My son and I headed out from the Savage Gulf Ranger Station around 9:00 Monday morning. We took the Savage Day Loop to the North Rim trail and followed it out to Hobbs Cabin and campsite. The forecast was off by about 24hrs, it was supposed to stop raining and clear up Monday morning but it continued raining through about 5:30 Tuesday morning. The temps stayed around upper 30's to low 40's and within an hour or so heavy fog had settled in. We took our time and took pics from the foggy overlooks and along the trail. In spite of all the rain the night before mud and creek crossings were not a problem. We enjoyed the beauty of the rainy day and arrived at Hobbs Cabin around 2:30 after hiking about 8.5 miles. We stopped and chatted with the 7 folks in the cabin and then moved on out into the camping area and set up. This was our first time to experience a full day and night of steady rain and cool temps. Everything went well considering the weather. We ate well, stayed relatively dry and most importantly, stayed warm.
Tuesday morning the temp had dropped to 32F and there was a fair amount of ice on everything. We had to work to get our straps and tarp lines off the trees and when my son untied his bear bag it stayed put, the line was froze to the limb. We had planned to take the Connector trail to the Historic Stagecoach Road trail and then the South Rim trail. But with all the ice we thought it would be better to head back down the way we came and enjoy some of the overlooks without the fog. The North Rim trail is described as the trail with the most overlooks in the Savage Gulf trail system. It turned out to be a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine by noon and temps in the low 40's. We had a great day and arrived at the Savage Falls campsite around 3:00 after hiking around 8 miles. We had a good fire and enjoyed the moon and stars. The temp bottomed out at 25F that night. Wednesday morning we headed out the South Rim trail and checked out Savage Falls and some of the views on that side of the Gulf. We got back to the Ranger Station around noon and headed to Jim Oliver's Smokehouse Restaurant in Monteagle.
By the way the pic of the fellow with the hat is Richard Savage. Just happened to meet him at Savage Falls and found out his grandfather was the last person to live in the gulf. He grew up in the area and had some interesting stories. He does historic hikes in the area as a member of Tennessee Trails Association. And finally the pic of the mustard is to show my wife's version of individual packs she makes for me with her vacuum seal machine.
By 2:00pm we had hit I24 West and headed back into the "real" world. It was an awesome three days. Thanks to all of you reading this who share your expertise for us to learn from.
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Originally Posted by ccartertn
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