Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Pot Point Nature Trail



After yesterday's hike of wandering in the wilderness, I decided to find a hike labeled "well labeled." This morning Secret the Wonder Pup and I headed to the Pot Point Biological Field Station off of River Canyon Road. The drive there is a mixture of gorgeousness and the movie Deliverance. Driving along the Tennessee River down Suck Creek Road and then deeply onto River Canyon Road makes you forget you are still only minutes from downtown Chattanooga.

At one point I came over a little rise in the road and it opened up into this view...Chattanooga the beautiful at its finest! I actually slowed down and snapped this photo out of the window on the way back home because it was just so beautiful and surprising as you come around that curve.

Pulling up to Pot Point Nature Preserve, I was glad there was a big sign because you literally feel like you are pulling into someone's yard...because you are. The nice big parking lot allows you to head out to two different trails. Secret and I decided to walk the Pot Point Nature Trail. I had read the about the different "stops" along the trail before I left so we did not take the time to stop and read. That's a pretty neat little informational option to trail hiking because you learn a lot about the area and its history.

When we started off the first part of the trail goes steeply up. Secret looked back at me like "What's gotten into you lately?" And I was wondering the same thing. Thankfully that doesn't last too long and then flattens out. The trail was very narrow with poison ivy and sumac trying to tickle your legs if you take a misstep. Obviously that was not the kind of danger I was looking for but if you are a consider looking at this type of plant specimen- this is the place to be! Also, I feel fairly certain that the trail should have been named "Spider Web Trail." I literally was walking with my hiking pole in front of me the whole time knowing down the spider webs and I still had to stop 3 times and wipe down my face and arms of all the webs. At one point Secret even threw her body to the ground on the trail and started rolling around to get the webs off of her. It was CRAZY.

At "stop" 6 (which we weren't stopping at) I asked myself "why do you keep walking through these webs and how many spiders are now on your body." So I made an executive decision and decided to hike back the way we had come instead of making the loop and avoid more of the webs.

As we walked back through the yard we didn't do as good of a job at avoiding the "mud" in the yard and that's when I realized that wasn't mud but it was a septic tank leak. Yep. Needless to say we rode home with the windows down, the shoes went into the washer and Secret and I both got showers.

Here's hoping my next trek is a bit more hiker friendly!
 









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