Guest River Gorge Hike

Five of us headed out this morning for Guest River Gorge near Coeburn.  This hiking trail is an old railroad bed and is now part of the rails to trails network.  It follows the Guest River as it flows toward Dungannon and merges into the Clinch River.  It is a total of 5.8 miles one way, but is easy walking with plenty of benches for resting.  Since we weren't navigating streams, ledges, or dodging roots, we just had a great time chatting, taking photos, and enjoying the perfect September day.  We were hoping to spot an eagle, but no luck today.  If you missed this one, you may want to go back in a few weeks because I think it will be absolutely breathtaking in mid-October!

Guest River Gorge Hike Moved to Saturday the 28th

I've been looking at the forecast all day and looks like we need to move this one to next Saturday.  Forecast is calling for 70-90% chance of rain....tropical moisture with some heavy downpours.  Hopefully next Saturday will be nice and we can enjoy some spots of fall color.  See you next Saturday!

The Devil's Bathtub Hike

We headed out today for Devil's Bathtub located in the Jefferson National forest in Scott County.  We were fortunate enough to have a guide from Natural Tunnel to lead what was our largest hiking group so far.  We've been looking forward to this hike for quite some time.  Everything we had heard was true.  There are about 12 stream crossings, some knee deep, on the trail.  And the devil's bathtub is something like you've never seen.  It is a bathtub-shaped pit carved out in the layers of rock and filled with crystal clear bluish water.  It's about twice as long as a bathtub, but not much wider, and is about 10 feet deep. The bottom can be clearly seen, which gave me the confidence to get a bit wetter than I already was.  Yes, there were about four of us that sampled the bath water.  The whole area was quite beautiful with the water rushing over the crevices in the shale creek bed and creating several pools of water.  As usual, we enjoyed taking photos and took our time examining all the natural beauty of the area.  It was a great way to spend the Labor Day holiday!

The bathtub

Navigating one of several stream crossings