Crab Orchard Mountain Exploring

??? Weirdness in the mud on the Cumberland Plateau

Crab Orchard Mountain Exploring 

Kenny & Dana Koogler

 Wednesday April 25, 2018

     We've had an odd situation at home this year as I have stated in previous blogs.

Never have we experienced more constant upheaval and more varied KINDS of upheaval than

we have this past year. So far 2018 is turning out to be a WEIRD one.   Lucky for me I am a 

weirdo myself so it don't confront me.   Kenny had back surgery and would be off for 10 weeks!   Ten weeks of bossing me around and getting paid to do it.  Thank the Lord for

short term disability insurance and advanced planning for contingencies.    We've had to replace two major appliances.  We're raising a child in our old age.   It is making us 

crazier than usual.     You put the two of us together at home on a day when Gabriel is

being cared for by his other grandma and look out!  We are going to see what kinda trouble

we can get into.   Both of us are eaten up with Killed the Cat type curiosity.   

  

    We had been doing some ATV riding and short hikes while Kenny recuperated.

He talked to a fellow just prior to being off from work with his back , and he could not get

that conversation out of his head. Neither could I.   We'd had the gazetteer and Cal Topo out.

The fellow was just one of several who had told Kenny at different times that it was possible

to ride the territory on the north side of I-40 West.  Crab Orchard Mountain.  He was told

that there was a tunnel leading under the road providing access.   We were both intrigued at

the prospect of all those thousands of unexplored acres to add to our spots to ride.  

We got out and started prowling.    

      

  Now you know dear readers that it is not like us to go straight to the point.  We have to 

drag things out and make them just as difficult as possible.   So our first attempt was to turn off

the interstate onto Airport Road and try to approach Crab Orchard Mountain via the Millstone Gap side.  That did not pan out, but we did see  a boat access for Crab Orchard Creek.  We also found a cool place that we need to go back to explore. We passed by Waldensia

It was a coal washing operation with old coke ovens.  I read a good blog by Paul Mashburn about the area. (Click the link to go to his blog entry)  We will wait til it gets cold to go round the coke ovens. The brush is thick.

It looks like a place you go if you were itching to get snake bit. 

Crab Orchard Creek flowing strong after the rain.   this is the boat put in.

  Well our first approach did not pan out, but we continued ambling round til we came out in Ozone.  We saw an interesting building and found out Ozone was larger than we'd imagined!

Kenny thought maybe the tunnel was back a road in Ozone, but that turned out to be wrong.

 Above and below.. an interesting and attractive abandoned building in Ozone.  The rock work is beautiful. I can't help wondering what it was?

   

   We went on down SR 70 heading west past Ozone Falls really watching every holler to our right for signs of a tunnel.   We stopped at another place we thought looked promising.  It was also wrong, but it was pretty just the same!   It was a railroad trestle where some recent repairs had been made.  

 Above:  two different views of the trestle.  I grew up living near the railroad tracks. I am a cross tie walker.

Above: all the heavy rains had created a pair of waterfalls just past the trestle.  Both pretty. Both wet weather.  the one on the right is a natural falls. The one on the left is a culvert falls! 

Kenny walked up ahead and looked, but it was clearly not where the tunnel was.  

      We got back in the jeep and kept going.   I was watching down to the right of SR 70 from the shot gun seat.   I had Kenny turn around and go back to a spot that looked promising.   Below us flowed Berks Creek through the bottom of Renfro Holler.    We parked and walked down there. Kenny went around looking for signs of the tunnel. I wandered amongst the wildflowers taking pictures and enjoying the scenery.  Below are some photos of the various pretty flowers and the stream.

 Trillium grandiflora

 Foam flowers

 Trillium leuteum

 Slope below SR 70 absolutely covered in wildflowers!! Woo Hoo!

 Bright pink large flowered trillium.

 Wild geraniums

 Trillium sulcatum

Berks Creek 

   

  We'd still not found any tunnel.  We went down to Crab Orchard itself and drove back Hebbertsburg Road.  We eventually saw where we thought folks were accessing the area with four wheelers from that side.  Neither of us would have felt comfortable with that access without talking to some land owners or local riders.    We still had not found our tunnel.

We kept prowling round and eventually came to what turned out to be a section of the old historic Walton Road!   

  We went down it and then went another way. We started seeing posted signs plastered everywhere.  We were right near some houses so we felt uneasy continuing.  We finally packed it in for the day, but the story doesn't end there.   

     Later that weekend two family members went riding with friends and came back with photos of some awesome views from up high. They'd found the darn tunnel before us!  Augh!

Thankfully they were willing to school us as to its location.  When we saw all those posted signs near the houses and the Walton Road... we were 50 yards from it.   We went back a short time later and at last got to ride the territory on the north side of the interstate.   We started out

being very excited about it.  

This is the stream flowing out of the tunnel under the mountain that permits access to Crab Orchard Mountain. It is near the zinc mines. 

Below find a short video of us riding through the tunnel. My photos of the tunnel were very nondescript so the video will show it off much better.  

    It was a hot, sunny day.  I think it was a Monday when we went back.   I don't rightly know.

The place started off rather pretty. A few wildflowers. A pretty creek. A hemlock forest.  We began climbing trying to get to the known good spot.. the Big Rock Overlook.  We went briefly on a rabbit hunt, but Kenny got us sorted out and heading up the mountain the correct direction.   I had also wanted to see what was in a place that had an intriguing name..Terrell Cove.   I thought it might be a wildflower paradise just waiting for me to discover.   

 Big Rock Overlook

 Grand stand view from here. You can just make out I-40 in the bottom right of the frame.  It was hot as ten suns up here and dry and dusty.   The view was real pretty though.

The mountain top was so so. It was not as pretty as we'd hoped, but we found it just the same.

  We headed back down to hunt for Terrell Cove.  

 Big dusty intersection at the top of the mountain.   The sky was pretty and blue.

   After some riding down down down we made it to Terrell Cove.  It was pretty, but not that great.

Very few flowers.  Nothing but a wet trail.   It is part of the headwaters of the stream that goes on to from Ozone Falls eventually.   

 Terrell Cove.  Nothing much here.  

  We explored a bit further but continued to be disappointed in what we were finding on this side of the interstate.  It is fun for guys who just like to ride. Trails aplenty, but for anyone who likes pretty scenery it was not so great.   We decided to head out of there.  I am not saying we'll never go back. 

A ride there in Winter or early Spring might be better.  Maybe there are other parts of this section that are far better and we just haven't found them yet?   Needless to say we won't be in a hurry to go back. 

   Still we learned some stuff and we satisfied our curiosity.  You can't win 'em all.   It was still good

to have a day to get out with my honey.