Main Page

From TEHCC Wiki
Revision as of 23:12, 29 October 2015 by Tim (talk | contribs) (add fall expo box)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Welcome to Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club's Trail WIKI

Our online repository for everything trail related within a reasonable distance from our club's center in Kingsport TN.

Trails by area Trails by use Trails by features Other ways to find trails Information

TEHCC Fall EXPO - November 14th - Wiki Discussion

Attend our Fall 2015 Expo!

In the midst of our day of hiking, paddling, chili, gear, etc. from 4:00pm to 7:00pm at the Eastman Lodge near Bays Mountain we'll have a discussion about our trail wiki. The discussion is unstructured and we can discuss anything from how to use the site, to how to edit, to an open discussion on plans for the future.

For more details visit our main site. Members and non/prospective-members are welcome. Advance reservations aren't required for any events, but appreciated for planning purposes. Paid reservations only required for those wishing to partake in the chili, drinks, sides, and desserts. Paid entrance into Bays Mountain Park is required unless prior car pooling arrangements are made.

Featured Park

caption
Roan Mountain State Park is a 2,006 acre8.118 km² <br /> state park operated by TDEC that is just over an hour drive from downtown Kingsport. It has 0 official trails covering 0.0 miles of hiking. There are no day use fees for hiking.

Onsite amenities include lodging in cabins, RV sites, and tent only camp sites including group camp sites. At least the lower RV sites now include wifi, although on my recent visit I had trouble getting online. I didn't care enough to ask a ranger if I was doing something wrong. Other site amenities include a volleyball court, tennis courts, amphitheater, and apparently the highest elevation of a state park pool in Tennessee (that's a lot of qualifications!). There are also pavilions and a modern conference center available for advanced reservations.

Two historical artifacts of interest are the Miller homestead on Strawberry bald and the Peg Leg Mine. The Miller homestead was built over 100 years ago and was occupied until the 1960's without electricity or running water. While you can visit the homestead anytime of year until 5pm when the gates are promptly locked, the house is open for tours Wed-Sun 9a-5p Memorial day through Labor Day. The Peg Leg Mine, located just behind the visitors center, mined iron ore and up until the last few years you could walk down to the mine and go on guided tours.

The trails overall are good. A lot of them stay fairly close to TN143 making it hard to get away from the road noise. The one exception is Chestnut Ridge Trail. It's a splendid ridge trail but it suffers the classic problem of trails in Appalachia of being teased with majestic views but blocked by tree foliage. A winter trip after the leaves had fallen may change that problem. The one spot offering a lookout from the trail is Raven Rock Trail.

Throughout the year, the park hosts several events including naturalist ralleys, folk life and fall harvest festivals at the homestead, and lastly the popular rhododendron festival in late June.

As I have done for years, most people likely drive through this park on their way to Carvers Gap. If you have the time, stop and look around. As I have done, you may find more than you expected and decide the trip up to Carvers Gap can wait until some other time.

Contribute

Yes! We would love your help! No, you don't need to be a computer wizard to do it.

How can you help?

  • Send me an email to
    • Say you have found this site useful
    • Request information that would help to plan for a hike
    • Provide information that we have missing that you know about
  • Edit a page
    • It's easy! It's just text
    • It's foolproof! All edits are saved, you cannot mess it up (permanently)
    • Just hit 'Edit' on the upper right and just start writing. More experienced editors will likely come along and apply any needed tweaks
    • We'd rather have information added that messes up a page than to have no contribution at all

Recent major updates

  • Plumbing
    • Major overhaul of trail infoboxes underway (box on right side of trail pages) - Provides more information and creates the "tagged" information discussed above
    • Added three new map pins, MarkerT MarkerT.png to designate trail intersections, MarkerU MarkerU.png to designate road crossings, and MarkerV MarkerV.png to designate abandoned cabins/structures near the trail
    • Creation of a new page category Hike Plan - used to document a single hike plan utilizing multiple trails or a partial of one - first use at Bays Mountain Park Page
    • Allowed anonymous editing going good and bad - good that no vandalism edits have occurred, bad that no new editors have showed up
    • Created a "Trail page needs" box that can be shown on pages to list and link page needs (see Azalea Trail)
  • Content

Currently there are 52 trails documented on our wiki!

Loading map...