With
so many hiking areas in East Tennessee we often forgot about national forest
lands including the 600,000 acres Cherokee NF, and its hundreds of miles of
hiking trails. Will Skelton has done as much as anyone to promote the Cherokee,
as an advocate for preserving wilderness areas in the Forest, and as the editor
of the “Cherokee Forest Hiking Guide.” I contributed chapters on the Big Frog
Wilderness and the Ocoee Recreation Area to the second edition of his guidebook,
and am rehiking and editing the same chapters for the now in progress third
edition.
The
revision gives me a chance to hike a few trails that I missed earlier and were
described by other volunteers. The new trail I was looking forward to the most
was Beech Bottom, starting in the very southern most part of the forest along
the Georgia line. The trail starts in the Cherokee NF, but soon enters the
Chattahoochee NF and the Cohutta Wilderness. The highlight of the hike would be
the well-known Jacks River Falls.
Unlike
the rest of the trails in the Big Frog and Ocoee, Beech Bottom doesn’t connect
to other trails covered in the guidebook. So, it got left to the end of my trail
scouting, along with a nearby section of the Hemp Top Trail, and the Ocoee’s Thunder
Rock Trail, that had temporarily closed for a bridge repair. Once the Thunder
Rock Trail reopened, I headed down to finish up all three trails.
Based
on my trailhead driving trips elsewhere around Big Frog I suspected that
getting to the trailhead might be the toughest part of the Beech Bottom hike.
Flooding from a spring 2020 rainstorm still had a few roads around the
wilderness closed, and the other roads seemed to be getting much less
maintenance. Hedging my bets, I contacted another volunteer who told me that
the road to the Conasauga Trailhead (on my way to Beech Bottom) was passable by
passenger car (Thanks, Stephen!) The rest was up to me to find out.
 |
| Yes the right fork is the main road. |
My
route was US 64 east of Cleveland, TN to US 411 to Ladd Springs Road. After 4
miles the pavement ended at an unsigned “Y” with two sketchy looking dirt
roads. Mine appeared to climb to the right and luckily, I soon passed a sign
for the Cherokee NF and WMA. I was using a GPS app, but the base map wasn’t
accurate enough to tell if I was on the right road. Another car came by, and I
was able to confirm that I was on my way to Jacks River. On I went, my trusty
250,000-mile Corolla even getting into second gear occasionally on the flatter,
more level sections. |
| A roadside waterfall. |
The
drive was tedious as my low clearance required weaving about through the larger
road rocks, but after about five miles I got to the Conasauga Trailhead, and
then passed the Jacks River Bridge and the Jacks River Trailhead. The road next
turned up the Alaculsy Valley, and expecting some easy driving I was shocked by
a couple of not quite car deep water holes where I barely made it through
without having water come in the doors. The final leg was about 5 miles on FS
62. It was rocky and rutted, a 100% first gear obstacle course. I was having
serious thoughts about whether I could make it back on the road when the
trailhead finally arrived. |
| Trailhead Information. |
For
most Big Frog trails, a distant trailhead almost guarantees a brushy overgrown
trail, so I wasn’t expecting much reward for my driving efforts. But boy was I
wrong. The Beech Bottoms Trail was wide, well cleared, and a pleasure to walk.
It’s a gentle three miles through open forest to the bottom, then another
gentle mile to the Jacks River Trail junction. I guess the bottom was once a
bit of a party spot, but the Chattahoochee NF has banned camping, limited group
size, and probably isn’t in any big hurry to upgrade the road. That left the
area clean, natural, and uninhabited. There was even a sign marking the trail
junction. I knew that the falls were another ¾ mile downstream and headed that
way. |
| Entering the Cohutta Wilderness. |
 |
| Easy Trail to Beech Bottom. |
I
hadn’t done too much background reading on the falls, but knew there was an
upper and lower falls, but not how far apart they were. Beech Bottom Trail had
led right over the top of the fall, and I’d heard an impressive rumble there.
Soon the valley tightened up, and the bedrock looked like a hard massive
quartzite, perfect conditions for a large fall. Sure enough I reached the upper
fall, a river wide 20’ drop into a tempting swimming pool. The lower fall was
just beyond in a narrow gorge. This one dropped more like 40’ down a rocky
chute, but it was the power of the falls more than the height that impressed.
Sitting on the rock bank I could feel the rumble as much as hear it. Despite my
late arrival at the trailhead, I’d gotten there in time for a leisurely and
private lunch |
| Edge of the Upper Falls. |
 |
| Upper Jacks River Falls. |
n
contrast to Big Frog, the Cohutta sees a decent number of backpackers, so I was
surprised to have the falls to myself. Maybe it is more of a midsummer place.
The Jacks River Trail has 20 river crossings both above and below the falls.
Maybe that’s enough to keep away anyone who won’t sign up for a water
slog/backpack combo. I enjoyed the walk back every bit as much as the hike out.
 |
| The falls from above. |
I
still had one section of Big Frog trail to complete that was located another 2
miles up the road. Not wanting to do any more driving I ended up camping in the
deserted trailhead parking lot, just me, a cold sandwich, and vocal band of
coyotes. The next morning I hiked two miles up FS 62 up to the Hemp Top Trailhead
and found a lone pickup. (Look at the clearance on that thing, and I’ll bet it
has got 4WD!) I walked up the first section of the Hemp Top Trail to its
junction with the Wolf Ridge Trail. Again, despite my expectation this trail
was in great shape. Partly I was walking up a southwest facing ridge, and the
drier ridge discouraged the underbrush, but this trail must have gotten more maintenance
than the Big Frog trails I’d hiked in the spring. I could even spot the old
shortcut some hikers kept open to avoid the single switchback on the trail. At
the junction I celebrated having hiked all the Big Frog/Cohutta trails for the
guide.
It
was an easy walk back down to the Beech Bottom TH where to my amazement I saw
five other cars parked. Most were from the Chattanooga area and sported a
variety of hiking/park/outdoor stickers, so I figured this was a group of hard
cores. I wished I’d been there to talk to them about access, but from the high
water marks on the sides of their vehicles, it looked they’d taken the same
route I had.
It
was just a couple hours of tedium getting back to the pavement, then a quick walk
up the newly re-opened Thunder Rock Trail by the Ocoee River, and my guidebook
hiking was complete. I was a little too tired for the drive back home, so I went
over to Ducktown and got a room at the Copper Inn and dinner at Rod’s Rock and
Rolls. The next day I hiked across the highway from Ocoee #3 on the Benton MacKaye
and Dry Pond Lead Trail before heading home.
