Hiking - Angel Falls Rapid Trail

Today was much colder and when we headed out of the camper, the temperature was about 30 degrees.  This trail starts at the lower end of the Leatherwood Ford parking area and follows the South Fork River until you pass Angel Falls Rapids around the 2 mile mark.  The water here looks Caribbean blue which was gorgeous against the azure blue skies.  The trail is an easy trail, although there are again some roots and rocks, and several creeks to pass over.  Angel Falls rapids consists of some large rocks where the water rushes through creating some Class IV rapids.  We did notice that kayakers are encouraged to portage here- good idea!  This hike was 4.4 miles. We spent the rest of the day lounging at the trailer.  We did start a fire and sat around that for part of the day.  Scotty tended the fire, I read a book and BenjiBear did his dog things!  

Hiking - Twin Arches and Slave Falls Trail

 We left the campsite with a temperature of 44 degrees, and predictions of mid 50s with winds up to 30 mph.  We knew we'd be hiking in the trees so we weren't too concerned.  We headed over to the Twin Arches trailhead and did the upper loop and hiked 1.8 miles total round trip.  On this trail, you go up and down, and up again.  There are at least two very long steep staircases and several other small staircases.  There are also steps built into the dirt paths.  We noticed lots of sand on the top of the trail which comes from the numerous rock formations.  We hiked over the North arch and then onto the South arch.  There's a large rock over the South Arch which is not easy to ascend, but it was manageable for all 3 of us.  Once we got to the top, we could look over the canopy of trees below us and the high winds were an added bonus to the climb.  We headed down and explored under both arches.  The south arch has a narrow canyon that you can climb through to get to the outside of the rock formation.  There were a few other people here exploring the arches.  On the loop back, there were two very steep staircases that BenjiBear would not climb.  Fortunately, he has a human that will carry him - Scotty!  We ate lunch at the trail head before our next hike.

The Sawmill Trailhead is not far away so we headed out to Slave Falls.  It's a nice easy hike through the forest and then you get to a fork.  We went to the right and saw Needle Arch, appropriately named as the arch is thin like a needle.  Retracing our steps, we went back to the fork and took the other path which led to Slave Falls.  This path winds under some rocky cliffs where slaves may have hid and therefore the name of these falls.  It's a 90 foot fall that is really a small flow of water coming down.  It's surrounded by steep rocky walls and fenced off so hikers can not get close. This hike was 3.3 miles.  This is not the biggest fall or arch that we've seen, but I'd recommend both of these hikes.

Hiking - Bandy Creek

 We left Fall Creek Falls late morning and got to Bandy Creek after lunchtime.  This is a much more remote campground, lots of open sites and there was no camp host.  Our site was level, back in and surrounded by trees.  Bandy Creek is part of the Big South Fork National Recreation area, a huge park that spans over Tennessee and Kentucky.  We had egg salad sandwiches and headed over to the Visitor Center. We got some maps and planned out our hikes for the next 2 days.  As it was still light, we decided to go on a short hike from the campground.  We headed out on the John Litton Farm trail and hiked for 2.3 miles roundtrip.  The beginning of the trail wound through some new, bright green pine trees and then it started to descend closer to a creek.  The more we descended, the more rock formations we encountered.  There were rocks and roots all along the trail, but also some really nice wooden walkways that went over creeks and other tricky parts of the trail.  There were two ladders to climb down or you could traverse down the extremely steep hills.  At one point, we walked along rocks behind a small waterfall.  Halfway through the walk, we let BenjiBear walk along on his own and that's when he got the zoomies and would run ahead and then zip back to us.  He seems to like hiking!  This worked out well because there were no other distractions and he always came back to us for a treat.  We were surprised by such a pleasant and diverse walk right there near our trailer.  Dinner consisted of a hamburger with mushrooms and onions, baked beans and a beer.  Yum!  We earned it.

Hiking at Fall Creek Falls

 Fall creek Falls Overlook

We first headed over to the fall Creek Falls Overlook Trail. (1.25 miles)  This trail is considered moderate to strenuous as it goes down into the gorge. Along the way you can hear the Falls rushing at times and you can see the water below. The trail is rocky at points and there are also stairs at points. As we got closer to the falls the mist was hitting us and being as it’s still early spring we didn’t want to go farther as it would be colder. We passed a few other people out hiking enjoying this trail.

Piney Creek Falls

We drove to the next fall which is called Piney Creek Falls. (.6 miles) Once again there’s a beautiful overlook where you can see the falls without walking down into the gully. As a description says the river looks like  hey Silver ribbon winding through a lush green pillow. This trail is much shorter and there is even a suspension bridge along the way. After the suspension bridge the trails close so we had to circle back. There are gorgeous views all along the way on this trail.

Fall Creek Falls Lake Trail (2.8 miles)

After relaxing at the trailer, we headed over to the lake and walked this trail. This trail was a breeze. Its a flat, paved trail that goes aling a section of the lake. Nice! Oncevagain, back to the trailer and we had fajitas for dinner.

Hiking - Cane Creek Falls

 We got to Fall Creek Falls State Oark and set up the trailer. There was still some light left, a bit windy, but beautiful azure skies. We headed over to do a short hike. We walked actoss the suspension bridge over Cane Creek Falls. Benji was a little unsure and without the usual coaxing, he walked right by my side. We walked along the Lower Loop Trail which took us down to see the falls. (.72 miles) There were 90 some steps down to the gorge. It was a pretty walk. Returning to the trailer, we made dinner - fajitas and relaxed.

Hiking - Noccalula Falls

 4.2 miles, 1:46 elapsed time

Rain is predicted later in the day so we had a slow morning and then headed out for another hike. We hiked in the same direction but this time stayed above the gorge. We hiked out of the forest and more into the city where we crossed a bridge over the gorge. By this time we were on a highway and there was not a good shoulder to walk upon. As the road went uphill, there was a large curve. The safest place was to walk behind the guard rail but at times it was quite difficult as the terrain was very steep. I started carrying Benji and when it got even steeper, Scotty carried him. We could tell by the map that if we were to go west we would head towards the campground. So we followed a road only to be greeted by a locked gate surrounding the Gaston water tower. But the gate didn’t go completely around the tower and we were able to pass through there where we then ended up on Gadsten parks and recreation fields.  The scenery began to look familiar as we arrived at the road beside the Gadsden in Pioneer Village. We arrived at the top of the falls and it looked considerably different from yesterday as there were no tourists and no hordes of bicyclist around. As there was no no rain, we decided to head out for lunch and ended up at Blackstone Pizza kitchen. We had a delicious lunch outside of chicken bacon ranch pizza, back at the trailer reset outside for just a very short time before the skies opened up and we had to move chairs under the trailer as it was extremely windy and we went inside. Weather like this makes me glad we are no longer camping in a tent. 

Black squirrels in this campground….

Hiking - Noccalula Falls

 2.8 miles, 1:20 elapsed time

We packed up early and got on the road so that we can meet Ethan at Noccalula Falls before any bad weather occurred. But a funny thing happened when we were at a rest stop. I saw a cute little dog and was trying to get Benji inside the trailer before he went crazy over the dog. I looked up at the owner and the owner who had been looking at my dog, we looked at each other and realized we knew each other. It was Gigi Barber who I had worked with when I was at Illesheim elementary over 30 years ago. She and her husband Vince were also returning from Florida where they have been spending time visiting family and also kayaking. It was such a weird coincidence although we see each other on Facebook often. It was fun catching up in the parking lot and I hope to meet with her one of these days when I get to Huntsville. Noccalula Falls is run by the city of Gadsden And the sites are fairly large. They are on top of a small mountain beside the Noccalula falls gorge. There were lots of people in the campground and touring around the park and the falls. Ethan was at the campground and we set up the trailer before going off on our hike down to the gorge. It’s a beautiful falls and it leaves down into Black Creek. At the top is a statue of an Indian girl jumping over the gorge. The legend is that she was promised in marriage to a warrior from another tribe. She loved someone in her own tribe and didn’t want to be married off so jump to her death. Apparently there isn’t an Indian legend sign etched into the rocks down below so they believe this is a true story. It just so happened that there were lots and lots of mountain bike racers on these trails this day. There was a large high school team and other cyclist practicing for a future mountain bike race. It’s not an easy hike as you go far down into the gorge and then obviously have to come back up. We ended up hiking 2.7 miles. For dinner we made hamburgers and head back beans and old bay flavored potato chips.