Barkley Marathons

Frozen Head State Park is a highlight of the Cumberland Trail/Great Eastern Trail in Tennessee, and it is home to an infamous marathon.  A film has now been made about Barkley Marathons.  An article about this event and film recently appeared in Outside Online.

You can buy the documentary here or just watch the trailer: barkleymovie.com.

Valentine's Day

On Valentine's Day in 2013, the Cumberland Trail's Grassy Cove Segment didn't yet connect from Brady Mountain Trailhead to Black Mountain Road.

A group of volunteers was building trail in that section that day.  We were able to follow flagging to get between the two sections that were already built.  This end of the trail is no longer the end thanks to volunteers.

Pictures and maps of the now-connected Grassy Cove Segment are available on the Cumberland Trail Conference website.

Loop Hikes, Part 2: The Big Southeastern Appalachian Loop

For hikers who enjoy a true challenge, the Big Southeastern Appalachian Loop (please, internet, find a better name) would be by far the most challenging of the "small" loops.

This is a tough loop because it has the most incomplete trails, meaning there are some significant roadwalks.  On the plus side, resupply is overall fairly easy.  With so many miles, it might be hard to find the perfect time of year to hike this loop. 

The map here shows the majority of the loop with the exception of the Benton MacKaye Trail (pictured below) and the Georgia Pinhoti (which I can't find a decent map of -- anyone??)


This loop incorporates the following trails: 

• Georgia Pinhoti Trail
• Benton MacKaye Trail
• Appalachian Trail
  

And the following Great Eastern Trail components:

• Southern West Virginia (Mary Draper Ingalls, TuGuNu)
• Kentucky's Pine Mountain Trail
• Tennessee's Cumberland Trail
• Lookout Mountain Section of the GET

The miles breakdown is something like this:

• From the GET/Georgia Pinhoti Trail divergence near Taliaferro Creek, a counterclockwise hiker would stay on the Georgia Pinhoti, following it roughly 120 miles to its intersection with the Benton MacKaye Trail (pictured on right).  
• The hiker would turn south along the BMT for 70 miles to Springer Mountain.  (You could also head north on the BMT and intersect with the AT at the southern or northern end of the Smokies.  Choose your own adventure!)
• At Springer, the loop would follow the Appalachian Trail north to Pearisburg, Virginia.  This portion of trail is about 630 miles long.
  
  (At Pearisburg, the loop becomes trickier and mileages become fuzzy - the numbers I quote below may easily be off by 10-20% depending upon certain routes chosen, particularly in regards to roadwalk links.)
  
• From Pearisburg, the hiker then navigates the most challenging section of Great Eastern Trail: southern West Virginia's roughly 150 miles.
• Kentucky's Pine Mountain Trail and connecting roadwalks on either end add up to about 170 miles.
• The Cumberland Trail will be roughly 260 miles, depending on roadwalks and trail closures. It may be slightly more or less than that, but 260 is a good estimate.
• Lookout Mountain Section is about 100 miles (if following newer route through Little River Canyon) to meet up with the Georgia Pinhoti/GET divergence at Taliaferro Creek.

That equals a whopping 1,500-mile loop.

Why should I hike this?: No other GET loop will give hikers such a wide variety of trail experiences.  From the popular, perhaps over-loved Appalachian Trail to the wilderness Benton MacKaye Trail to the unfinished choose-your-own-adventure style of the GET in West Virginia, this loop has everything.

Highlights of this loop include:

• Experiencing a wilderness trail (Benton MacKaye)
• Summitting Springer Mountain
• Neels Gap and potential AT thru-hiker culture
• Southern balds and firetowers
• The Smokies
• Hot Springs, NC
• Roan and Grayson Highlands
• Damascus, VA
• Bluestone Turnpike Trail
• Pipestem State Park
• An adventurous route through West Virginia requiring map and compass skills
• The whole Pine Mountain Trail feels like a highlight
• Cumberland Gap National Historic Park
• Waterfalls and wildlife of the Cumberland Trail
• Chattanooga, the GET's largest trail town
• Cloudland Canyon State Park
• Little River Canyon
  Where should I begin?: Because this is the most challenging section of the GET, I'd recommend starting anywhere else: The Georgia Pinhoti would be a great place or Springer Mountain/Pearisburg would be ideal depending upon direction hiked.

What guides are needed?: Hikers will need an AT guide, the BMT guide, a GA Pinhoti guide, and all the GET resources for WV, KY, TN, and GA listed under our Guides Page.

CTC

Shout out to the CTC! I have been receptionless for days and just found out that you all exist again. We are So happy! Long live the Cumberland Trail Conference! -j and hbb

CTC meeting

The Cumberland Trail sticker has gone everywhere we have since hiking it last year. Best of luck, Cumberland Trail Conference, on the important meeting tomorrow. CTC deserves to be reinstated and continue its fine work. Someone please let us know how the meeting goes. I will check for cell reception compulsively. Love to TN. Thank you for not giving up. -j (and hbb)

Cumberland Trail Conference Petition

Please sign this petition to help shed light on the recent dissolution of the Cumberland Trail Conference.

Signing will only take a minute and doing so will help ensure a vibrant future for the Cumberland Trail, which hosts the Great Eastern Trail in Tennessee.  This trail deserves answers.  Please sign!

Cumberland Trail Conference

We are sad to announce the abrupt and uncalled-for dissolution of the Cumberland Trail Conference.

The CTC was founded in 1997 by the Tennessee Trails Association (TTA).  The CTC has built and maintained the incredible Cumberland Trail and was on track to complete it in upcoming years. They have connected people, both local volunteers and BreakAway volunteers from across the country to the trail. CTC ensured that the trail was on-track not only for mere completion, but for becoming the definition of a high-quality, challenging, well-loved trail.

On our hike, CTC volunteers helped us in so many ways.  They:

• organized several interviews across the state for us
• hosted events to welcome us and spread the word about the Great Eastern Trail
• hiked and offered to hike new sections of trail with us
• spent lots of time going over trail conditions with us
• organized shuttles into towns for us
• allowed us to use CTC computers and printers to access some maps and guides that we'd neglected to find prior to our trip (oops)
• hosted us for the night in several towns
• welcomed us into their homes and fed us delicious food
• oh, and they were responsible for the trail being there in the first place!

Organizations are only as strong as the hearts and souls behind them, and the Cumberland Trail Conference was filled with passionate, intelligent, dedicated individuals who enriched not only our hike, but our lives. 

Unfortunately, the Cumberland Trail Conference was recently dissolved by Tennessee Trails Association. The TTA leadership responsible for this did not give advance notice to board members or the membership base prior to the meeting.  This hostile takeover of the organization and its assets is a shameful slap in the face to those who have given so much for the dream of completing the Cumberland Trail.

This is a heartbreaking and embarrassing chapter in the story of the Cumberland Trail and our thoughts are with the CTC, its volunteers, and with the trail itself.  Thank you for everything.

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Slideshow

Hi friends!  I've finally put together a slideshow about the places we saw on the hike.  Enjoy! 

-Jo

Sound effects

We had an awesome time at this pond in Tennessee last month.  Turn up the volume and check out the cool sound!

Cumberland Gap

Fun with water

Reflections on a beautiful state

Tonight is our last night in Tennessee. It has been an adventure in itself: Alabama and Georgia feel like a world away.

Along the Cumberland Trail, we had our first significant climbs, the coldest weather yet, and complete solitude at times. We linked sections of stunning trail with roads that were beautiful and surprisingly enjoyable.

We each got lost once and we got lost together once, but we got found. We saw wild boars for the first time! We rock-hopped and ridge-walked and none of our oxen died when we forded rivers. Oh, and we saw elk scat. Bart hoarded ditch treasures and mailed them home.

The Cumberland Trail was even more diverse, scenic, and challenging than I'd hoped. It is obvious that a lot of people have poured their hearts into it! These are the people who made this part of the GET truly unforgettable. The kindness and generosity of those we've met still astound us. Thank you for a grand adventure! We look forward to crossing paths again.

White Lightning

Road walks are not all bad and sometimes informative. 
HillBillyBart

Roadwalk

Starting a walk from La Follette to the Cumberland Gap. Locals think we are a nuisance and/or homeless. We don't take their offerings though it is sweet. We walked a long way to find food so we are leaving town late. Hoping for at least 10 miles on old 63 after lunch. We hope to find a church or a business that will let us crash their yard. The great unknown.

Trail magic beer

A good samaritan gave me and Jo a beer each this morning. I drank mine and half of hers. That will make up for no beer in a while! It was before noon but when in Rome. 
HillBillyBart

Trail food

Dinner tonight! I went all out for this one. 
HillBillyBart

Shelter

Trail Motel!!!
HillBillyBart

Sunset on the Cumberland Trail

What a wonderful day on the Cumberland Trail! Enjoying quality sunset & Pringle time. 3 miles into La Follette, breakfast and resupply, then a 2 - day roadwalk to the Cumberland Gap! Tomorrow's roadwalk will end with us sleeping somewhere... I guess we'll see!

Thank you Wartburg!

It's easier to update when we have cell reception. :)

We had an amazing stay in Wartburg, which wins our favorite little trail town award. It is the ideal town for hikers and has a really bright future as a trail town. We were glad to meet with the mayor and councilman and talk about the trail - thank you for lunch!

Local trail angels make trail towns come alive. Our Wartburg trail angel was Gary Darnell, who slackpacked us twice, convinced us to stay an extra day in town, put us up for a night, helped us resupply at his grocery store, reviewed maps with us, introduced us to locals, set up an interview, gave Bart cigars (he is really excited), and fed us pizza and homemade elk stew. WHEW! It was so nice hanging out with you and Karen and relaxing by the fire. We can't thank you enough!

We look forward to returning someday soon. THANK YOU Wartburg for an amazing stay.

Brrr!

20 degrees tonight. Icy, rocky trail with a bit of snow. We are really excited for Wartburg! 9 miles to civilization.