Harrison Bay State Park 7.29.14

7.29.14    There were 10 of us on this  4.5 mile walk. As it was an easy walk there were several people that walked ahead and others that were walking slow enjoying the beautiful morning. If you would like to see a picture of the hikers on this hike, click here or on picture to the right.

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North Chickamauga 7.26.14

7.26.14    Another hike on a very hot but dry summer day.  The Soddy Daisy chapter was scheduled to hike from the trailhead located just off of Montlake Road to Stevenson Branch Campsite, approximately 8.5 miles – there and back.  I volunteered to lead today’s hike since I had hiked it a couple of times this Spring prior to the month long shut down that the CTSP initiated for the month of June.  The CTSP was quoted as saying that it was required to do maintenance, construction, visitor protection, and resource protection projects in response to damage from years of unauthorized parking, trampling and erosion.  I’ll get back to the actual results from the month long closure in a minute.

We were to meet at the Soddy Daisy Wal-Mart by 8:00 a.m., although we never really know how many hikers will participate from week to week but I was not expecting a large group today due to the Summer months which deter many of our hikers from hiking the longer, more strenuous hikes in 90 degree weather.  As it turned out we had four hikers including myself to hit the trail this morning which included Boodie Fox, Tom Long, Zach Tate & Larry Hill.  After leaving the trailhead I led them up the Upper Hogskin Loop trail to the old mining road as we ascended the ridgeline to get to the footpath that would parallel the creek down below.  We were all eager to see the purported improvements that had been made to the trail.  The starting temp was in the lower 70’s but I knew before we completed our trek it would be approaching 90 or better so I brought plenty of water in case anyone else came up short.  Two of the hikers were unfamiliar with this segment and I warned them that once we crossed the waterfalls with the cable crossing that the remaining trail to Stevenson Branch was more of a goat trail than one that you would normally associate with the Cumberland Trail.  We stopped at the Boston Branch Overlook for a water break and so far so good but since I had not seen any maintenance thus far on the segment itself I wasn’t holding my breath for the upcoming portion leading to the waterfall crossing.  This upcoming portion has had large downed trees which you have to step across, crawl over or stoop under for at least the past two summers and as I suspected today it was no different with the exception that now the vegetation has overgrown over much of that portion of the trail, poor Boodie was trying his best to do some trail maintenance along the trail as he hiked which he is famous for but I believe he was even overwhelmed by the growth.  While he was trying to trim back some of the vegetation he slipped off of the trail and went a short distance down a hill very close to the creek bed and sustained several abrasions about his arms and legs which were bleeding freely but was able to be controlled with some “Wound Sealer” (available at your local pharmacy) that Tom had in his first aid kit, I’ve never seen it before but I would recommend that anyone that hikes carry some in their first aid kit since it really does work to clot the bleeding.  I’ve always admired how Boodie, who at 79 years young, has kept himself in tip top shape with his hiking and bicycling and I’m sure that his lifestyle had helped prevent him from incurring greater injury to himself from the fall than what he sustained.  Well after we had our lunch break we walked over to Cooper Creek and then crossed over where I was able to point out some stonework for a makeshift campsite and a few minutes later we began our return journey back towards the trailhead.  Just after crossing the waterfall for the second time, we were making our way through the maze of fallen debris and the last large log we had to step across was basically covered up in the tall grasses and as Boodie was bringing his leg across the log there was a branch stob that was hidden by the grass and he raked the front of his leg across it and it removed 2-3 inches of meat from his leg and appeared to almost go to the bone, this was definitely not Boodie’s day to be on the trail, at least not this particular trail.  The blood was running down his leg and into his sock so Tom found another packet of wound sealer and with his bandages was able to control the heavy bleeding until Boodie could get back to his vehicle where he was headed to N. Park Memorial for the ER. 

Let me interject one thought here and that is the CTSP Manager had this park closed for one whole month but apparently never got past the parking lot and access areas to the creek leading towards the Blue Hole.  The “real trail” was never touched for the trail maintenance nor the trail erosion that exists on the trail between the waterfalls and Stevenson Branch Campsite.   Also the lumber that I helped carry down for replacing the ladder in I believe late April is still stacked under the rock bluff and the old ladder with the safety issues still stands as it did then.  Much of what happened to Boodie today could have been averted if they had taken a day out of their busy schedule and at least used their chainsaw to remove the downed trees.  If he’s not going to use his rangers for this type of maintenance he could have at least hired an independent contractor to clear the trail and make it safer to hike.  I’m sure I could have found a few volunteers to go with me and we could have removed them (all in one day) and I and any other volunteers would have been glad to sign a waiver of responsibility so the State wouldn’t have any legal issues due to any possible injuries sustained during the removal.  Let me also preface this by saying this is not the fault of the local rangers, they can only work on what they are told, this problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the Manager who was the same one that banned chainsaw use by volunteers until they could be certified and since his edict last year the State has never offered a “Certification Course” with chainsaws in our area so as usual with this lack of management skill the trail and the hikers are the only ones that suffer!

Well so much for an ending to what could have been a great hike.  I can report that Boodie spent most of his afternoon and evening in the ER and after they cleaned out the wound they told him to come back on Monday morning to have it stitched up, I believe they wanted to wait until they could determine that the powder that was used to stop the bleeding wouldn’t cause any problems after sealing up the wound with stitches.  I hope your time on the trail this weekend was better than ours! This hike is obviously rated as severe.  For a few pictures, none of them gory, click here or on the picture to the right.   Happy Hiking!

Thank you Larry for this extreme report.