Lower Leggett Road to Rock Creek 8.2.14

      The Soddy Daisy Chapter met on Saturday morning at the Durham Street parking lot by 8:00 a.m. and proceeded to carpool to our starting point at the Lower Leggett Road trailhead.  I was very happy to see George Bonneau & John Politte back from their 15 day European River Cruise vacation and ready to hit the trails once again. After they visited the Red Light district of Amsterdam I wasn’t so sure they would ever return but I forgot that they had Sarah & Cookie with them and I’m sure they were on a very short leash – Lol.  John was our very capable hike leader today and for a very humid and muggy Saturday hike I felt we had a reasonable turnout with six hikers; Gloria, Joan, George, John, Tom & myself.  Our good friend Boodie Fox is still recuperating from his mishaps due to the poor trail conditions at the North Chickamauga Segment hike last Saturday so hopefully he will be getting back to the trail with us soon.

 

The hike was advertised as approximately 8 miles and slightly strenuous but it turned out with a little tweaking from our hike leader to be just over 10 miles and strenuous - Lol.  We left the Lower Leggett trailhead parking lot at about 8:30 a.m. and proceeded on the lower connector trail heading towards the junction with the main trail, after about 1.2 miles we arrived at the split and took what I would call the upper loop trail to the right which climbed steadily out of the Rock Creek Gorge towards the junction near the upper trailhead on Leggett Rd..  We paused for a minute as we were heading up to allow everyone to regroup and someone noted that there was nary a breeze blowing that morning and I made the mistake and mentioned it would probably be nice if we encountered a light shower along the way, not knowing what would come later.  Near the top we passed the side trail on the left, blazed in yellow, which leads to the Leggett Point Overlook.  We bypassed the Overlook today due to the fact that most of us had been there and done that before and we had a 10 mile hike to complete but the side trail does open up into a panoramic view of the Rock Creek Gorge and where it’s not uncommon to spot hawks and the occasional eagle passing by.  Further up the trail we took the junction trail on the left (what some refer to as the shortcut) and headed back down the ridgeline in a steep descent towards the Boiling Springs Bridge.  Once we crossed the Boiling Springs Branch we had about 2.3 miles to reach the Rock Creek Bridge, our final destination, but along the way we passed by or over the Rock Creek Overlook, Flat Branch Bridge, Rocky Branch Bridge as well as Leggett Branch (a great cascading waterfall to your right during the wet weather season but just a trickle today) and just before making it to the bridge we passed through the Rock Creek Campsite where we found a father – daughter duo camping for the weekend.  Once at the bridge there is a large sloping rock above the creek to sit upon and where we had a well-deserved lunch break.  We were all very fortunate today since Tom brought some of his fresh & delicious peach/blackberry cobbler for us to enjoy, thanks for treat Tom!  Well I guess that all good things have to come to an end so we gathered up our belongings and headed back towards the trailhead where we started.  About the time I reached the Boiling Springs Bridge on the way back I could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance and I knew my fellow hikers behind me would be picking up their pace to try and make it out before the rains came but that wasn’t going to happen.  This time instead of returning by way of the upper loop we had already planned to take the lower loop trail of the Rock Creek Loop back to the trailhead and after several more rumbles of thunder a light shower began about .75 miles prior to reaching the junction with the connector trail but with the tree cover it felt great.  By the time I reached the junction it was a steady downpour so I donned my poncho (it seemed that the rain stopped just after putting on the poncho) and just over 1 mile later I made it to the parking lot before 2:00 p.m. where I waited for the others to arrive.  I learned an important lesson today and that’s be careful what you ask for because you may just get it and then some!  Happy Hiking!  For a few pictures click here or on the picture to the right.