Frozen Head State Park Backpack

We started Friday's hike at the Morgan County Visitor's Center in Wartburg. The Cumberland Trail will eventually go past the center (there's already a medallion on the sidewalk) since Wartburg will be an official trail town. We started the CT trail behind the visitor center and came back on the CHS loop. The CHS loop runs behind the Central High School and there's a nice pond and picnic area on the trail.  After lunch at Subway, we headed over to Frozen Head State Park to set up camp along Judge Branch. Saturday morning, we started our hike at the Panther Branch trailhead, and stopped off at Debord Falls and Emory Falls. We hiked the Panther Branch Trail to the North Old Mac Trail on our way to the Lookout Tower. We saw a few wildflowers along the way and the views were spectacular.  On Sunday, after breaking up camp and on our way home, we will explored the Obed Wild and Scenic River north of Wartburg. We'll hiked the Boulder Trail and then the Lilly Bluff Overlook. Backpackers were Patti Bradley, Sara Pollard, Lynn Rosser, and Bryan Tauchen. 

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Frozen Head State Park Camping & Hiking - Sara

We had the perfect weekend for camping and hiking at Frozen Head State Park in the Flat Rock Group campsite. Arrived Friday afternoon and hiked the Judge Branch and Interpretive Trails after setting up camp. 

Saturday day hikers from the Scenic City chapter joined us to hike the Panther Branch Trail to North Old Mac and we had lunch at the lookout tower. Then took the South Old Mac on our return. It started raining in the night but the rain had stopped by morning so we could enjoy breakfast before packing up wet tents and gear.  

Sunday, we explored the Obed Wild and Scenic River in Lancing. We hiked to the Lily Bluff overlook and then the Point Trail. After lunch some hikers hiked the short Boulder Trail from the parking lot.  We saw an abundance of wildflowers and pretty creek crossings. 

Campers were Carrie Ashton, Jim Barritt, Joe Campbell, Joan Hartvigsen, Craig McBride, Lora McBride, Sara Pollard, and Lynn Rosser. Day hikers were Betsy Darken, Susan GGonzalez, Tammy Hendrick, Tom McElhone, Susan Sandefur, Amy Satterwhite, Suzanne Thigpen, and Mike Wolford.

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Frozen Head Campout - Lora

 

Joan planned a camping trip at Frozen Head camping at Flat Fork Campground. She had some issues come up and missed this trip. The rest of us carried on. I got there and set up my hammock between #6 and #7 campsites. Joe got there, then Sara, the Patty and Chuck. We got our hiking gear and headed to the trailhead to hike the Judge Branch Loop. Just a little way up the trail it started thundering and the sky turned black. I remembered I hadn't set up my tarp over my hammock, so I skedaddled back to the car and campsite to take care of that. We planned for me to come back, hike the opposite way they were going, to meet up with them. I did that but never met up, they hiked the same direction I did. They beat me back to the parking lot...

Nice campfire, didn't wake up to see the meteor shower.

Thursday we hiked from our campsites to the trailhead at the end of the road. It's not too far to the waterfalls which didn't have very much water, but were scenic anyway. Out and back was about three miles. Then we met up with Mark and Bill to hike the Rocky Fork/CT/Chimney Rocks/English Mt trail. Bill had to turn back after we got a little ways up the first climb, so Mark led the rest of the hike. It was hot and humid but we sweated it out anyway. We came up on some trail workers, swinging blades to cut the overgrowth on the trails. We made sure they knew how much we appreciated their hard work. They were excited to see hikers using the trail! The volunteers said they didn't think anybody ever hiked the trail with all the overgrowth along the trail. We let them know it was hiked a lot more in colder temps. When we finished the trail, we drove to Lancing to a really cool brewery out in the country,  Lily Pad Hopyard Brewery   They have a great menu and it's a great atmosphere. I had a 3 cheese Puffin with grapes, others tried the pork tacos. Back at camp, campfire, then me Sara and Joe drove to the Rocky Fork field to watch the meteor shower. We had warm pavement to lay on to see the awesome show in the sky! 

Friday me and Joe went hiking while the Deens went to the Brushy Mountain Prison and Sara headed home. We hiked the North Old Mac trail to Panther Gap, saw the Rockhouse, then to the Lookout Tower, and down Chimney Top to Spicewood Branch Trail where we had a lot of slick rocks and a little trail dancing. Good day of sweating out toxins and swatting gnats. Back at camp everyone was gone, Joe was spending another night, I had lunch then headed home.

Thanks to Joan for a great trip at Frozen Head State Park!

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Frozen Head SP - Joan

Pictured are Louise Miniard. Sara Pollard and Bruce Blohm.  We hiked up the North Old Mac Trail, visited the Observation Tower and then returned on the  South Old Mac Trail.  Spring wildflowers were seen on the South Old Mac Trail .

Frozen Head State Park - Jan

The Murfreesboro and Highland Rim chapters enjoyed a weekend of camping and hiking at Frozen Head State Park. Most of us camped Fri. and Sat. at a group site in the campground-Jan Safavi, Sara Pollard, Marietta Poteet, Joni Perrine, Joan Harvigsen and Jennifer Zahn-Doug King joined us bright and early Sat. morning for our hike up Bird Mountain.  We had great weather and as we ascended Bird Mtn. via the Lookout Tower W. Trail, the temperatures cooled and a breeze was most welcome. We turned onto the the Cumberland Trail and headed up the mountain to the back country campsite.  The campsite was perfect for lunch, right on top of the ridge with a nice wooden lunch table and benches made of logs-again the breeze never let up on top of the mtn. and made it very comfortable. The next land mark was Castle Rock and it certainly lives up to it's name!  Circling the huge stone fortress, we made a left off the CT-heading  back down to the campground via the Bird Mtn. trail.  Total miles was around 8 so we weren't quite satisfied since we were back at camp too early to pig out for dinner!  So we walked/hiked over to Debord Falls-right down the road from the campsite.  Playing in that cool water was a bonus and so worth it!

You never know who you might meet on the trail and we met a couple of fellow TTA hikers on the way back to camp, who joined us for dinner in Wartburg at El Patron's for a well deserved Mexican feast! Add in a camp fire and it's pretty much the end of a perfect day, except for the rustling of storm winds approaching.....

We planned to hike on Sunday, but the weather was turning sour-guaranteeing a wet night and wet tents-good possibility of storms while hiking. So we decided to leave in the morning and explore another time. Old Mac trail will be there for the next adventure. So many trails......

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Frozen Head State Park - Wayne

Overnight backpack to Frozen Head State park with Pete, Margaret, Jean and Sara. The weather was great on Friday, but turned cold by Saturday morning, so we hiked almost all of the distance planned including lunch at Bird Mtn campsite. I really like this park, but a ways from home.

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Frozen Head - Good Friday Hike - Sara

We had a total of 8 hikers on the Good Friday hike at Frozen Head State Park.  We started our hike to the observation tower on the South Old Mac Trail. It was a steady, but moderate uphill climb with lots of shallow stream crossings.  We had lunch at the Frozen Head Tower and then stopped by the Tub Spring campsite and down 200 ft to check out Tub Spring which is the water source for this backcountry campsite.  Before continuing the descent and back to the trailhead on the North Old Mac Trail, we took a side trip to the Panther Gap Rockhouse. The North Old Mac Trail back to the parking lot was a gradual descent and it really didn’t feel like we were going down the mountain.  The temps were perfect for a hike, but there was an overcast most of the day and views not good because of the clouds. Hikers were Sara Pollard, Joan Hartvigsen, Nancy Juodenas, Wayne Yancey, Pete Broehl, Jean Breuer, Judith Fries, and Joni Perrine.

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