View Full Version : Rocky Fork Tract Acquired in Tennessee
10,000+ acres adjacent to the AT has been acquired!! The ATC has been involved in this important acquisition.
http://www.greenevillesun.com/story/300063
Hikerhead
12-15-2008, 19:31
Do you have a map that shows where this is?
Not a very good one. It is just east of Erwin (essentially).
http://www5.knoxnews.com/news/2007/dec/13/preserving-rocky-fork/
Hikerhead
12-15-2008, 20:42
Not a very good one. It is just east of Erwin (essentially).
http://www5.knoxnews.com/news/2007/dec/13/preserving-rocky-fork/
Thank you sir.
Rain Man
12-15-2008, 21:03
This is one I wrote our Senators about. YEAH!!!!
Rain:sunMan
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Tennessee Viking
12-16-2008, 00:59
Do you have a map that shows where this is?If you have ever the hiked Coldspring & Flint Mountain south of Erwin, you were on the edge of the Rocky Fork Tract. It stretches from the Sampson Wilderness boundary to Flint Mountain and also follows parts of the AT to Hogback Ridge Shelter and goes to the out skirts of Erwin.
It was first heavily logged years ago then was aquired by a business group which had plans to develop it into a gated mountain community, similiar to Wolf Laurel. Luckily, a bunch of the local conserancy groups fought for the fragile land, and got the Forest Service and TWRA to lease it as a managed wildlife habitat.
The main piece of wilderness is just outside of Flag Pond, TN near Devils Fork Gap. Instead of heading up TN 352 from Erwin to Devils Fork Gap. Turn up Rocky Fork Road. There is a closed forest gate leading into the main piece of Rocky Fork. You can get a really good look of it around Flint Gap. It has not been accurately mapped in years, so its very easy to get lost with a number of old wood roads. One of the guys at Mahonneys Johnson City TN is a veteran guide of Rocky Fork and knows lots of its sites.
There are other trails that lead to sections of it. I did a recent visit to Birchfield Camp lake which can be accessed up the unofficial Lower Higgins Creek Trail. It was the site of an old logging camp and a fire chopper water station.
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/files/1/2/4/1/6/dscf0638_thumb.jpg (http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=29047&c=member&imageuser=12416)
MedicineMan
12-16-2008, 01:02
can you suggest any other hikes within it?
Tennessee Viking
12-16-2008, 03:15
Contact Dave Ramsey at Mahonneys Outfitters. He is the guru of Rocky Fork. He advised me that its pretty much a maze of roads, and that a GPS is a wise tool to carry within the area. He does group hikes every so often. He & others in the SAHC had recent plans to geomark major paths and points in Rocky Fork for future forest maps.
My venture up to Birchfield Camp Lake was not hard to find as long I had the Flag Pond topo. But it was steep in parts. I parked at the end of Lower Higgins Road outside of Erwin and crossed an old wood bridge onto an old logging road. Higgins Creek falls is just over a mile in. Above the falls is a small ford. Then shortly after that on the left is the mouth of Birchfield Camp Hollow. There is an old woods road that leads to the top of the lake and an abandoned logging truck. It can be a little difficult during highwater because the path leads straight up the branch in some parts, but bushwhacking is very minimal with mostly weeds and a couple blowdowns.
Friends of mine have continued further up the Higgins Creek Trail to view the top of Buckeye Falls.
Thanks for the post will definitly be hiking it next summer.
Cabin Fever
12-16-2008, 12:25
Eventually, this will be part of the Cherokee National Forest. Some of the trails will probably become marked and made 'official.' Rocky Fork is essentially everything you see to the west after going through Sam's Gap towards Erwin. At the lookout on the Tennessee side where they are building a new welcome center - Rocky Fork is what you are looking at.