Sitton's Gulch 10.30.18

This was one of our longer drives.  We chose to go to Sitton's Gulch in Cloudland Canyon.  Instead of  the 600 plus steps approach, we entered toward Hemlock falls via Sitton's Gulch.  I guess you could say we cheated!  This approach led us on a five mile round trip hike with a duration of just under three hours for this very large group of 23.  I would rate this hike as moderate as the route to the falls is a steady, but shallow climb.  We averaged 2.5 mph on the hike with a peak of 4.0 mph.  The overall average for this hike was 1.6 mph.  Once we reached the falls we enjoyed a short snack before leaving.  Of interest is that one of the hikers dropped her hiking stick in a most difficult to retrieve spot.  However, with some serious climbing and squeezing it was retrieved.  The falls were beautiful even though there was not a lot of water flowing.  This time of year is always very beautiful for a hike and the temperature was perfect.  Following the hike, we had a very nice lunch at the Parkway Pourhouse in Chattanooga near the river.  If you would like to see a bunch of pictures including a map and altitude graph, click here. 

Cloudland Canyon West Rim

We had another large group for this hike, 19 brave individuals.  The day was a bit overcast, but the temperature was just about perfect.  As usual there was some disagreement about just how long this hike was.  Some said 6 1/2 miles others about five miles.  My GPS registered 5.06 miles.  I think 5 miles is pretty close.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  From all the chatter, I think everyone had a great time as there were lots of overlooks with great views.  I would rate this hike as easy-moderate.  I showed 4.0 mph as the fastest we walked with 2.1 mph as the moving average.  The overall average was 1.4 and this included rest and snack stops.  The time of the hike was 3 hrs 43 minutes.  If you multiply 1.4 times the overall time, you get pretty close to five miles.  After the hike, as usual, we had a delightful lunch.  This time it was at the Pigeon Mountain Grill.  If you would like to see a bunch of pictures, a map of the hike as well as an altitude graph, click here.

North Chickamauga Gorge 10.20.18

Todays hike started out as a rainy day. We were scheduled to do a 10 mile hike at Snow Falls, but since it started out as a rainy, messy day, the two hikers (Tom and John) decided to change the hike to a 6 miler at North Chickamauga Creek.

I hadn't been to North Chick in about 2 years and Tom had never been there.

It turned out that the rainy messy day turned into a mostly cloudy day on a wet trail in a very pretty place. I had almost forgotten how pretty the North Chick gorge is and I hope to get back there more often.

I would rate this hike as fairly strenuous. 

If you want to see some great pictures courtesy of Tom and John, click here. 

Laurel Falls 10.16.18

WELCOME BACK NANCY!  Our snowbird Nancy is back and she led this hike!  After several head counts we determined that we had a very large group of 19!  The day was overcast and we were a little worried about rain, but all we got was a couple of drops about midway through the hike.  This hike was rated as easy-moderate.  The moderate part was the distance and that we had to crawl through a hole in some rocks to continue on the trail.  When we reached Laurel Falls it was flowing nicely and everyone sat on one of the large rocks and had a snack.  The rain held off until we were comfortable eating our lunch.  This hike was a total of 5.4 miles and lasted just about 4 hours.  Following the hike, most of the hikers had a nice lunch meal at the Screen Door in Dayton.  If you would like to see a lot of pictures including a map and altitude graph, click here.  Thank you John P. for contributing some of the pictures.

Booker T. Washington S. P. 10.13.18

Well, I sort of made a mistake.  I failed to look at the schedule for the 13th and missed a hike I would have liked to have taken.  Anyway, the hike was led by Jean.  One of our snowbird regulars, Nancy A., joined us as she was escaping a Maine Winter.  This was Jean's first experience as a hike leader.  While leading, she had a minor hiccup and lost five hikers.  Luckily for cell phones and the two groups rejoined coming from opposite directions.  Donna P. split off at this point and led a few on a longer loop.  Nancy, on her first outing in a while, fell victim to that old hikers adage, "it's only a quarter mile away...".  Overall it was a great fall day for hiking and everyone had a great time, especially Jean!  If you would like to see a few pictures of the group, click here.