Booker T. Washington SP 4.28.14

4.28.14    Due to all the rain we had Monday night  the venue was changed from Harrison State Park to Booker T Washington.  6 Hikers showed up ready to face whatever nature threw at us.  There were many branches down and lots of bushes hanging over the trail.  Mike brought a saw with him and spent a lot of time sawing his  way through the park.  It turned out to be a nice morning and we didn't even get our feet wet.  We did the 5 mile trail.  I would rate this trail as easy.  For a few pictures of the hike click the Booker T. Washington tab above.

North Chickamauga Loop 4.26.14

What a difference a couple of miles make! Our hike for the Soddy Daisy Chapter of the TTA was originally setup for an approximate 5 mile moderate hike with Bob McGavock as the Hike Leader. On Friday evening I received a call from Bob and he was going to be unable to hike on Saturday due to other commitments so I was asked to fill in for him – “oh happy days” (not because he couldn’t make it but because now I could increase the mileage somewhat). Based on my calculations the hike would originally have been 4.31 miles utilizing the Lower and Upper Hogskin Loop trail and then terminating our first half of the hike at the Boston Branch Overlook before returning to the trailhead parking lot. This was a little short for one of our typical Saturday hikes so the good part is as hike leader I could modify our hike somewhat. I decided to add 2.34 miles to the hike by stopping at the Boston Branch Overlook for our water and snack break and then continuing on just short of the creek crossing with the cable handrail.  The usual crowd of men had mysteriously taken today off from hiking for one reason or another and there turned out to be only three of us, men that is, but we had reinforcements from five women of the chapter. And the good news was that they took it in stride and didn’t mutiny when I announced the additional mileage at the beginning of our trek. What Troopers they were too! I believe I did hear something about getting even with Bob for shirking his hiking duties and letting me change the hike from the approx. 4.5 miles to my newly announced 6.5+ mile hike so I’m glad I’m not Bob! Well back to the hike, we began our hike with sunny temps in the lower 60’s and by the time we finished it was starting to warm up to the mid 70’s. As I previously indicated we started hiking on the Lower Hogskin Loop trail which was new to me since I had bypassed the Lower Loop trail back in January and kept to the Upper when doing a thru hike from the Barker Camp trailhead. The major portion of the hike didn’t seem to offer as wide of a variety in local wildflowers as I’ve seen recently on other portions of the CT but it did offer impressive views of rock bluffs along the mid portion of the hike. Once we enjoyed our break at the Boston Branch Overlook we continued on towards the Cable Crossing where we were met with several trees blocking the trail which we had to climb over or under to continue on our way. It would be really nice if the CT SP would offer a chainsaw certification class soon so I could legally backpack in with my chainsaw and remove some of the current obstacles we faced today (Hint!!!). It was on this portion of the trail that we saw several nice displays of wildflowers, some I’ve seen previously on other trails and a few I hadn’t. When I arrived at the Creek Crossing with the Cable Handrail there was very little water flowing down the creek and over the falls but that wasn’t too much of a surprise since the rest of the water crossings today were pretty much non-eventful. For me once we reached the end of our adventure at the Cable Creek Crossing I was already contemplating about returning to this trail in the next week or so and doing another thru hike beginning at Barker Camp. It will be enjoyable counting off the 22 switch-backs leading down through the Hemlocks towards the water crossing at Cooper Creek and then relaxing for a few minutes at Stevenson Branch Campsite before continuing on our trek towards Montlake Road. There’s always that next hike with their new experiences that makes life a little more exciting and worthwhile! I really hope you were able to make it out to a trail today where you could enjoy the outdoors. Happy Hiking Everyone! If you would like to see some pictures taken on the hike click here or on the North Chick tab above.

Larry