Savage Gulf Day Loop 9.21.21

 Tuesdays Savage Gulf Day Loop Trail was a great hike to close the summer of 2021. It looked like we were going to get wet doing this hike, but as it turned out, it was a rain no-show. Four hikers departed the trailhead around 9:20 est and made our way along the trail to the loop section of the trail one mile in. We continued counter clockwise along the loop until we reached the Savage Fall spur loop which took us to the falls. I must say, 2 days of steady rain made for a spectacular falls experience. The creek and falls were cascading more water than I had ever seen before. We enjoyed the experience and completed the small loop and continued on our hike around the day loop. The trail was in pretty good shape despite the days of rain. The suspension bridges were a bit slippery and required a cautious traverse. As we hiked the trail, we observed a massive amount of downed trees. Some were the result of past events, and some recently downed. I would say this trail gets a significant amount of wind during storms moving through the area. Therefore, I would be cautious hiking in the area when storms may be a possibility. We completed our hike around 1:30 with the sun shining and the temperature in the 70's. It was approximately 6 miles of moderate hiking.

Edit;  At the end of this hike we were taking a breather when we saw a very interesting spyder.  It was a wolf spyder and she was carrying here babies on her back.  You can see a picture here if  you aren't to squeamish.  

If you would like to see some pictures of this hike including maps and altitude graph, click here.  

Ozone Falls 9.18.21

 After spending an hour watching several weather channels, Saturday morning and calling the Ranger station at Ozone Falls, I was still having a hard time determing whether to cancel the hike or not. Each forcast predicted rain, but some also predicted scattered storms. So I discussed it with my fellow hiker and decided we would take a chance. We also decided to skip staging our vehicles and do and in and out hike from Ozone Falls instead of Black Mountain trailhead to Ozone Falls trailhead. So two of us left Soddy Daisy and met another hiker at the Ozone Falls trailhead. We departed the trailhead a little after 10 and enjoyed the Falls on the beginning of the hike, instead of the end. Rain was suppose to start at noon, but arrived and hour early at 11. We were an hour into the hike and continued toward Black Mountain until we turned around at noon. It rained continuously once it started, which made for a slippery trail. We safely exited the trail a little past 1 pm. Instead of a 6.7 mile strenous hike, we did a 4.2 mile not quite strenuous hike. There were days this summer, when I prayed for a rain like the one we had Saturday.

If you would like to see some pictures of this hike including a trail map, click here.