With a little cold weather in the forecast, we were anxious to venture out for our second backpack of 2006. We picked another trail in the southern section of The Cherokee National Forest (see Jan. 22 for our last hike in the Cherokee). While John and I have hiked extensively in the northern section (upper East TN), we are relative novices in the southern part.

Our trail choice was the Bald River Trail (Forest Trail #88). We picked it because of it's low elevation, relatively flat topography and meandering path along the bank of the beautiful Bald River. On this trip we were joined with friends Bill and Robin.


Spectacular huh!!? This is the lower Bald River Falls. We were impressed with the volume of water. One of the great things about the Falls is that it is accessible to just about everyone. This picture is taken from a bridge on Bald River Road. The trailhead is just a few hundred feet from the left side of the falls.

This is the Upper Bald River Falls. Located above the lower falls, we had to hike a few minutes on the trail to grab this view. Also very impressive!

The first 15 minutes or so on the trail is a climb. About halfway up, Robin and Bill stopped to remove fleece. Amazing how fast a climb can warm a person up on a very cold, rainy day!

And yet another falls along the Bald River. No question we picked a great weekend to see the falls and cascades!

Bill, setting up his tent.

We hiked about 23 minutes and arrived at the first campsite. We hiked a few more minutes and stopped at the second site. Not much time carrying a pack but the sites were beautiful and we really didn't know what lay ahead.

If we do this trail again, we will hike to the third campsite about 15 minutes from this one. Located on a ledge overlooking the river, the third site is off the trail and a little more secluded. Lucky for us the bad weather kept people out of the forest. We figure with such close proximity to the road, these sites fill-up quickly in the 3 warmer seasons.

After we set up tents, we continued on the trail with daypacks. Wasn't too long before the rain turned into snow. We hiked through patches of really heavy snow and were puzzled as to why some areas received significantly more snow than others.

Along the trail we continued to be totally impressed by the Bald River.

We hiked to the end of the Bald River Trail (5.0-miles) and back to our campsite, a total of 9-miles for the day. No, I do not have a "blur lens" on my camera, just some natural effects from the constant rain and snow.

We arrived back in camp around 5:00 pm and were pleased to find a little snow on our tent. Tarps were set-up quickly to protect us from the elements, we fixed dinner, had a little conversation and turned in around 8:30 pm. Although we were bundled up in down, fleece, gore-tex and wool, most of us still had a chill. The cold, damp weather had taken it's toll and we were glad to climb into down bags and snug the hoods around our heads for the night.

John and Robin standing near the upper falls.

B-r-r-r-r-r, Sunday morning was really cold. We were a lazy bunch, sleeping in, drinking coffee and taking our time breaking camp. After all, we had less than 1/2 hour to hike to get back to our cars.

Icicles grew thick on the rock ledges above the cars!

A stop at the Town Square Cafe and Bakery in Tellico Plains for a brunch of pancakes (for me) and biscuits and gravy (for John) and we were on our way home to clean up and dry out our gear! Can't wait for our next trip out!