A late-June road trip drew me to an outdoor writers conference in Knoxville, Tenn., where you’ll never chase all of its adventure trails. I brought back a few for you.
‘Urban wilderness’
Knoxville makes good use of the term “urban wilderness” when marketing more than 85 miles of trails and greenways through town and through 1,000 acres of wooded preserves. Dirt trails for hiking and mountain biking have grown quickly in recent years. It’s a particular treat to visit the 300-acre Ijam’s Nature Center, reclaimed after the land’s industrial days to be a lush area with a quarry lake where you can rent stand-up paddleboards and kayaks. Last week, Ijams opened an adventure in the trees with a zip line, “elevated tunnels,” bridges and other features.
A city of 100,000, Knoxville’s downtown stays groovy with the glass Sunsphere tower built for the 1982 World’s Fair, plus a dramatic, canvas-topped amphitheater, and a thriving Saturday farmers market that was revived 12 years ago in its Market Square and a walk-only plaza rimmed with restaurants, bars and eclectic sculptures.
Rafting as religion?
I went white-water rafting on the Pigeon River at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s just over a two-hour trip on Class III and IV rapids, a nice experience for someone who’s never tried rafting. For reference, Class V is the most extreme white water that’s permitted for public rafting anywhere in the world. I went with Smoky Mountain Outdoors, but there are a lot of rafting outfitters in white-water hot spots like this one. Book ahead. Look for one that’s experienced and committed to safety.
Guides, like “Brother Nature,” who fired up our busload on the way to the launch site, do a great and often playful job of helping you understand the essentials of safety and paddling as a group. My raft’s guide told us to look for “no-legged friends” (snakes) in the trees. We didn’t see them. But we did see an occasional mimosa tree with pink, hairy blossoms that was imported from Asia in 1745.
After my trip, I chatted with a Tennessee man, who’s been guiding trips for more than 30 years: Dean Watts, known by the river nickname of “Rev. Dean the Dunkin’ Machine.” He may have “baptized” lots of rafters over the years but said he never “lost” anyone. He first went rafting at age 6. He later taught himself how to run a raft through the rapids and, in the 1980s, bailed out of a regular job to guide trips full time because he simply loved the sport and loved to be with people. Now he’s proud to see a granddaughter become a guide.
We launched near Hartford, Tenn., off of Interstate 40 at the border with North Carolina. Afterward, I took a short drive farther along a backroad to the Big Creek Recreation Area in the Smokies, where I was rewarded with deep, lush woods and a creek rippling over a boulder-strewn bed where visitors like to wade. Hike a quiet trail six miles up to a ridge. Try the more popular, nearly two-mile trail to a waterfall and pond. Or find a campsite. Temperatures here tend to be at least 10 degrees cooler than in the city. Lots of native rhododendron trees were showing off their large white blossoms. The Appalachian Trail crosses nearby, too.
There’s zip lining (I saw it from the raft) with two-hour jaunts through the woods near the Pigeon. Cost is roughly $100.
Hoosiers in the Civil War
Many signs along busy Interstate 75 through Kentucky lure a park lover’s attention. I couldn’t pass up Exit 49 for both a Civil War battlefield and a “trail town” called Livingston, just north of London and in the midst of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
First, the Camp Wildcat battlefield. I drove up the narrow, snaking road to the site and found myself alone at an outdoor pavilion. I began absorbing the first of many good interpretive signs that would pepper the 0.75-mile gravel walking trail that leads to Hoosier Knob. Yep, Indiana men played a role in this battle on Oct. 21, 1861, the first Civil War battle in Kentucky, which yanked the state out of its desire to remain neutral. The trail wends through the hills. I paused by a cliff with rocky outcroppings. A hummingbird swooped by my head. A sign told me how these rocks helped Union soldiers to defend Hoosier Knob, funneling Confederate soldiers to a steep, narrow approach.
More than 4,750 Confederate men had marched to Camp Wildcat, vastly outnumbering the Union soldiers. Fighting began early that morning as Col. John Coburn and 350 men from the 33rd Indiana Infantry rushed to the hill now known as Hoosier Knob. A total of 15 men died, according to a preservation foundation for the site.
I reached the trail’s end, which crosses one of the soldiers’ trenches, maybe a couple of feet deep now. A sign warns visitors to avoid touching the relic to avoid promoting its erosion. There, near a replica canon at that peaceful hilltop, I tried to imagine what those boys must of have faced.
This is one of 11 Civil War battlefields in Kentucky. There will be a re-enactment of the Camp Wildcat battle in a field not far from the site on Oct. 16-18. Details are at wildcatreenactment.com.
From the same exit, I reached Livingston a few miles away. The sleepy burg’s most startling feature is the variety of signs that yelp “trail town” — especially at a small shed where you can hitch up your horse or mountain bike and view a map of the nine long-distance trails that come close.
Most significant is the roughly 300-mile Sheltowee Trace National Recreational Trail. Kentucky’s Department of Tourism started establishing trail towns in 2013 with Livingston, mirroring similar towns along the Appalachian Trail, to encourage the public to find the trails (kentuckytourism.com/outdoor-adventure).
Outdoor Adventures author Joseph Dits is at www.southbendtribune.com/outdooradventures, 574-235-6158, @SBToutdoors, jdits@sbtinfo.com and www.facebook.com/sbtoutdooradventures.
Joe on the GoPro: Go white-water rafting on the Pigeon River in the Smokies as you listen to a veteran guide known as “Rev. Dean the Dunkin’ Machine.” Visit southbendtribune.com/outdooradventures.
Everglades of the North: This Saturday brings back an awesome and easy paddle through the bayous of Indiana’s Kankakee River at the Illinois border, an example of what the Grand Kankakee Marsh had looked like before it was drained. Also, thousands of native hibiscus flowers, also called swamp mallows, could be in bloom. Bring your binoculars and cameras. The group will paddle for about 2.5 hours. But organizers at the Northwest Indiana Paddling Association are watching the high river levels. If it’s too high, they’ll reschedule it for Aug. 22 (find them on Facebook or nwipa.org). Registration will start at 10 a.m. Central time Saturday at the White Oak Bayou public access site in the LaSalle Fish and Wildlife Area. Take U.S. 30, west of Valparaiso, and go south on U.S. 41 into Newton County and look for the turnoff on the right, south of the town of Schneider.
Paddling and archery lessons: Learn the basics of canoeing and kayaking from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Patrick’s County Park in South Bend. Cost is $15. Learn basic archery (ages 12 and older) from 6 to 8 p.m. July 29. Cost is $10. Reservations are needed for both at 574-654-3155.
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