Five-Star Trails Chattanooga: Your Guide to the Area's Most Beautiful Hikes [Lingua Inglese] - Brossura

Molloy, Johnny

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0897326326 ISBN 13: 9780897326322

Casa editrice: Menasha Ridge Pr, 2013

Riassunto

Five-Star Trails: Chattanooga is a handy guide for area residents, vacationers seeking outdoor fun, and for business travelers with a free afternoon. With a diverse collection of hiking routes, the book offers choices for everyone from solo trekkers to companions to families with either youngsters or oldsters to consider.

This book profiles close-in urban and suburban locations that can satiate scenery-hungry residents and also offers routes of superlative beauty in the adjacent local, state, and national parks. All this adds up to a hiker’s nirvana.

Chattanooga is ideally situated to enjoy some of the Southeast’s best scenery. To the east and south are two huge tracts of sublime and primitive national forest land -- the Chattahoochee and the Cherokee -- much within an easy drive of Chattanooga. The national forests also offer camping, hunting, fishing, nature study, and more. To the west rises the Cumberland Plateau, with its finest features protected under the umbrella of Tennessee’s state park system, centered by the Volunteer State’s master path, the Cumberland Plateau. The geologically fascinating Cumberland offers hiking routes along rushing rivers, deep gorges, wild waterfalls, and other rock features.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Johnny Molloy is a writer and adventurer based in Johnson City, Tennessee. His outdoor passion started on a backpacking trip in Great Smoky Mountains National Park while attending the University of Tennessee. That first foray unleashed love of the outdoors that has led the Tennessee native to spending most of his time backpacking, canoe camping, and tent camping for the past 25 years. He has written more than 40 books about the outdoors including hiking guidebooks, camping guidebooks, paddling guidebooks, comprehensive guidebooks about a specific area and true outdoor adventure books throughout the Eastern United States. Molloy writes for varied magazines, for websites, and is a columnist and feature writer for his local paper, theJohnson City Press. He continues writing and traveling extensively throughout the United States, endeavoring in a variety of outdoor pursuits.

Estratto. © Riproduzione autorizzata. Diritti riservati.:

Snoopers Rock Natural Bridge Hike

Key At-a-Glance Information
GPS Trailhead Coordinates: N35° 6.075', W85° 25.732'

Scenery: 5 stars
Trail Condition: 4 stars
Children: 3 stars
Difficulty: 2 stars
Solitude: 4 stars

Distance & Configuration: 6-mile there and back
Hiking Time: 3.5 hours
Outstanding Features: Incredible view, rock arch
Elevation: 1,600 feet at trailhead, 1,760 feet at high point
Access: No fees, permits, or passes required
Maps: Cumberland Trail-m-Tennessee River Gorge, USGS Wauhatchie
Facilities: Picnic tables, restroom
Wheelchair Access: None
Info: Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park, 220 Park Road, Caryville, TN 37714, (423) 566-2229; Prentice Cooper State Forest, P.O. Box 160, Hixson, TN 37343, (423) 658-5551

Overview
This hike visits a portion of the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee, where the Tennessee River cuts a 1,000-foot gorge through the Cumberland Plateau. Within the confines of large and wild Prentice Cooper State Forest, you will first come to the large, wide, and top notch vista at Snoopers Rock, where river gorge panoramas amaze. You will then pick up the Cumberland Trail, hiking the canyon rim and the stream valleys that cut their own chasms, eventually reaching Natural Bridge, a sturdy stone arch over which you hike.

Route Details
Note: The state forest is closed to hikers during certain spring and fall hunt dates. Check ahead for these weekends before you drive to the trailhead. The dates are posted on the state forest website. This hike uses part of what is known as the Pot Point Loop. Leave the parking area. A white-blazed connector trail leads to left, easterly, from behind the trailhead kiosk. Take this single-track path downhill, rambling through hardwoods to quickly pass a small pond. Come along a small branch. Reach a trail junction at 0.3 mile. Here, you meet the Cumberland Trail. The way to Natural Bridge turns right here, however keep straight and walk past the northbound Cumberland Trail before opening onto the expansive flat stone of Snoopers Rock. The views are inspiring. The Grand Canyon of the Tennessee River stretches both north and south as it bends out of sight, bordered by high bluffs dropping to steep wooded slopes that fall to the waterway. Raccoon Mountain stands boldly across the river. The wide open rock slab is about as fine of an overlook as there is.

Backtrack to the southbound Cumberland Trail, heading toward the Natural Bridge. Work your way out to the gorge rim. Look back toward the pale stone of Snoopers Rock jutting into the canyon. Turn into Muddy Branch Hollow, crossing normally-clear Muddy Branch at 0.5 mile. Pay attention here as the trail goes on and off a steep roadbed. Climb back toward the canyon rim in oak-dominated woods. It’s a long way down from here-m-1,000 feet to the river! The terrain is difficult, extremely sloped and rocky. Walking the path can be a challenge; building it must’ve been tough. Make a hard switchback to the right at 0.9 mile, then level off and resume your southbound ways. Rock outcrops are abundant.

Turn into Ritchie Hollow, one of the larger coves in this gorge, at 1.2 miles. Hike a level bench, with outcrops and rock houses (natural rock shelters) aplenty above you. Crossing the first major tributary of Ritchie Hollow at 1.6 miles, then bridge two more tributaries at 2.1 and 2.2 miles. The path is quite stony in spots. Curve back toward the Tennessee River, reaching the canyon rim at 2.8 miles. Cruise the edge of the gulf. Wintertime views are extensive along this wooded rim. If I had to be a tree, I would want to be one of these sturdy oaks perched here, along the brow of canyon. At 3.1 miles, a narrow trail connecting to a rock slab lures you left. The views are only partial though, and don’t even compare to those of Snoopers Rock.

This overlook immediately precedes the Natural Bridge. You will walk atop the natural bridge first. A casual hiker might not even notice that they are using a stone walkway over an opening below. However, the Natural Bridge is signed. It's not too hard to drop off the trail and get under the arch. It is down here you can appreciate the stone span that extends about 20-feet high and 40-feet wide-m-a squat, sturdy conduit.

This arch is a by-product of erosive process. Arches can be formed in numerous ways, including more violent, instantaneous means, such as rock collapse versus unhurried erosion by water. Arches have their own special terminology. The span of rock over which you walk, the actual natural bridge, is called a lintel. The flat part of this bridge, in this case, where the trail travels, is called the deck. From below you can look up at the span of the arch. This span is widest distance between the two arch pillars. The clearance is the highest point of the arch down to the ground.

Natural Bridge is but one of many highlights located within 25,000-acre Prentice Cooper State Forest. The preserve, named for a Tennessee governor, was established in 1945, after the state bought subsistence farms, pasturage, and forestland here on the Plateau. It was once hunting ground of the Cherokee Indians, who lived along the banks of the Tennessee River where Chattanooga now lies. Today, the state land is managed for forestry and hunting, but also has one of the most spectacular sections of the Cumberland Trail, part of which this hike covers.

Nearby Attractions
Campers can use several trail accessible backcountry campsites in the forest, or car camp at Davis Pond and at the state forest entrance. Camping conditions are primitive.

Directions
From Chattanooga, take US 27 to the base of Signal Mountain and the junction of US 27 and US 127 northwest of Chattanooga. Take US 127 north for 1.6 miles to TN 27 west. Turn left on TN 27 west and follow it for 8 miles to Choctaw Trail and a sign for Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area. Turn left on Choctaw Trail and follow it for 0.2 mile to reach Game Reserve Road. Turn left on Game Reserve Road and enter Prentice Cooper State Forest, where it becomes Tower Road. Keep forward on gravel Tower Road for 4.6 miles to the Cumberland Trail parking area on your left.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Menasha Ridge Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0897326326
• ISBN 13: 9780897326322
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 257