WWDD? in Savage Gulf Tennessee.

WWDD? (What Would Davy Do? ).
This trip was a one-nighter to the land of Davy Crockett - Savage Gulf Stat Park. Savage Gulf is located in central Tennessee in South Cumberland Mountains.

Me, Kevin Gervais, and Nadim Kazi went out for a one-nighter to test our gear, and our limits, and to see some pretty cool land formations and scenic overlooks.
It was a fairly un-eventful outing. The trail well maintained and well used. It wasn't as 'isolated' as we might have liked. The campsite was almost full and we could still hear, faintly, sounds (siren, chainsaw/motorcycle) from a distant small town.
We hiked a total of ~8mi. On the way in we hiked along the ridge of the gulf and had some really cool scenic views. We went in at the Stone Door Ranger station and hike 3.2mi to the Alum Gap camp area.

I bought and used a Henessey Hammock instead of the tent and loved it: lighter, easier to setup/teardown, don't need a clearing/flat, doubles as a chair.

The menu was the usual, Uncle Ben's rice, Oatmeal, protein bars.
We left sunday morning and took a different trail out that looped back to the trailhead. We drove out and did another small hike in to see some Falls (the 'Greeter Falls').
We ate lunch at Shoney's in Kimball TN on the way back to Huntsville.

Sipsey Trip (May 16/17)

Thompson Creek Trail Head to Needles Eye (1.5mi.):

We actually got rained on during the drive out and the whole Trip was pretty close to being cancelled before we got there.

Other Scouts:
They did very well all things considered, noone got injured or complained too much.
It was easy for me to forget how dis-oriented I was my first time down the trail - not to mention the entire area.
I was amazed at what some of them were wearing for footwear at times on the trail....air shoes and pool shoes.
We got to the site around 1pm. After setup and getting water, etc.
I was happy that they asked my opinion a lot since they knew I hiked there Before.
It was 2:30 and the head guy (the organizer) decided we'd all hike out to 'The Big Tree'. He'd been there before and wasn't concerned about the distance or time it'd take. I was concerned and offered my two-cents "get's darker ealier in here". At first, me and Matthew, opt'd out; Matthew didn't want to go and I wasn't much up to it either so I told him "we're going to opt-out". Then, Matthew changed his mind and we decided to go, trusting The leaders judgement about distance/time - mistake.
About 1mile in, already sweaty and tired, we bumped into some hikers coming the other way and I picked-there-brain about time/distance to 'Big Tree'.
They said it was another 3.5 miles. That was when I decided to grab Matthew, and head back, after notifying a couple of the other Dad's.
( I was a bit 'beside myself' with my lack of motivation in contrast to some Of the other Boys and Dad's who were obviously more out of shape and less better equiped than myself. But I wondered how many of them only went along Out of peer pressure over good judgement).
...Anyway, about 1/4 mile from the campsite it started to Thunder, then rain. We got back to our tent just before it 'opened up'. One lightning strick hit very close and scared the b'jeebus outta me just as I was getting in the tent. We took a nap, dry and warm . The rest of the group got back about an hour later, soaking wet, and they didn't make it to the tree.

They were probably lucky it rain when it did cause I think they would've had To contended with the darkness too had they gone on.

I struggled with whether I should be more vocal to the other Dad's about the time/distance or to just leave it to the head-guy (scout leader/organizer).
I left it to the head-guy after putting in my two-cents about the daylight (seeing as he'd been there before and I hadn't). I think he thought it was Closer than it actually was though.

Sipsey Trip (April 25/26)

We parked at the main trailhead (instead of Borden creek) and It's only about 1mi. to Falls Creek Falls (Matthew struggled a little - but it was just the right distance for him to no be miserable).

We used our air-shoes to cross the Borden Creek fork, which I almost walked Right passed thinking we still had a ways to hike. I missed the sign-post entirely. Funny how the place seems To have gotten smaller.


We got there early and found a really cool campsite in a cove just off from the river.


Our site even had it's own waterfall off sorts. I was able to hold out my cooking pot to fill it up. Would've made for a great shower too.


We setup our hammocks and I took a little cat-nap while Matthew explored before setting up.

I took a lot of pix. The poison Ivy was out in-force. A caught a 'tick' crawling up my leg, but the bugs were at a minimum, probably didn't even Need to use bug-spray. In fact, I only put it on, as a precaution, 'after' i caught the tick. We didn't use any that evening or the entire next day.

We had Zataran's dirty rice mixed with Tyson chicken chunks for dinner.
Had a small campfire and went to bed early.
I didn't have a watch. We woke up, had coffee/cocoa/oatmeal, packed up and hiked out - didn't do any additional hiking Sunday morning. We got back to the car at 10:15am.

The noise from the waterfall/shower, and the surrounding rock structure drowned Out any of the night noises. Which is good, or bad, depending on Your point of view.

I didn't sleep well until I put on my long underwear (which I was glad I brought). Not that I was cold, it just felt comfortable.
The tent (Sierra Designs - Flashlight Clip2) was great, the way It's designed/sloped directs all the condensation out the front but still retained it's heat. Was easy to get in/out of - even for two people.

There was a large group of about 20, from B-ham, that left the trailhead just minutes after us. I was afraid they were going to stop at the falls also but they continued on in and we didn't see them again.