New Years Day Ride Four Wheeling at Tackett Creek

New Years Day Ride-- Four Wheeling at Tackett Creek

Friday Jan. 1, 2016

Dana & Kenny Koogler

Buck

Jody

Dan M.

Dan K.

Keith

Michael

41 mile loop

Tackett Creek via Carr Gap and back.

Photos are here starting with frame 301 

Tackett Creek New Years Ride Pix

Tackett Creek Google Map

   We had such a fun day on Thursday hiking and exploring off trail and finding waterfalls. 

Kenny went with me to do what I wanted.  Today I joined him in going four wheeling with his guy friends at Tackett Creek.   I wanted to prove I could hang in there with those dudes.   They are a rough bunch of cusses, but very likeable.   It was a cold morning and the forecast did not call for it to 

warm up much.  They missed it by a margin and it was not quite as cold as predicted. No one complained.  We were to meet Buck at Cracker Barrel for breakfast before the ride so all we needed to do to be ready was dress, get a quick cup of coffee and out the door we went.  

  Somebody has been cutting ruts in the shoulder of the road and the bank.  Was like this when we arrived.

Kenny, CD, Keith and Michael. up on the ridge.

   
 I usually doze in the truck on the way, but I was too excited for that. I had not been to Tackett 

Creek in several years. I had a feeling this was going to be a fun day.    Buck had beaten us to Cracker Barrel by a few minutes.  We had a nice breakfast and then continued up the road to meet the rest of the gang.    It was a group of riders just the right size to be fun, but not too many to keep up with.   It was great to see the old friends again and meet two new ones!  We continued up the road to the pull off for Carr Gap access to Tackett.   A few minutes later we were under way to start our day's adventures.  

       Dan Koener lead the ride. I like his style.  He is very considerate of who has seen and hasn't seen what interesting things along the way.  They have all found some new trails to add to the Carr Gap area. We both loved the new trail we started on. It avoided the rough, rocky mess on the main road of Carr Gap.   Instead we were climbing winding all through a forest coated in rime ice.  It was beautiful.  Rocky outcrops were here and there.  Knife edge ridges to follow.   Areas that were like a roller coaster up and down.   A great start to the day!

Frosty forest early in the day.


   

 This is the scene at the first overlook today.  Pretty!

    Not much view down into the valley though.

         We stopped at the overlook which did not have much of a view, but the rime ice made the forest beautiful.  Dan K said he hoped it would last and it did for the majority of the day!
Next we headed toward the Sand Cave and the falls.   Keith was not sure if he had seen it or not.
Michael for sure had not seen it.   It is always pretty. Today the falls was running real well. We parked the machines and anyone who wanted to view it walked up the rest of the way.

Sand Cave Waterfall

      We looped back around to the machines after a quick stop at Sand Cave to see the falls. They were running pretty good.    We then continued to the next phase........... down the roller coaster steep trail into No Business Holler.  I don't have any photos of what that was like. It was too scary to get the camera out. I love it, but it is not the place to be messing around with camera gear.  I am including a photo of one of the waterfalls at the bottom. I am also including a short video clip of part of the ride.

           
           Waterfall beside the trail in No Business Holler.

         

          We stopped just on the other side of No Business Holler and ate lunch.  The stream is beautiful. Stream and Trail become one down near the bottom.  The waterfall pictured above fills the trail and there is another stream coming in from the opposite side which also floods it.  Below is a 30 second video of the beauty of the area.




Shows it better than the photo did how the area looks.  Lots of water today!

This overlook is where we went next.    It is pretty.  We did not stay long here.   Below this is a small box canyon where I have always been able to hear water flowing.  I would love to have the chance to go down in there to explore. I think there may be a waterfall.

Pretty cascade near the trail.  We next headed toward Hangover Rock.  We went under that and kept going past the hemlock forest deep and dark.  There was more water coming down that holler than I had ever seen before.  Nice ribbons of satin white and lots of cascades. The next place we went was sketchy.  We continued past all these pretty rock formations and big cliffs. Suddenly the awareness came over me of where we were heading and what was about to happen.  Hell's Canyon.  We were going UP it.   I had been down it once, but never up it.  I was still trying to come to terms with that when we heard a loud crash.   We stopped and CD made the sign for flipped over.   We were on a hill so Kenny stayed with the machine while I jumped out to go see what had happened. It was Jody.  He slid of a rock and rolled over.  It looked bad initially, but then the motor was running and then Jody appeared so I knew all was ok.  We'd get him out of that fix.   They set up a snatch block and got his RZR righted.   Some of them went on up but Kenny decided he was not going to even try it on that slick, wet rock.   I knew he would not want me to be in the machine with him.  I walked up to the top of the hill to wait on him.   I snapped a few photos as I walked up.

         

 Michael and , Jody helping and Kenny in the RZR winching up.

 CD, Michael and Jody, Kenny in the RZR

The bluff at Hell's Canyon.

 View from the next overlook.   Rime ice still remains on the top of the mountain in the distance.

 Buck in his bad machine!  It was sure good to spend some time with him today.  I had  not heard him call me Lil Gal in a spell.  ;^D

View from the overlook we visited after the Hell's Canyon debacle. 

  Today the sun finally did come out.  At times we were getting snowed on. Other times it was sleet pellets.  Sometimes later in the day the rime was melting and falling on us.   It was a weird weather day. It warmed up to about 40 degrees, but it remained cold and my coat felt good.  I was also glad to have worn my long handles.  The clouds lifted enough to get a view of Norris Lake in the distance at last.   See the image below. 

We hit up Woodson Arch next.  It was neat as always.  Michael in his machine. He had not been here before and seemed to like it.  

     We pushed on toward closing the loop of our ride today.  Back up over V rock.   Buck found an alternate route up it on the side.  It was fun.   Jody and Dan trying to get up over it with CD looking on.   It was damp and that made it harder.

Above is a clip of Dan making it up V Rock

    We continued out the narrow ridge once everyone was up the rock and back together.
It was a pretty point in the day with partial views down off the mountain.

 

 Waterfall near the end of the ride at Tackett Creek.  We did this loop backwards today.

I did something I had not tried before. I climbed down into the area around the falls to get some different vantage points and photos. It has rock shelters on either side of it.  They were fixing flat tires so I had plenty of time for what I like to do.

Finally we parted company down at the rail grade.   I misunderstood and thought that Jody, Buck, Michael and Keith wanted to go do some more riding.   Dan, and CD had damage to tires and wanted to get out as quickly as possible before they had anymore trouble.    We went with them along the rail grade and back up Carr Gap which is a monstrously rocky sumbitch.   What I had not been clear on? Buck, Jody, Keith and Michael were not going to keep riding.. they just wanted to go back the way we came in since it avoided the really rocky Carr Gap Trail.   I wished later we had gone that way.

It was prettier, funner and a lot less rocky.   A few teeth jarring miles later we were back at the trucks.   We said our good byes and looked forward to the next time!  Dan says we need to hit up the upper end and go toward Middlesboro for more scenery and less rockiness!  I'm down with that!

What a great day. The next morning I was stove up head to toe.