Short trips around East TN

SixLug

Explorer
I will maintain this thread with my day / short multi-day trips around the East TN area. Much less exciting than some of the awesome trip reports here (out west especially) but that is the way it is around here. Gov't owned lands, and only limited access to them in / on a motorized vehicle. But I cannot complain, at least we have the opportunity to get out there...
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Today I took a short solo day trip on the TTR to and around the Citico Creek Wilderness. This is mostly gravel two-track. Unfortunately a lot of gates were closed around the area today, but the main loop was still open and it was nice to get out. Also stopped by Chota which is the area where there is a monument to the Cherokee and their capital Tanasi (from which the name "Tennessee" is derived). I didn't hike out to the monument today (I will sometime) but I wanted to explore some roads around the area today. Off of a government controlled path on the same peninsula that the monument is on is a large farm land spread. At the end of the road was a private family (Jones) cemetary where, from outside of the fence, I could not see a date of death later than the 1920's. A couple of children were laid to rest there also (1911-1913, and 1913-1916 I believe).
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Anyway, onto the pictures.
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Graveyard:
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This farmland is on the Chota Peninsula on the Little TN River...you can see a small flooded inlet in the distance:
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This is from a nearby mountain. You can see the river in the distance:
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Moved this dude off the road:
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SixLug

Explorer
Into the Citico Creek area now.
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Some of the next few photos show the tornado damage from a couple years ago when one ripped through the area. They just cleared out a lot of it last year so that the entire loop was passable. It has grown up a bit, but riding through it, you can certainly tell there was one hell of a storm in this area. Would have been insane to see it happen...tornados around hilly / mountainous terrain is quite a rarity.
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Part of this trail goes up along a ridgeline, and at one point you can look off both sides of the ridge to the surrounding mountains. Pictures are hard to get due to the trees all around.
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Lunch stop:
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No pics after that...just hit the trail and went home. But it was nice to get out today.
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Thread to the TTR:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/115781-2003-TTR-250-Dual-Sport
 

SixLug

Explorer
Thanks. I plan to explore a lot more of this area...there looks to be a significant amount of potential from google earth pictures. The only thing I have to worry about is getting on private land, but I have looked this up on a Tennessee land ownership forum.

Will post up new stuff soon hopefully.
 
God never put a prettier place on earth than Citico Creek and the Double Camp area. People travel from all over the world to see what is in my back yard.
 

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