Sophia Falls

Sophia Falls 

Kenny & Dana Koogler 

January 2019

Pictures are here: Sophia Falls Pix

Sophia Falls on Tennessee Landforms

  Back in Summer we tried to find Sophia Falls. It was a rainy day. The original plan for the day was to attempt to hike to three seldom seen waterfalls.  Two new to us and one oldie but goody.     We were able to ford Tellico River that day and ventured up to Wildcat Falls successfully.   We then went to try to find Sophia Falls which was a Brian Solomon discovery.

It was supposed to be down below the old Bald River Road off trail.   We spent a lot of time hunting up the area above it only to be put off by the terribly steep terrain and tons of Summer vegetation.   It looked like it needed to be approached a different way.  We scratched that and went on to Torino Falls.  The rain began to come down in earnest and once we made it back to the jeep we called it a day.   We vowed to do some more study on it and make another attempt to see Sophia Falls. 

Above: A bluebird day along Smithfield Road

     

   Fast forward to January 2019 and the first sunny Saturday we'd had free in a long spell.

We both decided after looking it over we'd try to find Sophia Falls today.   We would not try coming in from the Wildcat Road and Bald River Road again.  It just looked too steep and treacherous.   Additionally the stream below the falls looked like it would be a pretty place to 

hike off trail.  Maybe we'd even find some other falls!?!   We came in as Benjy Shaw, one of Kenny's co-workers suggested.  Came in off Hwy 68 and took Smithfield Road around to the Bald River Road and it was a much better trip.  Shorter and more straight forward.  

  We stopped at Tobes Creek Falls down at the road's intersection and took some photos and looked around.  Tobe's Creek Falls is pretty, but it is a rather small cascade.  Even with lots of water coming over it we did not find it too special.   

Above: Tobe's Creek Cascade is about 14 ft high.

Below: A crazy looking rock with angles cut in it. The river bed of Tellico River is similar to this only the edges are straight up and down instead of tilted!  

Above: Kenny has forded Tobe's Creek below the cascade and went on down to look for more waterfalls.  He indicated there was nothing worth heading down there for. 

    We drove on up Old Bald River Road very slowly looking around for places that looked like maybe someone was hiking down from there.   I had told Kenny based on what I'd seen from the map the terrain around the falls was super steep. I figured we'd probably have to come in from down nearer the road intersection and hike up the stream from there.   We looked and looked. We finally spotted a trail heading into the woods and down toward Tobe's Creek.   It was Warriors Passage Trail.    We found a place to park and walked up to that and hiked it as far as the creek.  Once there the trail forded and went away from the stream in a different direction.  We were all off trail from here.  The creek crossings were so numerous and just deep enough I was not in the mood to keep changing back and forth from boots to water shoes.  I decided to full throttle it and just plow through.    I left my boots on and was thankful the day was warm. The water was surprisingly warmer than I expected it to be!  Especially for a mountain stream.   We kept following the streams up and finally came to a point we were not expecting.   The stream drainage split and we could see we needed to go up the left side.   Kenny remarked he bet we'd be in the drainage we were just standing high above.   I imagined he was right, but I still would not have believed it possible to approach this falls any other way than from the bottom up.

Steep terrain that holds Sophia Falls. Looking back down this hanging valley.

       

  We began climbing steeply and seeing an increase in the volume of the stream.

Kenny began shouting he could see the falls.  Lo and behold I popped round a corner and there it was!   Sophia Falls is listed as a 60 footer.   It is every bit of that and a bit more if you count the cascades below it.   It was there in all its glory.  The terrain here was indeed steep but not unmanageable at this point.   I just had to take my time and work my way up to where Kenny now stood.   I heard something and looked up at the steep cliffs above us.  I could see a truck!!!! 

Sure enough the road was immediately above us.   I knew that if the road was that close there was a pretty good idea that 1. we had once again made the trip way harder than it had to be and 2. we were NOT going back the way we had come.    I was on one had relieved to think we might not have to cover all that ground on the return trip and a little scared at the idea of trying to climb out of this hole!

Looking straight up at the spot where I got a glimpse of a maroon truck!  See? You thought I'se jest kiddin' didn't ya when I said steep! 

Above the terrain was fairly open which was a mercy.  You don't have much to hold onto or space to walk on along here.

Above silky shot of Sophia Falls from the base

Above: a littler further up from the base.. Sophia Falls

It reminded me a tad of Mill Creek Cascade in the Smoky Mountains.  A long, winding cascade down the mountain!

Once we got to the view in the photo just below I began to be a tad more hopeful that we could hike out up top.   You can just make out Kenny's blue shirt in the photo on the left of the falls.

The view below is taken at the spot where the way point was taken.   Right at the base of the uppermost portion of the falls.   

Photos don't do it justice.   

   Once we got here we began our trudge out. Kenny went ahead of me scouting to see if we could find a way out.  We did indeed make it out to the road and while it was steep and tough, it was shorter.    Once you've seen that it can be done it would not be bad to come down this way.  Especially during cold weather when the snakes are asleep.  I'd still not want to do it during Summer since the vegetation would have been thick!   We were both tickled to death to see the dirt road.

We hiked it back down to the truck enjoying the sunshine and the spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. 

Beautiful views out over the mountains from Old Bald River Road high in the Southern Unakas

Finally here is a video of Sophia Falls in all its glory.  

Little Laurel Branch Cascade

One of the first hepatica flowers of the 2018 season! 

Little Laurel Branch Cascade

Saturday March 3, 2018

Dana & Kenny Koogler 

   Life has been exceptionally challenging lately.   Kenny working out of town.  Son in law getting ready to deploy.   Helping my daughter with her children and family.   Trying to help a son rehab.

Us being back to the parenthood at our advanced ages.   Kenny got to come home for a weekend off which was an excellent surprise. He was homesick for us and we for him.  It was great to spend time

with him. It was really beneficial to Gabriel having him around.   Saturday Gabe went to stay a couple nights at his other grandparents home.   We had all day Saturday and Sunday to be adults and do what we wanted.   We were hungry for the woods and trails, but we got a late start for a Saturday.

We wanted to pick something fairly close to avoid wasting time driving and not hiking. 

We picked an adventure in the Great Smoky Mountains.  I looked at my running wish list of hikes

in the Smokies. Nothing on there made sense for today with a late start.   

   I got on Tennessee landforms Smoky Mountain section and found a good one.  I had long wanted to see a waterfall on Little Laurel Branch.    It is in the Greenbrier section of the park near the Ramsey Cascades Trail.    We packed some lunches and headed out.   I have hiked to Ramsey Cascade three times and up beyond it two of those times.   I have hiked the Cat Stairs ( off trail) three times. 

I have done lots of hiking in this section of the park, but it had been a long while.  I recalled the last time I hiked back down the trail from Greenbrier Pinnacle looking up a small stream and thinking " I wonder if there are any waterfalls up there?"  I later realized while looking at Tennessee landforms there was indeed a falls up there!   It has taken me a decade to get round to trying to see it.

      I plugged in the way point and let the GPS start orienting itself.   Finding a parking spot on a busy  Saturday was a challenge, but we managed.    Ramsey Cascade is a popular hiking destination. Neither of us was in the mood to deal with crowds today on the trail.   We were ravenous to get into the woods and longed for an off trail adventure to satisfy that yearning.    I walked the parking area

and vetted the waypoint before we set off.   I was tickled to see it was right on target.  

      The day was sunny and warming up nicely. Skies were blue with a few puffy clouds.  

The air was cool and fresh.   The streams were flowing powerfully thanks to all the recent rain as well as snow runoff.   We began our off trail up the stream on a very rudimentary "fisherman's path".  

It soon disappeared and we just had to chose the path of least resistance.   Trying not to give in to every urge to go around things.   That can make off trail hiking take way longer than it should. 

    The woods were pretty open and thanks to the Winter vegetation was much easier to cope with.

We still got scratched up by briars and dog hobble a little bit.   The huge trees, mossy logs and few waking Spring wildflowers really made the woods extra special today. 

 First super mossy log of the day. I had to touch it.

 Open woods and sunbeams shining down on Kenny and me.

 Saw every shade of hepatica today. These were pink!

A few long spurred violets getting started. 

     I let myself stop and take pictures of everything I wanted.  I had been too long between hikes.

I was thrilled to see forest and flowers and streams!  As we climbed we crossed and recrossed the stream a couple times.   We thought we were picking the easier side of the creek,.  While it was necessary in at least one spot, the return trip showed us only one crossing was really needed.  

It is possible to get on the left side and stay there.  We had to go around a couple spots where trees had fallen leaving massive piles of laps.  ( laps are the tops of trees and they are no fun to try to go through) Another spot was a huge rhodo thicket we were able to go round and avoid that struggle.

          We began to see large rocks sticking up like fins and some boulders the size of houses.

The headwaters around the falls is flanked left and right by huge rock formations.    The trees higher in the headwaters give way to yellow birch, beech, buckeye, and hemlock or fir.    We began to see 

more and more pretty cascades along the creek as we climbed.   

 There is something very soothing to my eyes about the back country streams in the mountains with all the mossy logs and jumbled debris.  It lacks that manicured look that I find at some touristy waterfalls.

First dutchman's breeches of the season!   Saw this and some very tiny quirrel corn just getting started.   I was hollering for joy!  

           

 silky cascade along the stream

 A very large poplar tree.

Top of the same big tree.

Once we got up pretty high in the drainage you could see the Greenbrier Pinnacle in the distance!

Cool to think of all the times I've been up there!

  One of the cool features of this off trail was that the route we chose had a squeeze through a crack in the rocks. A couple spots were like natural stair steps up a boulder field and through a headwaters spring area.  I love headwaters areas when the water is spurting from under every rock and root.

We passed one massive boulder that looked like a building!

Huge boulder capped with ferns

First good look at the falls.  Hard to tell from here of the scale.

   The grapevines in this area were big around as a man's arm.  I also though of the Page sisters who trek the mountains with David Sands, Erica Burnette and Co.    I swear they been hanging laundry out in them woods.  We ran upon a double strand of twisted Dutchman's pipe vine that looked for the world like a clothes line!   Like it was placed there on purpose!  We encountered a set of 10 foot twin falls below the main falls.  My concern on seeing them was that this was the lower drop of the falls as pictured by Tom Dunigan. I had been praying the falls were ruined with too much downed trees falling in them.      Turned out not to be the case so it was all good.

 Above and below a horizontal and vertical oriented shot of Little Laurel Branch Cascade. It was a beauty today.   I am betting though that during the drier months it is a lot of work to reach this spot for not much reward in the way of flow.   Soaked up all the beauty, mist off the falls and sunbeams I could get today!

  We clambered around in the falls and viewed it from various angles.  It was fun.   It is possible to get lots of different vantage points of this one, but it is work.   It is a hard one to photograph and show its size and shape.   It has about a fifteen foot chute at the top where it gushes down off the mountain then runs a short distance before running down over the  squared off rock face.  Some of the stones back here today near the falls looked like man made structures, but we knew better.  

The only signs of man we encountered was the rock pile walls and tater hole of a cabin down low in the drainage.  Aside from that the old logging road we glimpsed down low was it.   

 A shot of a lower portion of the falls.

Isolation shot of the frothy cascades below the main falls. 

 We had a much easier hike down than it was going up.   Still had to be careful, but we didn't waste time crossing and recrossing the creek.   Here is another scenic cascade in the stream way down in the drainage. 

    We slowly headed back down after we enjoyed the spectacle of the falls.   It was a short, relatively easy bushwhack.   It felt extra special to have seen a little known falls when we got back down to the main trail and began encountering lots of people returning from hiking the Ramsey Cascades Trail.
Below is a shot of Ramsey Prong with that blue green snow water color to it.  Today we got a dose of exactly what we needed and it was glorious!  We capped off the evening with a stop at Calhouns for eats.  I love going in there with my butt dirty and sticks and leaves all in my hair.  I expect to be taken seriously. ;^D

Last of all is a short video of the falls.  It shows it better than my photos. Note to myself. Today I found diapers and fanny wipes in my backpack!   I could hear Jenny Bennett's laugh had she been there and seen that.   The spirit of the Contrarian was with me today in them woods!  Dearly missed. 

Waterfall Hunting in the Cherokee National Forest

Sweet Betsy trillium first one of the season

Waterfall Hunting in the Cherokee National Forest 

Dana & Kenny Koogler 

Sat. March 18 2017

  We are making a little headway in getting our life back to normal.  We had a weekend to do as we pleased.  We ran off to Tellico Plains to do some waterfall hunting.   I had been studying up on a couple of places through the week. I had caught Kenny up to speed on it, and we both believed we'd have good luck finding the falls.  I also believed I had come up with a plan to avoid making it harder than it had to be. We are so bad about that.  We came fully prepared.

Brought rope just in case. 

     We headed out Saturday morning and arrived down along North River at a decent time.

It was around 10 am when we hit the trail.   We had never been to the Donley Cabin and would have to walk right by it today.  Only one other truck parked near us. It appeared the cabin was occupied at present.  We had perfect weather. It was cool and clear with bright blue skies and sunshine.  It was supposed to warm up which is nice too.  A real bluebird day.  Though the woods are still bare the trilliums are popping up. I saw a patch of sweet betsy along the creek bank.  I was very pleased to see it.  Other early wildflowers today were star chickweed, yellow violets, blue violets, hepatica, and toothwort.   

  

   We stopped at the picnic table aside from the cabin to get oriented.  We figured the path leading away from the cabin must be the one we needed so we followed it. It  intersected FSR 2417 which runs from North River Road up to Deep Gap.   The path leading to it may not be officially maintained, but it was easy to follow and tramped down.   North River is a hot spot for trout fishing and it appears these trails are seeing a fair amount of use.  My plan was to try to locate two waterfalls on Big Cove Branch. 

The trout unlimited narrative about the stream indicated they were "both over thirty feet high".  It also described bail out points along the creek for fishermen. Based upon the narrative I figured if the second bailout point was ABOVE the waterfalls.. then it made more sense to walk the forest service road that meets the creek at that point and work our way down.  Better than a total bushwhack or creek walk.   I also felt we could eliminate the need to check the first 0.6 miles of the stream based upon the description and the topo map.  You know what is said about the best laid plans. 

Donley Cabin on a bright Saturday morning 

      

Kenny at the start of the path between the cabin and the forest service road.

   

  We hiked up the forest road and it was not a bad climb.  Up up and more up, but it was gradual.  A few sections leveled off some.   The woods were pretty and the few Spring wildflowers along the way made it easy to keep my mind on something other than the effort. I had it in mind we needed to hike about 0.9 miles up the road to equal the straighter mileage it would have been on the stream.  We ended up hiking 1 mile up the road per the GPS measurement.   We checked the stream and the vicinity. The creek flattened out here above the road. Remember now.. the falls should be below where we are.   We did not see or hear anything like a waterfall. The stream was quite pretty.  Lots of rhododendron around.

We had passed a turn off road a ways back that lead in the right general direction. We wondered if we needed to try that road, but neither of us was willing to lose all the elevation we'd gained THEN have to go up again if we were wrong.  Better to try up the road first then come back down if need be.  

 Big Cove Branch is mossy green and beautiful. 

The road cuts through the ridge here. It reminds me of part of the Blanket Mountain manway only it is more open.  

           Having not found anything promising we went back down and turned right onto the side road that lead toward the stream.   It swung round the point of the ridge and down near but not all the way to the creek.  It dead ended to the right. To the left it continued. Very shortly it made a switchback and the lower logging road was not in good shape.  It was not traveled and had lots of briars and rhodo grown up in it.  We followed it onward.  It grew worse and worse as we went.  Finally we could see an opening ahead, but in order to reach it we had to struggle through a thicket.  We wrangled the rhodo, saplings, briars, and slogged through a spring in order to reach an open spot that may have been a home site in the past.  Lots of pioneer junk laying around.   We sat down to eat lunch and rest. We were worn out and growing frustrated.

We discussed whether we should go back the way we came or continue to bushwhack downstream?  The GPS indicated it was only 0.17 miles to the jeep so it was a no brainer. 

 Chunk of discarded guard rail bent into a ramp laying by the path. 

The guard rail is near the turn off road toward the creek. You can see Kenny ahead of me. This part of the hike was as good as any trail. 

 Looking back from the edge of the clearing at what we just wallered through.  No trail.

 The cussing bucket.  This was at the clearing.  It was our cussing place. 

       Kenny went ahead of us while I finished the last few bites of my sandwich. He wanted to see what we had in store ahead of us.  He came back reporting that we had a briar patch to pass through and then a failed tree farm with weeds and scrub. The good news was that past that was a good trail!   

These saplings were all over the place.  Laying around were the plastic sleeves that had been used to wrap the tree trunks.  

 You can just start to see a trail in this spot at the edge of those saplings.  

 More pretty trilliums

Saw several huge patches of sweet betsy.  

   Next came a healthy, mossy spring that was very pretty.   The stream continued to be attractive, but no waterfalls along this stretch.   We had been able to see all but two spots between 0.9 miles and the start of the stream down by the cabin.   A few minor cascades, but that was it.    We passed a water monitoring device. Soon we were out at the other trail and 

had bypassed the cabin.   We encountered two of the fellows staying in the cabin and talked to them.  We shared with them what we'd been up to.  They both said they had also heard there were supposed to be two nice falls on the creek.  We had even seen photos of them!  

They said they were considering going hunting them, but after hearing of our poor luck they thought better of it.    We left disappointed, but still happy to be outside today.  

           We went on to our next stop which was the confluence of Meadow Branch and Roaring Branch.    Twin waterfalls sit right by the road.   We climbed down there to get a good look at them and take some photos and video.  Lots of water today as it had rained last night. 

 No path to these roadside falls.  Lots of downed trees to use as bridges. 

 Upper Cascade on Meadow Branch is 15 ft high. It is closest to the road. 

First falls on Roaring Branch is 10 ft tall and sits away from the road. 

Roaring Branch is said to be one waterfall after another in a narrow gorge.  No easy way in or out and no trail at all.  Not even a fisherman's path. 

    We enjoyed these falls for a little bit then got back in the jeep and headed to our last stop of the day.   A friend had shared with me the location of a nice falls with the caveat that I not divulge the location since it will be coming out in a guidebook.  It was a nice gift.  

We found the stream and started up it following flagging.  It was all ok except for one spot to start with and that was not too bad.  It was an odd place where you had to stand on a few inches of rock in the creek.  Very slippery.   The path we were on petered out as did the flagging.

We realized we'd have to go up over the ridge to continue so we did.  We were fortunate to see the falls just on the other side. We were also pleased to see we would be able to get down without a problem.  We found the falls without any trouble, but looking across the creek ... there was the trail.  The REAL trail.  Gotta learn everything the hard way. 

Below is a photo of the falls.  It is a nice one.   It was marvelous to be out taking pictures today and seeing waterfalls.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.  

    We were worn out and had to face the drive home.  We stopped at Bert's restaurant in Madisonville to eat. It is always so good.  We were both ravenous. A great day in the woods.  If I am sitting in an eating establishment after a hike/bushwhack with sticks and leaves in my hair.. I consider the day a success!   

    Sitting over there in the red shirt is Kenny. He is on the trail we should have hiked up.

Oy! We've done it again. 

Benton Falls Hike

Benton Falls Hike

January 14, 2017

Kenny & Dana Koogler
Hiked 4 miles RT 

   I am way behind in writing this blog entry. I could not even recall the date of it. I had to look it up.  I am going to make it more perfunctory since it is so far behind the date it took place.  

  We managed to get out in January for a hike to Benton Falls.   We planned to start there and continue to Silver Creek Falls and Elora Falls at least.  We figured if they were running really good we'd push on to see Rim Rock Falls and Oasis Falls.  

        We have only hiked to Benton Falls twice before.  We were there 14 years ago and eight years ago.   Just when you think you know exactly how to get to where you're going........ you find out you don't.   We arrived at the trail head parking without any problems. It was a pretty Saturday. It was sunny and warming up.  We had a general recollection of how to start the hike.   We headed in the correct direction and crossed the earth dam at McKamy Lake. 

Once past that the trouble began.  The problem was we had only the most general recall of what direction the falls was in.  The trail sign was knocked down and propped back up.  I looked around for where it was knocked over from.  We never could figure out exactly where it had been.  We decided since it seemed to be pointing in the right general direction we'd start off the way it indicated.  We had not gone 100 yards before I began to realize it was wrong.  Kenny disputed me at first.  He then realized I was correct and all we were doing was circling back to the same spot we started from.  shoooes! We hiked that extra needless quarter mile as a "warm up" he said.  I got the map out and between the two of us we got oriented. We laughed and set off again. Same general direction but downhill.  If you hike to Benton Falls... hopefully the sign will have been replaced and be correct. Just in case.... go across the dam and at the intersection turn LEFT and follow the blue blazed trail.  

      We were still not absolutely sure we were right until we were halfway there.  We passed several signs, but not until we got to the middle of the trail at an intersection did we see one that pointed to Benton Falls. Thankfully it is a very easy hike and a short one.  We made it to the falls in no time despite our initial struggles.  The falls was running pretty good and was as pretty as I remembered.   We saw three other folks there while we were there. Not too bad.

 Benton Falls flowing so/ so today. I was surprised. We'd had recent rain, but it did not completely ease the draught.

 Elora Falls--Not much water.

 small plunge pool at Elora Falls

Then the water just goes underground for a ways... it comes out again about 50 yards down from here.  

      We enjoyed Benton Falls for awhile. It was beautiful and quiet today.  We went on down the trail with the waypoints and Brian Solomon's directions to Elora and Silver Creek Falls. 
We found Elora Falls without a lot of trouble.  It was a short bushwhack.  It was disappointing.
Not much water at all.   Kenny went down and could see where Silver Creek Falls was, but said it was even worse.   We decided to end our hike here and come back another time right after a heavy, very recent rain.  

         It was a beautiful day to get out and exercise.  It did us both a world of good. We decided to head on back home. We stopped at the picnic area on the way back and sat by the lake having lunch.  A few more people were straggling in.   We wrapped things up and decided to go home.   Good thing we did  head back early. Driving home my new jeep threw a Transmission Error and got stuck in eighth gear.  We had it happen off and on a couple times.  The message went away,but the Check Engine light never went off.   I called the dealership and found they were open until 5:30 p.m.   We made it back in time to get it down to Kodak for a check and a repair.  I was without a vehicle for a day or so, but Monday night I went down and picked it up. It has been fine ever since.  I hate vehicle trouble, but at least it did not strand me somewhere, and it is resolved.