Falls Creek Falls - Upper Loop Trail

Fall Creek Falls....Trail Rating....Outcasts Total: 1298.84 Miles
Upper Loop Overnight Trail 13.0 Miles.....Easy

Troy and I headed out to test his knee injury. We decided to do an easier trail just to make sure all is well. He is hiking again.

We got our permit and headed to the trailhead. It was a beautiful day for hiking. We were grabbing our gear and Troy reached into the trunk and pulled out two Kroger sacks full of the famous Troy fried chicken. It's going to be a GREAT hike!! (Yes, I did cry, but it was beautiful!)

When we took our first break, Troy pulled a tick off his pant leg. Then he pulled a tick of his pant leg, then........... wow, really? He pulled at least five off while I started the search on myself. Yes, it is tick time in Tennessee! Lora had told me on the way, Don't forget the bug spray.....it's still in the car.

When we got down to the river, we noticed that there was a water line in the trees about thirty feet up from the river level. There was danger tape in the trees. The swinging bridge did not look too good and when we got to the other side we found that the foundation holding the bridge up was pulled out of the ground. It was obvious that they had a MAJOR flood sometime not long ago.

We made it to camp, set up, gathered wood, got water, ate,.........still light. talked, visited, had two day hikers go by, explored,......still light. Finally, it got dark enough to start the fire. We had stars out, cough medicine, all is good. Troy broke out a crunchy candy bar and gave me half. I told him that I forgot to look for the Carmel filled ones that he has brought in the past. They sure are good.

Troy tried the hammock. This was his first attempt and I had forgotten all the things you go through. I have been using the hammock for alot of years. I tried to give all the information that I could think of. Then he was on his own. The battle began. I know that he got in. After that I went to sleep. Well, I guess he battled and battled. He told me that at one point, he was on the ground wrapped in bug netting looking up at his hammock. If he had zipped up his netting, he would have had to call me to get him out. I have done alot of things, but never got in that position.

In the morning he got me crying telling me the adventure. He just naturally assumed that I would have shown up taking pictures. I slept through it all. As I was eating breakfast, Troy pulls out a pound of bacon and said here you go. Well, OK. This was a first. We got a stick out and cooked over the fire. Life is good!

We packed up and headed out. Another good day for hiking. We stopped for our lunch break and Troy pulls out a Carmel filled chocolate bar. Wow, this man is good!

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Fall Creek Falls- Upper Loop II

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.

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Fall Creek Falls - Lower Loop Trail

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!

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Fall Creek Falls Lower Loop

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.

Fall Creek Falls

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.

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