Second Round to Hampton Creek Cove

A second trip in recent memory to Hampton Creek Cove, outside the town of the Roan Mountain, Tennessee, was slightly different from the first. As you’d expect, a few more trees were blooming and some ground cover was starting to shake off winter. But it is a far cry from looking like spring here at 1500 feet lower elevation. Which is okay! I like it all. But, for the most part, not much change in the greenery from one time to next. I did meet up with 3 sets of couples exploring the cove. Mostly you follow a farm track as far as you want, up hill. At the second bridge you can try to cross here and go around to the left or continue up through the pasture to the right. At the very end of the pasture is a crawl-through gate and then the trail continues on up, very much up, to Yellow Mountain Gap on the AT. You can see it from here but getting there might be a different battle. The creek is of course a lesson in water. What makes the Appalachians important for the east is their role as the beginning of all our water. As much as it rains here in Johnson City (which seems like it rains a lot) it rains more in the higher elevations. All that water goes one of two directions. To the east and directly to the Atlantic or via Chesapeake Bay. Or westerly, generally from below Pittsburgh, via the Ohio River watershed. North of Pittsburgh the westerly flow is to the great lakes. There is a great lesson in watershed geography along the Eastern Continental Divide which I feel is not often discussed. The NortherAmerican Continental Divide gets all the ink. A distinct watershed, our region of the southeastern mountains, runs from northeastern Alabama and northwestern Alabama to Mobile Bay. But, if you want water and you live far downstream from Carter County, Tenn., then you have to a bridge here and there, too. The cove has several foot bridges none of which I trust enough to try. This limits your route. Tractors don’t mind getting their feet wet. I do mind, however! These bridges are not new nor metal but logs and planks. And they tilt and they get slick. I’ll take an alternate route. Still there is a lot to see and enjoy. It is for sure a pretty place and very much away from the crowds of hikers at Carver’s Gap and Roan Mountain State Park. My next personal goal might be to get through the crawl-through gate and on further up the trail into the trees. As long as these old legs can manage it. ###