|
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Day Hike-Out and Back Sugar Run Trail to Skylight Cave April 4, 2004 Cumberland Gap Home Page Day 1-To Martins Fork Day 2-To Gibson Gap Day 3-To the Pinnacle Photo Gallery
Hike Plan: Sugar Run Trail to the Ridge Trail, cross Ridge Trail to Lewis Hollow Trail to Skylight Cave (return via reverse route) Trailhead: Sugar Run Picnic Area Length: Sugar Run to Ridge Trail 2.6-miles, Lewis Hollow Trail to Skylight Cave .3-miles Total Roundtrip Mileage: 5.8-miles Difficulty: Moderately Easy (lots of uphill) Day hike Interesting Features: Skylight Cave, Sugar Run Creek Two weeks after our Cumberland Gap backpack, we were still raving about this incredible national park. So when we started looking at possible day hikes for Sunday, April 4th, we didn't have to far to look. We wanted to continue our exploration of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.
The mouth of Skylight Cave
Blame it on daylight savings time, sleeping late or just being tired but we left Knoxville late on this early spring morning. The weather in Knoxville was pleasant and I was dressed in shorts but the moment I opened the car door at the Cumberland Gap Visitors Center a blast of icy, cold wind hit and I went on a mission to change into fleece tights. Oh, this was going to be a chilly hike! John was wearing his zip legged pants and ready for any weather variation. Luckily we are so habitualized in our preparation that even armed with a nice weather forecast, our packs included gloves, hats and fleece jackets. Our goal on this day was to hike to and explore Skylight Cave, something we had tried to do during our Ridge Trail backpack several weeks ago. A chat with a ranger in the Visitors Center netted some useful information. She assured us that the cave did exist and our planned hiking route along Sugar Run trail was quite nice. She also explained that if we had hiked an additional 5-6 minutes on our previous attempt, we would have been standing at the mouth of Skylight Cave. The Sugar Run trailhead parking lot is located on Highway 988. Although very desolate on this Sunday morning, the area must be used often during the summer because it has ample parking, a nice picnic area and good bathroom facilities. We could not find a trail sign so we took the paved trail beside the bathhouse, that is John took the trail, I was busy scrambling with my gaitors hoping a second layer would add additional protection against the wind and cold. While I was debating the trail left or right, John nudged me onto the left trail, which was exactly the path we wanted to take. Sugar Run Trail, a mix of hardwood & hemlocks
Sugar Run trail is located on the "gentle" side of Cumberland Mountain and terminates on top at the Ridge Trail. The mostly uphill climb is not too intense with short stretches of steep climbs intermingled with gentle climbs. The trail meanders through a hardwood forest scattered with hemlocks and rhododendron bushes. Sugar Run Creek rises and falls alongside the trail. We kept looking for waterfalls but found only small cascades and smooth moss covered rocks. Judging by the amount of moss on the rocks, we figured the creek must partially dry out during the summer.
We were uncertain about what type of trail to expect, possibly wide and grassy like the Ridge Trail or narrow and rocky like Smoky Mountains trails. We had a little of both with a trail generally 2 people wide but littered with a number of small rocks, the kind I have a tendency to stumble on. The trail is not blazed but easy to follow. After an hour of hiking, we noticed the forest thinned and we could see the ridge top. Five minutes later we were on top standing on the familiar Ridge trail. John turned left on the trail with me right behind. We took the short walk to the junction of the Ridge and Lewis Hollow trails. Two weeks ago we had been concerned about the Lewis Hollow trail's sharp drop down the mountain, this time we were undeterred. We began the hike down determined to find the cave. Lewis Hollow Creek flows alongside the trail. Unlike the gentle Sugar Run Creek, Lewis Hollow falls down in cascades, sometimes disappearing underground. We hiked down and down, occasionally looking back toward the Ridge Trail and the steep climb we faced hiking out. We hiked for no more than 10 minutes and arrived at a bridge lined with young kids and adults eating lunch. We crossed carefully not wanting to step on a hand or trip over a foot. As we crossed the bridge, we looked up and saw the mouth of the cave. Mouth of the Cave (a closer view)
I am not sure what we were expecting, another Sand Cave maybe? As the cave's dark opening loomed near, we were quickly reminded that this is a spelunking cave, a fact I had conveniently forgotten. We paused to speak to a couple who had hiked in from the Wilderness Road picnic area. They assured us that once inside the cave our eyes would adjust and we would be able to see okay. We are both "baby scared' in the dark, rocky recesses of an unknown cave. H-m-m-m, maybe I call that smart. Lucky for us John had packed his headlamp, unlucky for us it did not produce enough light to make us comfortable. We walked slowly into the cave aided by a narrow stream of light shining in through the skylight and the dim LED light from John's headlamp. We waited a few minutes for our eyes to adjust before moving further into the dark. Looking Out from Within
We scrambled out of the cave and plopped down on an outcrop of rocks for a snack. We chuckled as we watched the kids from the bridge hike back toward the Wilderness Picnic area. One little boy was pulling a wheeled day pack and we could hear it thump, thump, thump down the trail. We wondered just how difficult it would be to take a wheeled backpack on the trail. Just kidding (I think). The hike back to the car took only 50 minutes. We broke a sweat climbing up the Lewis Hollow Trail but cooled off quickly hiking down Sugar Run. We wore our gloves and jackets most of the way. Aside from the crowd at the cave, we saw only one other hiker and a young couple in their car at the parking lot doing...well...you know (I said this was a secluded parking area). Our last task for the day was to explore the town of Cumberland Gap and visit the Iron Furnace. I had vague expectations based on memories from a trip to the area over 25 years ago but my recollections were not correct. Noting that we were visiting during the off season, I thought I remembered more to the town than is actually there. Cumberland Gap (proper) consists of one main street and a few of side streets. Only two eating establishments are in business, a tea house and a restaurant called Web's Home Cooking. Had we been hungry Web's is where we would have stopped, but we weren't. We saw a large motel, a couple of bed and breakfasts and very few gifty-antique shops. John at the Iron Furnace
We did locate and explore the Iron Furnace. We stopped, parked and walked into and around the furnace, read the historical sign and looked at the waterfall behind the furnace (barely visible through the trees in the picture on the right). We talked about the large attached parking area with spaces for at least 20 vehicles and concluded the area must be well visited in the summer. We intended to stop by the historical Rail Depot but as we drove by and it was obvious that the Depot was closed. Cumberland Gap is in the process of a Rails to Trails transformation and we think it will be an exciting place to ride. Several covered bridges are under construction and we noticed that part of the rail line runs through a mountain tunnel. We could not determine if this section will be apart of the rails to trails but we hope so. No one we spoke to could provide details on a time table for the trail's completion and a quick search of the web turned up no information. We stopped for dinner at Cove Lake State Park in Caryville, TN (a favorite lunch spot for my parents). The food was good but we thought expensive (Sunday late afternoon, no specials). We enjoyed sitting by the window talking and watching the mating dance of the pigeons and the feisty Canadian geese. We were pleased to have had another great experience in Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and we decided to tackle the Gibson Gap trail on our next free weekend.
Copyright© 2004-2005 ~ outandback.org ~All rights reserved
|
Dodging puddles of water and large rocks, we walked about 50' into the
cave. We could see that the cave continued back and to the left but decided that
we liked our perspective from where we were standing. We ignited the
camera's flash just to see what we could see and we couldn't see too much.
The nether regions of Skylight Cave would be left for another day with a
brighter flashlight...or not.