This Smoky Mountains Hiking Club trip was my first hike on the Cumberland Trail. Sometime just before I moved to TN in 1993 the State dropped its Cumberland Trail project, losing access to some sections such as those on Walden Ridge that were on private land. A few sections, such as those in Prentice Cooper State Forest and the Eagle Buff Section along the crest of Cumberland Mountain from Tank Springs in LaFollette to Cove Lake State Park in Caryville were kept, since the state owned the property. I believe this hike occurred before the CT was revitalized by the Cumberland Trail Conference. Leaders for this trip were Bill Grieve and Ellen Kilbourne. There were 25 hikers (usually a sign of a new, or logistically complicated hike) including Charlie Klabunde and Doris Gove.
At
this time the trail was complete between I-75 Cove Lake in Caryville and Tank
Spring in LaFollette, with a side trail to the overlook above I-75. From the
unnamed gap just north of the overlook, the trail led south into Caryville and
then followed an unmarked route along local streets to Cove Lake State Park.
The current foot trail alongside I-75 and up Devils Racetrack would be a later addition.
This
was a 10 mile long car shuttle hike, so the first task was logistics. We parked
a few cars near a house along the trail near the park in Caryville (I’m not sure why we didn’t park
at Cove Lake), then moved other cars to the LaFollette end. My notes indicate
that I doubted I could find either parking spot again.
The
initial climb from Tank Spring was steep and our large group moved slowly. Once
on the crest we enjoyed some great overlooks and walked beside a variety of sandstone
fins. The trail builders had done a great job routing alongside long vertical
crags. At one overlook the group split, and we joined Charlie and Doris in the
lead pack. I enjoyed some sections of double crest where there were two thick
sandstone layers separated by a small bowl. We found the campsite mentioned in
our map description, a nice setting with water close by.
Unfortunately, the overlook Eagle Bluff had good dirt road access and so was trashed. The trail beyond the bluff was less interesting. For some reason (fatigue, weather?) we skipped the side trail to the overlook above I-75. The descent to Cove Lake wasn’t as fearsome as we imagined. We soon hit some houses, and abandoned the trail to walk the streets back to our cars.
Overall,
it was good to find another nice trail only 45 minutes away. But there did not
appear to be safe parking at either end. The trail also was too brushy to have
worn shorts in November, so I imagined it might be near impassable in summer.
The Cumberland Trail, Eagle Bluff Section.
