8.16.14 Well it was another beautiful Saturday for a hike with the only downside being that the temps were to rise into the upper 80’s. As usual the Soddy Daisy Chapter met for our Sluder Lane to Big Soddy Creek hike at the Durham Street ball fields in Soddy Daisy and departed by 8:00 a.m.. I guess it’s hard to stir up a lot of interest among our Chapter’s hikers when you state that the mileage is a minimum of 8 miles and they know it’s going to be Hot & Strenuous. We did have five suckers, I mean hikers, that showed up with the mentality of no pain, no gain and I was one of them. George Bonneau is not only our Chapter’s hard working Hike Coordinator but for today he was also our Hike Leader. He surprised several of the group by saying that he wanted to bypass the shortcut out via the Rock Climbers parking lot and travel in and out via the Little Soddy Gorge, thus adding at least another 2 miles to our journey for a total of about 10+ miles. I let him know the more the merrier for me but I would go with whatever he ultimately decided to do. The others being Bob, John & Tom were not so easily swayed so they wanted to wait and see after we hiked over to Big Soddy Creek for a brief lunch before they committed to hike the additional mileage.
We arrived at the Sluder Lane trailhead and proceeded down through the Little Soddy Gorge but if you’ve never hiked this trail you would probably be a little dismayed at the old tires and a couple of rusty appliances along the trail that had been thrown down from the roadway up above. At one time it was cleaned up by the State as I was told but the tires were left down there because the State had nowhere to dispose of them (that was hard for me to understand since there is a Hamilton County Tire Recycle Center next to the Silverdale Corrections Center) so for now they just sit down there in a pile or two as a reminder of how some people have no respect for themselves or our planet. Otherwise it’s a nice trek alongside of the Little Soddy Creek where years ago they were actively mining coal from the area as labeled with some interesting signs along the trail. One designated where an old home site had been along with several signs locating some old mine sites, a mule barn site and a stockade road. We then climbed out of the Gorge and crossed over Hotwater Road where we proceeded along the trail towards the new Deep Creek Bridge. On the way we passed Posey Point which provides no views except during the winter after the leaves have fallen, then the next point of interest is an abandoned Open Mine which makes you wonder if the miners were all midgets or had to work hunched over all day due to the low entrance height to the mine. About a mile later we reached the Deep Creek Bridge and I’m glad to report that the State had returned to place a set of steps where once you had to climb down about five feet to reach the boulder below. Many thanks to our local lead Ranger, Anthony Jones, and his team for adding the steps, now if I could just suggest that they add a cable mounted with standoffs along an upper boulder to safely traverse the crest of the lower boulder during wet and icy conditions until you can safely reach the main trail about 10 feet away. I don’t want to push my luck but I’m just asking.
We then left Deep Creek and trekked less than a mile to our “Ghost” Bridge at the Big Soddy Creek. All of the Volunteers collectively put in thousands of hours I’m sure and worked so hard last summer in transporting the tons of ready mix concrete, lumber and steel beams down from the bluff up above and then zip lining it down to the bridge site below but that all came to an abrupt end late last year with Tony’s departure and the news that the State was to take over its’ completion. We have the steel towers up, the cables and lumber had all been purchased with the grant money so the only thing left is to rig the cables and assemble the wooden bridge structure to be able to walk across which should be a “walk in the park” (no pun intended) but with the current priorities of the CT Park Manager seemingly not on the trail I can only assume we may be looking at five years or so before we actually have completion of the Suspension Bridge. As I understand it the Deep Creek Bridge had a 2009 donation of $6,000 to his non-profit “Friends” group and it was constructed this year under his direction by State employees. I hope he proves me wrong but only time will tell! He was quoted in a May 1st Chattanooga Times Free Press article concerning the Big Soddy Bridge completion (remember all of the material had been purchased last year by Tony while General Manager for the CTC): “That one will be the "most costly," Fulcher said, projecting that expense at about $57,000.”??? Oh well, after reminiscing over the bridge project that never was we headed back where three of the group had decided to mutiny and take the shortcut out to Sluder Lane and George and myself returned back along the trail we came in on. For my three fellow hikers that had cut short their adventure in search of their air conditioned comforts they still had a solid 8 miles racked up for the day (not too shabby) and for the other two, we had a minimum 10 mile trek for the day. Either way I believe we all had an enjoyable Saturday and hopefully you did too! Happy Hiking! I would rate this hike as semi-strenuous. If you would like to see a few pictures, click here or on the Sluder Lane tab above.
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