Gordon Branch Falls and Nemo Bridge

Smile in the Sand.. he has bad teefs.  ( I used chunks of coal.)

Gordon Branch Falls and Nemo Bridge Area 

A Back Up Plan for Catoosa Hiking Cause You Cain't Git Thar From Hyere

Saturday February 3, 2019

Dana & Kenny Koogler

Pictures are here: 

Gordon Branch Pix 

  I was blessed to have a buddy, Doug Holder, share some info on what he believed was an undocumented waterfall of significant size in the Catoosa area.   I agreed with him 100% that it was 

a large falls and was not on the database.   We had planned to get up with him to go see it for ourselves.   I had put it on the short list, but not short enough.   I looked on Facebook one Sunday evening to see a photo of a gloriously beautiful waterfall posted by Jason Horton and John Lane aka Jesus.   I knew at once that had to be it.   They'd scooped us and made it there before we did, but it was not intentional since neither of us was aware the others knew of it.   I pointed it out to Doug.

I congratulated them heartily.  I was in no way upset, but was proud of them. It worked out better to go after them for they knew of and had found yet another nearby falls that I did not know about.  

It was also large and beautiful.  We figured we'd go see the two falls, Devils Breakfast table and the nearby fire tower. 

   We were eager to go see it so we set out the very next weekend to visit it for ourselves.

We had it all worked out.  We found the road we needed at Catoosa gated. No access this way to Devils Breakfast table.   We wondered if there was another way to reach it, but we did not really think so.   Kenny took another road away from where we were in Catoosa.  We saw a fellow on a four wheeler and waved him down.   He was born and raised in the area and was an extremely nice fellow who knew all about Catoosa and the regulations.  He informed us that the road was gated off from sometime in February to around March 31.  He did not agree with the management practice, but believed as we do that it is just another way for the federal government to not have to do anything, but still get paid.   He did know all about the falls though and had visited them many times.  He confirmed that our route would work if the gate was not locked.   We thanked him and headed off.

I had back up plans as usual, but was disappointed.   

Below are a couple photos of some former home sites and what is left of them.

Nice old stone chimney

by the chimney was this structure. It is a water well and a fellow showed me a photo of the device they used to use to draw water from such a pipe!  It was very skinny and odd looking.

Old barn falling down along the roadside at Catoosa.

    We decided to head toward Nemo Bridge and  the picnic area.  We sat out in the sun by the river and had lunch.   It was a lovely day with blue skies and the temperatures were mild.  I was happy despite the change of plans.   The nearest thing to go see was Gordon Branch Falls and Jett Bridge.   We figured we'd do that. It would fit the amount of day we had left.  

 Nemo bridge

 Nemo Bridge picnic and recreation area along the Emory River

Beautiful Emory River 

   We headed out to Jett Bridge which was also new to us.  It is a very pretty picnic area and good spot for a swim along Clear Creek.    There were a few other folks around.  We saw two other hikers walking along the river.    Gordon Branch Falls way point pinged as we came down the hill toward the parking area!  It was down below the road, but the embankment looked too steep to come down safely.  We gathered our gear and set off up the river bank in the general direction of Gordon Branch with Clear Creek.  We figured we'd hike to the confluence and up the drainage til we came to the falls.  We had a trail for part of the way.   Clear Creek was glorious today.   The water swirled white and frothy in spots around massive boulders.  The hemlock forest along the banks was beautiful and deep green.   Large pools of calm, blue green water lay between the boulders in various places.   

Clear Creek at Jett Bridge

   We started up the side drainage of Gordon Branch. The stream volume diminished a lot.

We began to wonder if it was going to be worthwhile to see?  Chris Oliver's photos and Ron Durant's photos of the falls were really pretty and I so hoped it would be a good day for a visit. 

We did see a couple interesting spots along the short off trail up to the falls.   We saw where someone drove a car off the bank and left it.  

Abandoned car in the woods on Gordon Branch

Pretty cascade along Gordon Branch

  The forest and the terrain up Gordon Branch was not too rough going.  Not a lot of underbrush to cope with.   We finally arrived at the way point and the falls we found was pitiful.  It was barely a trickle.  I was aggravated, but I knew there was another branch coming down in the next drainage over.  We crossed the stream and made our way around the bend to the next fork.   We did not have to go far until we could hear and then see the real falls.  We had to go up a bank and climb down to the falls.  The way point for the falls and the actual falls do not match, but we found it just the same.    This falls was worth it.  

 Above and below Gordon Branch Falls and the pretty blue pool at its base.

I would imagine this dries up a lot in Summer and would not be worth the bushwhack to see.

     We had an easier time on the return trip because we did not go back the way we came.  We went back to that first sucky waterfall and climbed up the bank to the road.  We were back to the parking lot in about ten minutes as the road walk was a lot quicker.   We managed to salvage the day when it fell apart.    

Below is a short video of the falls.