Pics from Big South Fork, TN and KY

[OwenM]

Some pics from the latter half of the Honey Creek Loop in Big South Fork's Southern/TN side. I love this place, and it is, IMO, one of the best dayhikes in the Southeastern United States.
Wish I'd brought my chest pack, because I ended up with a bunch of stuff jammed in my pockets. Due to the nature of the trail, no permits, no cell signal, a nonexistent possibility of a timely response in the event of an emergency, and my habit of climbing and crawling through and over stuff even when there is a way around, I was fully geared up with an SOL bivy, long baselayers plus down jacket, extras to the first aid kit, etc. in my pack. This is not somewhere that you can easily get out of if injured, and like my last trip, there were no other people in the area.
More pics from a year ago, almost to the day, here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-National-Park-and-Pickett-State-Park-in-N-TN
I have some videos that came out pretty crappy, since the camera wasn't focusing well, but I might put up one or two if I get them uploaded.

Honey Creek Overlook:

A little size perspective.

This marks the beginning of the "golden" section of the hike as you enter a drainage that the trail follows(or that serves as the trail, as the case may be) back up out of the gorge.

A personal favorite-a waterfall hidden behind some boulders with a little multi-tiered cascade.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

 

[OwenM]

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This the trail.

Boulder House/Boulder House Falls:

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

This is the trail.

Know what this is? Guess..did you guess? It's the trail!
Someone put a rope here. Last year it was a slide that you had to go down on your butt.

Honey Creek Falls

This is the end of the trail.

These next three are from the nearby Burnt Mill Loop. I have some questions about the distance, since it's supposed to be 3.6 miles total.
Somehow it took me almost 2hrs to get to a sign that said 1.4 miles to the TH, then 30 minutes to finish-so 1.something mph for the first 2.2 miles of an easy trail(?). Maybe if I was duck walking backwards. Maybe I fell into a fugue state for an hour, or something...
Anyway, my camera battery died prematurely, and I was just carrying a chest pack with some basic stuff, and naturally, no spare battery. I was ultralight, you know?!?

This is the top of Yahoo Falls in Kentucky. Listed at 113ft, and the tallest waterfall in the state. I came back by the bottom of the falls on the return trip.
This was supposed to be part of a backpacking loop joining several trails, but we won't talk about that, damn it.

 

[OwenM]

Yahoo Arch.

Yahoo Arch.

Yahoo Arch.

Yahoo Arch.

Yahoo Falls.

Yahoo Falls.

Yahoo Falls.

Yahoo Falls, and some yahoo.

Yahoo Falls.

 

[bleedingfinger]

God bless America.... Land that I love.
Thanks for sharing! Looks awesome

 

[22-rimfire]

Owen, great picture show and I get it, this is the trail..... somewhere if you look hard enough. I need to head up there. The distance keeps me away. That arch looks great as do the waterfalls and rock formations. Looks like typical Cumberland Plateau woods and it looks wonderful to me.

 

[willrise]

THANKS FOR ALL THE PIX !much appreciated while I sit it this 6x6 cubicle.

 

[fmajor007]

Thanks for the pics and walk down memory lane! I've not been through there since 2003, but it was a semi-frequent destination for me when I lived in the Bluegrass. It's a lovely place to hike this time of year without all the heat/humidity.

 

[bsmith_shoot]

Gorgeous! I live on the south fork of the Kentucky. Actually at the start of it. This whole area was blessed by God himself.

 

[lovetohaft]

Great pics of one of my favorite areas in KY, I usually make it down there a few times each year. Scenery is fantastic but the reason I keep going back is the smallmouth...the South Fork is one of the better smallmouth streams in our state.

Steve

 

[OwenM]

Glad y'all enjoyed the pics. With last year's trip, BSF instantly became on of my favorite playgrounds, though it's a bit far for frequent trips.

It's a lovely place to hike this time of year without all the heat/humidity.

Oh, yeah. Wish it had been a bit cooler, but I didn't sweat it out too much. 20s-40s, though it had been forecast to go into the teens. The only ice was some places with slow-dripping water, and right behind Yahoo Falls.

 

[baldtaco-II]

How could one not love that. Lovely.

Quick sidetrack as I've got your attention - Your Trek, what you change about it? Not thinkin' mad shocks and blah more niggles?

Happy Christmas mate.

 

[OwenM]

And a Merry Christmas to you!
I changed the grips to Odi Ruffian lock-ons, the pedals to Shimano Saints, replaced the top and bottom headset spacers with CF ones(which I think looks great), LizardSkins chainstay protector then a Bionicon chain guide, because it kept dropping the chain, and most recently swapped the worn tires for a pair of Nobby Nics.
No more definite changes planned at the moment. If anything, it may get a 36T middle chainring, and the outer one replaced with a bash guard, since I have clearance issues sometimes.
I may eventually buy a nicer bike rather than sink a bunch of cash into upgrading a heavy entry level one, though. I'd like a smaller, lighter, more agile bike like a carbon frame 27.5". The Cobia does everything I need it to as-is, but it's huge and I'm short. I'll wait and see if I'm still gung-ho about mountain biking in another year or two before buying another(much more expensive!) bike.
Right now I'm in lust over the Jamis Nemesis Pro:devilish:

 

[22-rimfire]

You did this run on a bike? Funny. I go to places like this off and on and I don't even know if riding a moutain bike is okay. I have one that I haven't ridden in years.

 

[lambertiana]

Way cool! I'd love to check that place out.

 

[OwenM]

Well, there's plenty of those rocks and water that you like!

You did this run on a bike? Funny. I go to places like this off and on and I don't even know if riding a moutain bike is okay. I have one that I haven't ridden in years.

They do have some mountain bike trails, and some should have decent scenery following ridgelines or the river, but they won't get you to the park's main attractions.
It'd be different if I lived close by, but I've got to have specific destinations to make road trips more than a couple hours.

 

[A Justice]

Great pics Owen. I used to go to Lake Cumberland a lot, but haven't ever hiked on the South Fork Area.

You know, there is actually supposed to be a bigger Waterfall in the Red River Gorge in KY... by 1'. It was measured by hikers and later confirmed by park officials, but hasn't been surveyed. I don't know for sure which one it is, or if it is even one of the popular falls in the park - the most popular Falls in the Gorge is probably the Eagle's Nest falls, but I have been there and do not think it's even 100'. You should really consider Red River Gorge for a future trip if you're venturing farther away with every trip. About an hour from Cumberland I would guess, it's also in the Daniel Boone forest (The DB National Park extends from the Cumberland to Cave Run in the North). There is also Natural Bridge next to it, which has one of the most well defined and prominent natural bridge formations in the country.

I live in Eastern KY. There are so many places to hike here that you could travel to a different spot every day for years and never exhaust the possibilities - of course the Daniel Boone park is one of the least accessible places East of the Mississippi, so I'm sure you could probably do the same there. The Russel Fork and Breaks Interstate park is just south of here, which is a popular destination.

 

[OwenM]

...if you're venturing farther away with every trip.

I wish! There's a ton of trails places I'd like to explore, including Daniel Boone National Forest in winter, and many others in North Carolina, Virginia, even PA, but they're just too far for casual trips.

 

[fmajor007]

Oh man! I love the 'Gorge' - used to climb there too. It's a rodo-blasting area (much like Big South Fork really) with many great trails, mesa's and rock formations. It gets super busy from about April through October, but from November through March you'll pretty much have the place all to yourself except for the other die-hards.

The mesa's should be navigated carefully though - it seems every year someone takes an inadvertent death-fall stumbling around and not paying attention.

Stop in at Miguel's Pizza for some tasty lunch and a cold one as well!

 

[22-rimfire]

Well, there's plenty of those rocks and water that you like!

They do have some mountain bike trails, and some should have decent scenery following ridgelines or the river, but they won't get you to the park's main attractions.
It'd be different if I lived close by, but I've got to have specific destinations to make road trips more than a couple hours.

I thought that you were hiking, but the comments about the mountain bike threw me off. I bought a mountain bike years ago for the specific purpose of biking between Cumberland Gap NHP (the gap) and Hensley Settlement and do it in one day back and forth. It's like 10-12 miles each way. I had a 4x4 then and just drove up the steep washed out road to Hensely Settlerment the couple times that I have gone. So, never biked there. In fact, the original tires are still on that bike. You can tell I ride a lot.

I seem to get out more in the winter than any other time and then tell myself... I need to go back here in March and April and then never do. Time to get off my butt. Actually, I have been so busy that I only put up the Christmas tree on Saturday. It has been something every day, pretty much 7-days a week since September.

I very much enjoy the woods and rocky terrain in Tennessee and Kentucky moutains. The variety of plants is quite good as well.

Red River Gorge has a significant population of copperheads if you decide to go there. Watch your feet, but then we all do when we hike in the woods.

 

[KDucky's brother]

Great pics. On a whim, my wife and I went there(Tn side) this past summer for our wedding anniversary. We hiked and mt biked for a couple days. Pretty big area, that was relatively not crowded. We were there mid week tho.

Altho not nearly as nice as these, I have lots of pics. When I have a chance later, I'll post a few to this thread.

Again, great pics and thanks for posting.