Wednesday/Thursday March 18/19 - Pockett Wilderness Hike near Dayton TN 6.5 miles and Nashville TN

I contemplated a number of different hike possibilities as we drove west from Pigeon Forge over to Nashville.  That East/West trip takes you from the Smoky mountains, over and around the Cumberland Plateau and past many great state parks.  Initially I thought we might end up at Fall Creek Falls state park but then I tripped upon a hike I hadn't done since 2005.  There are a series of 5 or 6 parcels of land in TN called the Pocket Wildernesses.  They were plots of land owned by the Bowater corporation that were donated to the state in the 1970's.  The area we hiked in yesterday is supposedly only 700 acres but it feels amazingly remote (nasty dirt road to access, no cell service etc) yet it's all of about 3 miles from the thriving industrial city of Dayton TN, home of a very large set of La-Z-Boy manufacturing and distribution facilities.  Just like last time I was there so many years ago I went a little nuts on the pictures but I'm managing to 'only' post a handful here. 








My friend John from Nashville met us at the trailhead and did his first big hike in a few years.  This is an *astonishing* area of water feature goodness.  Usually it is a good trail if you get one good cascade of water or the trail ends at one substantial waterfall.  This trail is about 2 miles each way overlooking a dramatic rocky canyon that is roaring with water.  There are calm sections, white water sections, narrow sections and steep sections and at least 2 waterfalls. 




After visiting Larel Falls, we continued down the main trail towards Snow Falls.  The 2 part L shaped bridge is accessed by climbing down a very massive and somewhat scary when when boulder.  The photos don't do the height justice either.  It was quite an intimidating bridge.  And after crossing both segments of the bridge, we turned back and walked back to the cars.  After the hike we had a drive thru only McDonalds lunch. :(

The drive to Nashville was extremely quiet.  There was a lot of this until we got to Smyrna at rush hour:

After checking into our hotel (not the greatest neighboorhood), John took us to Opryland Hotel at my request.  It's a must-see Nashville thing and Brian couldn't remember if he had been there.  I was pretty sure we had gone before together but I never mind going again.  Brian had been there before so it was a repeat. There were about 25 cars in the entire parking lot for the hotel.  We saw just a few families here and there and there was absolutely no sense of hustle or bustle to be found.  It made the central water feature seem very zen and ocean like despite being completely artificial.

It is Thursday morning as I write this and I'm expecting a quiet unremarkable day here in Nashville.  The weather looks decent.  John is making breakfast for us and beyond that I have no idea what we'll be doing but a day to rest would be ok.


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