FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Steele Creek Park: Exploring the new Lake Ridge Trail.

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Steele Creek Park --  An urban wilderness beyond compare.



Most travelers, hurrying along Bristol Tennessee's Volunteer Parkway, are 
little aware that a few hundred yards west sprawls the quiet promise of a 
shaded walk in one of the most rewarding urban wilderness parks anywhere.

In recent months a city crew has completed Steele Creek Park's  newest and most 
accessable back country trail.  Funded with a state grant for park trails and 
construction skills, workers have added to the more than 25 miles of hiking 
opportunity which leads ahead.

A new bridge takes park hikers and birders acorss Steele Creek to the Lake 
Ridge Trailhead at Rooster Front.  Heading west, the path levels out well above 
the stream.  Your destination is Paw Paw Cove at Steele Creek Lake, a beautiful 
hide-a-way along the former trail to "Cardiac Hill," as it was fondly and 
informally named by bikers and hikers.

Trail relocation has abandoned "Cardiac" and a splendid footbridge, built 
several years ago by the Friends of Steele Creek Park and Nature Center, gives 
safe and sure footing in all seasons.

Birding and about any other aspect of nature enjoyment is greatly enhanced.

If you are new to Rooster Front Park's east access to Steele Creek Park,  you 
might need easy directions.  North bound on the Volunteer Parkway, turn left 
and west onto Vance Drive just a couple of hundred feet from the Avoca Branch 
of the Bristol Public Library and the Bluff City Hwy. overpass of the parkway.  
One-half mile along Vance Dr. you cross Beaver Creek.  Rooster Front parking is 
at the end of the bridge.  Just that simple !



A few feet from your car door is the new Lake Ridge Trailhead.

The trail begins a gentle climb up several easy sloping switchbacks to a 
delightful early successional powerline cut.  The trailside is full of typical 
and nearby brush birds.  Overhead, watch and listen for a pair of Broad-winged 
Hawks soaring and filling the woods with their "peewee" whistle as they turn on 
a thermal barely above the canopy.

Across the utility right-of-way, the trail is level, gentle and friendly for a 
little more than a quarter mile.  

Red blaze marks, painted conviently on trees along the trail, keep you oriented 
and confident.  

Oh! The anticipation of fall migrants and spring neotropicals we will enjoy 
during the coming years.  

At eye level the advantage for warbler watching without the "warbler neck" 
holds high expectations.   Birders will not want to wait patiently on migration 
which will begin near the end of July.  In the meantime you may listen to the 
Wood Thrush and Ovenbirds.  The trail is rich and charming.  It is high above 
the stream and away from most hikers and joggers.

A little more than halfway the trail leans left deep into a rich cove.  Walking 
gently upwards through beds of Maidenhair Fern and jewell weed, Cove Branch 
promises a nice biodiversty for future exploration.  You soon find an easy 
switchback as the trail leaves the tumbling stream.  A Northern Red Salamander 
was slightly hidden in a small pool at the very point of the switchback.   The 
rocky branch bed probably hides numerous Dusky Salamanders. This experience is 
much too quick and the walk too short.  Too many wonderful sights of nature 
invite you to linger.  Who can resist such beauty ?  Take a few more minutes.  
Enjoy.  Listen to nature.  Absorb the beauty of it all.  

Watch well below the trail as you approach Cove Branch.  You should be able to 
see the "monster" Sycamore Tree along Steele Creek beneath you.  "Monster" is 
probably four-feet in diameter.  It is not yet a part of the park natural 
history inventory so the actual measurement at breast height is to be 
determined.  This is likely the laregest sycamore in the park, if not the 
largest tree in the park.  She's a beauty !  A park tree beyond compare :-)

Monster is but one example of the many natural elements hiding for discovery by 
an alert park visitor.  Look and you shall see.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  If you are seeking a short loop back to the Lake Side Trail 
and down the three tenths of a mile wide walking trail to your car at Rooster 
Front, you will need to walk down a difficult trail off the backside or 
downstream side of Steele Creek Lake Dam.  This is steep and rocky.  People 
have fallen here and become banged up.  Be extra careful if you do this.



A hiker carefully picks his way down the steep slope trail of Steele Creek Park 
Dam above Spillway Falls.

The question:  Do you hike back or hike on ?

Many hikers and birders who do not want a more time consuming and lengthy hike 
will want to turn back near the head of Cove Branch where the trail switches 
back up hill right.

If you continue on, it is a short and easy walk.  You catch the trail back over 
the dam when you descend to Paw Paw Cove at the edge of Steele Creek Lake.  
Remember that you need good footware and good balance to walk down the back 
side of the dam.  Be extra careful there.

Otherwise, you are only about 500 to 600 yards from your car. 

If you continue deep into Paw Paw Cove and up the ridge along Lake Ridge Trail, 
you will find signage along the way with the various intersecting trails.  This 
eventually leads you out near Hemlock Hollow at Steele Creek Golf Course and 
along the footbridge and walkway to Steele Creek Park Nature Center.  If you 
have not left a car here in advance, you have to hike past the picnic area to 
Big Bend and down the Lake Side Trail back to Rooster Front.  The distance will 
be maybe 5 to 6 miles. 

Those choosing to return back over the path they walked in are rewarded with a 
view from the opposite direction and the chance to get a few birds missed 
hiking in.

The park is open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.  For details, call the Nature Center 
at (423) 989-5616.  Stop in to see the public displays and get a detailed 
four-color map of the park which can be carried afield.  The Nature Center 
usually opens around 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the summer and opens at 1 p.m. on 
Sunday.

Don't keep the secret. Explore your urban wildness beyond the parking lots .....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN






















The park is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.  For details, call the Nature Center at 
(423) 989-5616.  Stop in to see the public displays and get a detailed 
four-color map of the park which can be carried afield.  The Nature Center 
usually opens around 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the summer and opens at 1 p.m. on 
Sunday.

Don't keep the secret. Explore your urban wildness beyond the parking lots .....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN