Turtletown Falls 12.18.18

This hike was both good and bad for me.  First the bad.  I forgot my GPS so I couldn't make a map of the hike and its location.  My bad!  The second thing is that my camera was not working correctly.  Somehow I had pressed a button and now I had focusing issues.  Hence the lack of a group picture.  Finally got it figured out and was lucky enough to not walk off a cliff while I was trying to keep up and fix the camera at the same time.  Now the good.  What a great winter hike!  I had never been there before so thanks to those who are finding these new hiking spots.  There were 17 of  us on this approximately 3.5 mile hike.  The duration was about 3 hrs and 20 minutes and I would rate it moderate.  The length of time being due to the time spent at the falls and our snack break.  The falls were double and really roaring as you can see from the water spots on the pictures.  I really hope to return to this hike this summer as the magnolias were everywhere.   Thanks to those that sent in pictures and these pictures can be seen here.  

Deep Creek 12.15.18

We had a very good Saturday hike.  Our hike started at the Soddy Gulf Park on Big So0ddy Creek.  We hiked to the Big Soddy "new" Bridge and then on to the "new-slightly rebuilt" Deep Creek Bridge.  During all this our hike leader also took us on a one mile side trip down the "wrong" fork in the trail.  So, all-in-all, we logged about 9 miles; but it was a perfect day for a hike (cloudy, temp. in the 50's, with damp but sure trail footing).  Big Soddy, Deep Creek, and several unnamed side creeks were flowing very well.  We had four hikers for today's hike (including a mother and her daughter who did about one-half of the hike.  I would rate this hike as strenuous (or at least it felt that way to me).  The rating is due to length and terrain features.  If you would like to see some photos,click here.  

Ft. Oglethorpe 12.11.18

It was a little chilly and icey today so we decided to start a little later.  We all met at the lower parking lot of the Ft. Oglethorpe headquarters.  It was in the low 30's when we started and warmed up to the low 40's by the time we finished.  Otherwize the weather was perfect with not a cloud in the sky.  There were 21 of  us on this 6.2 mile hike.  We changed the path of this hike since we had so much rain and these trails are subject to flooding.  We did very well with minimum mud!  The hike went a little further than planned but since it was very flat, it was not much of a problem.  As is often the case with larger groups, we did get a bit strung out, but we didn't lose anyone, at least I don't think we did.  We even saw deer on several occasions, but they stayed pretty far away from us.  This like lasted about three hours and our average speed was 2.6 mph.  Following the hike we had lunch in Ft. Oglethorpe at Park Place Restaurant.  Since this hike was flat I did not include an altitude graph.  If you would like to see some photos, click here.  No so many as my view finder kept fogging up.

Stinging Falls Fork 12.4.18

Where should I start.  Things didn't go so well on this hike.  No injuries, but I didn't do a very good job of keeping everybody together.  As hike leader on this hike, it was my job to try to keep the 19 hikers organized and together.  It all started with my hike description.  It was to be a fairly short hike but it was steep and rocky.  I didn't state this well in the description.  Because of this, the group became really split up on the way down.  We decided to do a short hike on a new trail being built so some hikers left on this trail while others were just arriving at the Falls.  Needless to say, I couldn't keep track of everyone.  My apologies.   Anyway, we all made it back to the trail head eventually.  Me being the last to arrive and totally exhausted.  I hope everyone got their monies worth on this hike.  The temp. was in the low 40's and overcast.  The falls were really roaring and beautiful.  The total distance I hiked was only 3.3 miles, but if you look at the altitude graph, the change in altitude was 952 ft.  The max speed was 3.0mph with the moving average being 2.4 mph.  The time of the hike was just about 3 hours and 20 minutes.  After the hike we ate at Jacob Myer's and I had the not so good Fish N Chips.  Too much batter!  If you would like to see some pictures including maps and altitude graph, click here.

Soddy Gulf 12.1.18

 Saturday's scheduled hike on the CT was changed due to rains and threatened thunderstorms in the area.  One other hiker showed for the hike.  It was decided that the trail up on the CT would be in pretty poor shape.  As it turned out, the lower part of the trail in Big Soddy Gulf confirmed that – it was flooded in spots.  We arrived at the trailhead around 8:45.  Light rain was falling and the temperature was in the 40's.  The 1.2 mile hike into the trail is basically a gravel road.  I took some company who was visiting me and are not hikers, to this trail.  The creek and waterfalls along the trail were flowing at a good rate.  We hiked the 1.2 miles into the trail to the bridge that crosses the creek before splitting, with the left trail leading up to the CT.  We ended the hike at this point. It was an easy 2 ½ mile easy hike.  It was worth the venturing out in the rain to see the creek and falls in full flow.
To see some pictures of the Gulf flowing nicely and a map of the trail, click here.