Snow Falls

Saturday, January 22 — Snow Falls, 10.3 miles (maybe), moderate/difficult. Bring water shoes. The trail first runs beside wild and wooly Richland Creek, passes by many signs of mining, then twists through the woods to a relatively new bridge over Laurel Creek. We turn left at the fork and eventually head toward a huge boulder, around which lurks an impressive series of bridges hopping across what should be Richland Creek, except that the latter has changed its name to Henderson Creek. (Why do they do that?) Soon our trail gets serious, taking us up to the top of the plateau via relatively gradual switchbacks and cleverly finding a way through the cliffs at the top. After catching our breath, we immediately turn right, moving NNE along the edge of the Henderson Creek gorge. After checking out a couple of grand overlooks, we veer west and then south toward Morgan Creek. If Morgan Creek is behaving itself, we can wade through a couple of inches of water that move gracefully over the flat-rock streambed. On the other side of the creek, the trail heads SE toward Snow Falls through a very pretty landscape, then…well, the trail evaporates. For those who want to get to the bottom of the falls, it’s every hiker for him/herself. The descent is not too steep. On the way back we can retrace our steps or take a parallel route down the middle of the peninsula, watching for the connector to the trail down. (Note: In the reviews there are many comments about hikers getting lost up here, but no reports of anyone being lost a long time. So don’t worry if this happens to us.) Please register with hike leaderBetsy Darken, 423-718-2060. Meet at Durham St, Soddy Daisy, at 8:30 am.