We woke to find that our campsite was in a glorious spot on
the river which was probably 20 feet wide at this point.
There appeared to be a moonshine cabin on the
opposite side of the river.
While we were pumping the water filter, PR or WVH
pointed out crawdads swimming near the bank and could hear fish jumping.
It was very tempting to go for a swim in the
slow moving, but very clear water, but we decided to wait until it was warmer
and we had reached the waterfalls.
After breakfast, we loaded up our packs and started out
again. Now the trail was pretty easy to
follow as it stayed next to the river.
The only problem was the place where you needed to ford the river to
follow the Caney River trail was not marked at all, with the cleared trail
continuing onward along the northern bank rather than to the actual ford. So we
overshot it by continuing to follow the trail until WVH realized using the GPS
that clearly must have gone too far and we had to hike back a quarter mile or
so to a place that we had initially considered might be the ford except that
there didn’t seem to be much of path out to the river. After a bit of bushwacking, we found little whitened
signs up in a tree pointing across the river and following this direction
through the brush a few yards more could see across the river to where another large
brown sign clearly indicated a crossing.
It didn’t look like there was a way to cross without actually walking in
the river, which was only about a foot deep at the forded spot, so those of us
that brought water shoes changed into those and crossed. JPD hadn’t brought
any, so he ended up just going bare footed and used the hiking poles for
balance. On the other side of the river
the trail was clearly marked and we soon came to a sign that indicated a fork
to Lattimer, the Boy Scout high adventure area that was recently opened next to
the Bridgestone Wilderness. We stayed on
our Caney Fork river trail and were rewarded with what I think was the
prettiest section of the trail. Much of river
was crystal clear water with deep swimming holes lined at the bottom by large
and colorful rocks worn smooth by the river.
The trail often passed through beautiful meadows of flowers. PR and WVH independently decided that they
had found a new species of flower and that they deserved to name after
themselves. WVH confessed knowing the names of only rare species of plants in
Tennessee and not common ones.
Despite the idyllic swimming holes, we again chose to not
stop to swim and fish because we would do this once we reached the falls and we
were progressing more slowly than we had planned. In part this was because there were lots of
fallen trees and weedy branches across the trail that slowed our progress,
again indicating that this trail was rarely traveled or maintained. I had taken off my rain pants at the river
crossing and regretted this because it left my legs exposed to a lot of
scratches and poison ivy.
After another hour or so of hiking, we eventually came to where
we needed to ford the river back over to the northern side, which would also
bring us to the campground that was at the far end of the road where the Virgin
Falls and Polly Branch Falls trailhead was located. This road goes from a standard dirt road to a
road only really accessible by 4x4 over the last mile or so as it descends to
the river. We chose not to go to Rosa Cave that forked off the trail prior to
fording the river, because we wanted to be sure to have enough time to swim and
fish at the falls.
After crossing the river, we found a number of campers at
the end of the road. The trail was not
marked at this point, and based on the map we followed the 4x4 road for a ways
until we ended up in a spot where a Boy Scout troop had camped. It turns out that one of their tents was
directly in front of the trail we needed to be on. At this point, the trail began to be marked
by round aluminum plates nailed into the trees.
The plates were about 3 inches in diameter with a hiker icon on a blue
field. Although the trail was marked in
this way every 15 yards or so, only a single marker was placed into the tree,
with its flat surface parallel to the trail, rather than two markers on either
side of the tree. This meant that it was
extremely hard to see the marker until one was passing almost next to the tree,
so the markers were not very useful for finding the trail, but only for
reassuring you that the particular faint trace you were following was indeed
the correct route. Given this marking
system and faintness of the trail due to lack of use, it is not surprising that
we were never ever able to find the trail the previous evening in the dark. After following this trail for about a half
mile from the campground, it crossed the 4x4 road. Only it didn’t pick up again on the other
side of the road or anywhere that we could see.
We finally decided to keep ascending the 4x4 road hoping to eventually
run into a sign or something indicating what we should do. After hiking about a quarter to half a mile up
the road, and about giving up on this strategy, JPD yelled down to us that he
had found where the trail once again left the road. He was way up ahead of us (this pretty much
became the norm for the rest of the trip) , so before catching up to him, we
stopped for a snickers and jerky break.
We then plunged back into the woods and brush. I put back on my rain pants, despite the
heat, because I was tired of all the cuts and scrapes from branches and bushes
that lined the path.
The next section of the trail pretty much cut through the
forest and far away from the Caney Fork River. We seemed almost to be
bushwhacking through the wilderness except there was a faint trail and the
little metal trail plates that assured us every once in a while that we were
indeed following the route. The trail
passed through a number of interesting rock formations, particularly the Yellow
Bluffs and the Rock House section. One
particularly appealing aspect of this trail was that one really had the sense
of being in the wilderness. So many of
Tennessee trails are so heavily traveled by other hikers and so near
civilization that one always has the sense that any remoteness is simply illusion. But here, one really felt that few people ever
passed through the area and that we were nowhere near civilization. We saw no others on the trail between the Big
Spring campground and Polly Branch Falls.
The heat of the day meant that we were burning through water
pretty rapidly and we stopped to pump water at every little trickle of stream
that we could.
In one place, we
scrambled down what would have been a water fall if there had been any real
amounts of water, to find a pool of water deep enough to pump.
PR and WVH heckled me for pulling out my red
webbing that I had acquired during last year’s high adventure trip to Virgin
Falls and using it as a belt to hold my water bottles during the steep descent
and ascent.
But that gave me both hands
free to prevent falls, so I withstood their heckling.
At one of these little intersecting streams, WVH pulled out
the GPS and made a startling announcement that he had been at this place before
and that this in fact was Bee Branch Falls.
This was disheartening news, as there was only a trickle of water.
WVH expressed his amazement, because when he
had been here before, there had been a raging torrent of water that had been
difficult to cross.
We still enjoyed the
view, but it dawned on us that our vision of a fun afternoon of swimming and
fishing might be in serious jeopardy.
This turned out to be the case.
There was little water at any of the
falls.
Just as amazingly, when we
reached the Polly Branch campground situated along the massive Caney River, the
massive riverbed was bone dry.
WvH said
that when he had been to this spot previously, the water had been up to the
edge of the river bed.
So the end of our
trek was a bit anti-climactic. We deeply regretted that we had passed up all
the great swimming and fishing holes. But still, it was a great adventure and I
guess it leaves up the chance to go back sometime early in the spring when there
will be high water.
We woke to find that our campsite was in a glorious spot on
the river which was probably 20 feet wide at this point. There appeared to be a moonshine cabin on the
opposite side of the river. 
While we were pumping the water filter, PR or WVH
pointed out crawdads swimming near the bank and could hear fish jumping. It was very tempting to go for a swim in the
slow moving, but very clear water, but we decided to wait until it was warmer
and we had reached the waterfalls.
The heat of the day meant that we were burning through water
pretty rapidly and we stopped to pump water at every little trickle of stream
that we could. In one place, we
scrambled down what would have been a water fall if there had been any real
amounts of water, to find a pool of water deep enough to pump. PR and WVH heckled me for pulling out my red
webbing that I had acquired during last year’s high adventure trip to Virgin
Falls and using it as a belt to hold my water bottles during the steep descent
and ascent. But that gave me both hands
free to prevent falls, so I withstood their heckling.
At one of these little intersecting streams, WVH pulled out
the GPS and made a startling announcement that he had been at this place before
and that this in fact was Bee Branch Falls.
This was disheartening news, as there was only a trickle of water. WVH expressed his amazement, because when he
had been here before, there had been a raging torrent of water that had been
difficult to cross. We still enjoyed the
view, but it dawned on us that our vision of a fun afternoon of swimming and
fishing might be in serious jeopardy. 
This turned out to be the case. There was little water at any of the
falls. Just as amazingly, when we
reached the Polly Branch campground situated along the massive Caney River, the
massive riverbed was bone dry. WvH said
that when he had been to this spot previously, the water had been up to the
edge of the river bed. So the end of our
trek was a bit anti-climactic. We deeply regretted that we had passed up all
the great swimming and fishing holes. But still, it was a great adventure and I
guess it leaves up the chance to go back sometime early in the spring when there
will be high water. 
