Board Camp Creek 7.12.14

7.12.14    The Saturday hike (7/12/14) for our Soddy Daisy Chapter was to take place on the Board Camp Creek trail of the Soddy Gorge Segment.  We met as usual at the Durham Street parking lot near the ball fields in Soddy Daisy and departed by 8:00 a.m..  Altogether there were five souls (Boodie Fox, Gary Selcer, Tom Long, Diane Walker and myself) willing to endure what was to become a very hot and humid 10+ mile hike.   Boodie drove us up to Jones Gap Road where we began hiking down a little over a mile towards the steps across the ROW fencing while he drove North on Highway 111 and found an emergency cross over so he could park his van on the Southern ROW near the same steps for the Board Camp Creek trail.  Today’s hike was rated as Strenuous only due to the mileage since I would normally rate the terrain easy to moderate.  Boodie was our hike leader for the day and I always enjoy his wit and humor when he’s around, the only drawback is if you’re following directly behind him you always have to be aware as he’s bending over to use his pruners to pursue his desire to maintain the trail that his hiking staff can and will take the shape of a weapon at times.  As he’s leaning forward the staff lunges back towards you – Lol.  Our initial intent was to hike as far as the “George Summers” steps with the handrail (cable) but we took a vote and lengthened it about ¾ miles further towards Big Soddy Creek.  On our way back we stopped for a break at the “Junk Yard” Falls as Boodie likes to call it, there’s no official spur trail but it’s about 50 yards off to the left of the main trail just before you hit the first set of descending steps and well before you reach the “George Summers” steps.   I believe there is more than one vehicle located on the opposite side of Board Camp Creek just above the creek bed (the one I could see was an old panel van).  When the water is running strong there is a small water falls (maybe 8’ high) upstream from the vehicles.   Well after the break Diane and I headed back towards the van so I could take advantage of some Blackberries on the ROW just before exiting the trail.  I found out quickly that the larger berries were the tart ones and the smaller berries were the sweeter ones, I’ve never picked them before but it didn’t take long to figure out which ones were the best for eating as I was exiting the trail.  I had never hiked with Diane before since I believe this was her second hike with our club but I found out that she could hold her on with any hiker in our Chapter – good job Diane.  As usual during the hot summer months I was soaked to the bone at the end of our hike but all in all it was another Great Hike!  Happy Hiking!  For a few pictures of todays hike click here or on the picture to the right.

Larry