Laurel Falls & Bryan Overlook

5.2.14    The Soddy Daisy Chapter of the TTA had scheduled one of their more popular hikes in our area, that being the Laurel Falls/Bryan Overlook Hike.  Today’s hike was led by our esteemed Hike Coordinator, George Bonneau and was rated as Moderate-Strenuous with the intended mileage being approx. 6.7 miles.  We met at the Soddy Ball Fields at 8:00 am and drove to the trailhead in Dayton, Tn with a beginning temperature in the low 50’s, perfect short sleeve weather when hiking at a brisk pace.  The hike begins on an old rail bed running along the side of Richland Creek and not far from the trailhead you pass the Richland Mine.  In May of 1901 more than 20 men died from an explosion in the Richland Mine and many others were so badly burned that day that they eventually died due to injuries sustained from the fireball that was generated by the explosion.  The local papers reported that the flame exited the mouth of the mine and extended over 300 feet into the air.  Sad to think about all of the families that were affected for generations due to that disaster.

Later down the trail we came to the 50 foot steel bridge which was inundated by a large number of fallen trees.  I had heard that this happened about a month ago and I’m assuming the reason why the trees haven’t been cleared from the path of the bridge by the State Park is the assumption that the bridge in its’ current state is probably not safe to travel across so we made our way down from the trail to Laurel Creek and rock hopped across.  As we approached Laurel Falls we could hear as well as see that it was running strong today considering the small amount of rain we experienced from the recent storms.  We made our way up the portion of trail that I will call “Billy Goat Hill” to the top of the Plateau where shortly we would do yet another water crossing at Laurel Creek just above where the falls begins.  Our first overlook past Laurel Creek was the Laurel Creek Overlook, duh!  But then it gets real interesting, I won’t mention who was leading the hike at this point but our next stop was supposed to be Bryan Overlook.  For the experienced hiker that would be familiar with this trail you know it’s only about one tenth of a mile away from the Laurel Creek Overlook, well approximately 1 mile later down what appears to be an old logging road with no blazes I might add, we stopped and I commented that I hadn’t seen any blazes on this dirt road, just turkey tracks so just then I pull out my trusty Don Deakins Map for this trail and announced to our hike leader that according to the map we were originally only 500 feet away from Bryan Overlook when we made our first overlook.  Oh well, it didn’t bother me ‘cause I love to see mileage added to our hikes, either intentionally or otherwise!  Btw, we did make it back to Bryan Overlook before returning towards the trailhead.  This brings up one more point I would like to share, about a week ago, Anthony, one of the local hikers in Dayton, was commenting about the quality of the Laurel/Snow trails and I responded that I agreed if only people had not started creating all of the short-cuts.  This is by far the worst CT segment when it comes to short-cuts marring the landscape.  Well to make a long story short we were blessed to have a young lady by the name of Penny join us on our hike this morning from Oak Ridge who just happened to have an appointment which required that she get back to Oak Ridge early that afternoon.  I believe the hike leader felt badly about the added mileage for our lone hiker from Oak Ridge so on the way back he started hitting the short-cuts to improve her chances of making her appointment back home.  The whole time I was following the pack I was thinking what a hypocrite I am!  Oh well, as usual the bad feelings didn’t last past the trail head and the hike ended well for all.  Happy Hiking!  For some great pictures on the Laurel Falls tab above.
Thanks Larry