Much of my exploring in the eastern part of the Cumberland Mountains
has been with my friend DK. He’s the one that introduced to Windrock, which was
his primary training ground when he first moved back to Oak Ridge. DK is one of
those guys who makes things happen, and you can be sure any trip to a new area
will have an element of adventure.
Our target on this trip was a long abandoned section of the Cumberland
Trail. The Cumberland Trail (CT) is one
of those rare projects that is on its
second life. The Trail is planned to traverse Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountains
from Cumberland gap National Historic Park in the northeast corner, along the
spine of the Cumberland Mountains south to Chattanooga. In its first iteration
several long sections of trail were built before the state was forced to
abandon the project. When the project was revised in the 1990s, some of the
previously constructed sections of trail had to be abandoned because of changes
in ownership or other factors. One of the sections that was abandoned was along
the spine of Walden Ridge, where the new Cumberland Trail now goes through the
heart of Cumberland Mountains from Caryville to Wartburg.
DK and I had explored two section of the abandoned CT on Walden Ridge
in 2014-2015. On the first trip we went several miles north of the gap on
Walden Ridge Road following the old CT outbound and then a current Windrock ATV
trail inbound. We had found much of the CT relatively pristine and discovered an
old campsite with table, while other sections of the old foot trail had been destroyed
by the ATV traffic. Our next trip was shorter, just going south of the gap to
the Laurel Grove Firetower, but we could see that a trail continued south
through the summer growth.
DK had been back to Walden Ridge earlier in the week and then asked Jean
and I if we wanted to try to explore the CT further south from the old
firetower. Of course we signed on. We drove up the dirt road from the north
side toward the gap. As we reached the gap DK noted “that car wasn’t here
before.” “That car” turned out to be the still smoldering hulk of burned, and presumably
stolen, sedan. There was a small amount of smoke and flame from the final
combustion still visible at the right front, so DK called it in to Anderson
County dispatch. The vehicle was completely fried. We could see ingots of
aluminum on the ground where some components had melted. All that was left of
the tires was the metal belting. We took our photos of the car, and then added some
more with the Marlow Volunteer FD when they arrived with their truck.
Torched Car at the Parking Area.
Once on the trail it was a mile of two track road through the fog to
the tower site. The tower is in rough shape, the floor of the cabin is missing.
There is an adjacent cell tower that accounts for the maintenance of the road.
The old CT leaves to the open area around the tower to the south on the ridge
crest. The first ¼ mile is a bit overgrown, but then the trail opens up nicely.
The middle section of our walk was along the Windrock boundary and there were
lots of bright blue blazing. It seemed like the trail received some regular
traffic. The area was pretty, fairly old forest, and had some nice rock
formations. We also saw 2 survey markers and two old stone campfire rings. Near
the end of our hike we saw a few old white blazes that we speculated were from
the CT era. We generally could follow the bed of the old trail.
Approaching the Tower.
We went about three miles out (by the GPS) just past a small gap where
the usually sharp ridgeline had widened out. Unfortunately, the flatter top had
made the area more attractive to logging at some time in the past and the
underbrush was much thicker beyond this point. We could still see the old trail
thru the brush and greenbrier, but kept having to skirt around all the thick
underbrush.
Getting a Little Over Grown.
Since we were out for an easy day, we turned back and on the return
were able to avoid the whole mess by staying well to the north side of the
ridge. DK later reported that he could see on a satellite image that we were
not far from a logging road at our end point.
Checking the Map.
By our return to the gap the burned car had been hauled off and only a
few charred remnants and strips of melted aluminum were left. It’s a rare hike
when your most memorable event happens in the parking area.
