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October 08, 2006
The Cumberland Trail - Possum Creek Segment
A beautiful waterfall found along the Cumberland Trail
in the newly opened Possum Creek segment
Chattanooga is a great place to live if you're a hiker. The city and the surrounding area abound with natural areas to get out and stretch your legs. There's the Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park, Reflection Riding, Lula lake Land Trust. Savage Gulf Natural Area, Cloudland Canyon State Park. And then there is the vast Cherokee National Forest which lies less than an hour to the east of Chattanooga.
The Cumberland Trail is one of my personal favorites. Stretching from Signal Point
all the way to Cumberland Gap National Historic - this linear state park is a work-in-progress. It's actually part of a much larger trail system - The Great Eastern Trail - which will eventually stretch from Florida to New York! 35 miles of new trail is recently opened to hikers just north of Chattanooga. This includes the Rock Creek, Possum Creek , and the Soddy Creek segments of the Cumberland Trail. Each of these trail segments traverses steep gorges containing a dizzying array of wildlife.
The Soddy Gorge segment begins less than two miles from where the Soddy Mountain Hawk Lookout is located - off of HWY 111 atop the Cumberland Plateau. For a map and directions that will help you find the trailhead, please take a moment to visit the Cumberland Trail Conference website.
Later this month the Cumberland Trail Conference will be hosting volunteers from all over the USA to help build and maintain this magnificent trail. The trail club will be housing, feeding, and entertaining volunteers in exchange for their volunteer time. It's a great way to meet new friends, visit beautiful places, and help build a trail for future generations. For information on how YOU can become a trail volunteer, please visit this link, or contact Tony Hook at 931-456-6259.
Happy Trails!
Posted by Jeffrey Hunter at 07:44 PM
Saturday at the Hawk Watch
Yesterday I decided to head up to the Soddy Mountain Hawk Lookout - just north of Chattanooga. When I arrived, a fellow by the name of Harold Birch was sitting alone in a lawn chair eyeing the sky with his binoculars. The weather was beautiful with bright blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s.
Although the weather was gorgeous, bright blue cloudless skies are not ideal for hawk watching. Ideally, some white puffy clouds create contrast that allows you to spot the birds high in the sky. In two hours we saw several dozen birds including Sharp Shinned Hawks (aka "Sharpies") and two juvenile Red Tailed Hawks. The Red Tails were an unexpected surprise because they generally don't start migrating until late October or November - usually after a cold front that brings some of the season's coolest temperatures accompanied by stiff breezes out of the north or northwest.
Hawk watching takes both patience and practice, and when it comes to bird watching (including hawk watching!) there is no substitute for time spent in the field. After spending time birding - preferably with someone who can teach you some identification tips - things start to come together. Many birders can identify a species at a quick glance - just by sizing up a birds GISS (pronounced GIZ). According to the New Jersey Audubon Society:
"GISS is a brand of identification that borders on magic and allows practitioners to pin names to birds that are flying at the limit of conjecture. But it’s not magic. Its foundation is anchored in the corporal world and the words underlying the acronym. GISS—General Impression of Size and Shape. Add the element of motion, the idiosyncratic manner in which birds fly and you, too, will be able to amaze your friends with your skills."
If you have an interest in learning more about hawk identification, there are two excellent books on the subject. The first and best guide is Hawks in Flight by Pete Dunne, David Sibley, and Clay Sutton. Another resource is a new publication entitled Hawks from Every Angle: How to Identify Raptors in Flight by Jerry Liguori.
What does all this have to do with hiking? Well, the Soddy Mountain Hawk Lookout is just a stone's throw from the Cumberland Trail! Come back and visit tomorrow for information about that great trail. In the meanwhile, for more information about birding in Tennessee - visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society website.
Posted by Jeffrey Hunter at 12:46 PM
October 06, 2006
Fall Hiking? Keep your eye on the sky!
Current map showing cold front moving through the southeast
So you enjoy hiking and are thinking about talking a hike this holiday weekend. What next? Well, first you'll want to select a place to hike. Then, you'll want to check the weather. That'll help you select your clothing and other gear that you'll bring along with you.
In addition to helping you understand the temperature, chance of precipitation, and the UV Index, the weather forecast can also help predict your chances for seeing migrating raptors (hawks, falcons & eagles). This is especially true in the fall.
In fact, today is a perfect time to illustrate how weather can impact hawk migration. Take a look at the weather map above. Notice the cold front (low pressure system) that has just moved through southeast Tennessee? This will create cool, crisp weather, with winds out of the north - which is what raptors look for in October and November. These birds don't want to expend a lot of energy. They prefer to ride a gentle tail wind as they migrate along the ridges on thermals - or warm bubbles of air rising off of the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Cumberland Plateau.
So now you're probably wondering...
Continue reading "Fall Hiking? Keep your eye on the sky!"
Posted by Jeffrey Hunter at 10:35 AM
October 05, 2006
Take a Hike! And Take a Child With You!
Last Child In The Woods
by Richard Louv
Fall is finally here, and with it comes cooler weather, lower humidity, shorter days, and the best hiking of the year! Columbus Day weekend is almost upon us, and here in the southeast, places like Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cumberland Island National Seashore, and the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area will be crawling with hikers. Tens of thousands of additional hiking enthusiasts will flock to their local county and state parks, city greenways, and nature centers to get out and stretch their legs.
While this might seem like a positive thing in a time when CNN, Time Magazine and other major news outlets constantly beat the drum about our nation's obesity epidemic, all is not as it seems. This morning I awoke and found an article in the Albany (NY) Times Union talking about how children are not getting outside like they once used to. A troubling trend is occurring out in the woods. This issue is the topic of a new book by Richard Louv entitled "Last Child in the Woods." Published in 2005, this book was recently released in paperback and has inspired a new term - "Nature Deficit Disorder."
Continue reading "Take a Hike! And Take a Child With You!"
Posted by Jeffrey Hunter at 08:51 AM
October 03, 2006
Build your Karma - Help build a trail!
American Hiking Society Volunteer Vacation Crew
The week of September 10-16, fifteen volunteers from across the United States gathered at Doughton Park along the Blue Ridge Parkway to help construct the Mountains to Sea Trail.
The Mountains to Sea Trail will eventually stretch 1000 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Outer Banks! Our trail crew built one mile of new trail during our week in the mountains.
Continue reading "Build your Karma - Help build a trail!"
Posted by Jeffrey Hunter at 10:49 AM