2007 May | WildrLog by Bryan Young

Savage Gulf-Big Creek Gulf Trail

Bryan May 27th, 2007

This is my favorite park in Middle Tennessee, but I had never hiked this trail. I attempted it a few years ago on my birthday camping trip. It was hot. Of course it was hot, it was August. I stopped to give my black lab Hannibal some water. It was then I discovered that I left the extra water for him in the car. I tore my backpack inside out. I knew there would be no water for at least another mile and in that searing heat, he would be near heat exhaustion. He was already panting hard. I aborted the hike. I would discover when I arrived home (90 miles away), that I was missing my glasses. I returned 2 days later, and, sure enough found my glasses. Laying in the middle of the trail, right where I tore open my backpack. Lesson learned.

No, that’s not me. That’s Harold, my hiking partner for the day, at Stone Door.

Stone Door parking lot (near Beersheba Springs) to Greeter Falls (near Altamont) parking lot

Distance: 7.5 miles
Max Elevation: 1888 ft
Total Elevation climb: 1547 ft
Trail Type: single track dirt, rocky
Temperature: 80s, sunny and hot
Time: 3:11 moving, 2:33 resting
Significant Features: the gulf, a few overlooks and more trees!

The total climb number below doesn’t do this hike justice. Most of that 1,500 feet of elevation climb occurs in just 1 mile. It’s a haul.

The hike starts out on the easy 1 mile long Stone Door Trail. Oddly enough, it leads you to Stone Door, a 10 foot wide crack in the cliff. A tree grows in the crack and somebody thought it looked like a door knob. Whatever. This is an easy hike and I would encourage ANYONE to hike this trail to the door and the overlooks. The views are simply breathtaking and are the most accessible in the park. A friend of mine proposed to his now wife here. It’s that good.

I then veered off down through the door on the Big Creek Gulf trail. And descend I did. For a while. A long while. Get the picture? The trail is extremely rocky down here. It’s not bouldering, but I did have to watch my step. And when we arrived at Big Creek, guess what? No water. That’s right, Big Creek runs into a sink a few miles upstream. According to my friend, Ranger Bill, he’s surprised this section shows up as a blue line on a map. This is bad news because at this time of year, I figured there would be SOME water here for Hannibal to drink. A couple of miles up, I found a seep and got a nice cool shower and water for Hannibal.

I start heading on, and start a gentle climb up and out of the gulf. Just when I can’t get to the dry creek easily anymore, guess what? That’s right, the creek was a torrent. I don’t know how long it took to get back up onto the plateau. Let’s just say, I didn’t set any land speed records. But I made it, back to Alum Gap (a great place to overnight, I might add).

I should tell you that the Greeter Trail, which we are hiking back to the car we dropped, isn’t marked very well from this direction. I even had to ask directions! It’s just a few mile hike over to Greeter Falls. This falls is also more accessible than most in the park, so its worth the trip. Today I can tell we’re in a drought. A lot of water, but not near what it should be for springtime. There’s plenty for Hannibal though!

It’s about 3/4 of a mile back to the parking lot where we dropped Harold’s car. Nice to ride for a little while. Harold dropped me off at Stone Door, where I camped for the night. He returned to the city for an evening with friends.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. My camera battery died on the trail.

Links:
Pictures are HERE
Park website is HERE
Park friends website is HERE

Download the Google Earth track

Tags: greeter falls, south cumberland, stone door

Three Pillars of Civilization

Bryan May 26th, 2007

My high school friend Billy has a pretty cool blog post over on his myspace page.

For all our technological advances I still think there are three basic implements of civilization that every person should carry with them:

A knife, matches or a lighter, and a pen.

Your pockets are what you make them. I choose to make mine a triune testimonial to human achievement.

Barfield Crescent Park Wilderness Loop

Bryan May 20th, 2007

Headed in a little different direction today for a local hike. Barfield Cresent Park is located in southwestern Murfreesboro (not so far from Casa de Bryan). I went to check it out and I was thoroughly impressed. Most of the city park trails of significant length (save Nashville) have been paved over. Barfield Crescent has its share of paved trails, but there’s a wilderness loop that actually a very nice hike. Of course I realized it would be when I saw the sign thanking the Tennessee Trails Association for its construction.

Wilderness Station Parking Lot
Distance: 3.8 miles
Max Elevation: 813 ft
Total Elevation climb: 412 ft
Trail Type: single track dirt, rocky
Temperature: 70s, sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky
Time: 1:33 moving, 0:20 resting
Significant Features: birds and trees!

One of the things I liked best about this trail was the ability to add to the distance easily. In for a quick walk, no problem… hike the 2.5 mile inner loop. Up for a longer jaunt in the woods… add any of four approximately 1 mile loops for a longer hike.

One thing to note in my track is there is a nice little side trip over to the top of the cut for U.S. 431. If watching the traffic in Murfreesboro is your thing, this is your trail. I took it by mistake as the trail isn’t well blazed here and I missed a turn.

As typical for the Nashville basin, the views are more of forest and fields then falls and overlooks. Still, a bad day out here beats most days at the office.

Links:
Pictures are HERE
Directions are HERE
Trail Map is HERE
Park website is HERE

Download the Google Earth track

Memorial gathering set for Bob Brown

Bryan May 18th, 2007

A celebration of the life of Nashville
conservationist Bob Brown will be held at 5:30 p.m., Monday, June 4, at
the Warner Park Nature Center.

The address is 7311 Highway 100. Directions can be found at www.nashville.gov/parks/wpnc.

HT: Tennessean.com

Bob Brown, friend to hikers and nature, dies

Bryan May 14th, 2007

Brown co-founded the Tennessee Trails Association and was part of a
group that inspired and helped develop the Cumberland Trail that is
more than half built, crossing from the Tennessee River Gorge near
Chattanooga to the Kentucky-Virginia border.

He served on the
boards of the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, the Tennessee
Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the Metro Greenways Commission.

One
forte was his ability to deal respectfully and with good humor with
those who owned lands that he believed needed to be protected from
development.

“Bob Brown has been to Tennessee what John Muir was
to Yosemite,” said Commissioner Paul Sloan, of the Tennessee Department
of Environment and Conservation.

“He was always first a gentleman and always an informed champion of conservation of Tennessee’s great places.”

Mr. Brown, I never knew you. Thank you for your vision. Rest in peace.

HT: Tennessean.com.

Radnor Lake-Gainer Ridge Trail

Bryan May 13th, 2007

Wow, time really flies! I’m a bit late posting this hike log entry. I’ll try to get better about that.

Today,
the main object of my hike is Gainer Ridge. Gainer Ridge is one of
the two moderate to strenuous trails in the park. The ridge was named
for Albert Gainer, one of the founding member of the Tennessee
Ornithological Society. In 1923, Albert and TOS managed to convince the L&N Railroad to make Radnor Lake a wildlife sanctuary. Gainer Ridge offers a peak at downtown Nashville during the
winter. Of course this time of year, well, let’s say you can really
practice your tree identification.

Trail: West Parking Lot to Lake Trail to Gainer Ridge Trail to Lake Trail to Otter Creek Road to West Parking Lot
Distance: 4 miles
Max Elevation: 1117 ft
Total Elevation climb: 469 ft
Trail Type: single track dirt, some locations mulched
Temperature: 70s, sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky
Time: 1:30 moving, 0:24 resting
Significant Features: birds and trees!

Its a beautiful day and lots of people are this Sunday afternoon. Too many. The parking lot is packed. The Lake Trail and Otter Creek Road are packed. I don’t like it. I come for peace and quiet and birds singing. Heard to hear them along the Lake Trail. But it is 1,200 acres of pure wilderness in the midst of a metropolitan area of about 1.5 million people and I should be grateful this many people enjoy it. That’s more people who might care enough to save similar areas. Radnor Lake has a very exciting conservation history and will be the subject of an upcoming research post.

I get up to the Gainer Ridge trail and the crowd slackens. Of course, its a harder hike. I pass maybe 6 people along Gainer today. I stop at the top today for water and to change the batteries in my GPS. And to sit. Can’t see much today. The trees have recovered nicely from the late freezes and have filled in the views. I stop on the downside of Gainer to give directions is a few folks and pass onto the Lake Trail again. Back to the crowds on the Lake Trail and on Otter Creek Road.

Some of the best views of the Lake are from Otter Creek Road on the east side of the Lake. Large open vistas give a glimpse into the waters and all they contain. I stop to take pictures of the ducks on the logs. And then move on. The crowds have irritated me today, but I got my peace up on Gainer.

Links:

Friends of Radnor Lake

Radnor Lake State Park

Radnor Lake State Natural Area

Google Map to Radnor

My pictures from this hike

Download the Google Earth track

Toxic West Virginia extras

Bryan May 12th, 2007

I really appreciate folks like vbs.tv for putting together this series. If you’ve missed it, check out the links to Toxic West Virginia part 1 mountaintop removal, 2 reclamation, 3 miners, 4 the coal companies, and 5 water.

This series has brought to my attention the environmental travesty happening all around us. I’m not anti-capitalist, I know corporations are responding to a need that we as consumers have 100% control over. But for corporations to do this is just plain wrong. If this series has interested you, I’d suggest you check out KiloWattOurs.Org for a start on what YOU can do right now in your own home to stop this.

VBS.TV has released a couple of extras to Toxic West Virginia. First is Cookie Mountain, a funny (but not really) re-creation of a mountaintop removal site using confections. This is one part with language. You have been warned.

Second is Marky Bias.

Fall from glacier kills Fairview man, two partners survive

Bryan May 11th, 2007

A mountain climber from Fairview, Tenn., was killed in a fall on a New Zealand glacier, police said Tuesday. Another American was seriously injured.

Austin Hanchey of Fairview was killed when he and two companions fell. He was an environmental conservation student from Idaho State University on a semester abroad. Police have not named the two survivors.

Hanchey’s mother, Faith, told The Associated Press on Tuesday night that her son loved the outdoors and wanted to educate others about the importance of the environment.

He decided to study in New Zealand, in part, for its outdoor opportunities. She recently visited him there for 12 days.

"He loved it, he absolutely loved it," she said of the country. "He was in a place that he enjoyed, and he was doing what he enjoyed, and that thought kind of has to carry you through."

But two others survived the 1600 foot fall… read on

All three climbers in the fall were 20-year-old Americans, students at Lincoln University in Christchurch. They fell about 1,600 feet Monday night while descending a glacier in Mount Aspiring National Park on New Zealand’s South Island, said Wanaka police Constable Mike Johnston.

The three men were roped together when one slipped, and all three fell, Johnston said.

The injured man had a broken pelvis and leg and head injuries, but was in surprisingly good condition. The third man took care of his injured friend before climbing down to a mountain hut to seek help.

Searchers found the surviving pair Tuesday, Johnston said.

"The only reason he’s really alive is because his mate managed to get down to that hut and raise the alarm" after a perilous nighttime descent, he said.

Wanaka search and rescue expert Gary Dickson said it was surprising the duo even survived the "huge fall."

"People who survive that have definitely used up one of their nine lives," he told National Radio.

HT: Fall from glacier kills Fairview man at Tennessean.com.

I Finished A Book: Mornings on Horseback

Bryan May 9th, 2007

Obviously my interest in our wild places has increased in the last ten years or so. Lately, I’ve become increasingly concerned about overdevelopment, conservation, and the environment. I’ve always heard about Theodore Roosevelt and his great support for conservation, but I realized I knew very little about him or his conservation principles.

I’d also been told about the amazing author that is David McCullough. When I found out he wrote a book on TR, I was all over it. Mornings on Horseback covers the early life of Theodore Roosevelt II (the 26th President of the United States) until 1886.

I took into my reading a few preconceived notions about TR. First, I knew he had suffered with asthma as a child, but to what extent, I did not know. I also knew he was a Republican who was from New York and from an extremely wealthy family. And I knew was one of the first to bring ideas of conservation to America’s consciousness.

While reading Mornings on Horseback, it would be easy to judge him by today’s standards as a number of people have. "He was rich, so he much have been greedy and had everything handed to him on a silver platter" or "he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth."

While certainly his wealth made his life easier, the world has its ways of evening things out. TR’s fights with asthma were far more serious than I ever anticipated. As TR’s family described them, they were far, far worse than my own bouts with childhood asthma. His father (Theodore Roosevelt I) told him someone around 1870:

Theodore, you have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. …You must make your body…. It is hard drudgery to make one’s body, but I know you will do it.

His father, though he was very wealthy, was very involved in philanthropy, particularly for orphans and street children. TR got his tireless work ethic from his father.

To suggest that TR never had hardships because he wealthy is simply irresponsible and inaccurate. For an example, one only need look to February 1884. On the 12th, TR’s wife of three years, Alice, gave birth to his first daughter. On the 14th, at 3am, his mother died. On the same day, February 14, 1884, at 2pm, Alice died as well. Bright’s disease they said. That day shook TR for years.

Before modern Republicans ever coined the phrase "compassionate conservative," TR was one. During his time in the New York state assembly, TR pushed through a bill that ended cigar-making in homes. Not for health reasons mind you. The practice of the day was for companies to hire immigrants to make cigars in company-sponsored housing. When they didn’t produce what the company thought they should, they kicked them out on the street.

TR’s real breakout in politics occurred at the 1884 Republican National Convention in Chicago. TR engineered an unsuccessful bid to nominate George Edmunds over James Blaine. And though he failed, the event burst him onto the stage of national politics. After failed, he wrote to his older sister Bamie:

It may be that the voice of the people is the voice of God in fifty-one cases out of a hundred, but in the remaining forty-nine it is quite as likely to be the voice of the devil, or, what is still worse, the voice of a fool.

–June 8, 1884.

Perhaps TR really broke out of his "rich man" mold during his time in the Badlands of North Dakota. Sure, he was a gentleman rancher and expected hard work from those in his employ. But he also worked hard. During the spring cattle roundups, he even stood night watch and worked to end a nighttime stampede.

I’d had never read any David McCullough books before and I knew very little about Theodore Roosevelt. I’m certainly no expert at either now, but this read was well worth the time and effort. McCullough frequently quotes the family correspondence which by modern standards is incredibly thorough. Apparently the Roosevelts considered letter writing to be quite important.

In my opinion, Mornings on Horseback is a must read!