Piney Falls 5.4.19

Piney Falls Hike May 4, 2019
The hike scheduled for this Saturday actually turned out to be the hike scheduled for next Saturday the 11th. It got serendipitously changed when John and I missed the turnoff at Shut-In Gap road and drove further on route 68 to the turnoff to Piney Falls. We decided to chech out the Falls trail, which was slightly over 2 miles and then return to the Piney River Trail at the base of the mountain. As it turned out, a storm struck as we exited the Falls trail and prevented our return to the River Trail. It was a much better arrangement because if we had gotten on the River Trail first, we would have been caught 3 miles into the River trail and most surely been drenched. The hike was as follows: We left the Soddy Daisy parking lot at 8:30. Several other hikers who were going to make the hike cancelled out. So it was just John and myself making the hike. We arrived at the Falls trailhead around 9:30 and set out. The weather was overcast and in the low 60's. Shortly after departing the trailhead, the sun broke out and it was an extremely pleasant hike. The trail was in pretty good condition and we took the trail to the top of the upper falls. We made our decent to the bottom of the falls via a steep decline down the bluff. There was a steel cable along the trail that aided in the decent. It was a good thing because the trail at this point is very narrow and rocky. Any slip on the trail here would have meant a speedy but painful arrival at the bottom. The recent rains rendered the falls spectacular. We hiked behind the falls and headed for Lower Piney Falls. On the way to the lower falls. I got a weather warning on my cell phone indicating severe weather approaching. We picked up the pace and finished the hike just as the storm arrived. It was a short but very enjoyable hike. If anyone wants to do this same hike, I am returning next week to do the river hike and we can easily add the falls to it. There were a couple of spots on the trail that were a challenge, but all in all I would rate this 2 mile hike as an easy to moderate hike.

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