I have talked with several people who have gone geocaching trips to get to a territory they haven’t hunted geocaches in before. Well the three Lacy Geocachers went a geocaching trip 7/26 and 7/27.

On Monday, we traveled 290 miles to Caney Fork River Gorge area in Tennessee. Well Robert and I traveled that far, we picked up Johnnie on the way. It rained on us for the last 20-30 miles. We wound up putting up a tent in the rain. Luckily the rain pretty much quit after 3 hours. So we got to have a hot supper. BT showed up during the rain and after it was over built a fire out of wet wood, I was astonished. After an evening of visiting around the campfire, we went to bed. There was just a little rain during the night. We got up to a light drizzle. We took our time fixing breakfast in the hope it would quit raining as we knew we had an 8 mile with a 900 ft elevation drop hike ahead of us. Once it cleared up we hit the trail. The trail started out through second-growth timber and continued this way for an easy first mile. Then it began a descent down to stepping stone creek crossing where there was a cable to help cross it. The trail then became steep; we went down 700 ft in about a mile sometimes with trees across it. We had to go over, under or around them, there were rocky sections where we had to pick a way through the rocks. At times there was 1 to 2 inches of water running down the trail. The trail was just a notch on the side of the gorge, almost vertical on each side of the trail. Then we got to see Big Laurel Falls, where the Big Laurel Creek goes over a ledge and back into a cave then down a sinkhole. This was cool, but not the goal of the hike. After a rest we continued and found the trail wasn’t as steep from here on, but there are several more trees across the trail. We finally arrived at our goal, the Virgin Falls. We just all stared and went "amazing." The falls are formed by an underground stream that emerges from a cave goes about 60 ft then drops over a 110 feet high cliff before disappearing into another cave at the bottom of a sinkhole. We climb up and then ate lunch on a land bridge right at the month of the cave. We completely circled the sinkhole. We took lot of pictures and continue to marvel at the falls, and oh yea found the geocache close to it. You can see a few of the pictures by looking at my log. Especially look at the trail map.

While we were over half way by distance we knew we had more than half the effort left because it was up a sometimes steep climb all the way back to the parking lot. So we headed back up. We got the parking lot almost exactly 8 hours after we started the hike. We finished packing and headed out.

As for how many geocaches in total did we find, one, but this was the most fun any of us had had in long time. Also I got to removed one item on my "wanna do someday" list.

I would recommend this trip to anyone able to do it.

That's a great account of your trip, Allen. Sounds like something Raskol and I would like to see. Maybe one day.

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Also I got to removed one item on my "wanna do someday" list.

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Allen I want your wanna do someday list. This is my kind of Geocaching. Great Pic's and thanks for sharing

Nice pictures Allen. That sure looked worth the hike. While i love hiking that kind of grdient doesnt appeal to be.
Thanks for sharing!

You think a gradient of dropping 800 feet in a mile is bad. Back in Aug 2001, Robert and I went down into Tallulah Gorge. We went down the Sliding Rock trail which drops 800 feet in 1/4 of a mile. It was more of a climb down than a hike down. Then there is no real trail in the gorge from Sliding Rock to Hurricane falls, just a mile of bolder hopping and picking your way. But it was great to actually see the gorge floor up close. But then we had to climb the 600+ step from gorge floor there at Hurricane falls back to the rim.

That is, indeed, a great hike. I've done it twice, but didn't camp for it either time. I've got some hardcopy pics of the falls around here somewhere, will hvae to dig them out. The Virgin Falls are simply *awesome*.

In fact, my original gc.com profile pic was taken near the "pregant" tree - did yall happen to see it? Not sure if it's still standing now though.. my last venture there was about 5 years ago, but you'd know this tree if you saw it - it looks like it's 360 degree pregnant about chest-hike, really funny.

I will say my legs were rubber both times by the time I finished, and the first time I ran out of water before we hit the "climb" part of the hike back. Never again will THAT happen! (Second hike involved somebody slipping in the bowl down by the falls and sustaining a concussion and a field-stitch job to stop bleeding.)

Beautiful photos of the VF...The Caney Fork Gorge is only about 27 miles from where I "born and raised"...I did the hike back in 1974 while still in high school. I was drained then, 30 more years and 30 more pounds...

Also, I had a short term girlfriend that lived about 2 miles from Virgin Falls...

Thanks Allen for the memory flood. Outstanding recount and pictures!

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Originally posted by Cymbaline:
In fact, my original gc.com profile pic was taken near the "pregant" tree - did yall happen to see it?

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Yea, we saw a tree with a gall close to its base. It looked like it had a face on it. We talked about that it might be Treebeard's face.

After having time to look at the pics...

I wish that cable was there to make that crossing.. wouldn't have had to remove my shoes on one of the trips.

Also glad to see Big Laurel is actually a Falls again - it was a trickle, no more than a partially-opened faucet, last I was there!

So here's my question... How is it that you get those maps? I would love to be able to get one of those, but I haven't yet figured out how to do so. Care to explain?

DeLorne Topo USA version 3.