Grassy Cove

Gene here,

Yesterday, Judi had a doctor’s appointment.  I ran off with the boys (Bill and Herb) for a hike.  Both guys are long time friends.

We went to a sector of the Cumberland Trail near Grassy Cove, TN.  Herb is considering to be the volunteer maintainer for this 7.8 mile section of the trail.

Hiking buddies, Herb and Bill

The Cumberland Trail Conference has a great web site with driving directions, trail commentary, and parking information.   The driving directions were dead-on--you really did reach your turn at 6.6 miles and not at 7.1 or worse 6.4.  However, the directions failed to mention Jewett Road turned to gravel before we got to the trailhead.  Gravel, then narrow.  Then more narrow.  By 4.6 of the 6.6 we were ready to turn around.  Since the road was pretty decent even if only 1 lane, we pressed on.  We found it!

The old frame store

I dropped the boys off and took the car back to the other end of the trail.  Since I RV, I won’t be around to offer much help with maintaining, so at least I can help the maintainers get their first look at the whole 7.8 mile section.

The General Store

I stopped at the J.C. Kemmer and Son general (merchandise) store for a coke to go with my lunch.  The brick store has stood on TN 68 since 1930.  From 1900 to 1930, the frame store (still standing) had been just off the TN highway on a county road that went into the heart of Grassy Cove.  The owner let me take photos and was quite accommodating.

Just up the road was the J.L. Kemmer and Son store.  I’d like to know the story of J.L. and J.C.  Do the families get together for the holidays?

Grassy Cove is a “hole” in the Cumberland Plateau with an elevation of 1500 feet.  The surrounding plateau area is 2000 feet or so.  But Grassy Cove is surrounded by mountains that rise above plateau level--Brady Mountain (our hike), Black Mountain, and Bear Den Mountain.  The high point of Brady Mountain is 2900 feet.  That is quite a bit of relief.  (I finally figured out why they call elevation change “relief”.  It is because it is such a relief when the trail quits going uphill.)

Grassy Cove was created by streams that can’t get out of the hole.  At least not by way of a river that breaks through the surrounding mountains.  Instead, the streams draining Grassy Cove go underground into a cave.  This is called a “sink”.

The water pops back above ground west of Brady Mountain to form the Sequatchie River.

By the way, I finally did hike.  I got far enough to be able to climb all the hill available.  It was quite a relief.