Savage Gulf (again)

August 30-31, 2008 - Collins West to Sawmill Camp to Stone Door - 9 Miles Through

In our last group hike at Savage Gulf we ended at Collins West. This time around we picked up at Collins West and headed northwest.

(To be continued)

Savage Gulf

January 2008 - North Rim - 16 Miles Total In/Out

It was certainly cold but we were banking on a spot at Hobbs Cabin. Hobbs Cabin is a cabin available along the North Rim trail on a first come, first serve basis. I had been told that it's hard to get on anything except maybe the middle of a week but I figured the temperatures would keep most off the trail. It's been a while but I believe it was in the 40s during the day. Anyway, not only was the cabin occupied but the three other camping sites that we could find around it were as well.

Like many of the sites at Savage Gulf/Stone Door, Hobbs Cabin has an outhouse available. There is also a stream available along the way. I don't remember it but I marked it on the GPS. The coordinates for that and other locations can be found on WikiLoc.

Check out the Friends of the SCRA website for more info on the park and pictures of the cabin.

Savage Gulf

July 21-22, 2007 - Savage Ranger Station to Collins West
- 11 Miles (Through)

Savage Gulf is a phenomenal park. Having said that, this trail is not the best of what the park has to offer. It's a straight forward through-hike from the Savage Ranger Station on the east side of the park to Collins West on the south side of the park.

Parking at the Savage Ranger Station is great. There are plenty of spots and the lot feels real secure. The Collins West parking is OK. Generally I'm ok with all the lots around Savage Gulf.

The south side of the trail is pretty rocky and nothing about the trail is really a standout. The South Rim portion of the trail has the park's trademark overlooks. I like the Big Creek Rim and North Rim overlooks better for some reason. We took this trip because it was one of the few trails that we hadn't explored. Plus, the Collins West site is near parking. We staged our gear in one car in Collins West and hiked with just water and some food from the Savage Ranger Station to the vehicles. It was a chance to hike 10+ miles in one day and just enjoy it. That night we retrieved the gear from the car near Collins West and spent the night in Collins West.

There is a stream crossing along the way where you can filter water. I've marked it on WikiLoc below. There is water near Collins West but it's a downhill hike (steep) for a little under a mile. If it has been raining this site would be really cool looking. The creek has cut a swath out of the hill side that looks like an alpine slide.

Waypoints and trail data available at WikiLoc. Do note that the tracks end before the trail does. I had spotty GPS reception on the latter end of the trail.

Piney River

June 21-22, 2008 - Piney River - 9 Miles (Through)

Piney River is a former Bowater Pocket Wilderness which is now owned by the state of Tennessee. There is no ranger station on site but registration is required. Registration can be accomplished by telephone at 423-566-2253 or on the web here. At the time of our trip there was no fee associated with camping overnight.

There are plenty of campsites along the trail and I created a waypoint for each that I saw. These are available for download from WikiLoc. The best site by far is marked "Logging Camp" (16 S 688929 3952030) with "Camp 1" (16 S 689597 3952990) coming in second place. Both Logging Camp and Camp 1 are located along the river but Logging Camp is more or less at the half way point, it is located away from the main trail, and someone has made some nice stone chairs along the fire ring (it's the little touches that make the difference). There are actually two camp sites in the vicinity of the grid that I've provided. One sits in the shadow of a large stone wall. The other one is located south of the stone wall and is closer to the river. This last one is the nicer one.

I would call this a moderate trail due to the steep climb that we encountered at the beginning of the hike. Beyond that it isn't too bad. The trail generally follows the river the majority of the time and even crosses it several times. However, you are not always traveling at river level. If you start on the east side, don't expect to hit water until you arrive at the Piney River Bridge (assuming McDonald Branch is dry).

Piney River has the natural assets to be a great trail but there are a few things that hold it back. First off, both ends of this trail have picnic tables and large parking areas. Based off the amount of trash located at the eastern trail head, it's clear that the locals don't value this asset as they aught to. Seeing a trashed trail head doesn't make one feel great about leaving a car unattended overnight. The second problem involves the trail markings. We started at the eastern trail head and moved west. Near the eastern entrance there is a sign that shows that the main trail has green metal blazes while the spurs use a different color metal disk. Within the first mile we ended up taking an unintentional detour along an overlook spur (located at 16 S 691405 3954390) all because it prominently displayed one of those green markers. You find very quickly that these metal blazes are not commonly used. Instead, white paint is the order of the day. The third and final problem that I have with Piney River is that at the time of our trip there were several large fallen trees that obstructed the trail and made it difficult to pass. Many of these should be cut away.

The problems listed here are fairly small and the trail is a pretty decent one. The best time to go is probably after some rainstorms. The river was very low when we went and I always think a lively river is prettier than a dried up one.

There are a couple of good sources for more information on this trail. Hiking Tennessee by Kelley Roark provides a writeup on this trail. Cumberlandtrail.org/piney.html
also has directions and some simple, visually appealing maps.

I have placed my tracks and all my waypoints here on WikiLoc.

Virgin Falls

Fall 2007 - Virgin Falls - 9 Miles (4.5 In/Out)

Of all the places that I've backpacked in Tennessee, this is my favorite. The hike can be difficult at times but it is well worth it. The water supplying the falls comes out of a cave at the top of a hill, plunges 110 feet and disappears into a cave at the base. Virgin Falls is located 20 miles southwest of Crossville.

Things to know: There are no rangers on site and no one patrols it regularly. This was originally a Bowater Pocket Wilderness. The state of Tennessee owns it now but it hasn't taken on official "park" status yet. There are no permits needed for staying overnight. There are some caves on the grounds. When things are drier you can explore some of the caves for short distances. If you do, be sure to bring multiple sources of light and travel in groups.

I won't go into great detail about this trail because it was covered very well in Hiking Tennessee by Kelley Roark, a book that I highly recommend if you're looking for backpacking trips in Tennessee broken down by region. A map is located in the book as well as the information board located at the trail head.

Parking is at (UTM, WGS 84) 16 S 655111 3969136.
Big Laurel Falls and a campsite is located at 16 S 652679 3967918.
There is a scenic overlook at 16 S 652937 3968416.
The main falls are located at 16 S 650822 3967326.

Directions can be found through the Tennessee website here.
Partial GPS tracks (2/3 of the trail) and all the waypoints above can be found at WikiLoc.

Long Hunter State Park - Volunteer Trail

April 12-13 - Long Hunter State Park Volunteer Trail - 11 Miles Total In/Out

Long Hunter State Park is a decent sized park located on the east side of Percy Priest Lake. For people living in Nashville, this park is very easy to access by way of the I-40 Mount Juliet (Providence) exit.

There are several trails in LHSP but I'm going to focus on their overnight trail, Volunteer Trail. Volunteer Trail is roughly 5.5 miles long and follows the lake most of the way. With the exception of the day loop that splits off early on, Volunteer Trail is a "there and back" trail for a total of 11 miles. The terrain is generally flat.

While sweeping vistas of wooded gorges are the norm on backpacking trips on the Cumberland Plateau, the Volunteer Trail goes a different route. The draw here is the proximity that I mentioned before as well as a pleasant lake that follows you almost every step of the way. Having said all that, two things degrade the Volunteer Trail. One, along portions of the trail fast moving cars are pretty audible. If your goal is to be lost in the silence of the woods, this could be a deal breaker. Two, the prevailing winds across Percy Priest Lake must blow west to east because anything that isn't tied down on a fishing boat ends up on the shores of this trail. This isn't the case the entire length of the trail but there are stretches that are particularly bad. (Note: This may not always be the case. Periodically volunteer groups come out for clean-up days. Not to mention, hikers who choose to pickup a certain amount of trash along the way.)

There are two separate campsites at the end of this trail. Both are roomy and suitable for large groups. Fires are permitted and there are no fees for camping. A permit is required and that can be obtained at the visitor's center. I was not able to find any good maps for this trail through official Tennessee websites. However, free maps are available at the visitor's center. Additional information on the day loop can be found in the book "60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Nashville."

Parking for the trail is located at (UTM, WGS 84) 16 S 540202 3995331.
The first campsite is located at 16 S 540022 3997760.

The official website for this park is located here.

To download the waypoints and the GPS tracks go to WikiLoc

Big South Fork National Park - Blue Heron Loop

May 24-25 2008 - Big South Fork National Park Blue Heron Loop - 6.4 Miles

This weekend I hiked Big South Fork National Park for the first time. I was accompanied by my wife and two other individuals. I settled on the Blue Heron loop because it wasn't too long, it was a loop, and a substantial part of the time the trail followed the river.

Things to know. BSF only has a handful of established campsites. These are primarily geared towards drive up campers. If you're a backpacker, you should ignore these sites. Camping along trails is referred to as backcountry camping and requires a $5 permit for the group. Permits can be obtained at the Bandy Creek Visitors station. You can basically setup camp wherever you like as long as it isn't to close to trails, historical sites, or under rock overhangs. Consult the National Park Service website for details. Fires are also permitted.

Note: Originally I used Google Maps to plan our drive from Nashville to Bandy Creek. However, one of our guests pointed out that the location cited by Google Maps was not accurate. They place the visitor's center in Onieda which is too far east. Confirm the location with the map provided by the National Park Service.

From the visitor's station it is another 35 miles to the Blue Heron trail head. The parking area at the trail head is quite substantial. There is a great deal of parking there, a train station for a scenic railway, a concession stand, restrooms, a river launch, and historical mockups of the mining town that once existed here. The coal tipple and a train tressel are all that exist in full as the rest of the "buildings" are just metal frames to indicate where things were located and what their function was.

We elected to go counter clockwise from the parking area, something I'd do differently if I had it to do over again. I prefer hiking more the first day than I do the second and I wanted to camp along the river. There simply isn't enough river along this trail if you go counter clockwise... something I glossed over during the planning. If you hike clockwise from the parking lot you will pass through four miles of woods and overlooks before meeting the river. Camp there next to Laurel Branch and you will only have two miles on the way out. Stop along the rapids known as Devil's Jump and you can have fun climbing the boulders and exploring along the river.

There are three campsites that I identified along the river portion of the trail. Using Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM - the metric equivalent of Longitude and Latitude) and the datum WGS 84, I got the following coordinates for the three campsites:
Devil's Jump Campsite = 16 S 719829 4061194
Riverside Camp = 16 S 720763 4060637 (the photo at the top of this posting was taken near here)
Laurel Branch Camp = 16 S 720742 4060444
Of course, these camp names are just ones that I made up, you won't find them on any map put out by the park. These are just places that see habitual use by backpackers. Be advised that the second site in this list is actually too close to the trail for camping (less than 25 feet). However, I've left it on the list as a nice place to sit and rest and to take pictures.

My impressions: I thought this was a very pretty place. Even though it was Memorial Day weekend when we went, we only saw to other groups on the trail the whole weekend. One was a family leaving the river having gone fishing (with some pretty big fish) and the other was some horse riders. We never saw any other backpackers. The trail is a bit too far for us in Nashville. We clocked three hours to the Bandy Creek Visitor's Center and 200 miles flat to the trail head. This was a pretty easy hike for us. Usually we do 5-7 miles a day so this trip became more about putting down the packs and bouldering from time to time. One cool thing worth noting is that you will find a lot of coal just lying around. We used some to keep the fire warm when dry firewood was not terribly abundant. I would highly recommend the park to people in Knoxville. As for us Nashville folk... well, I'm thinking a multi-day canoing trip might be in order.

Map Details: While maps are available through the NPS online and off, I recommend purchasing the National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map for BSF. It shows much more detail than the NPS map. You can purchase this map at REI or the visitor's station. I've added some things though. On their map TH means trail head. However, I did not start there. We drove the improved road along the river to the end of the black arrow. That put us near the train station, the tipple, and the train tressel. I have marked the tressel with a red X. It is now a pedestrian bridge. With small blue Xs I have marked the approximate locations (I do mean approximate since I simply eyeballed it based off of my GPS tracks) of the three waypoints I gave earlier marked from West to East in order. We stayed at the third one which is between the trail and Laurel Branch. I recommend it because it is more private than the other two sites that we found and it was big enough for three tents and the fire with plenty of room to spare. Click on this map to enlarge it and better see the Xs.

To download the tracks and waypoints go to WikiLoc