James
E Edmonds Trail
Mar
7, 2004
After the
lengthy Raven Cliff trail two weeks before, I wanted to have a go at
camping during my spring break. However since i didn't find the right
gear in time I decided to do couple of trails with car-camping
inbetween on some camp grounds. I decided to go for something hard on
the first day and then an easy one on the next. After looking at the
different trails I thought that the James E Edmond trail would be gr8
to hike on the first day. My friend jeff decided to join me on this
camping trip. The next trail was not decided since we wanted to go
somewhere in the Tallulah gorge but were not sure which of the trails
would give us the best views of the gorge so we defered
the
decision
and decided to ask at the information desk of the Tallulah gorge state
park.
We reached
the Black rock mountain state park around 8:30 in the morning. This is
the park that covers the sub-region of Edmonds trail. We picked up the
trail map at the office and were told that it is a loop hike of about
4.5 hrs. Here is where we had a change of plans. We initially had
decided that we would camp in the camp grounds of Black rock mountain
state park and next day drive to Tallulah gorge, but then we were going
to start the trail around 9:00 so we expected to return early afternoon
and hence decided that we would go to Tallulah gorge the same day and
camp at the camp grounds there.
Reading
descriptions and trail reports on various sites gave an impression that
the trail is really strenuous. We were hence mentally prepared for a
hard time for next 4.5 hrs. The trial started with a steep descent
which bothered us since we had to come back by the same way (we had yet
not reached the fork of the loop). After a while we reached the fork
and
one can decide to go either by the east or the west fork. It's almost
equally demanding both way so you may choose any one, we chose the
east. On the way we found lots of water streams and small waterfalls
along with think Rhododendrons around the streams. We crossed a lot of
them and the park has done a great job of placing wooden bridges across
almost all of them. Had it not been cold, I would have loved to
kick-off my shoes and rest my feet in running water :). After about an
45-50 mins of walking we found a big lake on our left and were
wondering if we would get close to it, but the trail turned right after
some time. After about 1.5 hrs we came to the intersection of the east
and west fork of the trail. There is a short trail that leads to a lock
off away from the intersection. I would definitely
recommend
it since
the view is just fabulous. To add to it we had a lot of wind that day
and it was quite cold there. We decided to have our lunch at the
lookoff.
After we were done with our lunch we set back on the west fork, which like the
east fork,
consisted mostly of shorts up and down hills. While crossing the gravel
road (which we also crossed on the way to the east fork) we again
happened to see a lake to our right. We concluded that this was the
same
we saw through the trees on the east fork, this was the Black Rock
Lake. We spent some time there enjoying the quite lake. The trail was
then a normal one with an ascent at the end. Coming back to the start
we realized that it was not that strenuous a trail and didn't tire us
much. My personal feeling is that the trail was not that strenuous and
I
would give it a rating of around 6.5/10 and call in moderate to
strenuous.
Near the
parking lot there is another moderate loop trail called the Tennessee
Rock trail (2.2 miles). Looking at the trail map, we found that there
is a look off not far from the trail head on southern fork of the
trail. We decided to go to the look off since we had plenty of time at
our hand. It was just short of a mile of round trip but was worth the
walk. We got an idea of how far we had come from the last look off on
the Edmonds trail. The things that lay on our extreme left were on our
extreme right. Nevertheless, overall it was a
time well
spent and after some rest we headed to the Tallulah gorge.
Tallulah Gorge state park
Mar 7, 2004
- Mar 8, 2004
The park
office also goes by the name of Jane Hurt Yarn Interpretive center.
There is a camping ground near the center and we decided to camp at
that camp site. Later in the evening we decided that it was a good
decision to come here since we got to know about the next days trail. Inspite of it being a Monday there was
considerable amount of campers at
the site (around 6 camps excluding us). We picked up
a site and set up our
tent. It seems that I happen to pick the wrong days for my adventures.
It was quite cold that evening and rains were predicted for the next
day. Luckily there was a lot of wood lying around and Jeff did a gr8
job of getting us plenty of wood for the camp fire. Infact I got to
learn from him the tactic of starting a fire with just newspapers and
not using starter fuel. After having a filling dinner of soup and
noddles we decided to call it a day as the temperature started dipping
down. I am sure it was below freezing that night. The next day we got
up around 7:00am just to find snow flakes falling all around us!! It
was not a proper snowfall but enough to think that it was the wrong
day to hike (especially since
i had declared the winter to be over the
previous weekend and hadn't got my warm clothes :) ). But it was for a
short while and the sun finally rose giving me the much needed
psychological warmth :). In the next hour and half, after having
delicious baked apple oatmeal for breakfast we packed up everything. We
drove to the interpretive center and were ready to start the day's hike.
The hikes for
Tuesday were basically combination of the North and South rim trail
around the gorge and the hurricane falls trail that takes us down the
gorge. If you pick up a map of the gorge area it has clear markings of
scenic overlooks and I would recommend visiting all of them. The Best
one was getting on the suspension bridge that is built across the
river. You have to climp up and down total of 1200 steps to get to the
bridge and to the gorge bottom. If you plan to traverse alongside the
gorge and cross it you need to get a permit from the center (which we
didn't get). Almost all the overlooks gave a breath taking view of the
prominent falls in the area. The total distance we covered was
around 2.5 miles and it doesn't take too long but I recommend that you
do take time to n'joy the beauty of nature at each overlook. The view
of the gorge reminded me of the Grand Canyon and a similar feeling of
getting lost in front of mother nature crept back in my mind. Though
the gorge is not as grand as the Grand Canyon it has a beauty of it's
own.
I had heard
about a award winning video that is played at the center and we
inquired about it. Luckily for us it was gonna start in about 10-15
mins after we reached the center. I would strongly recommend it to
everyone, it was just too good. It gives a brief history of the gorge
and then takes you up close to all the views of the gorge and goes on
to explain the different activities including kayaking, rock climbing
that take place in the gorge.
I would
specifically like to mention the ranger at the center, Ms. Jenett. She
was very friendly and explained to us everything we needed to know in
great detail. I am sure you won't miss her welcoming smile if you get
to the center.
If one
intends to go for a serious hike, you may not want to come to the
trails around Tallulah Gorge state park but I would surely recommend it
for the scenic beauty that you would get to enjoy.
Useful Links
Black rock mountain
state park
James
Edmonds trail description from gerogiahikes.com
Tallulah
Gorge State park
Photos