Spring Get-Away 5-2022

 These pictures are late since for some reason this time post did not share?  Anyway my apologies.  Members of the Scenic City Hiking Club were invited to an overnight get away for a few days of comradery and hiking in the Big South Fork area.  As you can see from the group picture quite a few hikers showed up for this outing.  Several different places were hiked among them were Arches Loop Trail, Poque Creek, Colditz Falls and Picket State Park/Big South Fork.  Everyone had a great time and more outing are being planned.  

If you would like to see a bunch of photos taken during this outing, please click here.  

Can't Hardly Trail

 We had 12 hikers including myself.  I was happy to hear that most of the hikers had not been on the Can't Hardly trail, so it was a new experience for them.  The trail did not disappoint.  It was lush and had several bridges we could use to cross the creek, although portions of the creek were very low.  We stopped for a snack back on the connector at the Bear Creek bridge and then returned to the parking lot on the trail.  The total miles were between 3.5 to 4 miles.  The elevation gain was minimum with a total of around 400 feet.  

The highlight was the addition of Mary, who is a new member ofg the Gallatin chapter of Tennessee Trails.  She was camping in Cloudland Canyon and took the time to hike with us.  We hope she is able to join us on future hikes.  

If you would like to see some very nice pictures, click here.  

Little Cedar Mountain 5.17.2022

 Little Cedar Mountain has always been one of my favorite hikes.  Once away from the highway noise, it is a absolutely beautiful walk in the woods.  There are many diverse landscapes and our favorite lunch space overlooks the Tennessee River.  We had 14 hikers on this perfect day with temperatures in the high 70's to low 80's.  We did the outer loop conveniently titled Cedar Mountain Trail.  This trail is just over three miles long and would rate it as mostly easy.  We did miss one turn, but it quickly became evident that we were no longer on the trail.  I think those that had not hiked this trail before, were pleasantly surprised. 

If you would like to see a few photos taken during this hike including maps, click here.  

Raccoon Mountain 5.14.2022

 

I think this hike may be one of the last spring-time hikes for 2022.  It was a fairly pleasant hike up to Laurel Point.  Though it was approximately 5 miles up and 1500 feet of altitude gain, the humidity was only in the 70% range.  The temperature got up to the lower 80’s.  There seemed to be few bikers on the trail that we had to lookout for.  I think there may have been a race being held on one of the other trails.  After several missed turns trying to get to the trailhead, we began our hike from the boat ramp up the mountain with our final upward destination being Laurel Point.  We had lunch at one of the covered pavilions on top.  We weren’t treated to much of a view of the valley below when we reached Laurel Point – the foliage has already reached a point where most of the view on the west side of the mountain is blocked.  We then began our descent after spending a few moments on the point.  We were on the Live Wire trail for a while until we connected with the High Voltage trail on the descent.  We arrived back at the boat ramp around 3pm.  The downward hike left me with sore feet for the rest of the day.  None of the possible predicted showers showed up and the trail condition was very good.  We estimated the hike was a strenuous 11+miles.  

If you would like to see pictures taken during this hike as well as a trail map, click here.  

Cloudland Canyon, Lollipop Loop, 5.10.2022

 When we arrived at Cloudland Canyon, there was a little mix-up of the meeting place, but we quickly straightened this out.  This was another joint hike with the Highland Rim Chapter.  When we all finally got together, there were 19 total hikers.  We set out around the canyon to the West Rim which was a nice hike to the Lollipop Trail.  This trail is kind of shaped like a lollipop with a loop followed by an out and back section.  The total distance was just short of 6 miles with lots of ups and downs, roots and rocks.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and the overlooks were spectacular.  Joan led the hike and as usual kept us all together which can be a daunting task.  Everyone survived and had a very good time.  

If you would like to see a bunch of photographs of this hike, including an altitude graph, click here.