Friday, February 12, 2016

Black Friday #OptOutside Ranger-Led Hike - Big Ridge State Park


Tennessee State Parks joined the REI #OptOutside campaign by conducting ranger-led hikes on Black Friday 2015. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving Day and the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season. With extended hours and special sales, it is routinely the busiest shopping day of the year in the US. Instead of joining the crowds at the malls and outlet centers, I chose to join the hike at Big Ridge State Park in Union County on Norris Lake.

Ranger Sarah led six hikers, one small child riding on her mother's back, and a dog along the Lake Trail, the eastern portion of the Ghost House Loop Trail, the southern end of the Big Valley Trail and the Chestnut Ridge Trail before walking down the road past the cabins and picnic area back to the park office. The total distance was about 4.7 miles of moderate hiking at elevations between 1050 and 1300 feet.

Trail route

Lake Trail

View downstream of the dam that creates Big Ridge Lake

Big Ridge Lake from the dam

Reflections

Looking back at the moss along the trail

Log in the water at the bottom of a beaver slide

Bald eagle

Snodderly Cemetery near Lake Trail

Sarah Hutcheson, about 1800-1893

John Hutcheson, 1805-1889

Henry Snodderly 1833-1862

Daniel Snodely, 1810-1892

Nancy Snoderly, 1840-1916

Back on the Lake Trail

Beaver pond

Trail relocated across new bridge

Looking upstream at the old bridge

Looking downstream at the unnamed branch

Ghost House Trail

Norton Cemetery

Homestead foundation

Filled-in cistern

Typical trail conditions

Side-hill cut

Big Valley Trail

Big Valley trail north

Big Valley Trail south

Trail crosses another unnamed branch

Lots of green ground cover near the branch

A sturdy bridge spans a small streambed

Stream flows under a tree

Heavily eroded hillside

Looking back as the trail widens out to a wagon road

Saplings were planted by Boy Scouts nearly 10 years ago

 Chestnut Ridge Trail

Trail crosses a grassy field before...

...crossing a bridge over Lyon's Spring Branch

Lyon's Spring Branch

Mill dam and raceway for Norton's Mill

Another view of Lyon's Spring

Abandoned water towers

There is no fee to enter Big Ridge State Park.

The park website is http://tnstateparks.com/parks/about/big-ridge.

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