RATtreks

Fall Creek, Kendrick Creek, Hidden Falls, etc. – 1-28-2015

A short, mid week hike with my friend Ken Woody to an area where one would not expect to see many creeks and waterfalls at was had this past week. Ken who lives in the Kingsport area has been visiting these locations for a while now and since we only had a few hours to spare it was decided that he would show some of them to me. The first stop would be an obscure part of Warriors Path State Park on a little known creek that flows into the opposite side of the South Fork of the Holston River. Although unnamed on any maps, the signs say it is called Fall Creek and the trail is the D. Backbone trail (Devils Backbone) It was only a mile or so round trip on the section of the trail we chose (D. Backbone) but, the trail was very nice with multiple cascades and small falls along with a side trip to an abandoned old house that looks to date back well over 100 years. There is also remains of an old blast furnace (or grist mill ?)  which is most likely over 200 years old. It was an intensely bright sunny day so I did not even get my big camera out on this first leg of the journey.

We followed the one trail all the way down to the river, then took the side trail up to the old house, then back down to take another trail farther upstream to bring us back to near our starting point. It is a small yet, very serene area to be located so close to a city suburb.

From there Ken took us to another favorite of his, Kendrick Creek which also flows into the same river only farther down. This is the site of the Pactolus Ironworks built by Moses Cavett before 1795 and later owned by John Sevier, his son and son in law. It was later owned by the same person who owned the Pactolus Nail Factory another 1/4 mile downriver. We first went upstream to see the old blast furnace remains there and the really nice waterfalls that are beside it.

After checking that out for a while, we went back downstream and crossed the road onto private property to climb the steep knob to get to Hidden Falls that Ken had been telling me about. Many thanks to Danny Shupe for allowing us to park and hike on his private property there. It is a large tract of land which borders an even larger parcel which belongs to Tennessee Eastman Company which Shupe has an agreement with so, we were able to access all of this with his permission of course.

After climbing over the knob and back down the other side, Ken led the way to the Hidden Falls. These are located on what the map now calls Rock Springs Branch but, Danny informed me that many years ago it was called Garret Creek and then Jarret Creek and was later called Rock Springs. It was decided that it was named after whomever lived there at the time.These are a very nice falls, not the tallest in the world yet, tall enough to easily be called a waterfall and with much character. The only thing we were missing was a cloudy day.

We spent some time there photographing the falls and exploring the surrounding area before climbing back up the steep knob where we decided to take what I thought would be a shortcut down a very steep and rocky hill to reach the creek at the bottom to create a loop back to where we had started. We even seen a small talus field in the area during this day.

After than we carefully made our way down to the valley floor where instead of finding Kendrick Creek, we found a smaller creek that was more of a swampy bog area instead.

We followed the soggy bottom valley around the base of the hill and eventually we did come out back at the main creek. This was a good choice because there was a beautiful split in the creek there behind Danny`s house that made for some very nice pics. We spent as much time as we could there before it got too dark.

Completing our loop back to the nice falls that are in Danny`s front yard, we got a few pics of it before the light went flat and was lucky enough to have some good conversation with him before it got dark and we headed back to Johnson City where Ken would drop me off at my car.

It had been a short day but, we took in lots of sights, falls, cascades, talus, and other points of interest making it a very worthwhile effort. Of course any day spent around waterfalls with good friends is a day well spent. I can not thank Ken enough for sharing all this with me. I can not wait until our next adventure. Until then,,,,,,