We made a trip to Greeneville to see Broyle's Store and ate lunch. Once that was out of the way we headed toward Paint Creek Recreation Area to see a couple waterfalls we'd never visited before. We moved to Tennessee in December 2001. I was not able to visit Horse Creek or Paint Creek to see these falls for a long time. August 3 through 4th, 2001 Greene County and Cocke County had 15 plus inches of rain fall in a 24 hour period. The devastation was immense. Its hard for me to wrap my head around that amount of rainfall in those mountains in that short period of time.
At last we visited Kelley, Dudley and Ricker Branch Falls.
above and below: Kelley Falls is quite pretty
Below: Forest and the bluff across from Kelley Falls
Below: mat of debris below the falls. I can't help wondering if some of this is still lying around since the August 2001 flood event?
Below: The embankment you have to climb down to get to Kelley Falls. It was slick as snot on a door knob.
Below is a short video of Kelley Falls
Next we went down the road a couple miles further and found Dudley Falls. It is a low cascade, but a pretty one and the swimming hole here is large and very pretty! There is pretty good parking at Dudley Falls and there are restrooms.
above: Dudley Falls with its large swimming hole
Below: zoomed in a bit on Dudley Falls. Someone has put up rope swings.
Below: The skies today over the forest were incredibly blue!
Below: blue skies and white bluffs near Dudley Falls
Below: I'm on the embankment much closer to Dudley Falls.
Below: a looking back at the pretty green swimming hole.
Below is a short video of Dudley Falls that shows it better. It is more than worth the trip to see especially if put together with the numerous other area waterfalls. I realized how it had been far too long between trips to the Northern Cherokee National Forest. In my mind it is a long, long way off, but it really isn't. It is closer than Brevard and we go over there plenty. We need to remedy this situation with some day hikes and camping trips. We did locate Ricker Branch Falls. I did not even take a photo of it as it was such a pitifully low flow. At least it wasn't hard to find or reach.
Some on my wish list are a revisit to Red Fork Falls, Dick's Creek Falls, Sill Branch Falls,
Saturday was supposed to be very cold and possibly rainy or snowing. Kenny works out in the cold all week and while he wanted to get out he was not wanting to do a long hike in the cold. We planned something easy and fun instead. We had not done any hiking in the northern portion of the Cherokee National Forest for many years. Last time was to Camp Creek Bald. Today we headed toward Greeneville, Tennessee. First we stopped by Broyle's General Store to check it out. It was new to us both. We loved it! It is a toy land that any kid would love. They have quality toys. Many old timey toys. They have bins of penny candy. They have garden seeds, tools, hats, fertilizers, bug sprays,
animal feed, home decoration. They do not sell basic staple groceries. It is a fun, old timey atmosphere. We will bring the grandkids by here for certain. They were warm and welcoming.
It was not crazy busy, but there was quite a buzz while we were there. Families with kids!
above: front of Broyle's store located at 730 W. Main Street Greeneville TN 37743
Hours of operation:
Wednesday
9 AM–5 PM
Thursday
9 AM–5 PM
Friday
9 AM–5 PM
Saturday
9 AM–1 PM
Sunday
Closed
Monday
9 AM–5 PM
Tuesday
9 AM–5 PM
Below: from the parking lot at Broyle's store the train tracks run behind it. That is a plus for me!
Below is a video of the freight train passing by. I love trains.
Above: beautiful amaryllis bulbs in bloom.
Below: collection of garden ornament roosters and the penny candy bins at the front
Above: What an assortment of bird feeders
Above: Papaw Kenny checking out sleds and ride on toys
above: I am not sure what is in the metal bins, but there are moon pies and candy.
above: customer checking out the farm toys. We still have some of Kenny's farm toys from his childhood. I have some of Jared's also. I even have one hampshire hog toy that was my Daddy's when he was a child.
Below: Gardening gloves and tools
Below: The front room of the store is just past this doorway
Below: dump trucks, tractor trailers, log trucks and all kinds of farm toys
above and below: toys galore! If you look close at the bottom photo there is a bow and arrow set with suction cups. Jared had one as a kid. I can still remember those things whizzing by my head and sticking to the wall.
Below: colorful sleds and ride on toys in the front of the store
Below: mushroom hummingbird feeders
Below: buckets of candy
Below: Toy Land indeed! Girls toys and baby toys. Blocks, stacking rings, barns with shape sorters, doll houses.
Below: potting soil and wood boring bee traps
Below: seed jars of about anything you can think of.
Below: cars and trucks
Below: animal feed and dog treats
Below: hats for gardening and outdoors
We enjoyed our visit to Broyles Store and will be back! If you are in the Greeneville area give them a try! You'll be glad you did.
My daughter-in-law Lydia and her children.. my two youngest grandkids wanted to go hiking. We set a date for Saturday and decided we'd go. It would be Mia's first hike ever in the Smoky Mountains.
We decided to go to lunch at Calhoun's first so everyone would have a full tank for energy.
We would hike Rhododendron Creek for an easy, enjoyable hike with lots to see.
We would then go for dessert after our hike. Everyone was excited about it and we woke to chilly, but clear weather.
The plan went well. Calhoun's was busy, but we got seated immediately. Everyone had a great meal and plenty of energy to hike. It was a short drive out to the Greenbrier section of the Park to the trailhead. Rhododendron Creek is not an official park trail, but an old manway. I hiked it first in May 2003 with Reggie. It was unforgettable. I realized recently that all my grandkids had been to see it except little Mia. We'd remedy that today. I got the last parking spot when I pulled up to the location.
I admit to being a little surprised to find anyone else there, but no matter.
Below is a video of our day on the creek.
We had an awesome day. Got back to the jeep to find my vehicle had been vandalized. Antenna snapped off and some hiking stickers on the back scraped off. It was a shitty thing to find out, but it could have been far worse. It was a small matter and did not ruin our good time. We stopped by Mad Dog Donuts and Ice cream for dessert on the way back home. Kids had ice cream and me and Lydia had iced coffee. It was refreshing. Nice pick me up. We went home via Pigeon Forge and Sevierville instead of the shorter River Road. Mia was car sick on the drive to Gatlinburg so I was wanting to avoid that. It was a wise decision. We stopped off at Jared & Lydia's house where we found Papaw Kenny and Jared had installed the dishwasher, new kitchen ceiling fan/light and the doggie door!
I am in the market for a T- shirt cannon that is big enough to fire a chihuahua. Tippy won't use the dog door so it is going to take some repeated persuasion.
I had been studying maps including Lifetime Maps out in the area between Gobey and Fork Mountain/New River. I was intrigued by several things I'd seen mentioned on Lifetime Maps.
It listed Cage Creek Falls, FM (Fork Mountain) Falls and another NC Waterfall. I'm guessing the NC was for North Cumberland? It showed Fork Mountain Cave, Cage Creek Mine and an old incline.
I dug into it further and found a video by a fellow who rode Cage Creek and mentioned the falls. It seemed to confirm for me that the waterfall existed. He did not go by the falls in the video, but I did not blame him. It was high Summer. Weedy, snakey and low flow waterfalls at that time. I just figured he left off going to it thanks to those factors. I had been eager to get back out there and see these for myself. Kenny was all about it as well. We set aside the entire Saturday to do that.
We started in from Gobey. We saw two or three other rigs along Macedonia Road near the church.
We started off from the Gobey end and headed across to Fork Mountain to visit these mines, caves, and waterfalls in person. I am going to do a very abbreviated trip report. It was quite a let down of a day.
The waterfalls were flowing, but two of them Fork Mountain and North Cumberland Falls were wet weather falls. While they were flowing I'd not have listed them. Cage Creek Falls does not exist. It turned out to be a pretty green hole of water with a riffle about six inches high if that.
Cage Creek Mine was a series of two surface mines. We saw some partial views along our journey.
We had pretty weather. It was about 65 degrees and sunny. We saw one nice pond. Fork Mountain Cave was cool. We saw the ruins of the old incline. We passed other remnants of mining. Fork Mountain Mine and another one I cannot recall the name of right now.
The day ended up being way less scenic a ride than I'd hoped. It was also longer than I'd wanted.
I don't do well with riding along. It is boring to me. I need to keep rides short and interesting.
Today was neither of those things. By the time we got back to the truck I was motion sick and had a busting headache. I was disgusted with the whole thing to the point in my mind "I'm never doing this again. I am done with riding. Sell the machine!"
I still feel the same way for the most part. I know that I'll go again, but I will take dramamine and keep the ride shorter and try to choose a better ride. I don't know where Lifetime Maps gets their info, but whoever thought those waterfalls should be included does not know what a waterfall looks like apparently.
I took some motrin for my splitting head. We stopped by the Dollar General in Wartburg on the way home for me to get some Dramamine for my sick stomach. It helped. I was able to eat a little bit back at Oak Ridge. We stopped at Chik Fil A to get fast food.
I hope others will see this and not get snookered the way we did. A lot of effort and time for very little return on the investment.
Below: Bluebird skies for our day out
Below: The remnants of the former rail bed rambling through the forest by the road. Stick season makes it easier to see these things.
above and below: ruins of a former coal storage I believe.
Below: We have arrived at our big intersection
above and below a beautiful view of the mountains from up high.
below: not much color today so this vibrant green moss really stood out.
Below: The trail by Fork Mountain Cave was mud and muck. Lots of this today.
Above: formations near Fork Mountain Cave
Below: Fork Mountain Cave
Below: Looking out of Fork Mountain Cave
Below: trail by Fork Mountain Cave
Below: archette within Fork Mountain Cave
Below: Looking straight up into the ceiling of Fork Mountain Cave.
Below: Blue skies seen from inside the cave.
Below is a short video of Fork Mountain Cave. Getting up into it was quite a trick, but getting down Kenny found me a better way.
BBelow: Fork Mountain Falls.
Below is a short video of Fork Mountain Falls
BBelow: The even worse NC Waterfall .
Below: This pond was just past the pitiful NC Falls. It was somewhat pretty.
Below: Cage Creek Mine #1 If you look closely you can see a tiny child playing on the far right.
It is a surface mine, but I'm not sure what they mined here. Coal?
I wondered how stable this big bank of earth really is?
Above: Cage Creek "Falls". blink blink. Pretty spot along the stream, but certainly not a falls.
Below: looking downstream at the hole of water
Below is a video clip of Cage Creek.
We went out past Cage Creek "Falls and tried to head back to the truck. We missed a turn on the right and had to double back. It was thankfully the only spot we messed up today. This is where the ride got so rough and rutted. One mud hole after another with lots of jostling around. This is when I began to get seriously motion sick.
Below: two shots of the last slightly interesting thing we saw all day long. The ruins of some sort of utility shed just past where the old Incline was. At the actual site of the incline the cable is still lying on the ground down over the mountainside! That was kinda cool, but by now I was starting to feel so bad I no longer cared.
Word of Caution: Lifetime Maps is great for finding your way around. It is NOT always to be believed when it says "waterfall" or what have you. Yes, there were features here, but they did not deserve any special attention.
Kenny is getting where he dislikes hiking and can't handle long hikes.
I am unwilling to tolerate long rides. Looks like either some compromises coming in the Koogler Household or a wild west standoff.
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