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Hiking Cumberland Falls
- Hiking Cumberland Falls
- Autumn, 2001
- 10 miles total
- Two hikers: Stephen Dale, Stephen
In the autumn of 2001 Stephen Dale was twelve years old and it was about time for him to learn some outdoor skills, so
we planned our first father-son hike together. We jammed our gear into my little Toyota MR-2
sports car and headed south through Kentucky and deep into the Daniel Boone National Forest. We found a parking spot and the
trailhead near Cumberland Falls but it was already dark so instead we pitched our tent at a nearby campground and waited
until morning. The next day we packed our car (again), headed back to Cumberland Falls, geared up and hit the trail.
The first few miles of the trail were heavily traveled with tourists and day hikers. We enjoyed the
wonderful views of the falls and then headed down onto the sandy southern shore of the Cumberland River, where we would follow
the river basin for the next five miles or so and lose touch with humanity. I found pretty quickly
that my pack was too heavy. It was somewhere over thirty-five pounds, prepared more for a camping stay than for light and
fast hiking. Plus, with Stephen Dale still only twelve, I was carrying all the gear that we would share such as the tent,
cooking material, medical kit and so forth. That made for a heavy pack and lots of rest stops.
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| Shortly after Stephen Dale's fall in the drink |
Still, the scenery was wonderful and the weather was too, at least on the first day. We were never out of sight of the
river and had to make numerous crossings of the smaller tributaries that flow south off the Cumberland. After insisting on
getting as close as possible to them Stephen Dale slipped on a mossy rock and went tumbling into the icy water. Fortunately
it was barely waist deep but he spent the next half an hour drying off and changing clothes while I lit up our fuel canister
and prepared a much-needed lunch. We hit the trail again in hopes of making it to a trail
shelter where we could spend the night, but darkness fell and we still hadn't reached it. We finally gave up near dusk and
selected the only flat spot we could find along the trail to make camp. It was a small space, perhaps twenty feet across,
much of which was cleared by hand. We would not have a campfire that night since we didn't make it to the shelter, but we
were tired and would have to make do.
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| Stephen Dale prepares for our night by the river |
I listened carefully for rain all night long because the Cumberland is a big river and we were less than fifty feet
from it. The last thing I wanted was to get caught in a flood. The bank on the opposite side of the trail was pretty steep
and the thought of getting up during a downpour in the middle of the night and staggering up a muddy hillside to avoid drowning
didn't appeal to me very much. But there was no rain. The only weird thing that happened in the night was a group
of men on horses that came clopping down the trail, drinking and yacking to each other loudly. We were in a camoflage tent
and before we turned in, I had taken the precaution of laying branches over it to disguise our appearance. I'm sure camping
in this location must have broken at least ten or twenty government regulations and I didn't want to get caught by our local
federal gunmen. So we were pretty much invisible in our heavily camoflaged tent at night. The loud mouthed horsemen passed
within a few yards of us without a clue and disappeared down the trail. An hour or so later we heard gunshots
in the distance and some wild whooping. I grabbed my flashlight and Makarov 9mm pistol and peered through camo screen, waiting
to see what would happen. After a few minutes it became evident that the good ol' boys were target practicing with their now-empty
liquor bottles. I heard no bullets cracking through the air nearby, so they were apparently shooting in the other direction
about a quarter mile down the trail. So I curled back up in my blanket and went back to sleep.
The next morning we awoke and packed up, ready to reverse our course and head back toward civilization. We made it back
by mid afternoon and checked into a campground where we were able to shower, grill out steak for our evening meal, and repack
our bags for the trip home the following day. This was our first real effort at doing any outdoor activities. It was a meager
start, but lots of fun, educational and left us anxious to do more.
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| Hanging up wet clothes for the night |
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