Breckenridge Lake RV Park

Last year, we met up with my parents in Chattanooga for a quick weekend camping trip to spend time with them and enjoy the fall leaves. This year, we made plans to meet up with them just South of Crossville, Tennessee at Breckenridge Lake RV Park.

The RV park is about a 2.5 hour drive from our home in Spring Hill. We got a late start, which put us getting to the park after dark. That made backing into our campsite a little interesting - but with some lanterns, flashlights, and help from my dad, we backed the trailer in and got everything hooked up. Once we had the camper set up, we headed over to my parents' trailer to eat dinner and visit a while.

Our site at Breckenridge Lake - right behind the campground office.

Breckenridge Lake is actually a nice, well-kept campground. There aren't many amenities, but that also means you aren't paying an arm and a leg for a site. There is no cable TV, but they do offer free wi-fi. For recreation, you are a short drive from Crossville, TN, and an even shorter drive from Cumberland Mountain State Park. If you do stay at the campground, keep in mind that they don't take credit or debit cards - only checks or cash.

The next morning, after walking and feeding the dog, I set up my outdoor coffee bar to make coffee without disturbing the rest of the family. Once my coffee was brewed, I enjoyed some outdoor quiet time before everyone else woke up.

Once everyone was up and ready to start their day, we headed back over to my parents' camper for breakfast together. After breakfast, we set up the hammock behind our campsite and enjoyed some down time.

The view from the hammock

This year, our fall was unusually warm. Typically, October 21st is usually right at the peak of fall color in Tennessee. Because of the warm weather, peak color was delayed - but there was a trace of color beginning to show in the trees.

For the majority of the year, my parents spend their time traveling around different parts of the country serving as mobile missionaries. They spend several weeks on-site at a Christian camp or college, doing maintenance and construction projects. One of the organizations they serve is CBM (Children's Bible Ministries). A few years ago, CBM purchased and began renovating an old church camp in nearby Ozone, Tennessee. While they were in the area, they wanted to visit Camp Ozone to see how the camp was progressing and see if it could possibly be a project they serve on in the future. After lunch we drove over to the camp and spent an hour or so walking the grounds and talking with the camp director.

Just South of the camp is Ozone Falls State Natural Area, featuring the 110 feet Ozone Falls. Normally, Ozone Falls is pretty impressive. However, due to near drought-like conditions, Ozone Falls looked more like Ozone Trickles. After visiting the top of the falls, Haley, Aaron, and I took a sort trail down to the base of the falls.

What was left of Ozone Falls, after a drought-ridden summer and fall.

Haley doing a little exploring

Aaron looking at the disappointing trickle that was Ozone Falls

After visiting the falls, we headed back to the campground, swinging by Cumberland Mountain State Park on the way - just to see what it's like. Back at the campground, we had dinner together and enjoyed a campfire by the campground's community fire pit.

The next morning, we packed up camp and enjoyed a simple breakfast together. We then said our good byes and headed off in opposite directions - my parents back to South Carolina, and us back to Spring Hill. All in all, a short get away, but it was nice to see my parents again before they head off for their 11 month mobile missionary trip up to Alaska and back.

2nd Annual End-of-School Backpacking Adventure

Last year, I took my son and a couple of his friends on a short overnight backpacking trip to celebrate the end of the school year. To read about our trip last year, click here. He and his friends enjoyed it so much, they decided to make it a yearly tradition. This year, Aaron invited one more person along:

Our hiking party: From the left - Aaron, Nick, Josiah, and James

South Cumberland State Park is a large state park made up of several non-contiguous natural areas. Last year, we hiked the Westernmost section of the Savage Gulf area, near the Stone Door Ranger Station. This year, for a change of scenery, we decided to hike the Easternmost section of Savage Gulf.

The plan was to park the truck at the Savage Gulf Ranger Station and hike the Savage Day Loop trail to Savage Falls. From there, we would pick up the South Rim trail and hike to the Stagecoach Road Campground. After camping one night at the campground, we would hike back out (retracing our steps) the next morning.

Normally, I take my DSLR camera with me on our adventures. This time out, I made a big amateur-level mistake: I packed all my camera gear, but left the camera battery in the charger at home. Thankfully, I discovered this at the ranger station before we set off on the hike; and left my useless gear in the truck instead of bringing that extra weight along. Because of my absent-minded lapse, all of the following pictures were taken on my iPhone.

After arriving at the Ranger Station and unloading the truck, we headed off on our adventure.

After about a mile along the Savage Day Loop trail, we came to a suspension bridge crossing Savage Creek. The bridge only allowed 2 people to cross at a time, so Aaron and James went first...

...Followed by Josiah and Nick.

Being the last in our party to cross, I stopped in the middle of the bridge and snapped a picture of Savage Creek. It's hard to believe this little creek carved the gorge that we were hiking along.

Mountain Laurel in bloom along the trail.

After about another half-mile, we came to Savage Falls. This is taken from the top of the falls, looking West into the gorge. The creek flows through a small cleft in the limestone to form the falls. There is a small splinter trail that leads to the base of the falls. At this point, we off-loaded our packs and descended a wooden staircase to enjoy the falls.

Savage Falls

We found some wildlife basking in the sun around the Savage Falls pool. It wasn't poisonous, but we gave it plenty of space anyway.

The boys enjoyed exploring the creek and climbing on the rocks.

After we got our fill of Savage Falls, we donned our packs once again and began heading to the top of the gorge via the South Rim trail.

Once we climbed to the top of the plateau, we found a scenic overlook to stop at for lunch. The South Rim trail has several overlooks along the 4+ miles between Savage Falls and the campground. However, none of them are directly on the trail. Overlooks are marked by short, blue-blazed splinter trails along the main path.

View from the overlook, looking West into the gorge.

Another view, looking North across the gorge. During lunch, we saw a few hikers on the rock outcropping hiking the North Rim trail.

After lunch, we hit the trail again and headed toward the Stagecoach Road campground. Being early in the hiking season, the trail was pretty overgrown in sections - either because this trail is less traveled than others, or because the maintenance crew hadn't been out to clear the trail of overgrowth yet. One thing was for sure: it was definitely the season for ticks - and the overgrown trail gave plenty of ticks the opportunity to find us. A few of the boys kept finding ticks and flicking them off throughout our trip.

One way to make a 45-year old man feel old, is to make him try to keep up with a group of athletic teenage boys. I thought I was moving at a pretty good pace, but the boys quickly left me in their dust.

I finally caught up to them when they stopped to take in the view from one of the last overlooks off the trail.

Looking Northeast across Savage Gulf.

Looking Northeast

While we had the opportunity, we went for the obligatory scenic group photo

 From the overlook, it was only a few more minutes of hiking to reach the campground. The Stagecoach Road Campground has 10 sites, some bigger than others. Site 2 is actually a group site and costs more to reserve. All other sites are $8 a night (plus a reservation fee). Not knowing how big our party was going to be, I reserved 2 sites (site 8 and 9). Site 8 was a little bigger than site 9, so we decided to setup camp there.

We quickly got to work setting up camp: pitching our tents and gathering wood. Within short time, we had a proper campsite.

The water source for the campground is a small spring located right at the beginning of the campground trail. This area was actually in a moderate drought, due to a unusually dry Spring. Because of that, most of the water was stagnant. We spent a few minutes looking up and down the spring and finally found a place where water was bubbling up from the ground. We made a small make-shift dam with some rocks and used that small pool as our water source.

After gathering enough water for our stay, we headed back to camp and cooked our dinner. After dinner, we built our fire and conducted our ceremonial burning of the Geometry workbooks. Before it got too dark, the boys went for a short exploratory walk around the campground. By 9:30, we were all tucked into our tents for the night.

The next morning, we all struck camp, had breakfast, filled up our water bottles, and headed back to the ranger station by 10 am. We made pretty quick time heading back, hiking all 6 miles without any stops. All the while, the boys were talking about fast food and trying to decide where we would stop for lunch. In case you were wondering - Taco Bell won the discussion.

All-in-all, the boys had a great time, and are already looking forward to next year's trip.

Backpacking in Savage Gulf

Aaron loves to backpack. He keeps telling us that he has a goal of hiking the entire Appalachian trail one day. For Christmas this past year, I got him a backpack and told him that we would go backpacking this Spring. As a celebration of completing his first year of High School, I took him and a couple of his friends on a short overnight backpacking adventure to Savage Gulf.

Savage Gulf State Natural Area is located on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, and is made up of three main river gorges, locally known as "Gulfs."

Our plan was to hike the Big Creek section of Savage Gulf and camp at the Alum Gap campground. We would hike out on the 4-mile Big Creek Gulf Trail, and return the next day on the 3.2-mile Big Creek Rim Trail. To access the Big Creek trails, you park and check in at the Stone Door Ranger Station near Beersheba Springs, TN and hike the 1-mile trail to Stone Door, which is also the trail-head for the Big Creek trail system.

Scenic overlook on the way to Stone Door.

Here is the crew. From left to right: Aaron, Nick, and Josiah. This was Josiah's first backpacking adventure.

Nick enjoying the view at the Stone Door overlook.

Looking over the edge of the cliff into the 750 feet deep Big Creek Gulf.

A view of the cliff's edge into the gulf.

A lonely pine tree set against the vast hardwood forest. 

The Stone Door was used for centuries by Native Americans as a passage way from the top of the plateau into the gorges below. The "door" is a large crack in the limestone, 10 feet wide by 100 feet deep. In order to get to the Big Creek Gulf Trail, we had to descend through the Stone Door.

Descending through the Stone Door.

Big Creek Gulf Trail is a rough, challenging trail that leads through the gorge below and to the west of Stone Door, ending at Alum Gap campground.

On our way to the bottom of Big Creek Gulf. Just past this point, we ran across a small Copperhead snake on the trail. We waited until it slithered off the trail and made sure to give it a wide birth. 

After nearly an hour of slowly negotiating the narrow and rocky trail, we finally made it to the bottom of the gulf and found a nice clearing to stop and have lunch. 

Big Creek flows both above and below ground. Dry streambeds are very common in areas where the creek flows underground. But about 3 miles in, we finally heard running water and found the Blue Hole Sink, where Big Creek flows under a large slab of limestone and disappears.

Big Creek, just before it flows underground.

The rushing water of Big Creek

Some hikers left behind a small "monument" at the mouth of the sink.

Just past Blue Hole Sink, the trail began ascending back to the top of the plateau. And when I say ascend, I mean straight up - for almost a mile. Without a backpack, the ascent would be challenging. With a backpack, it was near torturous. I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy gulping in air and praying that I would make it to the top.

We did make it to the top, and were rewarded by a sign pointing us to the campground: our stop for the night. Alum Gap has about 11-12 sites, with the middle 4-5 sites actually on the ridge. We picked out a site on the ridge and spent the next hour or so setting up camp. Just below our site, there was a rock ledge with a great view of the gulf.

The boys relaxing on the rock ledge.

After we set up camp, we decided to take a quick hike over to Greeter Falls, about 1.5 miles away. The first mile of the Greeter trail is an easy plateau top walk with the last half-mile a moderate hike down into the gorge.

Some Mountain Laurel in bloom along the Greeter Trail.

Greeter Falls, on Firescald Creek, plummets over a 50-foot edge into a cold, clear plunge pool.

The boys decided to negotiate the edge of the plunge pool and see how close they could get to the falls.

The boys at the base of the falls

After enjoying a half-hour or so at the falls, we headed back to camp to prepare for dinner.

 At the Greeter Trail trailhead, is a small brooke that serves as the water supply for the Alum Gap camp. During the spring, there is plenty of water, and it's only a few hundred yards from camp. On our way back, we stopped and filled up all of our water bottles with enough water for our meals and our hike out the next day.

After a filling meal of freeze-dried food and a small campfire, we called it a night. The next morning, we all woke up around 7:00am, struck camp, had a quick breakfast, and headed back to the truck via the Big Creek Rim Trail. Unlike, the Big Creek Gulf Trail, the Rim Trail is an easy trail that follows the edge of the plateau above Big Creek Gulf; and offers numerous scenic views.

On our way out along the Big Creek Rim Trail.

All in all, it was a challenging yet fun excursion. The boys enjoyed it so much, they want to make it a yearly event. We'll see.