When best friends come to visit, amazing things can happen. Good beers, good friends, good times. My good friend Nate finally is coming to town! Woohoo! We haven't seen this guy in like two years now. We got one hell of a weekend to conquer! Sadly my other half Amanda fell sick while Nate was here and wasn't able to go on all our outings. But we did all get together at Ross Mead Quarry in Knoxville, Tennessee. An amazing venue for hikers, cyclist, climbers, kayakers and more! Coolest thing to me is YEEHAW Brewing out of Johnson City, Tennessee has a remote Taproom right there at the entrance of the quarry. Party on Wayne!! Party on Garth!! We explored the old train tracks down to the old coke ovens, you can still see the entire mining process. From pink marble that built most of midtown Manhattan, to the Limestone operation that went for years after. There must be ten miles of bicycle trails and banked curves. A keyhole area shows you some cave features in the earth, as well as a great photograph spot where the quarry rocks were stacked long ago, they leave a small tunnel a human can pass through. Nate and I climbed down and then up the quarry walls, very carefully pulled ourselves up the giant blocks of limestone. We had found a access in the rock you would call a cave, that was no bigger than two people wide. Well curiousity always gets the cat... Nate was half way in when I decided to dive in head first. Not knowing even if I was able to comprehend the clostrophobic situation I was about to experience. How would anxiety take hold? We crawled on our bellies in about forty feet where suddenly a baby stalagmite was on the surface of the floor and we had to crawl over it painfully. we crawled on a little farther and I personally decided to stop because of how small the tunnel was, Nate on the other hand kept on and made into a room where he could sit indian style. Amazing experience for him I'm sure coming from Oviedo, Florida days before. Well we figured out that was the farthest it went and out we were. When we were back outside we realized we made some friends and they decided they wanted to follow us in the next crevice we saw in the distance. Onward we go... under the surface Nate is in, Amanda goes next and decides last second "NO WAY", In I go and our new friend follows. we could stand entirely and crawled/scuffled over a boulder into a tunnel type chamber that led again to another room ended that ended abruptly. Now I can imagine in the rainy season this isn't accessible and is probably filled with water. Experience of a lifetime for my buddy. Next day We head out to US 129 better known as The Tail of the Dragon. My first stop for us was Look Rock on Foothills Parkway section G/H on Chilhowee Mountain. We set off on the paved trail and took the short cut to the left as you get started. This becomes a eight minute walk if that, dumps out right at the foot of the ramp to the look out tower. Just Beyond the tower are bluffs known as Three Sisters a very cool spot to climb around and to take a moment to realize those that were here before you. To think how small you are amongst all the things in this universe. Being here is really surreal only thing maybe ruining it is the minor graffiti in the beginning of the bluffs but its seems the more you climb down the less people have gone. So back on the road, did I mention we took Amanda's 1993 Mazda Miata Mx5. We are going to the dragon to have a blast!! Nate had stocked up on Drammine prior to our journey, and it came in handy for sure! Paid our respects to fellow Z brother Kyle Moroney near mile 1.5 found some parts of the exhaust and headlight on the cliffside and placed them near the marker. We paid visit to the ghost town of Calderwood, showed my buddy the churches that are still present. Showed him the huge Cherokee burial mound in the lake. We went off freestyling as I like to call it and we found three openings in a rock face and voila! We found ourselves a cool little cave with multiple entrances and high ceiling. Made the usual stop at Killboy's store, and Cheoh Dam filming location for the In dreams in 1999 and Fugitive in 1993. Of course Tapoco Lodge was on my list for lunch! If you want pizza and I mean good woodfired pizza in the south, Tapoco Lodge is a Historic hotel that is gorgeous just off the Dragon! When weather permits seating on the river is spectacular, combined with Craft beer selections you cannot go wrong!! Our last day was decided that we would head out to iconic Cade's Cove. Made the trip in better time than ever, I realized and knew we would never do everything in the cove that day so I wanted to hit key points. We stopped off at John Oliver's Cabin which I explained to Nate it's actually a newlywed gift from him to his son. The Park would rather show you a structure standing or a structure from a different place set there than to show the real homesite just behind off in the woods. Sad but these are the realities, onward we go off to what is said to be Crawford Olivers car stuck on the old road. Always cool to see the old cars stuck in the woods from a time before the park. Not too far away we find the fireplace of George Drake's homesite. Back to Loop Rd and onward to the Gregory families property, we parked just beyond the old driveway that is blocked by a ranger gate. Hiked up the parallel manway and instantly you are reminded of the past on your right about one hundred yards are the remnants of picnic tables from when this was a major spot on the old Cade's Cove tour. In fact the Gregory Family opened it to the public in 1925 by J.J. Gregory and Elvira Gregory, with fifty cent admission and free for all kids. The cave had walkways and electric lights powered by a Delco system. During the cold war the cave was a fallout shelter for more than one thousand people. Twenty to fifty feet wide, fifteen feet tall and four hundred thirty five feet deep. Three hundred feet down the right wall there is a side arm passage that goes another one hundred feet long and in here you can see the pick marks on the walls from when this cave was most likely mined for saltpeter in the Civil War. Saltpeter mining went on from 1818 to 1865 in the area, this would of been a small mining operation. In the distance we see the boulder field and we walk the narrow path to the mouth of the cave. Now already familiar with the parks laws you cannot go inside the caves due to white nose fungus but this one in particular is barred off to stop access. So you can go in about twenty feet and not harm anything. looking up you can see the roof is stained black with soot from many fires over the centuries. Imagine the Dallas tribe or Cherokee in here keeping warm by the fire after their otter hunts in the land of Tyashi. We shined lights in to see as far as we could, we weren't well prepared for a lighting spectacular but we saw enough and out we were back on the trail when Nate got my attention that we weren't alone. Ranger Looney had arrived hiking straight toward us he asked " Did you just see that Bobcat?? " In my own mind im thinking something has set off a alarm to alert him of our presence? Is this his ice breaker in communication to feel us out? I immediately start rambling off the history of this place and we ended up in great conversation which led me revealing I am sponsored by Clif Bars. Of course I had a backpack full with me and I offered Ranger Looney a handful in exchange for a pic together! Check out my picutres and follow along on my next adventure!!
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MiketheHikingGuide
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January 2019
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