Reports from the Field
Conasauga River Backpack - August 15-16, 1998
Six club members went on this backpack in the
Cohutta Wilderness. We had originally thought about
camping at Lake Conasauga on Friday night, but
there was little interest, and we were fortunate that we
did not do that, because there was torrential rain that
night. This same torrential rain raised water levels in
the Conasauga River to much higher than normal for
August. The stream crossings that we had expected to
be dry shoe crossings were often knee deep. On Saturday,
we had some crossings that were waist deep. In one
stretch, near Bray Field where we camped on Saturday
night, the river had washed out the trail, so we had to
walk in the river for several hundred yards prior to finding the
crossing on the other side. We did 18 crossings on Saturday,
and then set up camp at Bray Field, where the Conasauga
River Trail, the Tearbritches Trail, and the Hickory Creek
Trail come together. The weather flirted with being rainy,
but never did much more than drizzle on Saturday.
During the night, Nick, who had been fighting off a
reoccurring case of strep throat, had it come back again. We
discussed this situation, and the fact the river crossings were
only going to get deeper and were already difficult, and we
decided on Sunday to hike out the Hickory Creek Trail. This
was a good decision, because a month later when we dayhiked
the lower section of the Conasauga River Trail, we found that the 2nd crossing
downstream of where we left the river would have been impossible
to safely cross during this backpack. We hiked out the Hickory
Creek Trail, and then Ralph, Wirt, and Eric made record time
hiking 4-1/2 miles down the forest road to get our cars, completing
this stretch in a little more than an hour and a half. We decided
during this backpack to come back in September and dayhike the
lower section of trail we had bypassed. Participating were Ralph Van Pelt,
Nick Van Pelt, Wirt Garmany, Donald Box, Betty Petty, and Eric Skrivseth.
Eric Skrivseth reporting
Conasauga River Dayhike September 19, 1998
Eight hikers gathered together at the McDonald's
in Ringgold and then carpooled from the Ingles parking
lot. A ninth hiker was apparently left standing outside the
McDonald's, sorry, Joe. A note to new members, if you're coming on your
first hike with us, and we're meeting at a restaurant like we
usually do, come inside and look for a group of people dressed
like hikers sitting together. We usually aren't hard to find.
We proceeded to the downstream (western) trailhead of the
Conasauga River Trail, left several vehicles, and then drove
to the Hickory Creek trailhead. We descended the Hickory
Creek Trail for about to miles until we joined up with the
Conasauga River Trail and were immediately faced with our first
of twenty river crossings.
A month ago, the Conasauga River had been full of fast moving
water. Now in September, with only one day of rain between the backpack
in this dayhike, the Conasauga River was very easily crossed, and many
of the crossings could be done while staying dry.
After only a short distance, we came to our second crossing. The second
crossing was scoured by the river down to smooth slick rock, and was on the
upstream side of a rapid. Had we attempted this crossing during the August
Backpack, it could have been tragic, so it was fortunate we had chosen wisely
in August to alter our intended route. Now in September, this crossing, while
slick, was quite easy to do.
We continued downstream, hiking on almost level trail (an old narrow gauge
railroad bed), an occasionally crossed the river. On three different instances,
copperheads made cameo appearances, and in each case the snake was
trying to get out of our way as fast as it could go.
The last two river crossings were almost waist deep even at the low water level
we were currently experiencing. They would have been chest deep, and deadly,
if we had tried to cross them in August. The river trails in the Cohutta Wilderness
are great Summer hikes, but their potential hazards need to be weighed carefully!
Hiking on this outing were Betty Petty, Ralph Van Pelt, Eric Skrivseth, Don
Aleksejus, Nick Van Pelt, Carol Steed, Wendy Gunn, and Susan Faidley.
Eric Skrivseth reporting
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