You are NOT here

Friday April 29, 2011

Site 79 C

Cumberland Mountain State Park, Tennessee

We’ve been having

our share of conflicts between sleep and electronics.
First the LP detector and now

my cell phone decided to notify me at 1am

that someone had sent me an email.

Clearly I had forgotten to turn it off.

It turned out to be another beautiful no rain day.

After a bacon and egg breakfast,

 we went out to hike the Byrd Creek Trail

which I had run on Tuesday and

wanted David to see.

It is a yellow blazed trail

that runs along the creek on one side,

crosses over and comes back

on the other side.

It's a lovely shady  trail

all about beautiful water

and big trees 

There are  large old growth trees

and big tree huggers

Several different kinds of fiddleheads were up

Beavers appeared to be in training

Isn't the tree is supposed to fall out into the water

in order to create a dam?

Fire Pink on the trailside

About half way around

the Byrd Creek yellow blazed trail loop,

you can extend the hike by taking a further blue blazed loop called the

Cumberland Overnight Trail.

 

After looking at the posted map and its YOU ARE HERE information,

we determined that we could go .65 mile up this additional 6 mile loop and

come to another suspension bridge. 

At that point, we’d just turn around and come back to the yellow blaze

 and our hike would be just over 4 miles total.

So that's what we did.

This trail was much less cool and dark

than the beautiful hemlock/pine covered yellow trail. 

The forest here was mostly second growth mixed hardwoods.

 

There were several lovely sections

including one with wild geraniums

nearly covering the path. 

AS usual, neither of our cameras does this experience justice.

The geraniums were everywhere.

 

The sides of the sunlit trail were also covered

with young trees of every kind trying to get a start

in the competition for light.

David took a lot of pictures of their young little leaves.

Here's one

There were also numerous wildflowers along the trail

including Solomon's Seal

False Solomon's Seal

Huge patches of May Apple

in bloom

(the twin leaves are the only ones that bloom)

Poplar tree tulip flowers along the path

and other folks out enjoying it all too

When we came to a barbed wire fence on our left,

indicating the park’s boundary line,

and we’d been hiking an hour,

we knew something was wrong.

We checked the pocket map

but couldn’t see how we’d gotten to where we were

from where we’d started.  

But according to map,

the bridge was over 4 miles from here. 

Something had gone wrong.

So we turned around and went back having missed the bridge.

 BUMMER!

But, the section of the Blue blazed trail we had hiked

was well worth it. 

When we got back to the trail intersections

and looked again at the posted map,

it was very clear that

YOU ARE HERE was

NOT where we were at all.

The posted map was wrong

and based on its information, we’d taken the wrong leg of the Blue trail.  

The pocket map's print was too small and fuzzy for that kind of detail.

So it was no help at all.

NOT COOL Cumberland Mountain Trail folks.

David fixed their map for them when we got back to Winnona.

Now we just need to find an email address to send it to.

Not sure how they will feel about his use

of the frequent Tennessee "honey".

Soon after getting back on the Byrd Creek trail

we came to this great bridge built in 2005

as an Eagle Scout project by Lee Suydam.

Notice the Boy Scout Symbol

Nice touch!

The rest of the Byrd

Creek loop was lovely

with some of the biggest and healthiest hemlocks

and other trees that we have seen. 

The adelgid either hasn’t gotten here yet

or is in its early stages of infestation.

A few stream crossings later and

near the end of the yellow blazed trail, it intersected

with the Red blazed 1 mile Cumberland Plateau Trail

So we took that toward the back of the dam.

 

Two of the spillways were open.

The Cumberland staff had done a great

job of controlling the flooding by lowering

the level of the lake several days before

all the rains.  You can see that in pictures on previous posts.

Now they had let the lake rise

and it was lookin' fine.

On our return we stopped at the Registration Center

to tell them about the map problem

and  then returned to leftovers for dinner. 

Just what you want to have available when you return from hiking.

We sat out on the patio reading for a while

and came in as the sun set.

Tomorrow is our last day at Cumberland Mountain

and it is supposed to be lovely so we have a packed agenda

of things we couldn’t do in the rain

and want to do before we leave on Monday.

See you then.

The creek was flowing fast as a result of the spill over the dam.

J

Cumberland State Park's pocket trail maps

leave much to be desired. 

The maps at every trail intersection are much clearer

and easier to read.