Elsie Holmes Nature Park 3.23.21

 I had complete forgotten about this very nice little park.  Our group of six hikers arrived shortly after 9:00A.  We had to wait and arrive no sooner than 9:00 since that is when the gate opens.  Our hike leader, Tammy, had a very nice route planned for us through the park.  As we wound our way through the park we had some very nice views and the spring wildflowers were coming out.  There was a tree with a big holw, a dinosaur tooth and mysterious paw prints.  If you look at the pictures you will wonder who is the idiot that stopped on the railroad tracks?   We took quite a few pictures of the flowers as we went along.  You can see a couple of the flowers on the blog.  The first trail didn't wear us out, so we decided to take one of the other trails.  According to my GPS, our total hiking distance was 3.5 miles.  I would rate this hike as easy.  If you would like to see some pictures taken during this hike, click here.  If you are trying to view the photos through the TTA website and having trouble, please go directly to the blog at www.sdctta.blogspot.com.  

Oswald Dome 3.6.2021

 Four hikers ascended the Oswald Dome, a knob on top of Bean Mountain in the Cherokee National Forest.  After an inauspicious start on the wrong trail, a little bush wacking to find the correct trail, a few trips and falls, we started a gradual constant ascent.  A few places on the trail were a bit steeper.  We hiked through conifers, hardwoods, laurels and rhododendrons; saw the valley aroun Benton and mountain peaks towering over the Hiwassee river.  The top of the mountain was filled with communication towers and no real view, but was a good lunch site.  The rest of the hike was all down hill, retracing our steps.  It was a little longer, 8.9 miles, than advertised, but what a wonderful way to pass the day with blue sky and a cool breeze.  

If you would like to see some photos taken during this hike, click here.  If you are trying to view the photos through the TTA website and having trouble, please go direcvtly to the blog at www.sdctta.blogspot.com.

Sherwood Forest Day Loop 3.2.21

 What a nice day for a new hike in the COVID era.  Since it is unethical to say just how many hikers participated in this hike since officially we were limited to 10 I will just say we had 10+1 hikers on this day.  Of course we all drove our own cars since this is TTA policy and everyone made it to the trail head in spite of the fact that most had never been there before.  It was a great hike of 3 miles and it took us just 2 hours and 36 minutes wih a moving average of 2.0 mph.  There were great views of distant mountains and the natural bridge was beautifule as you can see from the pictures.  If you would like to see these pictures, please click here.  

Pot Point Nature Trail 8.21.2020

Five hikers enjoyed a morning walk on the Pot Point NatureTrail. The trailhead and parking is located just off River Canyon Road, across from the Pot Point cabin. It is an easy to moderate loop trail, mostly a packed dirt path - no rocks, rare root. The first half of the trail climbed through the forest just east of Prentice Cooper State Forest. In the hollow below, we looked for old moonshine still remains but didn’t see any. Occasionally a tumbled-down rock wall bore witness to the hard working farmers of previous generations. After a couple of miles, we crossed River Canyon Road and walked near and along the Tennessee River. The trail here was rather weedy with a few downed trees to climb over. A short road walk led to a meadow with flowers, virgin’s bower, blue mist flower, ironweed and Southern sneezeweed, to feed the butterflies.

If you would like to see some photos taken during this hike, including a map, click here.  If you are trying to view the photos through the TTA website and having trouble, please go directly to the blog at www.sdctta.blogspot.com.  

Big Soddy Gulf 8.15.2020

Saturday's hike was a pretty good hike.  The humidity was nasty, but the temperature was temperate enough.  We departed the Big Soddy Trailhead shortly before 9am.  A little over a mile into the hike, we reached the bridge that crosses the creek heading to the Cumberland Trail.  I should say the bridge that was suppose to cross the creek--it had been washed out sometime during the spring rains.  We had to cross the creek at the old crossing point.  There was water in the creek, but large boulders were placed in the creek so we could cross.  En-route to the CT, we missed the turn onto the CT and ended up on a trail up to the top of the mountain.  We followed it until we ran into another hiker who also missed the CT turn-off.  She said the trail ended in a short distance.  We reversed our direction and picked up the CT where we were suppose to and continued on to the bridge.  We arrived at the bridge around noon and had our snack.  We began our exit around 12:30.  We didn't meet many hikers on the way in, but by the time we exited the trail, just about every swimmable spot along the creek was occupied with small groups of weekenders, trying to escape the heat.  Not many hikers and frolickers wore masks, but everyone seemed to be trying to maintain their social distancing.  Our 5.5 mile hike turned out to be an 8+ mile hike, but still was enjoyable.  

FYI, I did see a study done by Duke University regarding masks.  They seemed to suggest we not use neck gators as masks against Covid-19.  Many of the gators are made of spandex material that breaks up the larger droplets we breath out and creates a fine aerosol vapor mist that hangs in the air longer.  

Tom M.

 If you would like to see some pictures taken during this hike, click here.  If you are trying to view the pictures through the TTA website and having trouble, please go directly to the BLOG at www.sdctta.blogspot.com.