Fentress County Camping, Four-Wheeling and Hiking Trip

Cave Painting? 

I don't know. Looks like it to me!
And NO! It is not one of my infamous
Fake Ole Ass Cave Drawings.
Look for them on King Mtn!



Fentress County Camping Trip 

Kenny & Dana Koogler
Oct. 17-Oct. 20th, 2013

Pictures are here:   

Fentress County Camping Pix

    We took a much needed get-away long weekend to go camping, four-wheeling, exploring and hiking.    Kenny was worn out from working a month straight.

I was bored from lack of his company and having been laid up for a while.

We ran away to our beautiful Cumberland Plateau. We stayed at Maple Hill Campground

run by Betty & Klaus DeJong.  It is a great place to stay run by a terrific couple. I had 

thought after living in our camper for a month Kenny would not want to go. He told me

it was not the camper it was the working all the time that wore him out.  He was all about it so we went! 

       We set up camp and took off to go ride.  We wore it out riding on Thursday and Friday both.  The river trail has to be low water to be able to ride it.  We did not get to ride it during Spring or Summer owing to all the high rain fall we'd gotten.  Today we saw the river the lowest I've ever seen it. We covered a lot of new ground. New trails ridden. We also connected a lot of new trails with previously ridden ones to learn how they hook up.   There was not a lot of Fall color, but some.  It was pretty. I stood in the middle of the rock, dry river bed picking up gum tree leaves of purple, black, red, yellow, orange and red. I announced to Kenny that if I could be a tree.. I'd want to be a gum tree.

Obey River


Another pretty spot along the Obey


Dry patch of river bed. This river dries up to holes of water or areas that are mostly dry.
This past Spring it was at flood stage. A raging torrent that would have swept us away in a heartbeat.  You could not even get close to this spot.



A blue hole along the same river.


Deliverance Bus sitting in the woods looking out at the world with vacant eyes.


Another blue hole along the river. I loved the look of the azure water with copper beech leaves floating on it. Surreal.


Patch of color in the forest on the trails. Up high the beech trees, sourwood, black gum, sweet gum, persimmon trees, poison oak, and sugar maples were putting on a good show!


One of a few caves we went in.


View from the newly discovered overlook on Skinner Mountain. It faces west/northwest.


    
RZR on the dry river bed at the Swift Ford


Down in the wild and wooly Lost Cane exploring. Downed trees, vines, briars, this time. Still looks like Saigon. It was bone dry this trip. No waterfalls.


Golden autumn sun on the black gum pond on the mountain

    We spent Thursday and  Friday on Skinner Mountain, Lost Cane  the River Trail and King Mountain.
Saturday we were tired of riding and since it was so dry and not a good time to waterfall hunt ... we went arch hunting!  We visited the Clarkrange Arch at last. We had looked
for it once before unsuccessfully. Today we found it.


Clarkrange Arch


     Next we hunted up the Mountainview Arch. It was not far off and was a big one.
We found it with no problem.


Patch of Autumn color near Mountainvew Arch



Mountainview Arch with Kenny under there for size reference. He looks tiny! The dimensions on this are 100x30


   We'd gotten along great so far. It was a pretty Fall day with perfect temperatures for hiking.  We'd found what we were looking for easily thus far.  Our day was about to change.  We went to hunt for Price's Arch next north of us.  The day turned rainy and cold and windy. We ran out of luck.  We were heading in the right direction but the bushwhack turned out to be longer than anticipated and I was over it.  I was cold, tired and hungry.  We went back to the camper ate lunch, dried off and took a nap.

     The next day we took a gamble on finding an access to Conatser Hollow and the waterfalls back there. It did not pan out.  We also tried to find an access to Catpen Hollow Arch and that did not pan out.  We went north and explored Pogue Creek and ran out of time, but we did get to find how to reach it and saw State House Rock!



View from King Mountain


State House Rock. Next time we are bringing ropes and climbing this bastage!

Tackett Creek

A very unusual candy striped Trillium!

Tackett Creek Ride

Dana & Kenny Koogler & friends

Total Ride Distance 45 miles

Saturday May 4, 2013

Pictures are here:

Tackett Creek Pix--starting with frame 32

   I had been wanting to get back up to Tackett Creek to ride again. We had been early last Spring. It was beautiful! I had seen all sorts of flowers in bud, but not blooming.  I just knew if we could get up there again in Spring I'd find all sorts of pretty things. I anticipated wildflowers and finding and photographing waterfalls!   We had talked to friends who declined going this weekend, but at the last minute changed their minds and said they'd go.  I had been on the fence about whether I wanted to hike or go riding?  I finally decided while Kenny was in the frame of mind to go we'd go ahead even if it was just the two of us.   I knew we'd be ok.

       I was going to write a trip report.. a real one about this day. I was glad to finally meet Jody.   I found that the day did not turn out as planned.  Another friend brought a different woman this time and she was not his original woman... who is our friend.  That set the tone for tension right shot out of the bag. I was uneasy all day and trying to make the best of it.  It did not help that the ideas of the ride leader and his motivations were widely different from mine.  I am about the experience and getting out to see what's around me and enjoy it. He wanted to cover a lot of ground.  It is not that one person is right and the other is wrong. It is just a difference in people. That's Life.   

     I found myself very sad at seeing many beautiful things but feeling I was not welcome or free to take my time and photograph things.  I did not want to make waves and cause problems, but I felt utter disappointment.   I was seeing marvelous wildflowers and only got to really photograph a fraction of what was there.   

     I have put the photos in a gallery.  I am just too sad over how this all went to write on it and I don't want to put something in writing that is going to be hurtful.

It will be the last time I do this kind of trip.  Kenny and I are like this. He prefers riding. I prefer hiking.  We compromise.  He doesn't mind me taking pictures and checking things out. He kinda likes that too and we work it out.  I didn't appreciate the tension. I did not appreciate the length of the ride which had me desperate for it to be over and feeling trapped.   Kenny and I go riding, but we stop and get off and hike some too!

   I will go riding again with my spouse and the few other friends we have who also like to get out and see things.  I won't go do this again with the limitations of this trip.  It was a learning experience.

  
   Sad. So sad.