Old Trails, New Sights

It was Groundhog Day, so fitting (at least so far as the movie goes) that I return to my usual haunts on Lookout Mountain. I parked at the trailhead on Ochs Highway at 2:00 PM and pedaled off on the mountain bike into the 40 degree day. Past the Incline I veered right onto the Millers Trail and ended up on the Wauhatchie Pike Greenway, which seems to be in a state of neglect. I walked the bike up through the Eagles Nest to the Hardy Trail.

I stopped to look at Dogwood Spring, which was a short but maintained side trail when I moved to the mountain 25 years ago. Today it is a faint path with a couple of trees across its start, which makes it even harder to see. The spring is only 100 feet from the Hardy Trail and almost hidden from view. The water emerges from underneath a huge sandstone boulder and then immediately plunges back underground. Kent Ballew die-traced this water and I believe he told me it came out on the opposite side (eastern) side of the mountain. In the old days I theorized this was the source of Ruby Falls, but I can't remember that Kent confirmed this. I remembered a small rock bench to sit on, and a sign. The bench was gone, but I found the sign buried under some small fallen trees. In another minute I had the sign back upright in front the spring. I can't swear to it, but I remember the big rock being taller; I suspect that over the years it has slumped down as if to cover the already elusive spring.

I had intended to head up the Hardy Trail past the Cravens House to examine a large boulder than had rolled into the trail near its terminus at Scenic Highway but when I got to the switchback that would turn me in that direction I thought I would ride on a bit instead. There were mountain bike tracks and a few footprints in the snow, so I wasn't the first to have that idea. The view of the slopes above and below was amazing; with all the growth gone I could see through the trees across acres of mountainside.

 Not far after I had passed beneath Sunset Rock I noticed a small cairn at what looked like a parking spot, so I stopped to peer down the hill to see why. Just fifty feet off the trail where I passed so many times before, an old fender from an ancient vehicle was prone on the ground, and around it were rusted bits of metal, one of which had some kind of foot pedal bolted to it. In the leaves nearby I found the remains of old tires. I took many pictures using the MapMyRide app on my phone, thinking it would pin down the location for me, but this backfired as I apparently didn't tell the app to save the pictures--none were on my phone when I got home. Is this the remains of an old truck, dating even perhaps back to days of the CCC in the 1930's? The style of the bolt-on fender looked old enough. Obviously there are a lot parts missing (where is the frame, the engine?) but I tend to think a vehicle would have arrived at such a spot under its own power.

It was 4:00 PM when I reached the end of the truck trail beneath Covenant College.  My toes were very cold and this seemed odd until I took off my biking shoes and discovered that (1)  the shoe was ventilated so that cold air was coming right in and (2) my toes were quite wet.  I put sandwich bags over my toes inside the shoes to block the wind and soon they were happy again.

Around 5:00 PM I was coming down the Hardy Trail through falling snow, not far from Ruby Falls, when I spotted two people with full backpacks ahead. This proved to be Jo Swanson and Bart Houck, who are hiking to New York on the Great Eastern Trail (GET). What a treat to meet and talk with them; they in turn seemed pleased to learn they were on course for Ruby Falls. There are some GET markers here and there along the route, but not many. The pair had started hiking today at Nickajack Road and would be picked up at Ochs Highway where I was parked, or "just 15 miles today," as Jo described it. They will be the first people in the world to thru-hike the Great Eastern Trail. Their website is www.gethiking.net. Even though they obviously have a long way to go, I felt like congratulating them in advance just for going forward with such a groundbreaking plan.