Jamestown Weekend

above: Cypripedium calceolus found in Fentress Co. 

 Jamestown Weekend 

Thurs. April 16 through Sunday April 19, 2026

Kenny & Dana Koogler

Sharon McGee & Otey the Pup

Jared, Lydia, Gabe & Mia Koogler 

Photos are HERE 

  My friend Sharon lives in Fentress County out past Jamestown.   She asked me to come house and dog sit for her so she could hike Mount LeConte. I readily agreed and offered to let her "house swap" with me despite the kitchen being remodeled.    She had plans for lodging already so she did not stay here.  I made it over to her home around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday.  

I had my jeep throw a "Service Transmission" error code and go into limp mode on the interstate on the way over twice.  Each time I was driving the speed limit at 70 mph.   I had a shimmy in my left rear tire from where a flat got replaced with a new tire and was not properly balanced.  

Once I got off the interstate I didn't have anymore trouble.  I knew though that I'd want to leave on Sunday when Kenny did so I didn't travel home alone.   I'd get off I-40 east in Lenoir City to drive secondary roads in case of more trouble.  I also knew on Monday or Tuesday I needed to get to the dealership to get it checked. 

 

  I stopped briefly at  Cumberland Mountain General Store in Clarkrange.  I learned that they had put the antiques back in the store after having removed them.  I've been trying to find some unique items to freshen up our house.  The remodel really inspired me.  I found the store busy, but not crowded.  It is a nice compromise now between boutique and antique.   I found the blend to be just right.    

   I left with some decoration for my kitchen as well as our camper.  Limited space in the camper means the items need to be small and special.  I found that today! 

Below: paper flower bouquets and wreaths! 

above: shelves with more paper flowers, moon pies, hats, dolls, and jewelry

Below :  closer view of hat and sign

Below: the shelves are filled with antiques once again!  

   I had a nice visit with Sharon.  She had fixed dinner which we enjoyed.  She left that evening and it was just me and Otey on our own.  I took him on an evening walk down to the river and the beach area. It was pretty as always and the bird songs, sounds of the river and the quiet were lovely.

Below:  looking downstream. Water levels are low. We need rain!

Below: Looking straight at the bluff 

Below: zoomed in on the dogwood blooms on the bluff

Below is a short video clip of the evening sounds along the river.  The birds sound so pretty. 

  I watched TV for awhile and found some pastels in the closet. I sat down and drew with them. It was fun, but messy.  It is hard to get much detail with these. My daughter in law Lydia later told me she'd work with me on them to help me finesse how to blend and get detail.  She's talented!

Below: First attempt with pastels.  A scene up Bill's Creek.  Very rough. 

 

      Friday Morning I loaded Otey up and took a ride up Bill's Creek.  Based on what I had seen in the woods around the house and along the road I had a feeling wildflower season was mostly over at this elevation.   A drive up the road confirmed it.  It was pitiful.  I had missed it by a mile.  

 

  I was down about it, but realized that unless I could get up high in elevation there was nothing for it.

I decided instead to spend the day in Crossville.   I got Otey squared away and rode down to the Rocking Horse Antique Shop.  I am so glad I did! I was there a little over a month ago so I didn't hold out much hope of finding good stuff that was interesting.  I shouldn't have doubted them.  I came out of there with an entire box of wonderful unique home decoration.  Stuff for the bathroom, back screen porch, kitchen and more.   They have a great assortment of antiques and contemporary country home items.  

  I also went to McAllister's for lunch.  It was healthy and satisfying.   I hit Beall's before heading home.    I found a pretty new dress, sandals and a blouse for me.  I found a good candle for the house.

  I figured I'd best head back since Otey would be ready to eat.   I made a day of it and by the time I pulled in Jared, Lydia, and the kids arrived just ahead of me.   They were playing with the dog.

Kenny showed up a short time later.   He stopped in Jamestown to pick up some items for dinner.

    Sharon  had suggested the family join me over at the house.  What a great friend.  

I was happy to see them. I slept much better with Kenny there. I missed him. 

     The kids played with the dog and had fun. Mia drew and colored with me.  We planned to go riding the next day.  

Saturday 

   We had a nice breakfast Saturday morning.  Coffee on the deck.   Breakfast round the table. 

It was lovely.  Everyone rested well.    I packed sandwiches for everyone and we gathered our gear to go for a ride.    We went up the river trail and it was very pretty.  Lydia had never seen it before at all.

Jared had only seen a little of it.  

   Fringe trees were blooming all along the river and smelled heavenly.  

Below:  a fish eye view of the river and its mirrored surface. We had a bluebird day! 

Below: a little bit of golden ragwort blooming

Below:  violets in bloom 

Below: the river trail stretches onward 

Below:  wild geraniums still hung on

above and below: fringe tree in bloom. 

Below: the machines along the trail. Jared, my son at the far right. 

 What a change between visits to the River Trail.  Last Spring this time we had to turn back thanks to ultra high water crossings.  Back during Winter Kenny & the guys in the family couldn't get close to it thanks to high water.  Today the levels were low, but the river still very pretty. 

Above:  blue hole of water on the river

Below:  upper end of the Blue Hole

Below:  the blue hole up at the gully

Below:  the overlook at Wilder Subdivision 

     We wanted to ride through some areas where the kids could play in the creek and go along Wilson Ridge up high. I thought maybe we'd see some wildflowers up higher.   It turned out to be a good plan, but the wildflowers were still largely spent.   It was a real let down, but the kids enjoyed it and we made the most of it.  We sat near the creek to eat lunch.  

Above: Mia plays in the creek

Below: prairie trillium 

above and below.  We found yellow lady slippers in seven different spots today! 

  We  had a good day of riding and made it back to the house at a reasonable time.  Jared & Lydia wanted to leave Saturday evening to head home. They were considering how they'd have to return to work on Monday and wanted to have time to get prepped and rest some.   

     Below is a video of the highlights of our day's ride

I headed out with Kenny on Sunday after breakfast.   I took Otey home with me which lead to a few funny moments of Happy the cat being territorial.  

Below are two cute videos. One of Gabe playing tug o war with Otey

Happy trying to attack Otey 

 All in all it was a nice weekend.   

Max Patch Spring Wildflowers & Jay Clark Concert

 

above red wake robin trillium blooms at Harmon Den NC

Max  Patch Spring Wildflowers & Jay Clark Concert 

Sat April 11 2026

Dana & Kenny Koogler

Photos are HERE 

Little Fall Branch Falls Directions 

 Saturday April 11 we had planned to go to Harmon Den and Max Patch area for wildflowers and a waterfall in the morning.  Saturday night at 8 pm we had tickets to see Jay Clark perform.  I expressed concern that we might want to wait  until Sunday as I feared we'd be out in the woods so much on Saturday we'd not feel like going to a concert that night.  Kenny swore to me we'd make it happen.

 

   We started out after breakfast on Saturday to head toward Harmon Den.  We got caught in a snarl of traffic on Boyd's Creek Road thanks to an accident. It had traffic backed wayyyyy up and people turning around and heading the opposite direction. Traffic wasn't moving at all.  We finally got an opening to turn around and took Hodges Bend Road to divert around the clogged place.  One diaster averted.

Once we got on the interstate we made pretty good time until we got to the road work on I 40 East.  

I did not realize that the roadwork project had once again closed the Harmon Den exit 7. We had to continue to Fines Creek exit 8 and double back in order to go to Harmon Den/Max Patch.  We finally made it off the ramp.  Conditions are very dry here and we need rain in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.   The first couple miles of Cold Springs Road were gross. All roadside wildflowers were dusted out.  Being a Saturday morning the horse traffic was as heavy as I have EVER seen it. 

Lots of hikers, bikers, and horse folk today.  The dust was coating my poor jeep, but so was yellow pollen.   We finally arrived at the parking area for Little Fall Branch Falls. Despite lots of horse trailers

we saw no other hikers up to the waterfall today. We also saw zero trash on the trail or in the parking area!  

      The Spring wildflowers were quite pretty along the trail and at the trailhead.  Little Fall Branch was flowing fairly well considering.  We found the trail to the falls had numerous blown down trees that had to be worked around or over.  I was not surprised seeing this was our first trip post Hurricane Helene.

One positive thing that came from having to work around downed trees was being forced out of the trail to the east .  It put us walking in the open woods through a huge trillium patch I might have missed otherwise.  One of the things I was checking on today was hybrid trillium populations. I have found so many unusual hybrids and mutant trilliums here in the past. I am trying to plan my trips to allow for continued research. Part of that research is re-visiting places I've been before to see if the color patterns or physical forms remain stable or are changing.  

     Today I would find out a couple things that would matter.  

    Below: Little Fall Branch flows out and under the road. 

Below: the biggest downed tree across the trail 

Below: Little Fall Branch Falls still looking pretty today.

Below is a short video clip of Little Fall Branch Falls today

Below: foam flower in bloom on the trail

Below: star chickweed 

Above: White Wakerobin Trillium

Below: Red (purple) Wakerobin trillium 

Below: a cluster of violets 

Below:  a pair of hybrid trilliums. Offspring of white/red parents

Above:  back of hybrid trillium.  White back. Red front! 

above: showy orchis 

Above:  pale pink hybrid near the falls parents white and red wakerobin

Below: One of the prettiest hybrid trilliums I saw today was pale pink with a red center. Notice the sepals are rimmed in deep red as well. 

Below: trillium flexipes or bent trillium

  We moved onward from the area around the falls and began the drive upward toward Max Patch.  

We saw lots of pretty wildflowers down lower, but once we got within 2 miles of the summit the bloom season ground to a halt.  The only things blooming up there were trout lilies and some stunted spring beauties.  

Below: forest floor down low covered in dwarf larkspur and red trilliums and some weird hybrids. 

Below: close up view of the dwarf larkspur

Below: one of the oddest trilliums I found today was a pure yellow form of wake robin. 

Below;  view of the new Spring green leaves and dogwood blooms this sunny day. 

Below: large patch of yellow trout lilies blooming 2 miles below the summit of the mountain. Above that we went through a dead zone.  

 We saw the parking area for the Max Patch summit was jam packed and over flowing. We were not inspired to join in that fray. Quite the opposite.  We kept going to avoid that trampling horde. 

We began to see things blooming again as we lost elevation shortly after the fishing pond.

  The steep slopes are filled with wake robin trilliums of all kinds, but it would require rope to get down there to see them, and would damage the flowers trying not to fall off the mountain.

 Below: pink daisy fleabane grew by the roadside

   Below: we passed a huge cluster of fire pinks!  

Below: Squirrel corn... I found one little clump in among some hybrid trilliums

Below: a roadside spring we passed

Below is a short video clip of the spring

Below: one of the oddest, prettiest hybrid trilliums of the day was red and white mixed! 

  We avoided the snarl of traffic on I-40 Westbound by going round to Del Rio and out through Newport before we got back on the Interstate. We stopped at a car wash and Kenny sprayed the heavy dust off my jeep.  We got in the interstate to head home and my jeep threw an error code when it got up to seventy mph.  It said Service Transmission and went into limp mode.  We had to pull over and turn it off to see if it would clear out and reset.  It did, but quickly did it again!  Two or three times of this and finally it righted itself.  I got on the phone to call Rocky Top Jeep to see if they were open. The mechanics had left for the day.    Thankfully we made it home safely. Kenny attached the chip reader to it and figured out what was going on. It was being touchy and didn't want to go into 9th gear. 

We wondered if putting along on that dusty gravel road for so long overheated the transmission? 

    I  used it all the following week without incident on non highway usage!

   Saturday evening I fixed us salmon and some garlic and olive oil pasta as a quick dinner so we could go to the Jay Clark Concert.  We took Kenny's truck to be safe.   

   We arrived early enough to have a chance to sit down and visit with Jay and Greg and Laura.

It was nice to see them again.  Jay caught us up on the news. I must mention that tonight was our grandson Michael's junior prom night.  He and Olivia are a good looking couple. 

Michael was not happy that he was missing Jay's concert and I made sure to tell him so. 

Below: Olivia and Michael at Grandmother Ruth Lindsey's house.  They are beautiful! 

Below: big brother Michael age 17 and little sister Tessa age 12. She went to Prom also! Mom, Dad, and sister were all chaperones.  I am 100% serious. So proud of how pretty and sweet Tessa is. She did have to borrow a pair of heels from Nanny since she doesn't usually wear them. I loaned her a pair of Naot sandals.  They are Israeli made. Crystal said she did a high heel test dance, but she won't allow me to film it!  

Below is a video clip of Jay Clark and the Tennessee Tree Beavers singing 

  It was a great concert and we hope to go to the one at Windy Hill June 19th, 2026 so Michael can go too!  Two great date nights in a row.  I am truly blessed!