Four Wheeling With Gabe -- Tellico Plains

 

Scaly Blazing Star close up from along the road today

Four Wheeling With Gabe -- Tellico Plains

Dana & Gabe Koogler

Tues. Sept. 22, 2020

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   I wanted to spend some quality time with Gabe this week on a day when he did not have preschool.    I talked to him and we decided we'd go take a drive in the mountains.   Michael had told me I needed to bring Gabe down to Tellico Plains to see the pretty loop drive we'd done this past Spring.  I figured today would be a good day for it.   He spends the night at our house about once a week so I went to pick him up and brought him over to help me get ready.  He was excited to be able to go brrrrrmm out with Nanny and spend the night.  

       We packed up all kinds of stuff to play with and a picnic.   We hit the road and he did real well traveling to Tellico Plains with me.   He was hungry when we got to Madisonville so I pulled into Sonic and got him some tater tots as requested.

Once he was done eating we headed on down to Tellico Plains.   The day was warming up and sunny.  It was 70 degrees for a high today with a mild breeze.

 I promised him once we got to Witt Road I'd pull over and put his booster seat up front to let him ride shotgun.   He was thrilled.   I explained that we could only get by with this while we were way back in the woods where the law wouldn't get us.  It was because we would be creeping along and see little or no traffic that we could try this.   I told him once we got round to the Epperson church I'd have to put him back in his regular car seat.   He was good with all that.

Above: Gabe sits on a big rock by Conasauga Creek

           He liked riding up front with me like a big boy.  His favorite part of the experience was driving through the creek five times.  We had to turn around and do it again on some of the fords because it was such fun.   He also loved throwing rocks.  He tried putting his feet in the creek, but it had turned too cool for that.

He rapidly changed his mind and wanted me to help him get his shoes back on.

Swimming weather is over around these parts.  This time last year we were still swimming up through the second week of October!  Not this year.  

 

Above: cascade on Conasauga Creek

        The roads were lined with tons of goldenrod, purple asters, joe pye weed, purple disc sunflowers, downy lobelia, a little bit of cardinal flower now and then. 

Some white crownbeard, wingstem, white asters and boneset.   A few places we saw red velvet points of staghorn sumac.   The woods had that smell of Autumn. There is a sound too of crickets chirping and the insect world letting you know the weather has changed. They are wrapping up their business for the season.  

Above: low water levels on beautiful Conasauga Creek. Lots of good throwing rocks. 

    We had to fix a lunch on the backpacking stove.  Gabe always loves that.

I could tell when he started urging me along that despite what he was saying.... he was growing tired.   It was a big day of adventure for my little man.  He got to Epperson church and I pulled over to put him back in his car seat.   He did not argue about it.   He got comfortable with his blanket and a sip of some milk and was conked out before I ever got to the end of Hotwater Road.   Nanny wore him out.   He slept most of the way home.   I think he woke up about Greenback.  

Above: the reknowned rock thrower. Someone has dammed up the creek.  Twernt us.   

    It was a fun day.  I enjoy this little fellow so much.   Michael came over this evening with Papaw for supper with me and Gabe.  My 11 year old grandson love his heart.   He told me he came over to play and visit because he was a little sad. His girlfriend broke up with him today.   He grinned and said Oh well... it's middle school. It's going to happen."  I know he was a little hurt over it.   I'm glad that at age eleven he still seeks comfort from us.   It makes me feel needed.  It gives me hope that we can remain close.  I hope to always remain close with my grandchildren. All of them.   

White asters

Cardinal flower

Creek ford #1

Above: Gabe throwing more rocks at ford #4

Ford #4  is very pretty where Fleming Creek comes in to the road.

Purple asters.

Above; an unexpected find... scaly blazing star!

and last but not least my favorites.. purple disc sunflowers!  

Here are directions for this trip 

    I'll see y'all and write up a storm when I get back from vacation.  

Conasauga Falls and Scenic Drive with the Family Round 1

Trailing arbutus along Conasauga Falls trail. 

One of the earliest flowers to bloom in Spring. 

Conasauga Falls and Scenic Drive with the Family Round 1

3/27/2020

Dana Crystal, Michael ,Tessa

Pix are here 

(Either X out the top right box or click the right arrow to advance. Photo 

album is a combination of several trips.  Pictures start with the photo of bright pink clump of trailing arbutus)

Link to Conasauga Scenic Loop Drive Directions 

    This is one of the slightly abbreviated trip reports I'm catching up on. 

This took place right at the start of the corona virus crisis of 2020.   School was out because of that as well as Spring break had just started anyhow.   We were trying to get out and hike each week as a family.  

      Above: Michael and Tessa start our hike

   We decided upon Conasauga Falls as a hike with other options to come later in the day.  I had long wanted to try driving Witt Road and Hot Water Road to make a loop back to Coker Creek from Conasauga.   I had been told by Nate Yarbrough it was a very pretty drive.  I still had not tried it.

     Above: vernal iris likes dry pine woods

   We drove to Tellico Plains and on to the turn for Conasauga Falls trail.

We got to the end of the spur road and parked.   We saw one vehicle already there.   Another pulled up as we got out.   It was a mom and teen aged daughters.

I felt confident Tessa would be easily able to handle the 1.3 mile hike today.

It is a gradual downward hike on a good trail with switchbacks.    The day was warm and promised to get warmer.     We hiked out through the piney woods.

The forest smelled great. Fresh air and pine needle fragrance.     We saw trailing arbutus waxy pink dots along the path.  We saw vernal iris and  dwarf crested iris purple blooms also.

     We had to use care on the approach to the end of the trail.  The trail becomes more narrow and tricky.  Rocky areas and lots of tree roots.  We made it down without incident.    The stream was visible below. The kids and Crystal were really wowed by their first sight of Conasauga Falls.  It was running great today!

Beautiful Conasauga Falls. You can see a teen girl standing looking at the falls about halfway up.  Great for scale!

Below: Michael throwing sticks or rocks. Tessa gets a drink of water. Crystal looks on.

  

Below: Michael.. my grandson age 11.  He is getting so tall!

Below: Tessa has found a pretty pebble

   We sat at the falls and enjoyed the cool mist and talked to the mom and her daughters a little bit.  They are home schoolers so they were not as affected schedule wise by the corona virus.   Dad worked from home. Mom was the teacher.   A pretty good set up especially for living that far out in the country.

     We made the hike back up to the top and vehicle.  We discussed what to do next. The kids liked the idea of driving through the creek and playing in the water.   I was good with that.  We figured we'd do that next since it was close.  If we had time left over and energy we'd add something else on. 

    We took my jeep with Crystal driving and me navigating round Witt Road.  I had been on it once before but only a short distance.   It is a winding gravel road.    It wasn't long til we got to the first creek ford. We pulled over to explore. 

  A short stroll downstream of about 25 yards had us standing beside a pretty cascade on Conasauga Creek!  

 We walked on downstream a bit further.  It was just incredible.  Lots of holes of clear, sparkling water, colorful pebbles and scenic cascades. 

Conasauga Cascade. Here we are about  1/2 mile above the main falls we just visited! 

Above and below

Sitting down to check out tiny pebbles.

Below: Crystal is lost in thought.

Below: Michael gets ready to wade the creek.

Below: Not to be so easily outdone.. Tessa gets in the water too

Below: path by the stream heading down along a series of picturesque cascades

Below:  mossy interesting boulders to scramble around above the path

  We were beginning to get hungry so eventually we worked our way back toward the jeep.   We'd packed a nice lunch of sandwiches and fruit and chips.

We spied a black snake as we neared the vehicle.  The kids both like snakes and are fascinated by them.   He'd been under my jeep, but was slithering across the road.  

Mr. Black Snake... where are you going? 

and he answered.. four wheeling! as he crawled across the top of a big gravel pile and down the other side of it.  Then he headed for a nearby tree and began crawling up it.

Tessa ran over to the tree to watch him and talk to him.

In this image above you can see where he is going.. up the tree to that small knot hole!  

Eventually he disappeared into the knot hole... all of him! Here is a funny picture with just his tail hanging out

Below is a video of the snake and his doings

     The kids played in the pretty creek and we ate our lunch here at this spot.  It was really nice.    We then drove through the creek and continued onward. Below is a photo of the first creek ford.



   We forded the stream several more times. The drive was glorious.  We had so much fun.  The road is rough. We took a wrong turn once and ended up in someone's driveway. Such is life in the Coker Creek area. pfffftt..
Crystal had to execute a seventeen point turn around, but we got righted and made our way round to Epperson Road and Hot Water Road and back out to Hwy 68.  We were all worn out so we headed home.    What a fun day!  The kids were already talking about coming back and bringing Papaw and Gabe.  They were discussing bringing various family members back to see this place. They were going fishing, tubing, etc.  Gee.. where do they get it?

 Below is a short video of Conasauga Falls

Below a short video of Conasauga Cascade