Dolan Branch Trail
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Trail Overview
Located in Bays Mountain Park. Short walk around the base of Dolan Branch falls. Deer like to graze further down the trail in the forest along the creek.
How to get there
Follow directions to Bays Mountain Park. From parking lot, carefully walk along the left side of the park road or follow the short connector path by the chain-link fence to unmarked trailhead.
Route Description
Originally, this trail followed the cast iron water line (see photo gallery below) down the hill from the reservoir. While still shown on the park map as having a line to Eastman Recreation Area, that trail section has not been maintained or cleared from the 2009 winter storm damage, thus mostly impassible.
The 0.3 mile route shown on the map is down a few steps, cross the foot bridge, and peters out near the base of a former building. Return by backtracking up the hill. The main point of interest is the waterfall from the flow out of the dam, which is best after hard rains.
The original path along the water line and creek still goes some distance down to a valve house, although several very large blowdowns must be crossed.
Typical Conditions
The trail has bypassed to the side of the stone steps originally installed. The footbridge was replaced a few years ago, but warning - several boards on the main deck have already broken. As noted above, one path has few large blowdowns to climb over.
Regulations
Dogs are allowed on this trail. Bikes are not.
Misc. Information
Joseph T. Wyrick published a book, copyright 1982, entitled "Hiking Trails in Bays Mountain Park" in which he described park trails in detail as they existed at the time of his book's publication. Book is in Nature Center library.
Dolan Trail was described in 1982 as a one-half mile loop trail which crossed Dolan Branch near the falls with a second crossing a short distance downstream for a return back upstream toward the dam. The concrete bridge abutments for both bridges could be seem in 2007 as could both sides of Dolan Trail loop as described by Mr. Wyrick. However both bridges were absent in 2007. The current upstream bridge was built in 2008.
A Bays Mountain Park 1982 trail map at the end of Mr.Wyrick's book showed Dolan Trail as a loop and the line down toward Eastman Recreation Center property was labeled Dolan Branch. As stated in the Route Description the waterfall is the main point of interest which the current map trail leads visitors to view. However, with a former Kingsport water supply pipeline along Dolan Branch and the general attraction of what is now Bays Mountain Park, a pathway became a natural means of access for many decades.
In November, 2011, Dolan Branch Trail, the unmaintained path between Dolan Trail and Eastman Corporation's Forest Walk trail were hiked. Forest Walk trail is a well maintained 0.7 mile loop that starts and ends at the Eastman Recreation picnic area and goes upstream along one side of Dolan Branch and back down the opposite side to the start/end point. Benches and steps are well placed along the loop. Eastman Recreation land is private property for use by current or retired Eastman employees and guests. The friend I was with is a retired Eastman employee who signed us in at the Eastman entrance for the Forest Walk loop hike.
Maps
<googlemap version="0.9" lat="36.50821" lon="-82.61196" type="map" zoom="17" width="400" height="350" scale="yes" controls="large" icons="http://tehcc.org/clubwiki/kml/marker{label}.png">
http://tehcc.org/clubwiki/kml/BMP_Dolan_Branch_Trail.kml
(G) 36.50863,-82.61184
Trailhead
(L) 36.50821,-82.61196
Footbridge
(C) 36.50838,-82.61194
</googlemap>
Bays Mountain Hiking and Biking Trail Map link<
Photos
Former water pipe for Kingsport reservoir
Dolan Branch footbridge
Dolan Branch runoff and footbridge viewed from near trailhead
