Saturday, 6 hikers trusted the weather report by driving thru the rain to Spring City. As we approached the trailhead at Stinging Fork Falls, the rain stopped. We walked thru a mist for a short time. Instead of going to the falls, we turned left at the sign for the new thru trail, 16 miles to the Head of the Sequatchie. Our goal was 4.25 miles, lunch, then turn around.
The rain had stopped, but the first 0.2 miles of the trail was thick, slippery mud. After that we descended on a beautiful rock stairway to the bridge crossing Stinging Fork Creek. A gradual ascent thru the quiet, soft pine forest brought us to another hike down along Little Soak Creek which we easily crossed, multiple times, on rocks. One more steep climb out of the gorge, then rest and lunch. The one incident was when a hiker sat down on our lunch log and broke it. No more cookies for him! We hiked about 8.5 miles with an elevation gain of 1000+ feet.
If you would like to see some photos taken during this hike, click here.