Month: December 2022

Vacation Day Fourteen

7/23/22

Family Vacation Day Fourteen: Heading Home, and Sculpture Fields in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Grand Total Hiking Miles This Vacation = 105.7 miles!

**We packed up camp and started the 8 hour drive home.**

**We stopped here in Chattanooga, Tennessee.**

**The sculpture on the left was Patricia’s favorite.**

**It was sooo very hot outside and the sun was blazing in these open fields. This sculpture had a little shade.**

**Some of these sculptures are quite big! I liked this tree quite a bit.**

**This was an anatomically correct male sculpture. Lizzy provided the censorship for us. Thanks Lizzy.**

**This sculpture was made out of tires. Lizzy thought it looked like feathers.**

That was a super-awesome vacation. We hiked 105.7 miles. A new Beck family record!

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Vacation Day Thirteen: Hemlock Falls and Crusher Hole – 7.8 miles. *We talked with a ranger who was at the trailhead about reports we heard of wild boar on this trail. The ranger educated us on boar safety and indicated that he was there today to check on the trail and hunt any wild boar he locates. Warning: The seventh picture has a dead animal (wild boar) shot by a ranger.

**This is the last big hike of our vacation. We are heading back to Florida tomorrow. We are planning to make a few fun stops along the way home, but no major hikes.**

**We are going to Hemlock Falls with a few detours along the way.**

**We can’t go fully into the caves without permit due to white nose syndrome (a disease killing off bats).**

**We heard a shotgun blast and the girls wanted to go see what the ranger got so we rushed out a little faster.**

**The ranger caught up with us on the trail and told us about the boar he shot. The girls wanted to try and find it so the ranger actually escorted us to the boar.**

**He then educated us on how destructive and invasive wild boar are and how much impact the problem has on other aspects of our environment and economy.**

Back on the trail:

**We found another small cave entrance.**

**Patricia took the lead on the trail with sticks waving to catch all the spider webs along the trail.**

**She kept getting bigger sticks because the spider webs were quite prolific.**

**Even with the wider sections of trail we were eating webs.**

**We finally made it to the last stretch to the falls.**

**Rachel was the first to really get in the pool.**

**Patricia decided to get into the water too.**

**Despite how very cold this water is Lizzy went all in the waterfall.**

**Great hike! Off to Crusher’s Swimming Hole.**

**Dad went for a very cold and brief swim.**

**Rachel spent the most time in the water.**

**Lizzy waded but that’s enough for her because that water was really cold!**

**No way Luna or Patricia are getting in that cold water!**

**Not sure how Rachel can stay in this cold water!**

**Pickerel frog, the only poisonous frog native to the United States!**

**One last look. Time to head back to camp.**

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Vacation Day Twelve

7/21/22

Family Vacation Day Twelve: Virgin Falls Trail- 10 miles.

**We had a pretty strong thunderstorm in the wee hours of the morning and all but Sullivan was awake. The girls started doing shadow puppets in the tent.**

**We get a little later start because of the rain but the skies cleared so we are back in the trails! Notice the “Strenuous”?**

**Lizzy climbed up this basically dry waterfall despite the rain. This is supposed to be Big Branch Falls.**

**Not far down stream the water was flowing.**

**There were a few cool cable crossings.**

**Luna is awesome on a hike. She makes sure everyone is okay especially if we are split up.**

**Lizzy, Sullivan and I climbed down first.**

**Later Sullivan went up to encourage the girls to come down.**

**Butterflies were flying around Rachel.**

**Luna loves Patricia and Patricia loves Luna!**

**Even with the trees in the way this is a pretty waterfall.**

**Mom and Dad enjoying the experience to the fullest.**

**Rachel was exploring behind the waterfall!**

**There was a huge room behind the waterfall!!**

**Viewpoint from behind the waterfall.**

**Time to head up to the last waterfall.**

**Sullivan and Lizzy exploring down below.**

**This was a somewhat challenging 10 mile hike but WOW!**

**We stopped to help a turtle cross the road.**

**Later we had to stop for yet another turtle crossing the road!**

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Vacation Day Eleven

7/20/22

Family Vacation Day Eleven: Cumberland Trail Piney River and Piney Falls- 9 miles. We also set up camp at Fall Creek Falls Campgrounds.

**We planned to hike to Stinging Fork Falls which we thought was a 9 mile hike. We didn’t make it. . . more on that later.**

**The Piney River was pretty along the first half of the hike.**

**We found some sections of the river with this blue-green tint.**

**Catching something in the water… any guesses what she caught?**

**A blue butterfly landed on Rachel’s finger!!!**

**The official rock skipping champion. Rachel bet him a dollar he couldn’t skip it all the way across. He won $1.**

We made our way up some serious elevation and realized that this trail was 8 miles point to point so it would have been a 16+ mile hike. Not today! We headed back down and decided to go to Piney Falls.

**Halfway end pic. Now off to our next adventure.**

**We met a nice couple at the trailhead who offered to take our pic.**

Lizzy and Mom beat everyone down to the loop.

We got a little lost, well, not lost exactly, but we were having trouble finding the trail.

Rachel and Patricia waited *patiently while we searched for the trail. *Not really.

**Mom discovered this cool spot while I was looking for the trail.**

**We found it and ended up at the middle section of the waterfall.**

Lizzy, Sullivan and Mom went down to the bottom pool of water.

Back on the trail:

American abrupt-bulbed Lepidella Mushroom – poisonous!

**We had quite a day! Time to go set up camp at Fall Creek Falls Campgrounds.**

That was a very action packed day!

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Family Vacation Day Ten

7/19/22

Family Vacation Day Ten: Devil’s Racetrack, Cove Lake State Park – 8.4 miles. Multiple beautiful waterfalls and overlooks! *Devil’s Racetrack Trail likely got it’s name because the first half of the hike the trail was lined with poison ivy. Then we hit boulder climbs. The blueberries and blackberries were tempting and delicious but the thorny vines literally attacked us! There were cliffs and steep drop offs. Ultimately we had to turn back because the thorny vines were too thick.