Piney River 1.25.14    We had an exceptional turn-out of twelve hikers for today’s adventure considering the weather that we endured.  We were hiking the Piney River Segment near Spring City, Tn..  George Bonneau was our very capable hike leader and after we carpooled from Soddy Daisy to the Piney River trail head several vehicles dropped off their occupants and headed up Shut-In Gap Road where we were staging several vehicles at the trailhead of Newby Branch.  Earlier as a group we had decided to change the scheduled hike termination from the Duskin Creek trailhead on Mountain Road to the Newby Branch Campsite.  This added approx. 1.25 miles to our scheduled hike with a total mileage of well over 9 miles since we added a side trip to Spider Den Bluff along the way.  We were fortunate enough to enjoy the company of Louise, Cindy & Gary from the Upper Cumberland Chapter and as always it’s always a pleasure to have other TTA Chapters to share our hikes with.  We also had two young men who attend Bryan College by the names of Jeremy and Jacob.  While I’m at it I will put in a plug for their blog on Facebook called the Bearded Backpackers, check it out if you get a chance.  These are guys that love to hike as much as we do!  Well I digress so back to the hike.  The temperature as we began our hike was in the mid to upper 20’s and breezy, so if you had the misfortune of standing in one place to long, for example, when we were waiting for the other hikers that were staging the vehicles you were chilled to the bone.  But once we hit the trail it wasn't long before we warmed up considerably based on the overall pace of the group.  There were very light snow flurries for most of the hike and by the end of the hike it had warmed up to the low to mid 30’s.  I will mention that I was documenting the downed trees for the local State Park Rangers as I was hiking with my GPS and there were 18 or 19 trees laying across the trail which ranged in size from around 8” up to probably 24” in diameter.   Mostly we could either step across, scoot across or go under so it didn't present any major issues but it would be nice if the State could certify some volunteers on Chainsaw use in this area where we could assist the Rangers with trail maintenance when it comes to downed trees.  As far as the response from the participants today everyone agreed that a good time was had by all.  Thanks again to our visiting hikers who made a special effort to hike with our chapter!