8.12.14 The Soddy Daisy Chapter’s hike for Tuesday was scheduled to
depart Durham Street parking lot in Soddy Daisy promptly at 8:00 a.m. and
carpool to the Heiss Mtn trailhead just off of Hwy. 111. To be honest I don’t
usually hike the Tuesday hikes due to their short mileage and their difficulty
level being typically easy to moderate but today I had a special
invitation from a good friend to attend since we had not been able to hike
together in a while due to his volunteer work on Saturdays. Don’t get me wrong
it’s not that I feel the short hikes are beneath me but it’s due to me trying to
achieve the most bang for the buck (sort of speaking) when I’m out spending my
time on the trail.
So here we were Tuesday morning, the sun was shining, we had
a good number of hikers show (ten I believe) and all was well with the world.
We even had the ever entertaining Bob McGavock as our hike leader to show us the
way as he led us from the Heiss Mtn trailhead towards the Big Possum Creek
Bridge which was to be our destination. The mileage going in and coming out
would amount to just under 3 miles but as Bob would put it, “this is the hardest
3 miles on the entire Cumberland Trail”. The trail was damp from the previous
rains over the weekend so that made the rock fields a little more of a technical
challenge to cross at times. As luck would have it we made it to the bridge
without any injuries but along the way Bob had pointed out some strange
formations on the face of some rocks which you can see among the pics I took.
Those geometric shapes are really unusual and something that normally if I were
hiking by myself I would never see since I keep my head down watching the trail
for obstacles and not artifacts. It almost appears like manmade square patterns
which weave across the rocks but I’m sure it was either Mother Nature spending
hundreds or maybe thousands of years in providing those rocks for our enjoyment
or they were some form of a language left behind by extra-terrestrials.
Something tells me I should opt for the former or have a serious talk with my
psychiatrist. But as usual I’m starting to digress so back to the hike.
We all took a break at the bridge for pictures and then
headed back up out of the gorge and towards the trailhead where our vehicles
were parked. There we kicked around the possibility of having an early lunch
together since this was a short hike and we made it out by about 11:00 a.m.. It
was decided we would all meet at the Blue Ribbon Café in Soddy Daisy where we
each had a great meal and some friendly conversation. After departing from the
group and heading home I came to the realization that I’m going to have to
reevaluate my analytical way of thinking – where I only go on hikes that I feel
benefit me solely for the health benefits because I definitely brought back more
from the hike today than I left my home with earlier that morning. That
was the fact that I had forgotten how much in the past I’ve always enjoyed my
time spent sharing thoughts and stories on the trail with fellow hikers that I
consider my friends. So I guess in the end I shouldn’t constantly judge my
hikes by how many trail miles I can hike and how fast I can hike them but how
many memories I can make on the trail with friends. Because really isn’t that
what life’s all about - making memories? For a few pictures, click here or on the Heiss Mountain tab above.
Happy Hiking!
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