Laurel Run Trail ~ Church Hill, TN {J. Commons Photography ~ Laurel Run Trail}

October 3, 2016 ~ Deanna and I had a friend, Ruth, in town from Michigan.  She joined us on the first part of our adventure to Laurel Run Trail in Church Hill, TN.  The reviews promised beautiful waterfalls.  I will let you be the judge!

This story is going to move from fun to heart pounding to creepy and surreal!

We drove out to the park and found a cute, quaint park with a great kids' playground, a disk golf course, and walking path.  What we didn't find - the trail head!  We walked in circles for a bit and seemed to keep popping up around a park worker who was a little on the strange side.  We finally found the trail head, but laughed the whole way!  The path proved to be 95% uphill from the get, but there were some fun little creek crossings.

Grapes or fungus?

Lower falls?  I think the little drought we have is wreaking some havoc on the water flow!

Oh, look!  More cascading water!

I mean, seriously, I am standing in the creek bed!!

The upper "falls!" Can someone turn the water back on?

Somewhere around this point Ruth had to turn back and get on the road home.  We made her promise to text us and let us know she made it back to her car!  Deanna and I continued along the path.  The trail eventually meets up with the trail system of Bays Mountain.  We were really looking forward to heading into Bays Mountain.  Until the crunch heard around the park - Deanna heard a noise.  I stopped to listen and said, "Um, I am pretty sure that is something large crunching acorns." Deanna said, "I think it's getting louder and closer."  We took a few more quiet steps forward peering into the forest, but could not see anything matching the loud crunching.  Last year, at Cades Cove, I was privy to being up close and personal, from the safety of my car, to a bear crunching away on acorns.  Turns out, not a sound you tend to forget!  We decided Bays Mountain could wait and headed back down the mountain. Every rock we accidentally kicked over the side and every branch that we broke made us jump!  Once we got back down to the "waterfalls" we slowed our pace and began to enjoy our scenery again!  (Side note - last week Mike and I watched a documentary on the Great Smoky Mountains in which a bear was crunching acorns. Yep.  That was clearly the sound!)

Love these little evergreens taking root.

Somehow, Deanna managed not to plow into this little eight legged fellow hanging over the path.

Back off the trail we explored the park a little bit and walked along the Holston River.

I took way too many pictures of these silos across the river!

Since the acorn crunching bear "chased" us back down the trail we didn't get quite the hike in that we had planned.  I remembered a greenbelt that Mike and I visited last fall, I think, and I wanted to explore it a little more.  There's also the very cool haunted mansion, Rotherwood.  

When we pulled into the small parking area there were several cars there and a few of them still had their occupants just sitting there, including a Stanley Steamer Van.  It was a little weird, but we carried on.  As we walked down to the path a man in khakis and a black polo literally hopped/skipped into the grass, sat down, then laid down on his side with a pillow.  I'm not kidding.  Deanna and I just looked at each other.  We walked by him and he rolled over and looked at us with this super creepy smile and slow wave.  Think Stepford Wives (I still curse my friends for making me watch that! 1975 version, not 2004).  We were a little creeped out, but continued on.  We walked along a path where two young guys were fishing.  Thankfully, they were not too creepy.  Out of nowhere there was a man on one of those large deck mowers coming down the path towards us.  The section of path we were on was all concrete and surrounded by water on both sides.  We couldn't figure out if he was coming down the path or not, when he did the creepy smile and slow wave.  No joke.  We were dying! We tried to continue down the path, but much to our chagrin it ended!  We had to go back towards the weird folks!!  We passed the fishers, quickly went by the pillow guy, and headed the other direction.  The grass cutting guy was completely gone. Where the heck did he go so fast?  

At least we found more cool fungus!

We decided we were thoroughly creeped out and turned back around.  I had told Deanna about the large wild cat population that was there the last time I had visited. We didn't see any until we turned around. One lone tabby came out of the bushes to watch us walk by.  Again, no joke.  The pillow guy had been facing away from us, but as we grew closer he flipped over to face us and watch us go by.  We took the path that went under the highway and away from the creeptastic park.  More on that in a minute!

This path actually led back up to the highway and we crossed to return to our car.  The Stanley Steamer Van was still there and the dude watched us the whole time in his side mirror.  As we would get out of his view he would lean further up to keep watching us.  I had my hand on my bear spray and was ready to attack if necessary!!!  We got in the car and left unscathed.  It's really hard to impart the feeling that we had at that park.  I have been in situations where I was scared, worried, and anxious, but none of those quite fit.  I honestly felt like I was in some eerie dream sequence in a Stephen King novel.  It was completely surreal.  

Since we were already in Kingsport we headed to the fish supply store.  On the way we passed a pickup truck with a severe lift kit and it had a clown strapped to the grill.  Deanna tried to get a picture, but couldn't get it.  Things were normal at the pet store, but our last person contact was outside the store with a guy headed into the store - he gave us the creepy smile!  We could not wait to get out of Kingsport!!!!

Hike distance - 7 miles

Linville Falls and Gorge, Linville, NC {J. Commons Photography ~ Linville Falls}

First, I am apologize for being a little behind on posting!  Other obligations needed my attention.

Now, on to the fun stuff!  I've started using an app called AllTrails to track my hikes and search for new spots to explore.  There's an overview of the area, a rating of easy, moderate, or hard, photos added by other users, and reviews by users.  Information usually includes a short description, topography, sites along the trail, and distance.  I have found that the reviews by users are a little better in accurately describing the trail opposed to the description at the top.  Two weeks ago, Deanna and I set out to explore Linville Falls in Pisgah National Forest off of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was described as a moderate trail with some inclines and five overlooks of the falls.  (More on the accuracy of this statement in a little while.)

We found the parking lot, though were unable to locate the Visitor's Center that was supposed to be at the parking lot.  The trail head was easy enough to find and we started out.  The beginning of the trail was practically straight down.  Great for the beginning, not so great knowing we would have to come back up this at the end of our hike.  We continued our descent about a half mile to find a fork in the path. To the left the Visitor's Center (a ha!) and to the right the falls.  Of course, we chose the falls!  This first overlook took us to the Upper Linville Falls.

There was a really cool observation area fenced off along the rock.  It was pretty neat to be walking across the large rock formation.

The water flowed from this pool to a drop off that we could hear, but not see from this location.  We climbed back out from this overlook and continued off to the next one.  More incline up the side of the mountain!  Another half mile up we came to our next overlook - there was a pretty steep climb down to the overlook off of the path.  There were two separate overlooks at this spot and they were breathtaking!

In this picture you can see a bit of the upper falls in the background.

Obligatory selfie with Deanna's phone!

Looking out over the gorge.

We continued on further up to the top of the mountain, I couldn't wait to start coming back down!  There was a small set of steep stairs up to the last overlook on this side of the gorge.  I thought the last overlook was breathtaking, but this one beat all!  I can only imagine how beautiful it probably is with the leaf change.

We backtracked down the mountain all the way to the fork in the path and continued to the Visitor's Center.  We checked out the center and decided to come back to purchase our patches and stickers and then headed out the next trail that led to another overlook and the gorge.  Along the trail we found this fiery fungus growing on a tree.

The first part of the trail to the overlook was hilly and bumpy with roots and we were beginning to tire.  It was also still wet from the rain the day before.  We turned to climb down to the overlook and it was a steep set of rock stairs.  We were kind of laughing about the absurdity of this path and how it seemed to be getting harder and harder and maybe shouldn't have been defined as "moderate." The rock steps were very wet, and unfortunately, Deanna slipped at the bottom and landed on her butt.  Thankfully, she was okay minus a scraped elbow and hand, but we were extremely cautious after that.  We made it the rest of the way to the overlook safely.  

From this angle we could better see the birds flying into and off of the rock ledges.  There were dozens of, what I am calling, Rock Pigeons.  

After this overlook we continued along the trail to the gorge.  The trail became a steeper and steeper descent and we were questioning our decision to continue.  We "passed through" these stones for our own little "Outlander" moment.  We didn't find Jamie Fraser.

(From Deanna's Phone)

Deanna was in front of me and when she reached the point of the photo below she just started laughing!  I followed suit when I saw the sight.  This picture does not do it justice, but these were the steepest steps I have ever seen in my life!  I just kept thinking, "what are we doing?!"

The trail continued to get rockier and steeper and even included some very large boulders we had to traverse. Several times we found ourselves climbing down the rocks backwards!  We passed another set of hikers coming back up the trail and asked how much further we had to go.  They said we were over halfway and that it was completely worth it!  The woman laughed and said, "It definitely earns its difficult rating, doesn't it?" Wait. What? Difficult? I don't remember reading that, but it explained a lot!  We continued on.  Sadly, we don't have any photos from this ridiculous section of the trail.  I put my camera up for fear of dropping it or falling myself.  It was definitely a smart move. We finally made it to the gorge floor and and it was totally worth it!  The entire time we had been hiking the overlook I kept wishing we could get to the bottom of the fall.  Well, I got my wish!

The climb back up was hard and found us using all fours to climb over some of the rocks, but we made it!  We rested in the Visitor's Center for a minute and started on our way back to the car.  That last hill about killed me, but I was so happy that I did it!!  Turns out, the overlooks were rated moderate, but the hike down to the gorge was listed as difficult.  This was the first difficult rated trail we have completed. It was hard work, but not impossible.  We have come a long way this year in our hiking endurance and capabilities!

Hike distance ~ almost 7.5 miles!  Hike time ~ a little over 3 hours!

Appalachian Trail ~Laurel Fork Falls ~ Dennis Cove, Hampton, TN {J. Commons Photography ~ Dennis Cove}

After our shortened Labor Day hike we drove out to the Dennis Cove trail head to find it and see what we were in store for.  The hubby had warned me about ever going up there on my own because of a lot of criminal activity around the campground area, so this was my first drive out there.  The road climbed high up the mountain with lots of switchbacks and some amazing views overlooking Hampton.

These photos looking over Hampton are from Labor Day, but it was the same view Monday, too!

After our trip up there I did some research on Dennis Cove and learned that there were waterfalls and several creek crossings.  I was so excited!  Deanna and I were super excited to head out on this trail.  When we arrived there were two cars in the parking lot.  Near one car was a man in camo carrying a fishing pole.  No concern.  Near the other car there was another man in camo with a rifle slung over his shoulder.  Seriously.  A rifle.  It's National Forest land, I can't imagine hunting is allowed.  We evaluated the situation for a few minutes while we gathered our stuff.  I was more than a little relieved when two other people joined him and they got in their car and left!

The beginning of the trail was wide and flat and very easy walking.  I was a little disappointed to find that foot bridges had been built over the creeks, but they were cute.  There has been little rain over the last few weeks, so the creek crossings weren't much anyway.

I really enjoyed being around the creek and hearing the water along most of our hike.

Sasquatch? Bear paw?  Or just a rock that has been moved?

I loved how the pine needles were casting a shadow on this rock.

 Although I was disappointed about the creek crossings, I loved this bridge! This was the first view of it as we came around a corner.

The fly fisher is kind of hard to see, but he is in the middle of the picture on the left bank.

Up to the bridge had been a fairly flat, easy hike.  This is what awaited us on the other side and it was only the beginning!

Light at the end of the tunnel.

I really want to know what this green sequin fell off of and why was it on a hike?!

The trail appeared to continue on straight ahead, but there were several markings pointing us down the hill to the falls.

A view about halfway down to the falls.

It was hard to capture in a photo what this part of the hike was really like.  It was mostly steep stone-like steps.  Some were loose.  Did I mention I had rolled my ankle a few days earlier?  This was so difficult!  I was so glad I made it all the way down with out hurting myself more.  But I was not looking forward to the climb back up. (Deanna was actually checking her voicemail in this photo!)

The pay-off.  Totally worth having to climb back up those rocks! Laurel Fork Falls.

I did not want to leave the falls, I couldn't stop taking pictures!  Also, I didn't want to climb the rocks!  But climb the rocks I did!!!!  I am slowly getting myself in shape and I have asthma. I had to stop several times and let my heart rate come down, but I made it.

Animal of the hike - a little frog.  Or toad.  I don't know the difference!

This was the most difficult hike we have completed to date.  I know there is no way I could have done this hike last year or even at the beginning of this year.  But I did it and I am so proud of myself!!  And we are even planning to return to the falls after some rain to see them fuller.  Hike distance - 5.4 miles.  Time 2 hours 25 minutes (that includes the at least 20 minutes we spent at the waterfall!)