Laurel Run and Pretty Ridge

Another recent hike I took with a friend took us to the back side of Bays Mountain Park to a very nice Hawkins County park called Laurel Run.

We saw two box turtles on the trail. Their markings are unique to the individual.

There are two waterfalls worth mentioning along this run and one higher on a tributary. The flow of the run is quite variable. I had been to this first falls awhile back with my brother and sister-in-law when there had been more flow.

As you can see, the upper falls is short, I would say about 4 feet, but if it had been a hot day I would like to try out this swimming hole.

As my friend viewed the pool, I got fascinated with the young leaves of the canopy. It is such a fresh green early in the season.

The second waterfall is perhaps 20 feet tall but had so little flow this day. This is the first time I had seen this one.

It is very reminiscent of falls on the Cumberland Plateau. It has sandstone capstone over erosion ready limestone. It obviously stays dark and moist under this overhang from the moss and liverworts.

Further up the trail we came to one of several old houses in the park. People living off the land, true hillbillies (not a derogatory term in my mind), lived up this draw. Here is their living room after years of neglect and rot.

The porch revealed some real carpentry skills.

The chimney had long sense collapsed and the lean-to kitchen on the back was close to settling off the back.

Besides the young forest suggesting old fields from years past, there were many areas of ferns and rhododendrons.

We hike onto Pretty Ridge. It is a very broad backed level ridgetop. I am thankful that it is a park, because it would certainly be a subdivision otherwise. Mr. Box Turtle #2 was a bit shyer and retreating. His color is not so bright, but his pattern is interesting.

    

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On the way back we took a side trail that went up an old, fairly steep road to an overlook above the park playgrounds and ballfields. The Holston River winds around this north side of Bays Mountain looking for a way to get to around so that it might meet the French Broad River where they combine to form the Tennessee River just above Knoxville. I am still being amazed that, though the hills are not high, they are certainly steep-sided. We felt like we were near vertically above the fields below.

I really should have caught a better picture of my friend, but we were hiking and talking the whole way and I never thought of it.

East Tennessee is among those states which are growing at, may I say it, an alarming rate. You can see the suburban encroachment on the floodplain below. Of course, our TVA prevents flooding. That reminds me of where I got topsoil recently just downstream of here. The man said that he had been selling topsoil from the floodplain for over 30 years, that it went twelve feet deep, and that he had barely scratched the surface of how much is there. He talked about the old-timers discussing the river flooding that used to inundate the plain and freshen the topsoil by upwards of a foot or more per flood.

I guess I needed proof that I was there, too.

Ripe, red raspberries were an unexpected treat.

The day was cloudy and cool, the woods were silent, but the conversation and walk were good. We walked about seven miles that morning just a few weeks ago.