Shady Valley

May 1, 2008

Shady Valley, Tennessee has my vote over Burke's Garden for scenic. I did a fabulous bike-hike loop from one rim of the valley, down through the center where I saw one of the cranberry bogs - due to the elevation, they're left from the ice age period - see: 

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/tennessee/preserves/art10208.html 

I also met some cattle. 

I could see the mountain ridges surrounding the valley pastures the whole time I was riding. Then I hiked the ridge encircling the valley back to my starting point. Part of the ridge was open pastures (Osborne Farm, recently purchased and added to the AT lands) and part was woods with spring wildflowers.

Water features

May 26, 2007

A watery day - the bridge across Kimberling Creek is a US Forest Service standard suspension foot bridge, the second one I've been over.

And then moving northward, I followed Dismal Creek for several hours. The Falls of Dismal are a major attraction, a chance for through-hikers to cool off. It's not actually very big, but a nice slatey ledge set among rhododendron jungles.

I've settled into my Trail Name - Eeyore - for my deliberate pace - some of the folks I meet go totally by their Trail Names, it's a different reality out here.