Cumberland Trail TR

“Well here ya go.

I got to Cove Lake Campground close to dark and after driving around looking for Chill’s Jeep I finally figured out that I was the first one there. I decided to go look up some firewood as it was gonna be chilly later on that night. The only wood I could buy turned out to be solid oak tag ends from some furniture making operation and some treated 2x2’s thrown in for good measure. The price was right so I bought 6 bundles. This part of the Cumberland’s is right next to I-75 about 30 miles north of Knoxville. There are four little town’s here and they are stacked end on end of each other. They run up and down state route 25. The economy is not strong in that area and it kinda made me home sick for Southern Indiana. The folks were friendly though and I talked with a few people about the trail and things in general. I blew some time just looking around and then went back to Cove Lake, nope nobody there yet!! I was starting to worry Mr. Ranger as I had made about 20 circles through the campground by now. I parked where I could watch cars come in to the park and waited. I finally saw what I thought was a jeep and it turned out to be Chili and Nursegoodbody.

We set up on Cove Lake, which had been drawn down for the winter, looked like a big mud hole!! We had the added ambience of a Chicken Processing Plant about 500 yards from us, (We just love mechanically separated chicken!!) Check out Longlosthiker pics if you wanna get a bitter, er better, idea of the campsite. I had some trouble getting that green oak to light and finally got some pine going and we had a fire. Longlosthiker showed up shortly after that with ChiTown right behind him. Chili made some fajitas and we set around eating, drinking and telling stories. We made the toast to Bearmagnet at the appointed time and ended up hitting the sack around 10:00 PM or so. The temps were mild and I slept well, despite the loud emissions of steam that emanated from the Chicken Plant about every hour or so!!! I guess I would not really recommend Cove Lake State Park as a good place, at least not where we were camped!!
Up at first light and Chili made some breakfast burritos that were very good, thanks Chili!!
We packed up and ChiTown’s back was bothering him so he decided to head back home. Better safe than sorry!! I think he made a good call here as the Cumberland trail turned out to more than just moderately rugged!!! We set up the shuttle car and hit the trail around 10:00 AM. Now I took about 50 pics all along the trail and had some real good ones to share, but some how managed to delete the whole batch!!! Dammit!!! I need a new camera!!!

The Cumberland Trail parallels I-75 for about 1 ½ miles and the traffic sounds were very loud, that made conversation difficult to say the least. Longlosthiker jumped some deer along this portion of the trail so the wildlife didn’t seem to mind the noise!! We headed north and came upon Brice Gap Falls er, sompuin like that!! They were very pretty and a good water source. Chili pointed out several places you could swim and even get a good waterfall shower if ya wanted! I found some girls underwear there so I guess other people thought it was a good place as well, lol

Time to climb and up we went!! The Cumberland Trail is switched backed pretty well here and we made good time going up. We stopped to readjust and take a small break about halfway up. This section of the Cumberland Trail has a very particular geologic formation called the Devil’s Race Track that runs along it. It ‘s kinda like a spine of rock that is anywhere from 2 to 5 feet wide and has vertical sides that can be as much as 30 feet tall. The majority of it is probably about 5 feet from the ground proper. The Devil’s Race Track runs very close to the top of the ridgeline and we spent a real good portion of the hike right on the top of it!! I was very cool to hike it, but can be hard on the knees.
I was really wishing I had brought my knee brace for this hike!! I would estimate that we spent about 85% of the hike climbing up and down this staircase like limestone outcrop!!
We just kept heading north along the ridge and went up and down many, many times. The views were really nice to the east, but the trees prevented any impressive looks to the west. We crossed an access road about halfway to the shelter and had some lunch close to there. This road had a good deal of trash along it, not so much that four people with a pickup truck could not clean up in half a day though!! We followed it for about 3/8 mile and then got back into the woods and back to the Devil’s Race Track and all it’s wonderful ups and downs!! The weather really worked well for us with the temps in the 50”s and no rain at all!! I was in my shirt sleeves the whole way and was hot some of the time. The trail took some real neat scrambles that some folks would not find fun!! We had to do a lot of climbing and that slowed us down a lot!

Just about dark we made the shelter house and it started to sprinkle. I have to admit I was glad to get off the rock!! My knees were starting to get mad at me!! The shelter was really nice and very clean!! We did find a very little watershed just to the south of this; we could have used it, but had enough water so we left it alone. I would not count on it for summer water though!! Chili and Nursegoodbody got all set up on the bottom shelf and I took the other bottom half. Longlosthiker decided to sleep on the top bunk and got pretty good at climbing up there! This turned out to be Nursegoodbody longest hike to date and considering the terrain, I think she did very well!! I am sure that her 12 lb pack was a big help!! Chili got her all tucked in her bag and made sure she had plenty of mood elevators. (Rum and Coke, Ibuprofen and some electrolytes!) She must have been very comfortable cause she promptly fell asleep!! I fired up my alcohol stove and made some tea. I also had some Ibuprofen, no need to suffer if ya don’t have too!!!

Chili, Longlosthiker and myself gathered some wood and I got the fire going. It kept raining off and on, but never really heavy!! Longlosthiker got his stove going and made us some mulled wine!! That turned out to be excellent and I sat around the fire in the rain and drank it!! That was very special as the fire did well and the rain was warm!! I carried that rain suit up the mountain and I figured I might as well use it. Longlosthiker sawed a lot of wood with his saw and that made the fire pretty much rain proof. Nursegoodbody got up from her nap and her and Chili came out and got some fire time in. The rain started to pick up and they packed it in for the night. We got some fog rolling in and that was pretty cool! I made some chicken stew and got in my bag around 10:00. The rain continued on and off until about 2:00 AM and then the wind picked up and the temps fell quick!! I am certain we got some gusts close to 40 MPH!! The shelter kept the wind off of us for the most part and we all slept warm!!

The morning dawned cold and windy with some sleet coming down in small amounts! We all made our breakfasts and got on the trail pretty quick!! The climb down to Tank Springs was very steep and certainly could be considered treacherous!! I would not have wanted to climb up it, at least not with ice and snow!! There was one section where we had to take off our packs and pass them up about 14 vertical feet, of courses we had to do this in about a 30 MPH wind!!! It was pretty cold too and I was glad when we got past that point!!! We got to the car and found a puppy that someone had left for us. There was a pile of food by the car and we had a hard time getting the dog out from under the car!! It had mange and was not a friendly dog! Longlosthiker called the police and they came and got it. We went to Shoneys and had breakfast, said good bye and hit the road around 12:00.
The Cumberland Trail is a very rugged trail and you need to be in good shape to take it on!! I think it is an interesting hike, but there are some spots that could use a reroute. Overall, it is pretty well maintained especially when you consider the amount of pines that have been chained sawed along the trail!!
See ya later.
Randall”

“wtf?!? is a trip report doping here. Dude, this is a political board.

Nice report though. Sounds like a place thats great to get together with friends but not much for wilderness experience :)”

“Nice TR, Randall.”

“That's weird that someone would leave a puppy at a trailhead with a pile of food, did I read that right??”

“Some jackass dumped a dog at the TH. They deserved to be shot.”

“Must be something about the Cumberland Trail that attracts non-hiking jerks, even worse when they come with trackhoes and bulldozers: http://americanhiking.chattablogs.com/archives/064527.html

BTW, I've actually wanted to do the CT above LaFollette for a while and wish I could have come down to meet yalls.”

“Good report.. Thanks Randall...”