this trail. After Virgin Falls we took the trail to the Caney Fork River Trail. We got as far as Fish Hole ford when we found we had a problem with our trail plan. The Caney Fork River was up around 10 to 15 feet and around 60 foot wide. One look at the rapids and we decided against hiking any further.

We have about two hours of daylight left so we did some figuring. We could make it back to the truck about dark or stay where we were and hike out in the morning. We could then hike some more trails that afternoon. We did hike down to Davis ford down stream and with the wind picking up we decided to hike back to the Virgin Falls River campsite.

We gathered wood and set up camp. I walked back to the Caney Fork River and got water, while Marco started the fire. When I came back Marco was all frustrated and there was no fire. He said that he had got it going twice and it went out. So while he worked on his hammock, I worked on the fire. After I got it going, it just died back out. I looked at it and found the problem. Marco had read in Backpacker magazine, where you start a wet wood fire on top of a layer of wood. Well, just to be extra caution he builds up two layers of wood. Our fire would get going and then all of the ashes would fall into the basement. After we took all of the wood back off the fire we got it started again for the night.

Marco hung the thermometer on a branch and we watched the temperature drop to 18 degrees by 9:30pm. The sky was clear and we saw three different falling stars. I think
they froze and fell out of the sky. It really only got cold around the fire when the wind got gusting up. I woke up once in the night, got the fire going again hoping that there would be hot coals in the morning. I thawed out the water bucket and my platypus hoping that would last a while too. It didn’t.

My two bag sleeping method worked. I had my 25 and 45-degree Kelty Lightyear bags and I stayed warm all night. Early the next morning, I felt a bit of cold coming through the pad in my hammock and I just put my long underwear top under me and went back to sleep. When I got up I checked the thermometer and it read 5 degrees so I know that my bags are good down to that. Marco wasn’t as lucky as he said that his feet froze all night. He warmed them up by the fire and burnt his new Smartwool socks.

It got up to a balmy 18 degrees by the time we hit the trail. We hiked back to the parking lot seeing a lot of pretty ice formations on the way back. There were lots of ice cycles and around the falls it looked liked it snowed. We ate lunch at the truck and then headed out on the other side of the park. We had problems with the hoses on our platypus freezing. It helped to blow the water out after you took a drink, but still froze up. We swapped to water bottles on the second part of our hike, but now the bottle necks were freezing up.

We hiked Polly Branch Falls trail and took in a hike to the Bee Branch overlook. From there we hiked to Upper Polly Branch Falls and then took the Spur trail to Chestnut Mountain Ranch trail.

On Chestnut Mountain Ranch trail you need to keep an eye out for the little hiker dude that they mark the trail with. Twice, while talking, we ended up going back to find the trail. One time we ended up in a field by a ranch and the other time we ended up on the entrance road. We probably added a mile on our trip between our detours and the going down stream to find a place to cross on our many river crossings.

There are a lot of trails left here to hike. We will have to come back during low water and warmer weather to finish them.

Pictures

Map

Canal Loop Trail

2008-12-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

Canal Loop Trail total 18.3 Miles................Outcasts Total: 387.9 Miles
West Canal Loop Trail…………..4.9 Miles
North/South Trail…………………4 Miles
Day One total…………………….8.9 Miles
North/South Trail………………..0.5 Miles
Hike/Bike Paved Trail………….2 Miles
East Canal Loop Trail…………..6.9 Miles
Second Day total……………… 9.4 Miles

We originally had seven people planning on hiking. When we got to the trailhead we had four. The weather was questionable with rain snow mix in the forecast. Hiking today were Dad, Marco, Raleigh, and myself. Raleigh is a firefighter who has some hiking experience. He had talked about hiking with us for the last two years and we never took him serious. This time he showed up to work with a backpack. We knew he was in this time. We did a quick shake down of his pack in the bedroom at work as I worked at lowering his pack weight. By the time I was done he was crying and sniveling looking over what was left. I left him alone and a short time later he was hiking around the station with his backpack on talking about how good it felt.

We watched as the weathermen talked of the snow to come, telling the children they may not have school, and the radar showing rain. First thing in the morning, I found Marco on his computer studying the weather radar. It looked like we would have to drive through rain on the way there, but it was clear on the other side until the snow got there. A vote was taken and we headed out.

I was use to heading in through Cadiz and taking 79 into the Land Between the Lakes. As we got to the North end we saw a sign showing 8 miles to I-24. I never even thought about just coming in the north end. I got a little ribbing about that. We went to the trail access parking on 101 to catch the Canal Loop trail.

Marco impressed us with his lightweight packing technique right off the bat. He threw his pack in the back of his truck to get organized. When he picked it up there was a puddle of water in the back of the truck with a stream heading off the back. He had put his pack on the mouthpiece of his bladder and drained half of his water out on the ground. He is always thinking about lightening the load.

We got on the trail by 10:30 which was earlier than I had expected. Our goal was Brown Spring which we made by 3. It was nice hiking weather with a cold wind off the lake. Marco was worried about the hunters, which we didn’t see any while on the trail. We stopped for lunch when we found a place out of the wind. The trail has some beautiful lake views. At Twin lakes boat launch we took our group picture. There was also a grave for someone’s cat and Marco found a clam shell. There was also a nice looking sailboat that was blown up on the shore. I’m sure someone was sick. At Moss creek day-use area we found a fish by the path which looked like a bird had dropped. Marco took a pose with it for the camera.

When we got to Brown Spring we found a camper trailer by the spring trail. We decided to fill our water bags and head further down the trail to make camp. We found a spot with some downed trees to use as firewood and a bench. It started to drizzle on us as we set up camp.

After I set up my hammock, I turned and saw some hunter orange coming towards us. This was one of the hunters that were staying in the camper. He said that he had seen the tarps and wanted to see what we were doing. He couldn’t believe that we were going to stay out here all night. He wandered off shaking his head and mumbling.

By the time we got fire wood collected and water filtered, the drizzle stopped. Marco used his Backpacker magazine training to get a wet wood fire going. The only problem was that he didn’t get the memo and put the fire too far away from the tree we were going to use as a bench.

It was still early and our next excitement was time for dinner. During our story time at the campfire we had to put on our ponchos about three times because of the sleet, but never for very long. After the coyotes started howling, Raleigh felt more comfortable. I did notice a couple of items that I had taken out of his pack showed up. When I asked about it he said that he was taking baby steps.

Dad was first up in the morning. I thought that I was going to have to make the fire, when I heard the breaking of sticks. Yes, Dad was making the fire already. We had a good breakfast then had a snow flurry while we broke down camp. We got on the trail by 8:30 and headed to 110. From there we took the hike/bike paved trail back to the North welcome center. When we got there we used the bathrooms and replenished our water supply. From there we crossed the Trace and hit the East side of the Canal Loop trail.

Right before we got to Nickell Branch boat ramp, we heard a scream behind us. We turned to find a woman on a mountain bike heading at us at full speed. This got our attention and brought on some good laughs.

We stopped at boat ramp and had lunch at the picnic area. This is where we got to enjoy seeing a Bald Eagle checking out some ducks in the water. We had a good lunch and tried to lighten our loads some more. It was cold especially on the hands while we ate but there was an outhouse here. Marco wanted credit for hiking more than the trail as we did the walk to the picnic table.

After lunch we continued our hike. There are some large fields to view and then we came to the north bridge. We didn’t see any deer, but we saw a mole, squirrels, bison, cranes, ducks, a bald eagle and a dead fish.

Pictures

Marco's Pack

2008-11-15T07:26:00.000-08:00

MARCO'S PACK

PAK---------------------------------------

KELTY MORAINE 3600 PACK----------------------------- 3.8 lbs

2 LT WATERBLADDER-with water -----------------------4lb.6oz

Sleep wear------------------------------------------------------------

- SKEETER BEETER HAMMOCK--------------------------wt.1 lb 13.4.oz

SLEEPING PAD----------------------------------------------------14.0 oz

SLEEPING BAG KELTY LIGHTYEAR(DOWN) 40---------------------1 LB 12 OZ
SLEEPING BAG KELTY LIGHTYEAR(DOWN) 20---------------------2 LB 9 OZ

ULTRALIGHT TARP—with stakes------------------------------1 lb 2.8 oz

PILLOW--------------------------------------------------4.7 oz

Fleece Blanket--------------------------------10 oz

ON FEET-----------------------

TIMBERLAND BOOTS---------------wt.2 lb 8.2.oz

SOCKS-------------------------------- 2.2 OZ

ON BODY--------------------

ZIP OFF LEG PANTS--------------------------11.7 OZ

ACTIVE TEE------------------------------------------5.5 OZ

Underwear-------------------------------------------1.9 oz

GLOVES---------------------------------------------2.8 oz

LOCKBLADE KNIFE----------------------------------1.9 oz

BEERPOT,(CUP)--- ----------------------------wt.2.7-oz

REI SPOON--------------------------------------wt.0.6-oz

STOVE-POCKET ROCKET---MULTI DAYS-------------3.0 oz

1 CAN FUEL—vary--full can wt.--MULTI DAYS------6.8 oz

ALCOHOL STOVE, SHEILD, STAND--OVERNITE HIKES-----2.2 oz

1 FLEECE PULLOVER-----------------------------12.8 oz

WALMART-CROCKS---------------------------wt.8.6.oz

Skull cap---------------------------------------------2 oz

WINDBREAKER -----------------------------wt. 9.0 .oz

EXTRA PAIR SOCKS—-----------------------------2.2 oz

WICKAWAY long johns,long sleeve shirt —--12.7 oz

PLATYPUS WATERTANK-4lt..--------------------2.8.oz

Medic kit----------------------------------------------0.7 oz

MINI TOOTHBRUSH,PASTE,chapstick-----------1.0 oz

PONCHO----------------------------------------------10.8 oz

whistle,temp,compass,combo--------------------0.8 oz

Headlamp-white,red light with batteries--------2.7 oz

Therarest seat cushion--------------3 oz

GARBAGE BAG-------------------------1.8 OZ

BEAR BAG----------------------------2.5 OZ

50 FOOT KELTY ROPE--------------------1.3 OZ

TOTAL WITH OUT FOOD....430.1 oz OR 26.88 LBS

Pictures

Savage Gulf South Rim Trail

2008-11-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

Day Loop Trail……….……1.2...............Outcasts total: 369.6
South Rim Trail………… …5.8
Stagecoach Historic Trail…. 1.6
Connector Trail………………4
Day one total…………9 Miles
Day two total…………9 Miles

This hike we had a total of seven hikers, the most we have had so far. We had the usual four plus Taylor and Jason, who have hiked with us before, and one new hiker Craig. Jason brought his dog Daisy, Troy had Shadow, and Craig brought Rusty. It made for quite the crowd going down the trail. We did manage to get everyone, without much hassle, to the trailhead.

After we got everyone and all the cars written down on the permit, I heard the humming of angels and a bright glow arrived at the ranger station. YES, it was Troy with a Kroger sack full of his famous fried chicken. Tears came to my eyes and with over whelming joy, I ran over and gave my favorite hiker a big hug. This time Troy included biscuits and instant potatoes for each hiker. What a hero! The wondrous glory was passed out to each hiker and we headed down the trail.

As we arrived at the first waterfall, Savage Falls, just after you get on the South Rim trail, we noticed it was more of a water dribble. This got us thinking about the water supply at camp. There was a family there at the falls climbing all over. We continued on and checked out all of the overlooks on the way. It was overcast today so the colors where not jumping out as much as they could, but they were beautiful.

At eleven they asked me about lunch and I said I could hold off a little while since nobody else was hungry. A little while later, Troy stopped and turned to ask if I was hungry. My pack was already ripped opened and I looked like a vulture on a bad week going after my chicken. He said OK and they stopped to eat with me. We had an older couple with a dog hiking out pass us during lunch. I let them know that the dogs don’t bite, but I do if you get near my chicken.

We stopped for a break at the Stage Coach campsite. We were standing around talking when all of the sudden we heard a payphone ringing. We all looked at each other and were trying to figure this one out when Taylor finally relented and walked over to his pack and turned his phone off. We notified him that this was against policy and he came up with the weak excuse of having a pregnant wife at home.

Just after the Stage Coach campsite, I showed these younger guys how to watch the trail. With it being fall and all the leaves on the trail covering rocks and roots I was worried about them. With a quick twist of the ankle, I hit all fours. You really want to look at the trail closely to make sure you don’t miss anything. It wasn’t clumsy it was for a purpose.

Marco renamed the Stagecoach Trail as the Roll the Ankle Trail. This trail dropped down 700 feet into the Gulf. It is roadbed, but it is also covered with rolling rocks. It was a little rough on the knees and ankles. Greg tried to keep up with me here, but only managed a three-point landing on this trail.

We took a break on at the bottom of the Stagecoach trail and let the dogs run. Talk about a laugh, as they did circle after circle around us chasing each other. The two bigger dogs where running as fast as they could, and little old Daisy running after them being the only one barking provided quite the entertainment for us.

We took the Connector trail another 90-foot drop to the Sawmill campsite. Since we were the only people in the campground, we picked our site and set up camp. Jason, Taylor, and I headed out to fetch a pail of water. The sign said .3 miles to the Schwoon Spring. We followed the trail along the dry riverbed, checking every once in a while for signs of moisture between the rocks. Soon the trail crossed the riverbed and headed uphill. We did a little studying on this one and swept down the riverbed a ways to make sure that there was no water to be found. After not finding anything we started the steep climb up the wall of the Gulf. About 200-feet up the side of the Gulf was a cave that dropped down about 100 feet. Up above this cave was another opening and it dropped about 70 feet to water. With another climb up to the next level we found a place where you could climb down between the rocks about four feet and lean over the edge of a fifty foot crevasse to catch water in our containers. Luckily, I had my camera to prove this story as the guys at camp thought we were just trying to get out of gathering firewood.

We spent the evening around the fire telling lies and sipping on medication. It dropped down to 25 degrees so we got to test some of our bedding out. Greg did entertain us with the lighting of the stove with the campfire. There was a big flash as he disappeared behind the wall of flames and then he reappeared. Luckily he still had the mustache and eyebrows.

The next morning as we were warming by the morning fire, the discussion came up about the advantages of the Bivy verses anything else. Jason was making the point that he can lay in bed and start his coffee first thing in the morning. Greg perked right up and asked why he didn't just scoot his ass over and start the fire this morning.

Troy and Craig got an early start in the morning to climb the hill. The rest of us left out about 9am. The trip out was pretty uneventful. We had one lady hiker that was hiking in when we were taking a break. She asked if we were hunting or hiking. We just looked at each other. She wasn't too sure about this motley crew that she would have to go through. As she passed us we noticed that she had a stuffed turtle attached to the back of her pack. She said that it was because she was a slow hiker. Troy thought that it was an insult as we are constantly trying to lighten our packs and the professionals are bring stuffed animals with them.

Daisy didn’t like the swinging bridges at all. She provided some entertainment at the parking area when Jason hit her shock collar and she jumped hitting her head on the rear bumper of Troy’s car. She learned to listen though.

This was a good hike and for anyone that is heading down into the Gulf, I feel that the Stagecoach Historic trail is the easiest way down and up.

Pictures

Montgomery Bell III

2008-10-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

Outcasts total 351.6

Day one
Jim Bailey Trail .5
Campground Trail both ways .4
Overnight loop to Woodland Shelter 5
Bewildered 600 yards
Woodland Trail .5
Day one total 7 miles

Day two
Woodland Trail .5
Overnight loop 4
Ore Pit Trail 2500ft
Wildcat Trail 3710ft
Day two total 5.6 miles

Craig couldn't’t make this trip. He was hiking with his dad in the Smokies so he called on me to lead this. Not sure this was a good idea but the other’s seemed OK with it.

I picked up Marco at the fire hall around 7 and headed toward Nashville. We were ahead of schedule so we opted for breakfast at Waffle House. I had forgotten the directions to the park (not starting out as a good leader) but recovered nicely thanks to Google Maps on my phone. We finished up breakfast and headed to the trail head. We arrived about 9:30 and Troy was already waiting on us. He said he had gotten there 10 minutes prior so we weren’t doing too badly and Taylor was 10 minutes or so behind us. Craig called Marco while we were still at the parking lot making sure his group was going to make it without him. We assured him it would work out one way or another. I searched the ranger station which was closed looking for a sign in. Look, look…..nothing. Then Marco and Troy took a gander and still nothing. So Troy left a note with our tag numbers and away we went. Within 30 minutes I had made a wrong turn. Reviewing the map once more, we figured out where we went wrong and decided to hike the road for a couple hundred yards or so until we picked up the M Bell trail head. All was well and a fairly uneventful hike until lunch. We had stopped at the Wildcat Shelter to eat where we ran into a man, women, and dog hiking out after an overnight trip. We also found the humor of Marco texting Craig and asking if we were on the blue trail or white. And again later if we should turn right or left at the Exxon. Then Marco sent Craig a picture message of the shelter which got a quick reply of “First Shelter”. Ya think? Troy and I would have kept up the charade a bit longer before we let Craig off the hook. The game was over and so was lunch and we started out once again.

The farther we hiked along the water, the less it looked like a trial. A few more minutes and even less trail. We reviewed the map once again and saw that we should have left the shelter and hiked in the opposite direction. Strike two. Once again, we were backtracking a couple hundred yards or so until we picked up the right trail. An hour or so went by before we stopped for another break. Troy tied Shadow (his dog) to a tree and the dog begins to circle the tree. As we are getting ready to leave, I notice Troy trying to lead Shadow around the tree to untangle her. Next thing I know he has picked her up and now Troy and the dog are circling the tree.

We made the Woodland Shelter by 2….much earlier than we expected. Collected the fire wood and realized the fire ring was still hot from the hikers previous. I don’t think Taylor even struck a match to get it going. We made some coffee/tea each and were just talking when WHAM! After a few minutes of investigating we realize acorns are falling from the tree above and onto the shelter roof. Sounded like a gun going off according to Marco. Several more fell during the afternoon and we realize this is going to scare the crap out of us during the night. We each enjoyed a peaceful dinner with the recall of the 5 pound spider story from the trip before. I wasn’t there when it happened but Marco has a great recount if you missed it. My favorite part is when Craig called out “Marco..HELP ME!”

I was going to bake a brownie for dessert only to find that my large pan had a hole in 3 of the 4 corners. Not sure if the holes were a result of folding or riding in my pack all day. Since I already had the brownie mixed up, I decided to try it in my Jet Boil stove. Twenty minutes later I had successfully baked the brownie.

Just after crawling into my sleeping bag I heard a THUD! Wouldn’t find out until breakfast that it was the sound Marco’s body made as it hit the ground. It seems that his knot broke on the foot end of his hammock resulting in the brief fall and the thud as he slammed into the ground. He seemed relieved that it was the foot end and not the head that gave way.

Thirty minutes or so after crawling into my bag I am awakened by a familiar WHAM on the shelter roof. Not as startled as I thought I would be. Though I slept through, the others said they were awakened several more times during the night. I only woke again around 5:30 to find Troy poking at the fire and once more at 6:30 with Taylor stirring the fire this time. It was light out this time so I began the coffee.

Taylor asks around camp to see if anyone else heard the “Coaching” this morning. Troy agreed that he had heard something but wasn’t sure exactly what. Taylor said it sounded like a football coach in the distance yelling RUN, RUN! We finished breakfast and broke camp.

We resumed hiking at 9AM and made great time to McAdow Cabin. I suggested that we could add a few more miles onto the trip but it would require about 500-1000 feet of cross country travel. It didn’t seem too bad to me as it was only an 80 foot elevation change and would be downhill. I was quickly outvoted three to one. Marco was dead set against the cross country part, Troy needed to get out for his daughter’s ball game, and Taylor was ready to eat again. I see why Craig likes him!

We headed toward the parking lot and arrived at 11:30. After the traditional Waffle House post trip meal we called it quits. It was a great trip and I was careful not to get my third strike. Thankfully for the others, Craig will be leading the next hike at Savage Gulf.

Pictures

Long Hunter III

2008-09-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

Long Hunter.........................Trail Rating.............Outcasts Total: 339 Miles
Volunteer Trail...6.0 Miles.........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Volunteer Trail...6.0Miles..........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Total………………16.0 Miles

Once again the vote was taken and everyone voted to start out with the Long Hunter hike. It's a close and easy trail to start with when everyone is out of hiking shape. We met at the trail head and were on the trail by 10am. The whole group was together, which was the first time since the Land Between the Lakes hike last year.

There is always something different when we hike that we can laugh at. This time it was a beware of ticks sign. We have never seen that! Maybe bear, dogs, fires and stuff like that, but never ticks.

It was a beautiful day and we passed a few other folks out hiking the day loop trail. I tried to hide the sign where the trail splits at the beginning, but Greg didn't fall for it. We were planning on taking the long route anyway as I was just messing with him. The long loop goes along the shore line. We ate lunch at the map sign where the overnight loop splits off the day loop. After this time we didn't see any other hikers.

We spent most of the hike to camp just getting caught up with all of our lives. Marco I noticed, was studying the trail and off to both sides. When I asked about it, he informed me that snakes were out and that he was watching for them. I couldn't argue with him over this point so I just did the usual and watched the scenery. It was a beautiful day and the boaters were out in force. When we got to camp it was about 1:45 and there were six or seven boats out in the cove.

We set up camp and then I pulled out the old swim suit. Greg was quite surprised when he found out I was going swimming. I don't know why. Anytime there is water around, I am in it. Sometimes on purpose. I hit the water and soon afterwards so did Greg and Marco. It was refreshing and afterwards made it cool to sit at camp and get dinner going. A campfire was made, but you couldn't get near it. Too hot for that. We had some cocktails and told some lies until it was time for bed. We got a good nights sleep even though we all had to get in the bags sometime around 2am for warmth.

We got on the trail at 9am the next morning and stopped to get a picture of a rock wall that is near the camp. I don't know how long it was, but I know that it took a long time to build. This was the last time we saw Troy. He kept hiking and never stopped. He did leave us a note on the truck.

I got some pictures of the lake and the cactus that is everywhere on this hike. Marco was still studying for snakes as he stepped over a four foot rat snake. Greg was right behind him and had to call his attention to the snake. We did get a picture of this one and might have gotten some laughs.

We stopped for lunch at the same spot as on the way in and decided to take the long way out as none of us had to be home anytime soon.

I guess that once you get to know me very well you will find that I am a little terrified of spiders. It runs in my family, well at least with my brother and sisters. This might be a little frightening for some folks so beware:

I was following Greg and Marco was behind me. Greg stopped and was pulling some spider webs off him. As I was watching him, I glanced over his shoulder and there sitting on his pack was a spider that weighed in at at least five pounds. Because of the for mentioned, I did not pull out a camera so you will have to go with my version of the events.

Greg said he heard a gasp and then saw a hiking pole swinging at his head. By the look in my eyes he said that he knew it was bad and trusted me fully. I hit his pack and the spider went over the back of the pack. I yelled for him to turn around and he immediately did so. Once I saw the back of his pack I began to swing like a kid at a Pinata. Greg said that gave up hope when he heard me yell out in a school girl voice "Marco do something."

It was luck or just that plain fact that when you hit an area about a hundred times you would finally knock this spider off the pack. It just so happened that after I yelled I made the strategic blow. Don't worry, being the tuff type of man that I am, I was ok after about an hour.

The rest of the hike went pretty uneventful and we did have a great time.

Pictures

Natchez Trace Red Leaves Trail

2008-04-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Trail................................Miles......Rating.................Outcasts Total Miles:323
Red Leaves North Spur.....17.2.......Easy
Red Leaves South Loop......25.35.....Moderate
Total................................42.5

Troy and I are going to break a couple of records for him. One, we are going over 32 miles and two we are hiking over three days which is also a first. We picked the Natchez Trace State Park Red Leaves Overnight trail North and South end. The North spur is 17.2 miles. The South loop is 25.35 miles. The goal is to break 40 miles. The weather was suppose to be clear with frost the first two mornings.

We do the regular running all night at the fire hall and then head out in the morning. We made good time and got on the trail by 10 am. We had decided to do the North spur first. This left us the option to go straight to camp at 6.9 miles or do the loop first and make camp at 10.3 miles. With the early start we picked to do the loop.

One of the first things that we learned on the trail is that horse riders cannot read signs. All of the hiking trails are clearly marked with a visual sign with a picture of hikers on the top. Below this picture is a picture of a four wheeler, a picture of a bike, and a picture of horse all with a circle with a diagonal line across it over the pictures. That would be an international sign for NO! I guess that the riders leave it up to the horses, which don’t really care either. Seriously these are beautiful trails that are all churned up with horse hooves. A horse will make a mud pit. The next horse doesn’t want to walk through the mud pit so it goes around. The mud pit gets larger and larger to where the hiker has to climb through the woods to get around it.

The flowers were abundant and beautiful. You could smell them all down the trail. We got pictures of these to share with everyone.

The first mark on the trail we looked forward to was the third largest pecan tree in North America. Legend has it that the tree grew from a pecan presented to a settler by one of Andrew Jackson’s men as they returned from the Battle of New Orleans. As Troy put it “I was expecting a lot of things about this tree, and this was none of them.” The tree is rotten and has had concrete and bolts holding it together from the inside. The tree was fenced off with a sign stating this was a hazard area where the tree may fall at any time. Oh well, we got to see the legend. From here we hiked to Maple Creek Lake.

Maple Creek Lake is a beautiful small lake. As I was taking pictures of the lake, Troy was saying that it was starting to rain. It never rained hard so we never had to put on ponchos. It kept this light rain going while we hiked into camp, which was up on a hill. Right between the campfire ring and where you set up tents was a big horse pile. Troy put some branches over it to help us keep from stepping into it. It rained while we set up camp, collected firewood, and ate dinner. After that it quit and that was the last of the rain for the rest of our trip. There was a water pump at camp. Troy pumped and gave up. I pumped and got reddish brown water. Troy pumped and I pumped trying to get some clear water. I went to the lake and got water for us. We sat around the campfire and told lies until 10pm and called it a day. That night we had a proud owl that had to brag two different times. We also had a pack of coyotes doing a little celebrating.

There was no frost when we got up the next morning. We got on the trail at 8:50am and hiked back toward the parking lot. On the way up the trail the day before we came to an intersection with a cross trail with the same white marks that the Red Leaves trail was marked with. We knew by the map that we had to head east so we did. On the way back we followed the white marks in the opposite direction. The trail met up with the other trail that we were on and was marked by a small red flag hidden in the grass off the left side of the trail. I guess that we were suppose to see and understand what this flag meant so that we could stay on the right trail. We found later that this is common in this park.

We got back to the car at 1:14 took us a small break and then headed out on the South loop. The South loop has the same horse problem to work around. There was a lot of standing water on the trail. We hiked to Cub Creek Lake, which is another beautiful lake. They have a campsite here, which we had originally planed to stay at. It was still early so we continued on.

After we left Cub Creek Lake the trail ran through a swampy area all the way down to Sulphur fork of Cub Creek. This area was surely the mosquito haven for all of West Tennessee during mosquito season. As we sloshed through the muddy trail skipping between logs and grass clumps, we had to worry about ticks, chiggers, poison ivy, poison oak, anaconda, alligators, and such. On top of not being able to find the white markers as the trail crossed other trails and or disappeared all together. At one point while trying to find a marker I headed up hill out of the swamp. Troy stayed at the last marker. At the top of the hill was a two-rut road, which I followed back down the hill. I found the trail again and followed it around to Troy. On the way back I told him that we were finally getting out of the swamp. Soon the trial turned back to swamp and I didn’t recognize it as the same trail. We stopped and hiked back and found where the trail I came down met with this one. Once again you had two trails marked the same way. Well by now it was getting dark and we were trying to decide where this Sulphur fork of Cub Creek was on the map. Finally the trail came out on a gravel road and there was the bridge over Cub Creek. Next to it was the trail from the swamp that we were following earlier. We hiked back up this trail to a pine thicket and set up camp. The creek made a wonderful bath and clear water source. We scrubbed like mad and hoped we weren’t broke out by morning.

We figured that we made 13.5 miles today. The campfire didn’t last as long tonight and we got in a good nights sleep.

I woke to the sound of a woodpecker wearing out a pine tree. We missed the frost again this morning. Got up made breakfast and hit the trail by 9:40. We are back up on dry land. It got pretty warm hiking and there was one time that the buzzards were circling overhead. Not sure what that meant, but we figured it wasn’t good. It was another day of searching for the trail numerous times. We did sneak up on a wild turkey.

We made Pin Oak Lake by 1:35 and ten minutes later was at the Pin Oak Lake campsite. This is a very beautiful campsite on the lake. Pin Oak Lake is a very large lake and a good swimming location. We stayed here about an hour and then headed for Browns Creek Lake that was our planned campsite. On this side of the park they used arrows on the trees to help locate the trail. This came in very handy with navigating.

When we signed in at the Park office the man there told us that they had done some maintenance on the trails and built some new bridges. By now we understood the government contract: They were allotted so much money. The engineer designed a bridge made of ten foot two by sixes and deck planks. They only had enough to make an allotted number of these bridges and they had to use these bridges only to replace broken bridges if they fit or not. They were not allowed to use any of these bridges to go in places that required a bridge where there was not already a bridge. Yea, that is how it went.

We made it to Browns Creek Lake, which was 10.5 miles for today. Troy took a nap and I went down to the lake to catch the sunset and chase water snakes. We made our campfire and called it an early night. Troy wanted to get an early start in the morning.

We got up at 5:30 and were on the trail by 6.30. Only 8.25 Miles to go today. We had quite a few stream crossings and some of the larger hills to navigate. Once again the weather was wonderful and we had a good hike back to the cars. We got off the trail at 2:30 and headed home.

As you can tell, I got a new camera and the dates on the pictures are wrong.

Pictures

Fall Creek Falls - Lower Loop Trail

2008-03-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

Trail.........................Miles.............Rating............Outcasts Total: 280.5 Miles
Lower Loop Trail.......12 Miles.......Easy / Difficult

Wow, what wonderful weather for hiking. Troy, Marco, and I hit the trail after a six week break. We were needing the outdoors pretty bad. We got on the trail at 11:00am and headed up the east side of the gulf. As I mentioned earlier Troy has attempted this trip twice and due to bad planning and drought conditions, has yet to make it through the gulf.

You start at the trail head and then hike a portion of the paw paw trail to the overnight loop. We planned on making it to campsite #2 for the night. This would get us halfway around the loop and getting the gulf over the first day.

When we signed in the ranger notified us that the boy scouts were staying at our campsite. Well, this is nothing new to us. There were three good water sources before we hit Pine Creek which the ranger said that we would have to carry water from there up to the campsite. This is always the case as well. On the highest climb we like to add water and a lot of it.

We stopped at campsite one for lunch, which is next to a nice creek. From there we headed into the gulf which is a 700 foot drop. Here the flowers were beautiful and plentiful. We stopped at the river for a rest and to gather our extra water. After we built up our strength we headed up to the campsite. The climb was very strenuous and I would rate it difficult to the average hiker and us. The West side is alot steeper than the East if you are making plans to hike. Of course when you reach the top you will hear the sounds of running water as a stream runs near the trail. They didn't rub it in by making us walk through it. We couldn't see the stream but you could hear that it was running well.

Just past the rim of the gulf is the campsite. You can hear boy scouts as soon as you can get away from the sound of water. We came into camp at 3:50pm and the scout leader said that we could share a site with them. We found a site down the road a piece. The scouts had come in the opposite direction and after our discription of the gulf he wasn't sure if they were ready.

They have a men and women bath house next to each other with a tree laid down across the doors. There is a separate out house nearby. If you walk down the service road a short distance there is another site and that is where we stayed.

We were not used to the sun staying up so late. We had plenty of camp time to bond. Marco entertained us once again with kicking over his hot chocolate and stepping in the dogs water dish. We enjoyed the campfire until 10:00pm and called it a night.

I had gotten up Saturday morning completely clogged up and thought it was allergies. I had taken some meds but had felt achy all day as we hiked. Well, I woke up in the middle of the night freezing. I pulled up the old bag and fell back to sleep. I woke up later burning up. Then I woke up and headed straight for the nearest tree. I have always carried diarrhea medicine and now it was going to pay off. A few trips later and I was hoping it was going to kick in soon. Well the next time I woke up my stomach was rolling. I sat up and ran for the open running from both ends. Well, for all of those LIGHTWEIGHT backpackers that count the sheets of toilet paper. THIS WHY YOU TAKE A WHOLE ROLL! IT DOESN'T WEIGHT THAT MUCH!

Troy was going to sleep in this morning, but was up by this time because his dog was not interested in sleeping in. This is vacation! I sat with him as he started the fire and then I headed back to bed. Troy woke me up to check on me. He had already broken camp and Marco was working on his. Let's start the day. We got on the trail at 8:30am.

The trail on this side of the gulf has all of the water falls and swinging bridges. The trail goes by the nature center and then you follow the paw paw trail back to the trail head. Beautiful sites and as we got near the nature center we started to see plenty of people. It was a great day for everyone to be out. We got back to the car at 12:50.

Marco drove me home so I got some rest on the way home. I called my wife and she notified me that my grandchildren had not been suffering from the shots they got from the doctor. They had stayed with us Friday night because of that. My daughter was now sick as well as my grandson. So as the boy scouts say "Always be prepared!

Pictures

Fall Creek Falls Lower Loop

2008-03-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

We had to cancel today's hike to Fall Creek Falls Lower Loop due to the rain deciding to stay around all day and in the morning as well. Troy and I were the only ones that were going to make it due to everyone else being busy. It is disheartening because we really like to get out and were really looking forward to this trip. I have not been on this trail, but Troy had started it one time before with his brother and had to cancel because of lack of water. We will push this hike back to the next planned weekend.

Troy's Pack

2008-03-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Troy's Pack

Land Between the Lakes, South end

2008-03-09T12:24:00.001-07:00

Trail...............,,....Miles..........Rating................Outcasts Total: 268.5
North/South Trail...29.7.........Easy
Day One..............1.5
Day Two.............12
Day Three...........11.2
Day Four.............5

Marco, Troy, and Craig made this trip. We got off work Wednesday morning. I had a class in Nashville and wouldn't be able to make it to the Park before 8:00pm. Troy and Marco headed out that afternoon and set up camp about a half mile down the trail from the Golden Pond visitor center. Marco had taken my hammock and tarp and set them up for me as well. I called them when I got in the area and they met me at the car. We took Troy's car down and left it at the South visitor station then took my truck back up North. If you ever drive down the Trace at night, the entire length is covered with deer. Be careful as someone had hit one this night.

The original plan was to have Marco stay with the fire and Troy and I would move cars. Marco wasn't going with that. He wasn't going to be left in camp by himself for a couple of hours. We hiked in, got the fire started, and settled down for the evening. This was suppose to be the warmest of the nights on the trail.

We got on the trail Thursday morning at 8am. The weather was cool so no shorts or tee shirts today. Most of the North/South trail on the southern end is old road bed. They had gotten a lot of rain recently so water and mud was plentiful. Just out of camp was our first water crossing. We had joked back and forth about the weather and one of the things that we figured out was that the weathermen watch this blog. When we are hiking they just throw up their hands and give up. Can't predict the weather when we are on the trail. We pack for everything and got to use it.

We made it to North of the Walker Line trail where the trace meets the trail at lunch time. About 2:30pm we passed the Cedar Pond area. I couldn't remember there being any water after the trail crosses the Trace so we stopped at the last water source shown on the map. Whenever you hike the Land Between the Lakes, make sure you take two maps. You want the Hike & Bike Trail Map and the USDA Public Access Roads and Hunt Area map. Between the two you can figure out what's going on and where you are located. Well anyway, Marco was having some feet problems and we told him to let us know when he had enough and we would stop for camp. He was now carrying about six liters, I was carrying about seven, and Troy had a gallon jug plus. Well we crossed the trace and stopped just before the wind damaged section of the trail. Marco said keep going. We went through the wind damage and Marco said keep going. We finally made camp at the hill before the Prospector's place which had a spring. We had carried our water about three miles.

Tonight the wood was drier so the fire got going alot better. Marco ate and went to bed. Troy and I stayed up telling lies for most the night. Some time early in the morning we got a little sleet.

Got on the trail Friday morning at 9am. We had a lot of laughs as we passed the Prospector's Place and spring. We decided for now on we will send a scout out when we stop to make camp. There is always water just past where we set up at. We stopped at road 211 and Marco wanted to do a group shot. He set up the camera and it flashed. When he got back to the camera to check the picture he said that he wasn't in the picture. There was just a space were he was. Then it dawned on him that the picture was gone and it was showing Troy and I waiting there for him. We might of had to laugh for a while on that one. The last water crossing on the South end of the North/South trial was just past the road.

We stopped at Iron Mountain Camp for lunch. There is a ranger building and fire tower here with a water hydrant which they advertise on a sign. It just happen not to be turned on today. It started to sleet so we sat in the shelter for lunch. Their shelters are half a culvert with plywood on the back and gravel on the ground. This is where Troy tested the half size zip lock bag to cook in. Not good! After he poured his hot water in the bag he zipped the lock and all of his food went out the end of the bag. Note to everyone, when you do zip lock cooking, make sure you have a freezer bag.

Since the sleet didn't let up I checked the radar and it showed snow was coming and a major storm at the bottom. I also received a text from Jason saying they were expecting around six inches. Troy made the suggestion of staying at the shelter until the storm came through. I told Troy, the major storm was two states away. Troy said there was no way a storm could make it to us when it was two states away was there? I told him how real men do it and off we went.

We had to put on poncho's before we got to Brier Rose Branch Spring where we filled up with water. The sleet was heavier and soon the snow began. We pushed on until we were about five miles from the car and it was 3:30pm. We set up camp in a pine thicket and quickly collected fire wood while we could still see it. By the time we got the fire going well the snow was just soaking us. We gave up and went under tarp. It was a wet sticky snow which we had to hit the side of our tarps to get it to fall off. This became a ritual that lasted all night long. We cooked our dinners and yelled back and forth to each other. There was phone service here and everyone got told how stupid we were. Nothing that we haven't heard before.

That night I got the system down with every time I rolled over, I would reach up and bang my tarp. By morning the snow off my tarp reached almost to just even with my hammock on the ground. We got a good six inches of snow. Troy came over and asked what my plan was. He suggested just pack up and go. I said we should make a fire and get dried up some and eat. Everything that Troy had was soaked. I guess the mixture of snow on top, not enough ventilation, and wet clothes already added up to no good in his tent. We ate, packed up, and hit the trail by 9am.

It was beautiful hiking in the snow. A little more work and a few hidden under snow lakes to add to the challenge. The guys put me out front as the fall guy. I had one puddle that I stepped into that I went to looking for my floatation device. We saw lots of tracks in the snow of various critters and saw deer, squirrel, and turkeys.

After we hit the Bear Creek Loop and about a mile from the visitor station we came along a hiker that looked like he just stepped out of the hiker magazine. He was sporting name brand clothes, boots, and backpack. He had GPS, Cell phone, and number of gadgets that I am not familiar with. He stopped at the side of the trail and waited for us. We sized him up as a military man from Fort Hood. When we met I asked about him enjoying his snow hike. He said that he hasn't had the opportunity to hike in the snow and wanted to check it out. He asked if we were heading back in and I told him that we had been out for a few days and yes were heading to the car. A big surprised look came over his face as he asked again had we been out all night in the snow. Yes, we got three days of hiking in are you camping tonight? No, I'm just out for a five mile day hike. Oh, OK. We left him filling like the sissy he was.

When we got to the car it was buried in the snow. The only other car was one with Ft. Hood plates on it. We went to the visitor station which had a sign in the window stating that they would be closed Saturday due to the weather. That's what happens in the South when someone mentions snow. The Outcasts just go hiking.

This was Marco's first snow hike. He has been waiting since he heard about our snow hikes last year. This was also the groups first multi-state hike and we have completed the North/South trail. Troy says that we still have to do the whole trail in one hike. Always thinking ahead.

Pictures

Collins Gulf

2008-02-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

Trail......................Miles.........Rating................Outcasts Total:239.3
Access Trail............25...........Easy
Collins Gulf Trail....6.2........Moderate
South Rim Trail.......1.0.........Easy
Day one total.......7.5

South Rim Trail.....1.0.........Easy
Collins Gulf Trail....6.2........Moderate
Access Trail...........25...........Easy
Day two total........7.5

This time we have Troy, My Dad, Myself, and Taylor who is another firefighter who finally built up enough nerve to join us. Our original plan was to hike from the Collins West access to Savage Falls campground. We started the day with our traditional night of medical calls followed by an early morning car fire. With a good two hours of sleep I get up to find that my relief man was not here and I had to wait until they got another driver. My Dad drove over from Maryville and met us at the trailhead. Troy and I were going to meet at the Savage Ranger Station to get our permit. Well first off you may note that you can get your permit at the Collins West access, which the map says that you cannot. I learned this from the lady at the ranger station.

Well I thought that Troy was ten to fifteen minutes behind me. After signing in and waiting an additional fifteen minutes Taylor and I went to the trailhead to see if Troy had gone direct. Luckily with the connivance of cell phones....oh never mind, they don't work here. We found Dad but no Troy. So back to the Ranger station we go. Still no Troy. We head up to the nearest cell tower and got a message from Dad that Troy was now at the trailhead. So our 9:30 start turned in to a 10:30 start.

We started out by missing our turn and going through the Collins West camping area. We were amused by the sign that you had to step over in the middle of the trail stating that many Copperhead snakes have been seen here. The first mile of Collins Gulf trail takes a steep drop into the Gulf followed by a three quarter mile rock-jumping trail to the 100' swinging bridge. This is a good test of the ankles not to mention finding the trail amongst all the rock. Before the bridge we looked like a pack of wolfs devouring Troy's famous fried chicken. After the swinging bridge we take a steep climb back to the rim of the Gulf. I mean you will have to climb a rock wall to get there. At this time we decided to make the Stage Road campsite for tonight.

We all practiced our slips and trips, but my Dad took the honor of the best slide down the trail. We stopped and checked out the many overlooks and beautiful stream crossings. We finally made it to camp around 4:30.

The boy scouts had already set up camp in the large group site and there were ten other sites for us to pick from. OK, only one big enough to have a fire and a tent in. Not sure why they have such small sites, but of course number ten, which is the farthest from the spring, is the one we picked. After we got camp set up we gathered firewood and drinking water. We got a fire going, ate dinner, and told lies.

Around nine o'clock, I couldn't take it anymore and went to bed. I woke up with one side of my tarp pinned against my hammock and the other blowing like a balloon. I got up and saw Troy next to the fire which was blowing straight sideways by the wind. He notified me that it was about ten. Surely this wind would die down in a little while. Surely never showed up. We blew away all night long. Dad had one of his tarp stakes pull out of the ground. There were a lot of creaking trees, rubbing trees, banging branches, and one tree hit the ground during the night. Needless to say, not much sleeping went on.

I woke the next morning with one side of my tarp pinned against my hammock and the other blowing like a balloon. I peeked out to see everyone else had already broken down their tents. My Dad notified me that it was seven and they hadn't eaten yet. The wind had blown my water bag over so we didn't have water for breakfast. I just emptied my water bladder and figured I would fill it up on the trail. The wind blew so hard that the fire didn't even have any coal left. It was a challenge to pack up the tents and tarps as they were trying to go to Arkansas.

We got on the trail around 8:30 and stopped at the creek where the old stage road crossed to fill water bottles. Right at 10:00 the rain started and only stopped one time long enough for us to eat lunch. It didn't let us sit around afterwards either. Taylor got out in front of us and we didn't see him until we got to the cars. His poncho had ripped so he headed out without stopping. He was soaked and we found him with a fresh change of clothes standing tight up against the check in sign. He didn't get any keys from us and this was the only dry spot around.

Other than the weather, this was a great hike and would suggest it to anyone. We will have to see if we scared Taylor off or not.

Pictures

Land Between the Lakes, North end

2008-01-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

Land Between the Lakes, North end

North / South Trail………Rating…………….Miles…………Outcasts Total:224.3
Day one……………………….Easy……………………..7.2
Day Two…………………….Easy……………………11.6
Day Three……………………Easy……………………13.4
Day Four…………………….Easy…………………….2.6
Total Miles…………………………………………………..34.8

This is the first trip that all of the Outcasts made together this year. Troy, Greg, Marco and myself took time off together to make this an extended five day trip. We chose this trail because we weren't sure how many miles we would make over a five day period and this trail has a lot of roads that cross it encase we called it quits, someone gets hurt, or weather sets in. We started at the North end of the North / South trail and positioned a car at the Golden Pond visitor center. My Dad and I hiked the trail last fall so I had some idea about the terrain, water location, and what I felt that we could do as a group. When my Dad and I hike this last fall, the streams were all dry from the drought as well as most of the springs. This was not the case now.

We got off work that morning and I think everyone has some kind of errand to run before we met up and headed off. We stopped at the Cadiz exit and went into the Shell station. I was waiting for the guys to get though the line, when an elderly man came in the door and asked if I could help him. He said that he was going to St. Louis and wanted to know how to get there. I asked him which way he came from and he said Nashville. Well, I guess he screwed up in Nashville because that is where the highways divide. The cashier heard what he was saying and gave him a highway to head that way. When we left, we turned out of the drive and there was a car with Utah plates standing in the middle of the left and right turn lanes with a green light. I recognized the old man so we pulled up on the driver's side and pointed to the interstate and told him to go that way. He will never make it.

Around 11:00 we arrived at the Golden Pond visitor center where PAT tried to help us. Not the sharpest tack on the board. After he made up the other three permits on the guys it was my turn. I spelled my name out for him and when he asked if that was Murfreesboro TN or KY, I had to tell him that it was indeed the same state that the other three guys came from. The first one had my name misspelled and by the third permit printed for me I didn't even care that he misspelled Murfreesboro. He didn't have any answers for any of the guys' questions so we felt pretty good as we left. We drove around behind the visitor center and parked in the gravel parking lot. We loaded up the truck and headed north.

We finally got on the trail at 12:15. The temperature was in the 30's with a mild gale force wind blowing in from across the lake. We stopped an hour in on the trail and ate some lunch at an old house foundation. Not much wildlife out in this weather, but we did come across a dead mole which was around four inches long. The duck hunters were out in force as we heard the shooting all along the hike. One of the things I noticed was that the stream banks had rock beds. When my Dad and I hiked this trail there hadn't been any water in the streams and the beds were full of leaves. I guess when Jason hiked between these two hikes and said that all of the rivers to include the trail were full of water is when the leaves washed clear.

We made camp just past the South end of Pisgah Bay around 5:00. We had gotten a ways off the lake on purpose and Marco and I walked back to the lake to fetch two pails of water. The lake was shallow and it made water collection a challenge. We got camp made up and a fire started. This was supposed to be the coldest night calling for temps in the high 20's. Marco found a frozen salamander which he was quite proud of. We ate dinner to the sound of Coon hounds treeing a Coon. The hunter must not be very proficient at shooting as it took about twelve shots to get the Coon. After that we listened to the coyotes.

I woke up to the sound of every tree in the forest cracking. Oh, that was Troy getting the fire started. I stayed up a while after Troy went back to his tent. You could hear a Barge going down the river. Marco made the dreadful mistake of not putting any wood on the fire when he got up to use the bathroom. That is an Outcast rule. Greg had the fire going when he woke us up at 5:30. We knew that we would have to get on the trail early to make the miles that we wanted to make.

We got on the trail at 8:30. Crossing the river, which was about twenty yards from the camp, you couldn't help but notice it would have been a great water collection spot. We made Hatchery Hollow by lunch. We took an extended lunch and warmed up some soup. We did have a couple of guy's in a pickup truck stop and check on us while we ate. The 50's were never hit, but it did warm up enough to melt the trails and now we slipped through the mud. This is the mud that took our good hiking partner Greg. We were heading past Sugar Bay boat launch when Greg called it quits. After lunch he had slipped and aggravated a bad back. He was heavily chastised later for not letting us know when it happened. We hiked back to the boat launch and set up camp at the campground.

Our fire was at the camp ring, but we had to walk a ways out in the woods to put up the hammocks. Once again the coyotes entertained us with their calls. That night when we climbed in the hammocks frost had already formed on the inside of our tarps and on the sleeping bags. I guess around 2:00 I woke up with that good old cold feeling. Greg was already by the fire because his bag had failed him too. We got the fire warmed up enough to put on the long underwear while listening to the barge going down the river. Troy was the smart one and brought his 45-degree bag to slip over his winter bag. I saw the light on in his tent when I got up and by the time I came back to get my long underwear he was snoring quite loudly. Of course I would have brought mine if the weatherman had let us know. Actually the temperature was 30 when I checked. It just didn't take in the humidity.

When I couldn't stand it anymore I got up and got the fire going. After everyone got up Greg called the Ranger. We left out at 9:30 after the Ranger arrived. The Ranger took Greg to the North end and picked up the truck. He had lunch at Cracker Barrel and let us know that he would meet us at Dead Beaver Spring. We stopped for lunch at Buzzard Wing Spring and aired out our gear that was wet from frost this morning. We warmed up some water for tea. Marco decided then that he wouldn't mind being British and having tea every afternoon. Some of the biggest hills are just before Dead Beaver. We met Greg at the road where he gave us a breakfast feast, sodas, and candy bars. You should have seen old Marco get at that plate. Greg and I stood watching amazed at how he shoveled the food in. You would have thought that he hadn't eaten in a week.

After our meeting with Greg we headed out for Brush Arbor camp. After loading up with supplies, our packs weighed more now than the entire hike. This is the first place that we saw other hikers and they were day hikers. We arrived at 4:30 and ended up hiking back a half mile to water. We set up camp in a pine thicket with plenty of firewood. The storms held out until after we went to bed. Marco had a goal of finishing his hiking medicine before he went to bed and managed to tell me about fifty times that he had a buzz going. The weather was a lot warmer that evening because I was carrying Gregs bag for backup. Anyway, we all sleep well.

When I woke, I heard firewood cracking and the sound of rain on my tarp. I lifted my tarp and saw that Marco had a fire going and had gone back to bed. About the time that I got my breakfast cooked the rain had stopped and everyone came out to the fire. The rain held off until we got camp broke down and were ready to hike. Time to try out the new ponchos. It only took about 45 minutes to make the car from camp. With the rain setting in for the day we decided to call the hike over and head for the house. Congratualations to Troy and Marco for breaking their record on miles on a single hike.

Pictures

Natchez Trace State Park

2008-01-01T16:12:00.000-08:00

Trail......................................Miles.................Rating....Outcasts Total: 189.5
Red Leaves Trail North..........0.2 Miles........
Red Leaves Trail South..........8.5 Miles.........Moderate
Red Leaves Trail South..........8.5 Miles.........Moderate

This Trail turned out a little tougher than we expected. There are some major hills to climb and they told on us. We were planning on doing the total trail and ended up just making it to Browns Creek Lake.

We started off with seven people going to hike and by the time we left to head West it was Marco, Troy, and myself. It was calling for a thirty percent chance of rain and we drove through a few small rain storms on the way to the trail head. When you get off I-40, you drive straight into the park. At the Park office they have two owls and a hawk in cages there.

We had called ahead to get our permit knowing that this park is closed on the weekends. We still don't know why they close on weekends, but they do. They left us a couple of maps and our permit on the coke machine outside. Marco and I arrived about an hour before Troy, who had driven home to pick up his dog. It started raining just before Troy arrived.

After Troy arrived, we gathered our packs and headed down the trail. It didn't take long before we came to a campsite, which was our first sign that we were on the wrong trail. After a quick study on the map we headed back to the office and across the road to the other Red Leaves trail. Yes, you have two trail heads across the road from each other and both just read Red Leaves trail.

The trail cuts through the woods and across a road to start. The first thing that we noticed was that roads are not marked on the map. Neither are other cross trails. Most of the hike we never knew exactly where we were. Once again the maps are in need of some detail. Our trail started out with white marks on the tree. The next trail that joined us was an orange spot and the next blue. On the map there is one other trail that is marked but no name given on the map. The orange one left us early and the blue one stayed for quite a while. With the different logging roads and dirt roads, it would have been really easy to judge where you were if they were on the map.

Mother nature and I came to an understanding. I put my poncho on and it quit raining. I took my poncho off and it started raining again. After four or five times I understood that I was to hike in my poncho. Troy and Marco could hike without rain gear on, it was just me. OK, I will take one for the team.

When we came along a paved road, we crossed with our map to find that there would be a fire tower next to the trail. We found later that the fire tower is never visible from the trail. When the trail turned and actually crossed the paved road, we studied on the map and figured that we really didn't know where we were. Troy said that while we study, we should be standing by the road just encase a ranger was to drive by. Boy is he good. No sooner had we got positioned by the road, here comes a ranger. Unfortunately the ranger couldn't find us on the map either. That was our second opinion that the map needs to be better marked. He did say that we were close to the fire tower.

We did spook quite a few deer and remembering that this was deer season we kept an eye out for hunters as well. When we crossed a major dirt road, there was a clearing and in that clearing was a doghouse style blind with a color of orange showing. We made sure that we looked like people and headed across. By this time we were seeing that it was starting to get dark and it was looking doubtful that we would make it to camp. We started to consider just making the lake.

Darkness came upon us and still no lake to be seen. Now I was just looking for a water source to make camp. All at once the armadillos started coming out. We saw three of them within a ten minute period. That was kinda cool. Of course when you hike in the dark, that is when the trail is no longer flat and your walking around the hills sideways. It seemed like we hiked for a half an hour in the dark before we finally saw the lake. Once we saw the lake we started to look for a campsite.

It has been bugging Marco that he was not a member of our hiking club. He has felt that since he made more hikes than the other members that he had the right to become a member himself. After thinking this over, Troy came up with the deciding factor. Since it had been raining off and on and all the wood was looking wet, if Marco could get the fire started at camp, yes he could be a member of the Outcasts. Before Marco set up his hammock we had a warm fire to sit by.

We did experiment with our new Heineken Can pots and they seemed to work out well. For your drink you do not want the water at a full boil or you will burn your lips off with the can. My experimental Pepsi can stove worked as planned also. Jason had sent an experimental meal of chili for me to try. I gave it two thumbs up, but would have like to have more. We have always used the Mountain House meals, this time Marco tried a backpackers' pantry which was very good and enough for two.

After dinner we got things put up and were just about to sit by the fire and have a stress relieving drink, the rain kicked in. To our tents we went. Marco spent his first night in the Skeeter Beater hammock and like it pretty well. His tarp, which was a fly section of a tent wasn't quite wide enough but he managed it. Everyone had a peaceful night.

The next morning we got up and Marco again fell into getting the fire going. We were quite proud of Troy's dog. In one walk around the hammocks he managed to pull three tent spikes out. After finally finding them, Marco and I decided to paint our stakes florescent orange. I tried the Mountain House Eggs and Bacon and thought it was pretty good. We had breakfast and hit the trail about nine o'clock. We decided to head straight out because if we finished the loop we would be looking at fifteen miles.

Walking out we released that we didn't spend as much time hiking in the dark as we thought that we had. It took about twenty minutes to get back to where we started in the dark. Once again we kicked up some deer, but this time we didn't see any hunters.

When we crossed the paved road that we saw the ranger on, Troy said that he had had enough and wanted us to pick him up. A very wise decision to save the knees. After we left Troy is when I realised how steep the hills really were as we went down some long steep ones.

When Marco and I came across Club creek lake, we had noticed that it looked frozen. We noticed this on the way in, but were surprised that it would still be frozen. Marco threw a log at it and the log never broke through. It just slid out across the lake. We stopped at the creek there and filtered us some water. We saw some people out hiking on the trail here and also passed a couple as we were coming out the Red Leaves Trail.

After we got back to the car, we went up to the office and there were some park maps there that showed where the fire tower was. It didn't take us long to find Troy. It was another good hike and we are looking forward to coming back here to hike some more.

Pictures

Natchez Trace Trip

2007-12-15T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is the first trip that our group has cancelled due to weather. I guess that we have been pretty lucky over the last year and a half. There have been a few trips that people have thought that we are not quite right for going, but we have never cancelled before.

We studied on the weather all the day before and even suggested that the weathermen were wrong. Not that it has ever happened before. So when we got up this morning we stared longingly at the radar screen. We studied hard and we studied thoroughly. We figured in the wind and time factor. Well since the West side of the state was covered in green and it was not hardly moving, it was pretty obvious that yes, it was going to rain for sure all day and night long. It wasn't easy as we hung our heads listening to the comments from those that have never step foot on a trail before in their lives. You have to know firefighters. We harassed everyone for everything no matter what we know about the subject. We called it a day and pushed all of our hikes back three weeks.

We were going to have a full crew this time. Greg and his boys, Troy, Marco, Me and a new guy at the fire hall, Lassiter.

Greg's Pack

2007-12-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

Greg's Pack

Nathan Bedford State Park

2007-11-18T18:49:00.000-08:00

Nathan Bedford State Park
November 2007

Trail....................Rated..............Miles...........................Outcasts Total:180.8
20 Mile Trail........Moderate..........16.5

On this trip, we had in attendance: Jason, Marco, and Craig. Greg had to spend quality time with his significant other, in other words shopping, and Troy had a two-day remodeling job that he should finish up sometime before the New Year. We are rating this trail as moderate because of the rather steep hills which they didn't waste a lot of space with switchbacks. Basically when they came to a hill they just popped a chalk line and went with it. The trails were covered with loose rocks, which would roll an ankle pretty quick. I would guess that about half of the trail was old roadbed.

We started out from Jason's house and it took about two and a half hours to get to the trailhead. The trip there was pretty much uneventful with just good company. When we got there we went to the park office and got signed in. This took a little while because they were busy with cabin renters. Here they handed us a new hand drawn trail map with color-highlighted trails. No distance was put on the map other than the trail names. With a string and figuring from a three-mile trail and five-mile trail, I came up with an estimated length for the mile. The map was drawn pretty much to scale so we have to give that to them. They also notified us that the Boy Scouts were hiking the same trail and there was about twelve of them. From the office, you go to the highest point of the park to the trailhead. It was hard trying to get Marco to believe that we wouldn't have to hike uphill to get back to the Jeep.

We made it from the highest point in the park to the bottom before a chocolate lab joined us. He came running straight down the hill and headed straight for Daisy. We were not sure how this was going to turn out, but the dog was just interested in playing and going hiking with us. No matter how we tried to run him off he kept following us. I was thinking that Jason was just going to have to carry Daisy all the way to camp. After a couple of miles we came across some duck hunters taking their boats out of the river and pawned the old dog off on them.

It was exciting to see water in the creeks. Yes, we actually had water crossings that were wet this year. The trail snakes back and forth between the hills and lake and then does one of those straight up things to the first shelter. The shelters here were built by the Boy Scouts and were basically an open front box. We stopped for a lunch break here and then headed out. Here the trail followed an old roadbed all the way to the next shelter, which was about seven miles from the trailhead. We originally talked of staying at this shelter, but with the Boy Scouts coming we figured that we would go a little further. On top of that, none of the shelters were anywhere close to a water source. We figured that we would hike down to the river and make camp there. We hiked further toward the river, but we never lost any elevation. It kinda made me wonder if we were going to be about three hundred feet above the river when the trail turned to go along it. Right at the river was a bluff with a few buildings on it. One looked as though it was a camp chow hall and the other buildings looked like councilor houses. They were all made of block with the wooden roofs falling in. We did a little exploring here and then took the trail, which did a steep drop to the river. We decided to hike along the river to the next stream that fed it and camp there.

We found a spot not far from the big river and close to a feeder stream to make camp. It was about eight and a half miles from the trailhead. There were lots of fallen trees to get firewood from and a couple of large logs to use as seats. We set into making camp, gathering wood, fetching water, and getting the fire started. Life was looking good. After everything was set up we got dinner going. Jason was trying some homemade spaghetti that he had dehydrated and was quite pleased with the results. As the food was cooking in the bag, Marco was tending to the fire. We heard a great pop as Marco stood on his dinner. It was pretty impressive, as you would think that something would be left in the bag. When it popped the entire dinner launched through the air. It looked like someone had wiped the inside of his bag with a rag. We got some pictures as Marco was collecting his food from the leaves. After partaking in some drinks for medical reasons, the rain started coming down. We decided that it was bedtime and everyone climbed in the sack. The rain continued through most of the night. Somehow Marco managed to keep the fire going all night. I got up at some point and figured it was morning as my tarp was completely lit up. When I got up a found that the full moon had lit up the woods. OK, so I went back to bed. In the morning we tried out Jason's homemade granola and Raspberry breakfast, which turned out really well. Jason has this really cool platypus bladder with a Velcro top on it. It comes in really handy as you can just scoop up the water and filter it back at camp in a comfortable position. Well, Marco proudly said that he would go get some the water this morning and off he went. I was wondering if something had happened to him as he was gone quite a while. Finally he showed back up and with some laughter he explained that he was trying to fill up the platypus through the little round hole that is used to pour the water out if you needed to. After about four attempts he finally found the Velcro top and things went better after that.

We started out our hike this morning with a climb that my Dad would be proud of. After we recovered from the straight up start, it turned into an old roadbed. The trail cuts back by the second shelter and there was sign that the Boy scouts had actually made it there that night. We knew that it was going to rain, but we thought we had a while longer than we did. We got the raingear on and started thinking about an out that we could take. We caught up with the Boy scouts where the five-mile trail connects with the twenty-mile trail. The Scoutmaster said that the guys had been complaining about the rain since last night. They were going straight out using the five-mile trail. We let them head out and had a snack in the rain. A vote was taken and we decided to follow the Boy scouts out. When we got back to the parking lot we did a tour of the museum they have.

Now it is Waffle house time. Jason did the GPS thing and found the nearest one, but you know us. We knew that there was one closer and preceded to search. We did find one, but it was further than the GPS one. I'll figure this high-tech stuff some day. So we took the twenty-mile trail, but only got sixteen and a half miles. Only us!

Pictures

Pickett State Park

2007-11-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

Trail.............................Rating.........Miles...........Outcasts Total 164.3
Natural Bridge Trail.........Easy..........1.1
Hazard Cave Trail............Easy..........0.4
Lakeview Trail.................Easy..........0.8
Back to Ranger Station.....Easy..........0.8
Hidden Passage Trail.......Moderate....4.4
Double Falls Trail............Difficult.....0.7
First Day..........................................8.2
Double Falls Trail...........Difficult.....0.7
Hidden Passage Trail......Moderate....0.6
Rock Creek Trail.............Difficult.....2.6
Road Walk......................Difficult.....1.8
Second Day......................................5.7
Total..............................................13.9

This trip we had in attendance Craig, Marco, Greg, Nathan, Chase, and Jason (My neighbor). Troy bailed out at the last minute due to knee problems. Greg brought his two dogs Duke and Anna. Jason brought his dog Daisy. This is the first time that Jason has hiked with the Outcasts, but he is an experienced hiker. I never checked into the exact distance that we would be traveling to get to the park. I estimated about and hour and a half due to seeing the sign for the park just past Cookville the last time I took I-40. Right before we left, Jason notified me that it was closer to three hours and we have to go though Crossville. Close enough.

Well we didn't run into anything exciting until we got about five miles into our trip. A deer came out a driveway and run out in front of us. Luckily we all got stopped before we hit the deer and the only damage was to our pace makers. After we got those reset off we go. The guys put me in charge of the maps for this trip and as usual I was misunderstood. We stopped at our exit for cigarettes and drinks. When we headed north I told them we had to go 33 miles to the next road change. Well somehow it came out 3.3 miles and everyone was wondering, except me, when we were going to come across this road. I might have gotten a little harassed about that one. I told them to listen to what I think and not what I say.

When we did get to the park Greg pointed out the Bear proof trashcans. I didn’t even think about being in bear country and the guys were not impressed. There was a sign for them to read all about how to handle bear. This is one reason that nobody wants to hike in the Smoky Mountains with me. The Ranger Station was closed and they left a note on the door stating, “out to lunch”. On the signboard was two numbers to get a hold of the Ranger, a home number and a cell number. I called both to find out when they would be back and of course nobody answered either number. We decided to start our day hike and then check back on our way to the campsite.

We took the Natural Bridge trail to the Hazard Cave trail and looped around on the Lake View trail back to the campground and back to the Ranger Station. We had just started on the trail when Chase did a fancy tuck and roll over a root and laid out on his back. Well we knew right then who was going for the graceful trophy. The trail took us over the Natural Bridge and then down under it. We got some pictures taken, as this was an impressive structure. Then we head out to Hazard Cave, which was a large cave carved from sand stone. This area had a lot of these caves and we checked them all out. As I sat eating a sandwich, I noticed that someone had carved a girls name and his on the top of the cave toward the entrance. This was rather impressive as there was no way of getting up there. Then as we were climbing around outside the cave Nathan and I found the path up to the top, which had a hole in which you could climb through and end up where the carving was. The other guys were quite surprised to see Nathan stick his head out and yell to them. After that the trail headed through a lot of Rodadimdrim bushes and dry creek beds back to the picnic area. When we got back to the Ranger Station there were three ladies in there all eager to help us out. We got registered and then drove down to the Hidden Passage Trail Head parking area.

We stopped on the road there to wait on a car that was pulling out. It took about fifteen minutes for the old man to get his car turned and out to the road. It was an old man with the mouth wide open. We were hoping that he would live long enough to make it to the road. We pulled in and packed up for the hike. This trailhead is also the start of the Sheltowee Trail, which runs up 260 miles through Kentucky. We hiked to the Double Falls trail and then on to the Double Falls campsite. The trails were very narrow with overgrowth and a few places we knew when they made these trails that they used Donkey’s due to how close they were to the edge of the drop off. The guys were worried about making to camp before dark. I didn’t want to tell them that I didn’t have a trail description and was guessing on the miles. I didn’t even figure on how long the day hike was going to take. Not much information about this park was available on the Internet. We did come across a sign that was broken off and laying on its side saying that the Double Falls Trail was a mile and a quarter ahead. That was a long mile and a quarter. The other sign that was helpful was the one pointing out the power lines. Not much use for us. On the way Jason pulled out the old GPS and was going to lay out some high tech information. Well we didn’t get too impressed as the Double Falls location that he put in was definitely the wrong one and then it didn’t make any difference where we were on the trail we were always a mile and half from the cars. With my old fashion map reading skills I got us to the campsite and pretty close to the time we thought.

As the rest of the guys started making camp, Jason and I went on to collect the water. When we had entered this valley, you could hear the roar of a fast moving river. Now we were standing on an extremely dry riverbed wondering where the water was. We walked down toward where we thought the falls were and found nothing. Finally we got back on the trail and followed it about a quarter mile down to the fall. There was a little trickle coming over the rocks and a large area where there had been water at one time. Unfortunately you could not get to either because of the rocks. Finally Jason did some professional rock climbing to get to a pool of water and handed the water back down to me. We got back to camp and set up our sleeping quarters as Greg started the campfire. It was kind of odd that the only dry wood was in the riverbed.

As we set by the fire drinking Marco’s Margaritas and smoking Moonlight ecstasy cigars I pumped the water that we had collected through my filter. Or at least I tried to. My filter pump quit working and was squirting through the bypass, which kind of anode Greg and Chase as the water would squirt on them. They kept giving me dirty looks for some reason. Jason of course pulled out the old I pod and showed us that he had a movie we could watch. Anyway it was time to put out the old bear bag. I had a single strand parachute cord and a couple of Kroger bags. Wasn’t really thinking about bear on this trip. Jason volunteered to climb up a tree to feed the rope over the branch. So he puts the rope in his teeth and begins to climb. After a couple of seconds Greg starts doing the pee pee dance. Well, the rope was wrapped around Greg’s feet so Greg was dancing trying to get out and Jason’s head was bobbing like a bobble dog in a window as the rope was in his teeth and his arms wrapped around the tree. I was of course crying and rolling on the ground, which didn’t really help at all. Finally Greg got out and the rope was in place so we hoisted the food up and all was well.

The temperature was dropping and Jason went to get his thermometer. We were all surprised when he came back with just a plain old thermometer. We were expecting something that lit up and talked or at least digital. Looks like somewhere below freezing tonight. I don’t know if Marco’s head hit the pillow good before he started snoring. Other than Marco snoring and Duke walking back and forth that was all that was heard most of the night. Not even a siren in the distance. I did get up around two thirty for a bathroom break and made a little or maybe a lot of noise getting the fire started again. Nathan got up thinking that it was morning and visited with me for a little bit before I told him that I was going back to bed.

The next morning Jason told us that he had forgotten his trail mix and was using it as a pillow when he remembered it. The morning was mainly kicking back and watching the dogs play. Daisy and Anna looked like the cartoon Butch and Spike. Anna was walking around and Daisy was a running circle around her saying “What are we going to do now Spike?” We tried to get a picture of Daisy and Duke who looked like Samson and Goliath, an albino bear and a poodle. After exploring a little bit, we found that the river ran to about fifty foot of the camp and then went underground. Right across the riverbed from the camp the water from the waterfall came right to the riverbed and then went underground. It might have saved us a lot of work if we would have found this the night before. As we packed up it sounded like it was raining with the frost melting off the trees.

We took the steep climb out of camp and then continued the Hidden Passage trail to the Thompson Overlook. We had a beautiful view from here and took some pictures. From here we went to the Rock Creek trailhead and took Rock Creek to the Railroad Tunnel. While on the goat trail overlooking the canyon the boys met what they thought might be a bear, but ended up being some other hikers with a hound. The hound sounded off when he met Duke, one of those “You might win, but you will know that I was there” type of things. The poor dog was trapped between Duke and a drop off. Rock Creek trail is more of a rock face trail. It is a very challenging trial with a few straight down parts of the trail. Once you got down it followed an old rail bed along a river. Not a very well marked trail, as Greg picked up a sign that said, “trail” off the ground and held it up for us. The trail finally ended up going through an old train tunnel. Here Nathan showed us the slow motion logroll as he didn’t quite make it up the slope. After passing through the tunnel there is a swinging bridge with one cable broke so it was sloping steeply to the left. We started with the lightest first and took it one person or dog at a time until everyone made it safely across. On the other side of the bridge was a sign saying the Hidden Passage trail was through the tunnel. Of course this could not be right, as we had just come that way. This is where the mistake was made. The trail actually went over the tunnel not through it. We ended up following the John Mir trail back to Hwy 154 which was a little out of the way.

Once we found out that we were on the other trail and came across the sign showing hwy 154, we came across a side path that was unmarked. Out came the GPS, a little measuring on the map and a lot of figuring, and yes we had a short cut. Jason and I were the only ones willing to try it so off we went and found ourselves in a campsite. I called everyone else back because I thought it was the group campsite on the Hidden Passage trail. I was wrong and there was no more trail to follow so back to the John Mir and out to the Highway. We had a little over a mile of highway walking which of course was a gentle slope straight up to get back to the cars. We passed a sign, which said to watch out for falling branches and trees on the road. About two steps past the sign, a big branch fell right in front of Nathan and I. I told him that was why they put those signs up.

When we got back to the trailhead, the people with the hound were there and had sent a couple of guys to pick up the other vehicle they had to drop at the other trailhead. We went for the traditional Waffle House meal after the hike. Greg thought that he had seen a Waffle House between I- 40 and the park, which we verified, with a big NO. There was one that we all had seen on I-40 and there we celebrated another wonderful trip.

Pictures:

Long Hunter II

2007-10-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

October 2007
Long Hunter.........................Trail Rating.............Outcasts Total: 150.4 Miles
Volunteer Trail...6.0 Miles.........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Volunteer Trail...6.0Miles..........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Total………………16.0 Miles

The Outcasts decided to start out the hiking year with an easier trail that we had already checked out. We took a vote and Long Hunter won. We had a couple of guests on this hike. My Dad and a fellow firefighter joined us. This would be Marco's first backpacking trip. He might have had a couple of questions, a few doubts, and definitely a few concerns. Basically he called me every day for the three weeks before the hike. He did take the hike serious and broke out the scale to weigh everything that he had. After we were misled by Marco about the conditions of the water in the lake, we carried all the water that we would need. So after adding food and water, he came up with 30lbs for his first hike.

The weatherman said that we would be having some cold weather coming in so we packed a little extra warm stuff. With the history of our hikes, cold is not a surprise. As it turned out the weatherman, surprisingly enough was wrong and it never did cool off. It was beautiful hiking weather and we really enjoyed getting out. My Dad came in the night before.

Troy and I wanted to keep with the tradition of staying up all the night before the hike making fire calls. We got off work and headed to the trail. Troy went home and picked up his dog. I went home and picked up my Dad. Marco went home with me just encase he came up with some more questions. Greg went to pick up his son, but as some of us know teenagers have a way of making life difficult. I got a call later saying that neither of them would be joining us today on the hike due to disciplinary problems. Been there, done that!

We signed up at the ranger station and met Troy at the trail-head. The dog and four of us headed out. The hike in went pretty much uneventful. We met a lot of dog walkers on the Day Loop, but had the Volunteer Trail all to ourselves. There were five other hikers that came in later that evening and took the other campsite. We never saw or heard from them after they went by our camp. After we soaked our feet in the lake, we set up camp. Marco got a chance to check out the hammocks. I found me a flat rock by the lake and took a little nap. When I got up I found that Troy had followed suit in his tent.

We had our dinner, which was made up of some experimental meals. Everything turned out OK and we all got full belles. When darkness caught up we got the campfire going and sat around and told lies. I called it an early evening and Marco said that I didn't have any problem getting to sleep. He said that my tarp was going up and down with my snoring. He was quite glad that I wear a breathing machine at work.

The next day on the way out we got to see a Black snake and Box turtle. Being the one to start all of this lightweight backpacking, We were quite amused that after hearing something hitting my plastic bottle in my pack pocket, I found a railroad spike that I had picked up in the Smokey Mountains last July and never took out of my pack. Actually I was trying to show everyone how tuff I was and threw in a little iron.

After all of the complaining about everyone walking too fast at work when we exercise, Marco took the lead and left everyone behind. I was expecting him to want to skip the extra couple of miles on the way out, but when it came time to pick the way when the trail split, he was all for the long way out. Marco has been back into gear talk since we got off the trail so I think that he may actually join us again. We had a wonderful hike, but missed our partner Greg.

Craig's Pack

2007-07-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

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Pictures

Savage Gulf to Hobbs Cabin II

2007-05-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

May 2007
Savage Gulf to Hobbs Cabin II..... Trail Rating........Outcasts Total: Miles 134.4
Savage Day Loop.......4.1 Miles.......Easy
Savage Day Loop.......2.0 Miles......Easy
North Rim Trail.........0.3 Miles......Easy
North Plateau Trail....7.1 Miles......Easy
North Rim Trail.........3.5 Miles......Easy
Mountain Oak Trail...0.8 Miles......Easy
Big Tree Spur Trail...0.8 Miles.......Easy
North Plateau Trail...1.2 Miles...... Easy
North Rim Trail.......0.3 Miles.......Easy
Savage Day Loop......2.0 Miles.......Easy
Total……………….......22.1 Miles

This was a make up hike for me. Since we had a date picked that Greg couldn't make we changed the date for the Mousetail Landing Trail. No use in just throwing away the other reserved date. Troy and I made this trip.

When we got out at the ranger station I asked if Troy had decided which trail he wanted to take. Before I got it out of my mouth he informed me that we are hiking ten miles in. He had the trail figured out. The man was on a mission. He had originally thought that Hobbs cabin was a ten mile in and ten mile out trail. He had worked to get to this point and after the last hike to Hobbs Cabin he found out that it was a little short. We were going to hike twenty miles. He had his mind set. He said ten; I say thirteen and a half. I always have to raise him.

The lady at the Rangers station remembered me. She was in her usual clever state. Well we ended up doing the Day Loop as a warm up before we got serious and headed down the Plateau Trail to Hobbs Cabin. This threw off a young couple as we passed them going both ways. We passed another group of guys that were leaving and they looked like death warmed over. Troy said that they looked like they just finished the Appellation Trail in record time.

Mother Nature didn’t see us sneak in. The weather was wonderful and the sights beautiful. We jumped up some deer and seen quite the array of birds and squirrels. There was some discrepancy in the map and the number of old roads. They had labeled four of the nine roads we crossed. We finally figured out that the Old Hobbs Cabin road was the one gravel road we crossed. We sat down here and removed about twenty ticks apiece. At the start of the trail we covered ourselves with a new orange scented bug spray that Troy found. It does not bother ticks. The best that we can figure, we must have hiked through a nest of ticks. We pulled them off all the way down the trail and including in the campsite.

There were two guys staying in the cabin, one guy in a campsite, and the young couple finally showed up later. Troy started a fire as I went and collected some water. Later that evening, the same Ranger that drove me out of the woods for my family emergency last trip, showed up and we had a nice visit with him. He asked about Samantha and said that he had a mother at a church picnic whose child had a seizure. He told her that he had just been through the same thing and everything was going to be all right. We told him about some trees down and he said that he was getting a new man next week. We noticed that the spring was a lot lower on water than last time and asked the Ranger about that. He said that he never saw it dry, but if they didn’t get more rain he wasn’t sure it would last.

After a good nights sleep we got up and hung out at the camp for a while. I went and checked out the outhouse, jiggled the handle, headed back to camp and stood frozen in the entrance. There was Troy sitting by the fire petting a doe. Over his shoulder was a ten-point buck. Where was my camera? In my backpack across the campsite. I started toward my pack and the buck walked off in the woods and the doe walked to the edge of camp. When I started unzipping my pocket the doe walked off. No pictures, so you will just have to take my word for it.

We headed off taking the North Rim Trail and cutting across the Mountain Oak Trail. The Big Tree Spur Trail is a trail that the Boy Scouts made. It is worth checking out. This hike was a record-breaking trail for old Troy. He told me back in October before our hiking began that he was good for up to five miles. Well thirteen in one day is quite an accomplishment. He was even impressive at the end making the last two miles in forty minutes. Reminded me of our horses when we were heading back to the barn.

Pictures

Mousetail Landing

2007-05-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

May 2007
Mousetail Landing.......................Trail Rating.......Outcasts Total: 112.3 Miles
Road to Old Spring,
Bike Trail to Pavilion
Back to Park Office.....5.0 Miles......Moderate
Overnight Loop..........8.0 Miles......Moderate
Total………………........13.0 Miles

We have given up on anyone joining us. We have seen nothing more of Logan. The three Outcasts made this hike. Greg has a reputation to keep. He always forgets something or the other, but this time he took it to the master level. After he got to work, his wife called and asked him if he was still going hiking. He said “well ya!” Then she asked if he would be needing the backpack that he had left by the door.

We decided to add in a road hike just to bring the miles up on this one. The overnight loop is eight miles and we wanted to add just a little more than the three-mile day loop. On the way out we would either catch the day loop or hike the Lady Finger Bluff trail that we had read about.

So we started out on the road from the park office heading toward the archery range. There is one of those caution signs with the truck going down hill. They had used this sign, but put it where the truck was going almost straight up using it as a sign to warn trucks about going up this hill. Right next to this sign, in the middle of the road was a dead squirrel lying on its back. It made for a great picture opportunity. As we started up this hill we soon found out that the sign was indeed correct. It was a major hill. After you get up this hill and finally stop gasping for breath, you of course head back down hill, which leads to a picnic area. When we got to the end of the picnic area we were going to head down a bike trail that would take us back to the South side of the park.

We stopped at the last picnic pavilion to take a break. This is where we answered the question: “When a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it does it still make a noise?” Not only did it make a major racket it also got the undivided attention of three hikers. We left from there and hiked the bike trail, which was a relatively flat trail. This is where I had my sneezing attack. I couldn’t stop sneezing for anything. Why? I don’t know. Just because. So we came up on our first view of the Tennessee River. As we gazed at this view you couldn’t help but notice that on the opposite side of the river the sun was shining off an aluminum canoe. Right next to the canoe was a beautiful well-built blonde, which happened to be wearing a very small bikini. You could hear her yelling across “Hey boys, come here. I have some beer.” Troy gave me the big elbow. “Hey, that’s my fantasy.” Sorry about that, I got lost in the moment. There was a canoe with someone by it. Anyway, just before we got to the pavilion we did get to see a wild turkey cross the trail.

Now it was time to eat. A busload of school kids had just departed from the pavilion and the Ranger was getting ready to leave. He noticed our packs and said, “I think you guys might be lost”. We explained what we were doing and he said that a cleaning crew would be down to wash out the pavilion. We let him know that we would be leaving soon after we ate.

We got our lunch over, you know, fine Troy fried chicken, when the wind started to pick up. The clouds were looking a little mean and the thunder was sounding from the distance. We needed to make the decision to head out or wait the rain out. What would real men do??????? As we headed out the Ranger came back by with a hose on the top of the truck. He stopped and said, “I just found out that I was the clean up crew.” We figured…. New Man. Any way, Greg and Troy had put on their pack covers. I was the optimistic one of the bunch. I was also the wrong one of the bunch.

We got a good half-mile down the overnight trail before the rain set in. We saw a box turtle. Then the storm set in. Then the tornado set in. OK, maybe not a tornado, but the weather was wicked. Trying to remember the safety during lightning storms checklist. One, you don’t want to be in the woods. Dupe… Two, stay away from high trees.. Dupe. Seek shelter, well it’s five miles away, but we are heading that way. I found out later that Greg was thinking the same thing as I was; we need to list everyone’s name separately on the camping permit. The “what if’s” start going through your head. FLASH, BANG, Your feet have left….try to catch them. Wow, that one was close. You first notice that you are air borne when you hit the ground. Quick survey to see which tree is falling in your direction. None have fallen on you, check on your partners. It was a pretty good storm. Finally I see the shelter. Greg had already got there and had a fire going in the potbelly stove. He said that after that last lightning crash he found his feet in the shelter so he stopped. He saw a box turtle.

Talk about a nice shelter. The nicest that I have seen. Big screened in front porch, with a potbelly stove. Bunks for eight people, I guess that it is a twelve by twelve with the raised ceiling. View off the front porch looking over the Tennessee River down the bluff wall. This is labeled on the map as shelter number two. The rain slowed, but it rained on and off the rest of the night. We decided to just stay in the shelter. That night I sure missed my hammock.

We had a little trouble straightening out that next morning. We did get to hear and see the tugboat pushing the barges down the river before we lay down for the night. Seems like you can hear them forever. Surprisingly, the clothes and shoes weren’t dry by morning. The rain had stopped and after breakfast we headed out. We saw a box turtle.

The trail was a lot of ups and downs. Really nice and well marked. We came across a metal object down by the river that we could not make out. Greg and I went down to investigate. The best that we could come up with is that it was part of an old channel marker. Just inside it I saw the snakeskin. It looked like a rattler skin. As Greg bent down to look at it a stick scraped the side of his pack and he went into instant pee pee dance moves. Of course I had to immediately go into a horselaugh as he perfected the go to hell look and sent it my way.

We got back on the path and Troy had already smoked by us. We saw a box turtle. We figured that we wouldn’t see him until we got back to the truck, but we did catch up to him.

The Turkey’s revenge. I guess that Turkeys in the park know that they don’t have to worry about hunters, so they hunt the backpackers. We were climbing a steep hill and the Turkey waited until the last hiker passed him and did the old I gotta fly now routine. I was in the lead and thought that one of my partners had fallen back down the hill. The other two did the old panic routine. They didn’t know what it was, but knew that it was big. Like the pacemakers needed to be tested.

At the top of the hill was the next shelter, similar to the first. We took a break there. We saw a box turtle. The next surprise was when I was following Greg and he just walked right over a three foot black snake. Hey, hey, you can’t do that. He turned around and I pointed at the snake. Damn, I didn’t see that. Troy caught up with us. Greg took his hiking stick and poked at it to get it to run off. Troy stepped to my left by a pile of rocks when we heard the old fashion rattle sound that you hear on those old western movies. We all looked over and it was huge. The body was already headed under the rock but the three foot that was still showing was about three inches in diameter, Troy said it was four inches in diameter. It had a stack of rattles that would make my grandchildren jealous. Here we go chasing our feet again. After we regain our composer, we decided to go back and take a picture. He was gone.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful other than the Macarena, which I did on one of the slippery bridges. I think I hit every move. We saw a box turtle. When we got back to the truck we voted on eating back at the pavilion and then heading to the Lady Finger Bluff. We did one of those sink baths at the restroom so we could stand sitting next to each other.

We headed back to town where Greg stopped for a change of clothes and then we started following the signs to Lady Finger Bluff. The road started playing out from marked black top, to black top, to gravel, to dirt, and finally to the fork in the road. No sign telling us which way to go. Two trucks were coming from the left so we went right. We kept going and going until another unmarked fork in the road. We were way out in banjo country and decided to turn around. A truck was coming from the other way so I stopped and rolled down my window. He said that he could tell we were lost. He noticed my MTSU sticker and said he was from Nashville and asked if I went to MTSU. I told him that I had a daughter that started there. He said that I looked too young to have a daughter. I asked him if this was just all hunting land out here and he just laughed Heh heh. Red flags went to flying. He said that he could tell us a short cut to Lady Finger Bluff and I just said we could find our way out. Greg said that we had seen a black truck and gray truck back at the first intersection and that was probably where we got off. He said that he knew which trucks we were talking about. Another red flag waved. OK, we gotta go.

When we got back to the first fork we turned the other way and found the parking for Lady Finger Bluff. It was a desolate area out in the middle of nowhere. A vote was taken and we headed to Murfreesboro. We were not feeling all that comfortable out there. Over all we have to rate the Mouse Tail as a really nice park. The trails, because of the hills are going to be rated as Moderate.

Pictures

How it all started

2007-05-07T19:46:00.001-07:00

In the fall of the year, I was talking to my fellow firefighters about an upcoming hiking trip that I was going to take in the Smokey Mountains. As we were talking I came to find that both of them enjoyed hiking. The more we talked we found out that none of us were hiking enough for our likings. Troy has a history of knee problems and is concerned about taking on too much at one time. Greg hikes a lot like my Dad, head down full speed and trip over everything on the trail. We came together and picked a date that we could all make in October. It worked out great because I would be just coming off my Smokey Mountain trip in late September. This would be a trial trip to see one; if we could get along on the trail two; if we were combatable with our different experiences and three; if we could get something started.

As I was prepping for my Smokey Mountain trip, I was in need of a new backpack. While discussing this with Troy we entered the field of Lightweight backpacking. When you mention something to Troy and he sees the light, you had better hold on. The man can do some investigating. Not only did I end up with a new lightweight backpack, I also ended up with a new hammock and a couple of new sleeping bags. Needless to say not only does he come up with the best equipment, he also comes up with the best prices. On top of that he reduced his equipment to a weight much less than mine. Greg, unknowingly after our second trip joined us when his girlfriend got a hold of his dream list and made it come true over Christmas.

We did open up the hiking trips to anyone that would be interested in going. So far this invitation has gone unanswered. So this is how it goes:

Savage Gulf

2007-04-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

April 2007
Savage Gulf to Hobbs Cabin.............TrailRating.........OutcastsTotal:99.3Miles Savage Day Loop........2.2 Miles...........Easy
North Rim Trail.........6.3 Miles............Easy
North Rim Trail.........3.5 Miles............Easy
Mountain Oak Trail...0.8 Miles............Easy
North Plateau Trail....1.2 Miles............Easy
North Rim Trail.........0.3 Miles............Easy
Savage Day Loop.......2.0 Miles.............Easy
Total……………….......16.3 Miles

Even though we had up to about eight people saying that they were going to hike with us, when it came down to the day, it ended up being the three Outcasts and Greg's two boys. The excuse of waiting for nicer weather has run out. The weather was beautiful and we were excited about being out in the wilderness with the peace and quite…………….what are all of those cars doing here? Lot's and lots of Boy Scouts! A group of about twenty scouts were in the parking lot getting ready to head out on the trail. We headed up to the ranger station.

As we opened the door, the elderly lady, who was on the phone said, " Well I have to get off here, it's getting ugly in here." Of course we looked behind us, but we were the only one's in the office. She hung up the phone and asked in a serious face "How can I help you?" It turned out that this lady was a lot of fun with a great sense of humor. She even kept up to my remarks.

Well, we gathered the packs and headed out. The first group of scouts that we passed was the really young ones. There packs were as large as they were. They of course were heading to Hobb's Cabin as we were. As we passed them we heard some of their comments: "How much further?"; "Have we gone a mile yet?"; "Are we eating lunch out here? I'm hungry." They were about a half a mile out on the trail.

The next group was the teenagers. We would pass them a couple of times and then ate lunch with us at an overlook. We did have the traditional 80-year-old double bypass patient jog pass us. Troy said that if he laps us, he would retire from hiking and take up knitting.

One time when we caught up with a couple of scouts that were somewhere in the middle of their group, Greg stopped and helped him do a pack refit. The scout turned around and ran square into a tree. The hilarious part was that he immediately said " I'm OK." And then walked on in a swerving pattern. When we got to a swinging bridge with a sign that stated "only two people at a time" he turned and asked me to wait until he got across. I waited until he got half way across and yelled, "Here I come." The boy got a panic look in his eye and ran the rest of the way. As I crossed I found the scoutmaster on the other end of the bridge giving me the evil eye.

We had one scout that would run ahead and catch up with us. He would have to stop where his scoutmaster told him to and sure enough a little later he would be back with us. He was quite impressive for someone of his age. He messed up one time and drank all of his water. Greg gave him a donation.

The views over the Gulf were beautiful as were the waterfalls. When we got to camp Greg came to the first site and started setting up. I started looking for the group camp to make sure that we were far enough away. It just so happened to be the site that Greg had picked. He was not a happy camper as he took his tent and hammock down. There were plenty of people in the camp. Of eight sites I think that one was not used.

Hobb’s cabin is an actual log cabin that has been kept up over the years. It is in very good shape and has three or four sets of bunk beds in it. The water spring looked like we were panning for gold with all of the filters being used.

There was an older couple that came down to the spring and she told her husband to get started while she took pictures of the "fiddler heads". Once again I looked around and saw Troy and Chase looking back at me. To our relief, when she got to us she turned around and took a picture of a plant. When I said, "that’s the first time I've been called that" she turned and busted out laughing. Later on we saw her in camp and we all started playing our fake fiddles and she cracked up again.

We were relaxing by the campfire when a ranger came up and asked if Craig was here. You know something is wrong when they ask for you by name. He told me to pack up my stuff and come with him. He had a truck waiting and my baby had just had a seizure. He did let me know that she had the CAT scan, spinal tap and that she was doing all right. He didn't know which baby it was. I took a ride that would put any ride at Cedar Point to shame through the woods. He took me directly to his house and called Connie. After talking to her I borrowed Troy's Jeep and headed to Vandy. It turned out that she was fine. She had a rapid temperature rise, which started the seizure.

I now turn the story over to Greg: After an unwanted hasty departure for a medical emergency for Craig, we continued our wind-down by the fire speculating the hopefully good outcome of Craig’s grandchild. (I said a little good thoughts and wishes to the Gods insert denomination here ____________!) Funny stories from the boys and the big boy’s made the mood light and soon the day’s events gave way to our tents and hammocks.

Morning broke with crisp air and a scramble for heat. A good breakfast and slow roll through packing made for a good start for our trip out. It was very nice with no traffic as all of the scouts and others left earlier.

The trail crossed and stayed on an old narrow gage rail bed covered with moss and coke or coal. A sign we found with a tree growing around it had an indistinguishable name of a mining company. The boys and I have been to the coke mines in the area and that or coal is our best guess. Very cool and concreted in my mind that this area does indeed have a mining history.

We kept up with the usual misstep or gymnastics along the trail. Thanks for a great trip Boys and Troy. They took the same trail out until it cut over on the Mountain Oak Trail. They checked out the campsite on that loop and said that it was just as nice as the others. We will have to make another trip back to catch the plateau trail. Darn it. Anyways, we highly recommend this trail as a trail with beautiful scenery.

Montgomery Bell (Take Two)

2007-04-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

April 2007
Montgomery Bell (Take Two)...............Trail Rating....Outcasts Total: 83 Miles
Jim Bailey Trail.........................0.5........Moderate
Wildcat Trail to Ore Pit............0.75........Moderate
Ore Pit to Spill Way..................0.75........Moderate
Spill Way Trail..........................1.0............Easy
Overnight Trail to Laurel............1.5........Moderate
Laurel Furnace........................0.12.........Moderate
Overnight Trail to Woodland.......3.0.......Moderate
Woodland Shelter.......................0.6.........Easy
Overnight Trail to Creech............0.5........Moderate
Creech Hollow to Overnight........1.2..........Moderate
Overnight to Creech...................5.0...........Moderate
Creech Hollow to Overnight.........1.2.........Moderate
Overnight Trail to Parking...........1.0.........Moderate
Total………………………………........17.2 Miles

It just so happened that I had a couple of free days off during the week. I made a few calls and came up with Troy and Logan Gill. Greg had to cut grass with his boss. Troy had missed out on the Montgomery Bell hike and I wanted to finish the rest of the trails there so here we go. Take Two.

We met up at MFD headquarters, my new home, and headed out. We got to the park in good time to make an early start. Let me tell you about Logan. Logan is a woman slayer, a young man who has just turned 21. When we pulled up to the visitor center he dove out of the truck and headed over to a young blonde woman who was having trouble with her car door. He headed over there with his tail wagging and tongue hanging out. Well after Troy and I got out of the truck, I looked over at this sad sight and told Troy to watch this. I wondered over there, Logan backed out of the way. I unlocked her door, sprung the latch and told her she had nothing further to worry about. She grabbed a hold of my neck and gave me a big hug thanking me profusely. She turned and patted Logan on the chest and got in her car. I just looked over at Logan and told him to get back on the porch. He whimpered and wondered back to the truck.

We got signed in and headed out. I found out that it was well worth coming back for. The Spill Way and the Creech Hollow trails were some of the parks finest. We ate lunch at the Spill Way. We found us a picnic table and I pulled out my peanut butter and honey sandwiches. I started looking at the map to figure out our miles when out of the blue two-gallon size zip lock bags full of Troy’s famous fried chicken hit the table. I couldn’t hold back the tears of excitement and whimpered like a small child as I dove into the fried chicken. Logan watched in amazement and Troy just sat back and grinned at a job well done. I missed my cook!

The wildlife was abundant this time with Turkey, Deer, Snakes, Fish, and one of the biggest Moles that I have ever seen. It measured in at four inches and looked about the size of a rat. I didn’t think about it at the time, but I should have skinned it and kept the Moleskin in my pack.

Even though we surprised the weather god’s there were only two other hikers on the trail. One was described as Big Eddie with a neck and cane. Now you would have to know Big Eddie who is our largest roundest firefighter on our City fire department. The other was a round woman with a couple of dogs. Nether of which we would like to consider being in our ranking of hiker.

We did pass some Amish gals at a picnic table in one of the parks that we passed. I told the guys that I had arranged for the Swedish bikini team to arrive and there must have been some miscommunication. They both end in “ish”. I did make a mistake in the last log of our journal.

I said that I didn't remember even having to step over any trees on the path. Well Logan kept track of the number of trees and counted them off as strikes. After nine he said that I was out of the park. Over all we had a wonderful hike and we highly recommend this park.

Montgomery Bell

2007-03-01T19:37:00.000-08:00

March 2007
Montgomery Bell.......................Trail Rating........Outcasts Total: 65.8 Miles
Jim Bailey Trail........0.5 Miles........Moderate
Wildcat Trail............1.4 Miles........Moderate
Overnight Trail.......10.4 Miles........Moderate
Woodland Shelter....0.3 Miles..........Easy
Total……………….....12.6 Miles

When it comes to temperature, there is no record that we won’t break. This time we went with record highs. 81 was our record breaking high for this time of year. Out with the cold weather gear and in with the summer.

This park actually has shelters to stay in on the overnight trail. Three of them to be exact, and you must reserve them ahead of time. It was a good thing that you did because none of us thought about Spring Break and all of the campgrounds were full.

This time Greg brought the two boys, Nathan and Chase, and two of the girls, Mia and Paige. Unfortunately, Troy who came down with some serious illness, had to cancel out on this trip.

We were quite impressed right of the bat with this State Park. The lady at the counter was quite knowledgeable of the park and they handed us a 3D GPS Navigation Map of the park to include details of the trails. They checked our reservations and then said that the park ranger would usually be out to check on us except that this was an extremely busy weekend.

After a minor delay of gathering the family together and all equipment/food accounted for we headed off. Basically we wanted to wait until it was HOT. We started off with the Jim Bailey Trail, which was a good warm up and then headed out on the Wildcat trail, which we took to the end and turned around and hiked back to the Overnight trail. We didn’t quite explain this to the kids and the facial expressions where quite impressive when we came to the end and said to head back the way we came. They were not impressed with the “switch back” trail.

As we were heading past the children playing in the river at the campground I notified ours that they were having a whole lot more fun backpacking than those “sissy” campers were having in the river. Again this did not go over well.

Anyway, we started off on the Overnight trail and all of these trails were hilly but not hard on the body. Mia was the tough one who was not impressed with having to wear boots and insisted after many warnings from both Mom and Greg to wear short socks to look fashionable. Greg offered her some other socks numerous times as we were hiking and we could see the redness on the back of the ankle. When we came to the second water crossing she stopped and poured water down the back of her boot to extinguish the fire. This time I suggested she change her socks and because this was not a parental unit, she said OK. With some liquid New Skin and a band-aid she walked off a happy camper. Let me tell you, those young ladies were impressive. They hiked a long way for the first backpacking trip that they have ever been on and no complaints.

When we came to the Creech Hollow Trail I told the group that we could add three miles on the trail if they wanted to do another switch back. No takers, even from Greg who had been up all night making calls and had also caught a good house fire earlier in the day. He had been out at another station.

You should have seen the smiles when we saw the shelter. I had experienced shelter camping on the Appalachian Trail and gave them some pointers as I strung up my hammock outside between two trees. Putting anything that has smell or flavor in a tree, open all pockets on backpacks so the mice would have to open them themselves, and try to find some padding. We had a very nice fresh water spring right in the campsite which sore feet were cooled in. The kids learned about filtering water and even did it all by themselves the next morning. Time was spent catching crawfish, tadpoles, lizards and frogs. We added this to the list of deer, owls, snakes, and one coyote in the middle of the night. We also sharpened our rock throwing skills as many targets were chosen with a direct hit by Chase spinning a can lid being the most impressive. We told ghost stories and other stories around the campfire until finally everyone was ready to call it a night. For some reason, I guess God’s since of humor, on every trip except Long Hunter we heard a siren in the distance during the night. We got that, a train, some owls arguing and a visiting Coyote that night. It was good sleeping weather as long as the wind kept blowing. Greg enjoyed his shelter experience and said that the hammock would be brought along on all further trips. It’s hard to make plywood comfortable. Paige’s clothes sack was the only mouse casualty. She had even left it open.

As we were stoking the fire during a good breakfast, I heard some people talking and look to see a couple in their sixties JOGGING down the Overnight trail. I looked at Greg and he looked at me and said that he didn’t even want to hear it.

We might have misled the kids by telling them that the hike out was fifteen miles. For some reason they were not looking forward to it. We passed quite a few people today out hiking, none with backpacks. At one point the girls had asked if we could take a break and Greg said sure at the top of the hill. When we got closer we noticed a covered bench at the top of the hill and headed for it. You know what happens when you find a parking space open in a big parking lot. Yep, a couple coming the other way parked in it just before we walked up. They looked tired after carrying NOTHING for a mile or two. After all of the packs were dropped around them they got the hint and headed out. Chase had asked me about any “switch backs” today and couldn’t help but laugh and say, “of course we wouldn’t tell you, I mean of course not.”

Well when we got to the next shelter the trail led right to it and they didn’t see where it continued. They all turned and asked if this was where we were going to turn back. Greg and I got a good laugh out of that. After seeing the other shelter locations, I could see why ours was the most popular. The Wild Cat shelter was on a good river but right on the trail and the Hall Spring shelter was right on the trail but looked like a possible mosquito breeding ground. The shelters were of the same size, but the Wild Cat and Hall Spring shelters both had bunk beds where the Woodland shelter just had one plank all the way across.

I don’t remember even having to step over one tree across the path. The trails were extremely well taken care of and all of the bridges were in good shape. The Ore Pit Loop trail was the most difficult trail and it wasn’t too bad as far as hilly. The girls earned their Merit badge and we had a wonderful hike.
PS. In regards to our missing hiking partner, who was talked about and was with us in spirits. He too missed us and sends this creed to show he had not lost his heart.

Troy’s Hiking Creed:

THIS IS MY PACK
This is my pack
There are many like it, but this one is mine
My pack is my best friend. It is my life
I must master it as I master my life
My pack, without me is useless
Without my pack, I am useless
I must shoulder my pack true
I must hike longer than my enemy
I must finish the trail before he finishes me.
I WILL!
My pack and myself know what counts on this hike:
It’s not the pounds of gear we carry
It’s not the sweat and blood we shed
Nor the body and soul we test and punish
We know it is the completion of the hike that counts
WE WILL HIKE!
My pack is human, even as I, because it is my life
Thus I will learn it as a brother
I will learn its weakness, strengths, its parts, its accessories,
Its shoulder straps, its zippers and pockets, and its limits
I will even guard it against the ravages of weather and damage
I will keep my pack clean and ready, as I am clean and ready
We will become one with each other.
WE WILL!
Before GOD I swear this creed. My pack and myself are
The defenders of my country.
We are the masters of the trail, we are the saviors of my life
So be it, until there is no trail un-hiked, only peace.

Long Hunter

2007-02-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

February 2007
Long Hunter.........................Trail Rating............Outcasts Total: 53.2 Miles
Volunteer Trail...6.0 Miles.........Easy
Day Loop............2.0Miles..........Easy
Volunteer Trail...6.0Miles..........Easy
Total………………14.0 Miles

This is the trip of the Gentle Gail Force Winds. I had hiked this trail about thirteen years ago and it held some special memories kinda. I was hoping that I remembered it a little better than Greg remembering the Stone Door.

Once again it snowed in Tennessee and surprisingly it happened for our hiking trip. We know that there is something wrong now. How can it be that every Ranger in Tennessee is so happy? Yes, once again we have a Ranger giggling while checking us in. He mumbled something about not worrying about too much company out on the trail.

This time we finally had someone brave enough to hang with the tough guys. Greg’s sons, Nathan and Chase, went with us along with all three of his dogs. A little on the nippy side the trail hugged the Percy Priest Lake. The weatherman had said five to ten mile an hour winds with gusts up to twenty. Yea, that was close. I guess this trail was easy enough on Troy’s knees as he left us on the way in and on the way out.

The trail was real nice and as long as we had cover from the wind, the temperature was just right. At one point on the trail two guys were heading the opposite direction. When they saw us they left the trail and headed into the woods. Not sure what that was about we kept an eye out for a while. Greg suggested that they might be a little queer.

After we set up camp, we had time to spend skipping rocks across the lake and shooting skeet (actually throwing rocks at big flat rocks that Greg through up in the air.) We also tried a little Jug fishing. There were about twelve Jugs in the water just off the shore. We tried numerous sticks and small trees to recover a fish with no luck. I even went as far as to try to walk on the water, which didn’t come out so good.

After dinner Greg chasing stray dogs away through the woods entertained us. The wind had died down and we were gifted with a beautiful sunset across the lake. The boys headed to bed first followed by Troy. Before Troy got settled in good we heard what could only be described as a wounded animal screaming from the end of the cove. It screamed three times and then one more time a short minute later. Troy said it was those Swamp Monkeys. Not real sure.

Shortly after I went to bed, I heard a critter running around my hammock. When I sat up it was over by Greg’s hammock so I figured I was just hearing his dog stirring. Certainly the dogs would bark if something came into camp. I woke in the night to a mad man attacking the dogs. After I got up I realized it was just Greg. His dog’s had actually got loose and the others ripped through the end of his new tent where the boys were sleeping. He was not a happy camper. After shaking the tree, I went back for a comfortable nights sleep.

Shortly after breakfast, Mother Nature decided to turn up the fan a little. Those wind gusts got a lot stronger on the hike out. As I said, Troy left us behind and actually went for drinks before we got out of the woods. It took us a little longer because Greg had a lot of dancing to do on the trail. You should have seen some of those moves, one time he actually went about five feet in the squat position. My Dad would have been proud. Also on the way out beside a bench we found an open jar of Vaseline that we know wasn’t there the day before. I guess that Greg was right.

Cumberland Mountain

2007-01-01T19:40:00.000-08:00

January 2007
Cumberland Mountain...................Trail Rating.......Outcasts Total: 39.2 Miles Byrd Creek Trail................0.7 Miles.........Easy
Pioneer Short Loop............2.0 Miles.........Easy
Pioneer Trail......................3.0 Miles........Easy
Cumberland Plateau Trail..1.0 Miles.........Easy
Byrd Creek Trail................2.1 Miles.........Easy
Cumberland Overnight Trail..6.0 Miles....Impassable
Additional Road Hike........1.0 Miles.........Easy
Total………………………......15.8 Miles

This trip started off with warning signs that we should have caught, but didn’t. Our first warning was the phone call to the ranger to get information on the trail. A blonde answered and proved to be quite full of information. OK, I didn’t know she was blonde until she spoke and then confirmed it when we arrived at the park. The conversation went something like this: Hello, we are planning on taking your overnight trail and would like some information on it…………..overnight trail? Yes, the map that I have doesn’t have any trail lengths or names on it. Could you please tell me the length of your Northern overnight trail?………….Is that trail number 2? My map doesn’t have any numbers on it, I am asking about your overnight trail with the campsite on it………..what number trail is it? If you were to go to the campsite from the visitor center, how many miles is it?…………Trail number two is about six miles. OK, Is there a water source at the campsite?…………water source? You know, like drinking water?……..No, there isn’t any drinking water at camp. Is there a river or lake nearby?……….There is a lake by the visitor center………. Is there a river or lake by the campsite?…………..I don’t think so. OK, Well we will be up there this weekend to hike………I think the trail is closed. Your overnight trail is closed?……..I’m not sure. After we got there we found out that all of the trails had names.

Anyway, we could tell that it was getting close to hiking trip time because the weather was getting colder and colder. When we got to the park we found another happy lady who giggled when we said we were here to hike. This was an older lady and Blondie was sitting over on the other side of the room next to the fireplace giving another couple some information. When we convinced the lady that we really were going to hike in this weather she took out a blank sheet of scrap paper and asked our names. She asked for our cell number so she could call and check on us. We don’t take cell phones on trips. Anyway I am sure that that unofficial piece of paper ended up in the trashcan before we left the door. She took out a map, with trail names and miles on it, and showed us an area that was a little overgrown and may be hard to hike. OK.

We headed out on the Southern loop first which a really nice hike with beautiful scenery and only one broken bridge. One of the standing jokes we have is the special map reading skills of my brother. He had accidentally added ten miles on a trip we took in the Smokey’s. Well, I found out that it might be in the family genes when we came across a road, which I said “Hey, that isn’t on our map.” It didn’t take Troy long to see the map and point out the error of my ways. On the map, what I thought was a boundary line was really a road. Then came up the “where does the trail go from here?” about the same time that Greg stated, “You mean this trail?” from the other end of a bridge. I might have taken a little slack from that incident.

We came back to the visitor center and ate our chicken, again really good. A few people stopped a safe distance away and watched in amazement as Greg and I devoured the last bird.

We picked up our packs and headed out on the Northern loop. Troy was yelling out “Greg, look at me” as he skipped along the trail carrying his new lightweight backpack and gear.

All was going well until we got to the place marked on the map by the lady. Talk about a briar patch. A familiar tune comes to mind “Well, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles and the ran through the bushes where the rabbits couldn’t go.” We didn’t see any rabbits. Much flesh was left on this section of the trail. After we cleared the massive briar patch the trail had numerous trees down across it and we came across a couple of bridges that were in need of repair with one completely broke in half.

A river ran the entire length of the trail. On the map it was labeled as Three Mile River, which would be one half the distance of our trail. Imagine that. Of course it did not label it a water source on the map.

Numerous times we left the trail and foraged our way around piles of trees where the trail had once been. We came across a bridge that was broke in half and we were feeling like it was time to find camp. We guessed it to be within a half mile when Troy said it was one thousand four hundred and eighty feet. Only Troy can be so precise. Finally he broke and showed us where it was spray-painted in red on the side of the broken bridge.

It was getting late and we hit the area where camp was marked on our map. We looked and looked with no luck. Finally we hiked a mile further down the trail looking for a campsite and ended up making our own.

New equipment was tested. Greg had his new sleeping bag, new backpack, and new hammock, instead of a tent. Troy had a new tent and new sleeping bag. I had a new hammock and new sleeping bag. We were using double sleeping bags, which were lighter and warmer than the old. We all were using the full-length foam rests instead of the Thermo Rest that we had used on prior trips. We set the thermometer to low to test our new set up, back into the teens.

I got up that night to pee and I got hungry so I went through the pack to get me a candy bar. It was quite noisy, but I tried not to wake up anyone. I figured that while I was up, I would put another long on the fire. As I was walked a safe distance from Greg’s hammock through the eight inches of dry leaves and caught a few briars, I could hear Troy snoring in his tent. I had never heard Troy snore at the fire hall. Let me tell you, that man can rip when he has eleven miles under his belt. I really wasn't worried about waking him anymore. I got to the campfire and remembered the briar patch that was on this side. Some quite moaning and cussing got me through and I got the fire built back up. Figuring that I made too much noise on the way through the woods, I just walked right past Greg’s hammock on the way back. One minor problem was the tent peg holding out his tarp. Greg let me know that he was already up from my first pass and got up for the rest of the night to sit by the fire.

The next day we got a good breakfast and broke camp. When we got to the second mark on the ladies map we found that the trail just disappeared into another briar patch. You can’t get there from here so we left the park and cut across the cow pasture. We tried to enter the park several times, but gave up with the briars and found a road to hike back on.

When we got back to the visitor center we decided to have a talk with the lady. We caught the Ranger inside as well. He then let us know that the trail has been closed for five years after a tornado came through. The previous Ranger had told him that they were going to use it a study for the University of Tennessee. He said that he was surprised to hear that we were out hiking that trail. When we asked about the campsite he said that the boy scouts had built a teepee at one time up there and had planned on building more of a campground, but never got to it. We passed along our thoughts.

Fall Creek Falls

2006-12-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

December 2006
Fall Creek Falls..................................Trail Rating...Outcasts Total: 23.4 Miles
Upper Loop Overnight Trail 13.0 Miles.....Easy

This was Troy's trail. He has hiked this trail many times both alone and with his brother. He knew it was an easy trail so we had to adjust the weather to make it more interesting. It is not very often that Tennessee has snow. We pulled into the park on snow and ice. Greg was not impressed as I slid into the parking spot at the office. We found a very sweet lady at the office that checked us in after she regained her composer from laughing after we said that we were going overnight hiking. She asked if we were serious as she grabbed her book. After getting signed in we headed to the trailhead.

At the trailhead we parked next to a maintenance shop where a couple of deliverance type characters seemed happy that we were there. It kinda sent a warning flag up. Troy had made fried chicken the night before at the fire hall and it wasn’t long before it took my full attention. The coyotes and bears went running when they saw and heard me attack that first piece.

This trail was a bit easier than the last and it had plenty of beauty. We set up camp in low spot in the campground to keep the wind off us. We got our warming fire started and took our meds. Nothing like sitting around a campfire telling lies and smelling burning boots. Whoa, I was supposed to keep an eye on Greg’s boots while he was working in his tent. He couldn’t say a whole lot because later on he burnt his sock. Either way they were dryer than before.

Before we settled in for the night, Troy took out his new lightweight multipurpose tool. It has a whistle, thermometer, compass, and a small storage compartment. We were already in the low twenties and the sky was clear. It was time to test the cold weather gear. Troy was the first off to bed. He went into his tent and zipped it closed. Then we heard………zip…………zip…..zip………..zip……..zip. What the hell had that many zippers? Troy never did tell us what all he had, but he never came out or complained about the cold.

I found out that at 17 degrees my sleeping bag in the hammock was no longer doing the job. I started stoking the fire. Greg woke up a little nervous because it was light and he was getting warm in his tent. Do you know how big a fire has to get before you are willing to take off your clothes in 17-degree weather? After putting on all the clothes in my pack, I got back to sleep and made it through the night. Our low reading was 14.3 degrees that night.

We had a Turkey visit our camp that night and also woke up to a deer crossing the river and much to his surprise fell through the ice. We spent a bit of time warming up after that night before we broke camp.

On the way out Troy decided to show how he wasn’t hurting this trip by smoking Greg and I up the largest hill on the trail back to the car. On the last quarter mile of the trail, two mountain bikers were heading in and were quite shocked to find out that one; we were out hiking and two; that we spent the night. For some reason it seemed like they thought we were crazy.

Pictures