Monday, September 6, 2010

It's a Byrd, it's a Creek...

Fall is in the air this weekend here in East Tennessee. Although we are in the last stretch of Summer, this weekend has felt like the beginning of Autumn. With this being the case and the additional bonus of it being Labor Day weekend, we decided it was high time to get in the woods.

While a camping trip would have been wonderful, and I guarantee one is being planned for later in the month, we really couldn't swing one this weekend. So instead we opted for a nice hike at Cumberland Mountain State Park.

As always, the night before we were ~~looking~~ researching a place to hike. We decided, since it had been a few months since our last hike, we'd do something that was a bit easy to more or less get back into the swing of things. Additionally, since we've done most of the short easy hikes that are in our vicinity we decided on Byrd Creek Trail to Cumberland Plateau Nature Trail.

This hike was only 2.7 miles and had a total elevation gain/loss of approximately 60ft. For the beginner to intermediate hiker, this is just enough to get the heart rate up and the terrain is good to "cut your teeth on". It was a mix of soft sand and pine needles in some spots and real rooty, and/or rocky in others.

The park itself is really pretty, offering plenty amenities for those that don't hike or need something extra. The history of the park is rather interesting much like the origin of the man-made dam. Unfortunately the lake was down causing Byrd Creek to seem rather unmoving and a bit stagnant. Aside from this, there was plenty of flora and fauna to admire along with birds, trees, and other cool trail features like the Boy Scout bridge just before the nature trail portion of the hike.

So that's all we've got on this adventure. Stay tuned for our next edition. As the weather turns cooler there will be more adventures to go on. Until then, enjoy the pictures.

P.S. - For a more in-depth trail description check out cloudhiking.com's entry. Keep in mind we did the hike in the reverse direction and did not do the Overnight trail portion.