Race Report: Dark Hollow Wallow - 2/17/2013

Last year the Knoxville Track Club added a couple new trail races to their Treadin' Trodden Trail series. Of these races, one was in our own backyard, figuratively speaking. I remember having wanted to do the Dark Hollow Wallow last year, but I was in no way ready or in shape for it. Fast forward to the end of November and it dawned on me that the race was coming up again in February and if I was going to represent, I had better get on the ball with training.

I had been running off and on since July of last year but now I was ready to commit and begin training. Besides I had been running on the roads and was ready for a change. I just had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that trail running would be so much better for me and way more adventurous. For three months, well almost three months, I was logging miles at least 3 days a week. Unfortunately, two of those days were on the roads as I was running those two days during the week and before work. Why roads at that time? Well it was too dark in the mornings so I opted for the safe route as I didn't have any experience running trails in the dark. Needless to say, I looked forward to my weekend long runs. I started out with 3 mile long runs and worked my self to about 7 miles as my longest run before race day got here. I wasn't sure going into it if it was enough, but nevertheless, I persevered and went with it.

Trail Race Report: Wanderer's Trail Race 1/20/2013

I've been a road runner for most of my running life. That was until this year. Actually, back in late November of last year I started my training to run the Dark Hollow Wallow (an 11 mile trail race) at our "home" park Big Ridge State Park. The Dark Hollow Wallow is put on by The Knoxville Track Club and is part of their Treadin' Trodden' Trail series. Last year was the first year of the race and I would have loved to run it then but was in no shape to run 11 miles on tough trails. So I made it my goal to run it this year.

As mentioned, I started my training towards the end of November. I had run a couple trails prior to this point but I didn't dare call myself a trail runner as it wasn't my normal mode of running. Of course if you run and run on a trail then you're a trail runner. Up until this point I usually ran on the roads and on tracks to train for 5k's, 10k's and a couple of half marathons. During my training, I thought it would be a good idea to get some trail racing experience prior to the Dark Hollow Wallow before I bit off more than I could chew. The Treadin' Trodden' Trail series starts off every year with the Wanderer's Trail Race on the Maryville College campus. It's a 4 mile trail race and I thought with where my training was already, this would be the perfect opportunity to find out what it's like to run in a trail race.

Hiker Release Program - Big Loop Hike @ Big Ridge State Park

It's been a couple of months since our last hike, and with Robin in her 9th month, there's not much chance she'll be visiting any trails in the near future (unless of course we go for a short walk on the Songbird Trail at Norris). Since our last hike was in June, I've been jonesing to get into the woods for a walk. Like a crack addict, I was willing to go off without my trail partner and tramp around on my own. I had hoped to do this the prior weekend but a little cold virus got in the way of that. It was more or less God's way of telling me I ought not leave Robin home to go play forest boy.

This past weekend however, I was determined to get out no matter what. I had originally planned on going on a much longer hike than the 6 miles I actually did. The original plan included 10+ miles of hiking at Big Ridge State Park and covered all but two trails in the park and half of the Lake Trail. By the time all was said and done, I ended up cutting out over 4 miles. For one, there was weather imminent and I didn't want to be caught in the rain. For two, it was 11am by the time Clover and I reached the Dark Hollow/Big Valley Junction. I wanted to be off the trail by 1pm at the latest so I could get home and be available to assist Robin's dad in troubleshooting our water heater (he's got more plumbing experience than I do).

New Featured Park - Big Ridge State Park

Just in time for the end of summer and start of autumn, we have a new featured park. For the next couple of months our "Featured Park" is Big Ridge State Park. Brought about by TVA in the 1930's, Big Ridge is located along the shores of Norris Lake and offers ample outdoor activities for all. Be sure to check out Big Ridge State Park on our Featured Parks page and make plans to visit this awesome little park.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Lots of Running and Walking

We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and we especially hope all the mom's out there had a fantastic Mother's Day. Our weekend was a busy one, but very pleasant and the weather couldn't have been better. We've been doing a lot of walking here as of late and I've been doing a good bit of running again. If you hadn't heard I was in a contest to win a pair for Vasque Mindbenders (Trail Running Shoes) and free entry into Rock Creek's Scenic City Trail Marathon/Half Marathon race in Chattanooga towards the end of May. Anyway, today was the last day for voting and it was neck and neck between me and another runner up to the end. At 3:00pm today I was defeated in the contest by Leah Jones, a local trail runner here in Knoxville. So if you have a moment head over to Vasque Footwear's Facebook page and congratulate Leah on a well deserved victory and wish her luck in the race next week.

So back to the walking and running. Friday I went on a trail run while Robin and the girls (Clover, Ashby and Jodi) walked. We went to Big Ridge State Park to do so. I ran from the group camp to the Fisherman's Trail, out and back on the trail and back to the parking area just past the gristmill. I thought I would never get through the Fisherman's Trail though. After all the storms last week there's a lot of downed trees blocking the path around the loop at the end. I had to do more than just trail running let me tell you. It was a good workout though. We won't even get into the argument we got into with the crazy people that were up in the Group Camp. Needless to say we proved our point and let them know they didn't own the road going up there.

On Saturday, Robin and I got up early and with Clover along with us, we headed to Norris Dam State Park. I got a good 2.5 mile trail run in on the Song Bird Trail while Robin walked just over 2 miles on the trail. It was a beautiful day and not very many people were out there at this time, which we absolutely love. Afterward, we came home and relaxed most of the day, Robin in our Eagle's Nest Outfitters Double Nest Hammock, and I catering to momma's every need. Ain't I a good husband? :P She is working really hard making a baby after all and it definitely takes it's toll.

Sunday we didn't do much. Baby had Robin feeling pretty yucky most of the day. I did make breakfast, lunch and a cake for Robin. She deserves it that's for sure. Afterward we spent a couple of hours at mom and dad's house watching a movie with them and relaxing some more.

Hopefully we can get out this next weekend for a good hike or something and give you all a wonderful trail report. Until next time...

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Trimble Trail Tracks:
Big Ridge - Fishermans Trail Run:


Norris - Songbird Trail Run:

Lake Trail to Old Mill Trail Revisited - Big Ridge State Park - 4/17/2011

This past weekend was a rather hectic and tense one for sure. By Sunday we were ready for the calm and tranquility of the woods. We decided that after our trek the day prior to the Bass Pro and drive in the Great Smoky Mountains, we'd stay close and local considering gas prices continue to sky rocket for no real apparent reason. Robin was itching for a nice easy walk in the woods as her back has been bothering her and she didn't want to do anything to strenuous.

With this in mind we decided to head over to Big Ridge State Park and hit the Lake Trail. You may remember this from our first hike of the year. I've lost count now how many times we've hiked this trail as well as how many times in which direction. Last time we started from the Gristmill and hiked the loop which included the Ole Mill Trail. This time we opted to start from the Campground side and hike it that way. This time though we didn't hit the Loyston Overlook Trail nor the Meditation Point trail.

It was a nice gentle hike on a beautiful spring day. The temps were in the 70's keeping it cool with the sun shining nicely. The trail was in great shape for the most part. There were storms that past through late in the week so there were some muddy spots, washouts, and flooded sections of trail that we had to circumnavigate. The wild flowers were blooming wonderfully. We spotted White Trillium, Bluets, Dwarf Crested Iris, "Sweet Williams" and many more. Come to think of it I don't think I've ever seen the Dwarf Crested Iris blooming here before, of course on all the previous hikes here, I likely wasn't paying much attention.

Starting from the campground, the trail gently climbs the ridge that over shadows the lake to the right of the trail. In the first .2 miles the trail looks like a major washout for the run-off during storms, so the footing is a bit tricky. On the right of trail is the turn for the Meditation Point trail. another .2 miles up the trail the terrain is much easier and there's a nice covered bench to sit and rest if so desired. We sat here for a few minutes to snap some shots of caterpillars and other items of interest. Another .1 mile or so you come to Big Ridge Dam. After crossing the dam, we opted to stay right on the Lake Trail instead of turning left for the Dark Hollow Trail.

The back side of the Lake trail is a pretty easy hike for the most part. The terrain is easy with only minor ascents and descents. There are a total of 4 footbridges from the dam to the end of the trail. At the first bridge we stopped to watch the rushing stream and take a small break. It was at this point that the kiddo decided to take an opportunity to see if Hiking Fiasco would like to feature her trail exploits by laying on the bridge and dropping her cell phone right into the creek. We were actually quite surprised that instead of her typical "What do I do look" she promptly removed both shoes and socks and was in the creek faster than anything I've seen her do (unless she's running the 400 or 800) and retrieved her phone. We figured if it had been one of us in the creek it wouldn't have been such a prompt response (hehehe). Unfortunately, her phone flipped out and we turned it off and stowed it in my pack until we could get it home to dry out. (Oh no, what ever will the kiddo do with text messaging)?

After this fiasco and more photo onward we walked. One cemetery and 3 bridges later we were emerging from the forest and back to the road that runs between the group camp and the gristmill. At this point I asked Robin if she wanted to take the road back to the car or if she wanted to take the Chestnut Ridge trail. She opted instead for the Old Mill Trail that runs along the lake and by the cabins. The Ole Mill Trail is only .3 miles and is a gentle stroll where you can find several wild flowers and evidence of beavers in the area. It only takes a few moments to get to the other end but one should take their time to really check the area out. It is quite interesting seeing all the aquatic life close at hand.

We finally reached the end of the trail and still had to walk past one of the ranger's houses, through a small parking lot by the Tea Room, and past the swimming area of the lake. Final count at the end of the trail was 2.84 miles with only 140+ feet of elevation gain. I might add that along the Lake Trail on this day there was some fresh blow down on the trail from the recent storms. It's nothing to hard to get through though. By the end we were refreshed and a bit more relaxed than before we hit the trail.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin

Trail Details on Trimble:

Pictures Of The Week - Yep We're Late

Oopsie, we haven't posted anything in a couple of days. We've had a really busy weekend so we haven't had a chance to get anything posted. Until we get our Trail report up here are a few photos from our little road trip Saturday to pass the time and a couple from Sunday's Hike as a teaser.

Ashby promised that if we bought her this skillet,

she'd make us pancakes. Unfortunately, we think her

spatula is a bit to small for the job.

Ramsey Prong

@Ramsey Cascades Trailhead

Showy Orchids

 A caterpiller of some sort

A 'Skeeter Hawk?

Photos of the Week

Bringing Back the Daily Walk

As the coming of spring continues to renew our spirits with sprouting buds, longer days, singing birds, and comfy temperatures, we've automatically - like emerging from hibernation- resumed our daily walks in the park. This is usually a stroll more than a hike, and these don't count towards our mileage goal for the year. But Clover loves them, and it gets us out in the ultra-healing cool evening air. And since are schedules are so crazy during the day, we really only have time to fit it into the evening hours. So, during the winter, it's just too dark and too cold by the time Tim gets home from work and kiddo finishes homework.


We don't blog about these walks often. We typically visit one of two nearby parks, and always where it's most quiet. Our trips usually consists of Clover running Tim around, and me chasing after wildlife to get that one perfect shot - which Clover ruins by bounding through to announce her presence.





"Hey Deers! I'z is HERE!!! Wanna play Catch Clover??" ~ Clover







But there's always something to take a photo of.  See, thing is, because we're there so often, we notice the smallest little changes in the landscape or woodlands. When you become this familiar, nothing can be boring or overly viewed. And you never know what wildlife you'll walk up on. There's a new surprise every time.



And it's a fun, family activity. We all enjoy it. It's our evening "relaxation" time.  This time of the year, we still have to go pretty early so that we have light, and then there's evening chores to do later. But soon enough, we'll have time to complete evening chores, the daylight will soften, the cool breeze will blow, and we'll go for our meditative walk after a hard days work. We'll stroll along the banks of the lake listening to the evening melodic mix of diurnal and crepuscular animals sing their songs. We'll hear the sweet little whinny of screech owls, the rustling of roaming deer, the abundance of croaking from frogs/toads living by the lake, and, to Tim and Ashby's humor, at some point this Spring I'll be startled enormously by the territorial call of the fox. Then we'll come home topping it all off with a cup of coffee on the deck while discussing our day and watching the moon rise over the tree line.

Heavenly.

"Crackberry" Positioning System (CPS)

After a failed attempt at getting Trimble Outdoors on my "Crackberry" a month or so ago, I thought I'd give it another shot. You see, the first time I tried, I got to a point where I needed the Blackberry App World app on my phone to download and install Trimble. Unfortunately, the phone's operating system was an older version and not supported by the Blackberry App World app. Might I also mention that my Blackberry is provided to me by work so I was hesitant at doing much with it to begin with.

After a months time, I decided I'd look at it again and somehow figured out how to upgrade the OS on the phone. After that I was off to the races. Blackberry App World was installed and after we had to ditch our plans for a Saturday hike, due to the kiddo not feeling well, Robin convinced me to take The Beene to the park for a walk.

Off to Big Ridge Clover and I went for a little walk, a very short hike in all actuality. It was the first warm, sunny day we've had this winter and I had figured we'd just walk our normal route up to the group camp from the Gristmill. Upon pulling into the gristmill parking lot, I took a moment to download and install the trial version of Trimble Outdoors. I figured this would be a workable solution to share our tracks mapped out on our hiking posts.

Okay, before I continue further, let me say this. I've been using a regular Garmin e-Trek Legend for sometime, but electronic solutions are still no match for a plain old map and compass. Even though I've never learned to navigate with a map and compass (that will be resolved as I learn meself how through Cardinal Points software by Yon Yonson). I can read a map and we rarely ever hit the trail without having done our research and bringing a map and/or a guide book.

So where was I again? Oh yeah, Trimble was freshly installed and The Beene and I were on our way. It took no time at all to start tracking our walking trip on Trimble. Really it's pretty self explanatory and an intuitive user interface. Rather than walk up to the group camp, I decided we'd walk back towards the Fisherman Trail. I wanted to see how accurate this thing was. Trimble is a pretty sweet GPS app for the phone I must say. I was able to mark waypoints with ease and take photos that show on our GPS track with decent accuracy.

After we were done with our walk/hike, Trimble showed a total of two miles. It sure didn't feel like it considering the Fisherman trail is only .3 miles one way, and the walk to the trailhead is maybe .25 miles.No worries though, I still had to check the online portion through my account at home. By the time we made it back home, the trip had already uploaded to my online account automatically (you can turn that off if you like). Unfortunately not all the photos I had taken had uploaded with the trip so I had to manually re-upload the whole thing. I don't fault the app for that, I fault the signal I get out 'cheer' in tha sticks.

I was able to upload the trip without much effort and got all the waypoints and photos with no problem. Looking at the trip online, I could tell that the GPS was all over the place but I'm used to that with the Garmin in the woods. Luckily, once logged in at home I was able to edit the track (actually laid a new track over top the one that uploaded and deleted the original. Don't worry the waypoints and photos stay right where they are and you can tweak those around if needed too). After doing all that, the trip mileage was calculated by Trimble to be 1.17 miles which was more like it compared to 2 miles.

I have to say that part of the way down the trail, I wanted to change the activity of the trip from walking to hiking but in so doing, the walking trip ended and a new hike trip began in the app. So be sure to pick the right activity before starting out other wise you may have to manually merge them at home like I had to. There's no way to import a track from one trip into another, at least not that I could easily find.

Pre Track Edit
We Apparently Hiked a T-shirt.

I've used Trimble one other time since then. It was the very next day when Robin and I went and hiked at Seven Islands Wildlife Refuge. It showed we had hiked 5.99 miles after all was said and done. The track was all over the place but the general route was correct. After post trip edits it turned out to be more like 3.72 miles. On our next hike I plan on bringing the Garmin along too just to compare side by side.

Overall, I think I will pay the $9.99 for the app and continue to use it as it will add that extra touch of interactivity to the blog for you, our readers.

Happy Trails,
Tim and Robin