Savage Falls 5.5.18

  We (George, John, Don and Tom – here after known as the geezer hikers) met at the Durham St. parking lot at 8am and departed for the ranger station at Savage Gulf.  The weather was great for hiking – upper 60's with rain threatening but never appearing.  We departed on the trail at 8:40 on what was booked as a 10 mile south rim hike.  We settled on labeling it a 12 mile hike after we compared fit bit, GPS and park map write up of the hike.  Although it was a long hike, the elevation transition was minimal along the ridge trail.  The falls were all running at full splendor (they rivaled the falls along the Zambezi).  We visited several lookouts along the trail.  One lookout I labled the Mountain Goat lookout.  This lookout required some cautious traversing down a rocky decent to the lookout.  We continued to the lookout at the 5.8 mile mark and had lunch.  We then proceeded to exit the trail.  Along the exit, John, who was in the sweep position (unusual for John who normally occupies the lead position) calls out 'snake on the trail'.  I (Tom) dropped back and observed an 11 to 12 inch viper headed snake lying in the leaves along the trail.  John nor I being combat photographers, failed to take a picture of the critter.  We discussed the genus of the snake and decided it most likely was a copperhead.  After the deadly viper slowly slithered off, we continued on our perilous but rewarding hike.  We exited the trail at 2pm, tired but mentally refreshed.  Don said this would probably be his last hike of the season.   He is devoting his energies to bike riding during the warm summer months.  He already had an encounter with the pesky tick during his last hike on Tuesday.  If you would like to see some beautiful pictures including some short videos, click here.

Foster Falls 5.1.18

Oh what a beautiful day.  The weather was absolutely perfect with clear blue skies.   We got off to bit of a shaky start when the hike leader forget the earlier start time.  This person's name will, of course, not be mentioned.  This was quickly resolved however with a phone call.  It was about a 45 minute drive to the trailhead and once we all arrived, the hike was on.  The hike distance was only about 1.7 miles, but it was an absolutely beautiful 1.7 miles.  The time of the hike was about 1hr and 50min.  I am so happy that we have found some new trails to hike.  We did find a new nickname for one of our regular hikers.  He shall forever now be known as Stop Sign Bob.  The reason for this unusual nickname will also be lost in antiquity.   I would rate this hike as moderate-severe as there was one section over the rocks that was quite steep.  I of course fell and tore my brand new cargo pants.  Following the hike we had an absolutely scrumptious lunch at the Mountain Goat Market.  If you would like to see a bunch of photos including one short video and a graph of the hike, click here. 

Sitton Gulch 4.28.18

Oh what a beautiful morning. I’m sorry any of you had to miss this hike. The weather was wonderful, the greenery was greener than ever and the water was roaring all the way down. There were only 6 of us on this easy - to moderate  4 mile hike. Everyone took lots of pictures of the waterfalls and the flowers. On the way down from the falls we stopped for a short break next to the water.
To see some nice pictures, click here. 

Jim Adams Wilderness 4.24.18

It wasn't the nicest of days so I was surprised that so many showed up.  Today, we had a total of 13 hikers.  Because it had been raining for the previous few days, we moved the hike to Soddy Gorge, now called Jim Adams Wilderness.  Although it was not raining, it was very damp.  Because of the rain from the previous days, the Soddy Creek was ROARING! No one had seen this much water in the creek before.  The length of the hike for the short distance crowd was 3.6 miles.  The advanced group went an additional 4+ miles round trip for their total of over 7 miles.  I would rate this hike as easy for the short distance group and moderate for those that went longer.  Following the hike most of us went to the Blue Ribbon and had a delightful lunch.  Thank you Kathy for identifying the blue blumes we often found that had dropped from a the nearby tree.  The tree is called the Empress or Princess tree.  For some pictures, click here.  There are even a couple of short videos.  Please note the great picture of our hike leader taken by Kathy. 

3-Day Georgia Hike at Black Mountain

There were 13 people (6 cars) that met in Ooltewah for the trip to Black Rock Mt. We stopped at a good restaurant in Clayton for lunch and then to Tallulah Gorge for our first hike. At the ranger station we saw a film about the gorge and then we were off to explore it. The pictures don’t do it justice. It was absolutely gorgeous.  It wasn’t a long Hike, but we had to traverse 320 stairs down to the suspension bridge, went across it and then 320 stairs back up the other side. Very much worth the effort.  From there we went to our cabin on top of (literally) Black Rock Mountain. We had 3 cabins with views of the whole mountain range. We all brought appetizer type food for dinner, so we settled down and had an evening of good food and good friendship.
Day-2, Beautiful day in an enchanted forest of waterfalls, rhododendrons, Laurel and blooming wildflowers. Afternoon involved a hike around the crest of Black rock Mountain State Park. Distance was short but with lots of elevation changes  and with spectacular views of the mountains on all sides. The day ended with a few aches and pains and full hearts.
Day 3, After breakfast (we tried to finish most of our leftovers) we packed and left Black  Rock Mountain. We stopped for our last hike at moccasins state park - Hemlock Falls Trail. It was an easy 4 mile round trip. Filled with beautiful laurels, rhododendrons and a stream that we followed to the falls.  From there we said our good byes and we split up. Six of us took advantage of being close to Helen and went there for lunch.
Thanks Trich for putting together such great hikes.
To see some pictures, click here.