Experience Tennessee hiking and backpacking at its best! The Cumberland Trail (CT),
a Tennessee State Scenic Hiking Trail, became Tennessee's 53rd state park in 1998. The Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park will contain a core corridor of 300-plus miles of trail beginning in the Cumberland Gap National Park (Ky) and stretching south to Chickamauga Chattanooga National Military Park and Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area just outside Chattanooga. In addition to providing multiple recreational opportunities, this protected greenway will act as a buffer to protect water quality and provide natural habitat for animals.
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The CT is designed for hikers by hikers. The long distance trail provides access to some of Tennessee's most stunning landscapes: waterfalls, gorges, four bird and wildlife rich Tennessee Wildlife Management Areas, a National Park Wild and Scenic Area, two State Parks, two protected State Natural Areas, and two National Parks. The CT is primarily a hiking trail, designed and built to minimize the potential environmental impact on sensitive wildlife habitat, unique aquatic or terrestrial habitats, or endangered/threatened species.
Designed as a sustainable single file backcountry-hiking trail, part of the Great Eastern Trail, the CT's environmentally conscious footprint on the land provides the hiker with numerous picturesque waterfalls, scenic overlooks, and a wilderness experience rare in the eastern US. Due to its location in more remote areas of the Appalachians, the Great Eastern Trail will provide hikers with a more primitive backcountry experience, an alternative to the relatively crowded Appalachian Trail.
The Cumberland Trail has been and continues to be constructed largely by volunteers from many walks of life. This volunteer construction effort is managed by the Cumberland Trail Conference (CTC), a non-profit organization supported by tax deductable donations from supporters like you.
The Cumberland Trail Conference (CTC), the
Friends of the Cumberland Trail ,
private corporations, individuals, and others assist the State of Tennessee in the maintenance and development of the Cumberland Trail. As a member of the Southeast Foot Trails Coalition (SEFTC), CTC assists in protecting, preserving and promoting the Cumberland Trail, and assists with organizing volunteers and supporters to help build, maintain, and provide activities on the Cumberland Trail. This includes trail maintenance and building outings, trail-building training sessions, providing environmental and cultural education, and organizing periodic hikes on the CT.
The Cumberland Trail Conference received a $67,400 RTP grant for the Big Soddy Bridge Project at the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park. Pictured from left to right are: Gerald Parish, TDEC Recreation Education Services Director; Tony Hook, Cumberland Trail Conference Manager; and Environment and Conservation Commissioner Jim Fyke.
Tennessee's Recreation Educational Services is responsible for administering federal and state grant programs to local and state governments, and non-profit agencies. The Division manages the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the Local Parks and Recreation Fund (LPRF) Grant Program, the Natural Resources Trust Fund (NRTF) and the Recreation Trails Program (RTP).
Nobe's Pictures of Team Green May 2 - 3, 2009 Backpack in the Rock and Possum Segments
Pictures of Team Green Valentine's 2010 Laurel-Snow Backpack
CUMBERLAND TRAIL CONFERENCE RECEIVES EAST TENNESSEE STATE PARK CONNECTIONS AWARD
May 3, 2010
The Cumberland Trail Conference was awarded a $2,500 grant through the East Tennessee State Park Connections program to further the Cumberland Trail Conference's mission of establishing and developing the Cumberland Scenic Trail and its associated corridor by helping offset the cost of food and lodging for volunteers who will assist the CTC in the "Making the Connection" volunteer program. Sponsored by the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, this grant program helps fund greenway or trail projects connecting from nearby communities to one of Tennessee's beautiful state parks or natural areas.
The Cumberland Trail Conference is one of 8 East Tennessee awards the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation gave this year for their innovative efforts to connect two state parks, Cove Lake State Park and Frozen Head State Park. This project will provide recreational opportunities to the communities as well as outdoor enthusiasts from all over. To accomplish its mission, the CTC relies mainly on volunteers. During this program, volunteers are provided lodging, food, and transportation from the camp to the worksite. All of the programs that the Cumberland Trail Conference has coordinated have been successful and have fully met the current projects goals. Since 1997, CTC volunteers have graciously donated over 220,000 hours for the development, construction, and maintenance of the Cumberland Trail. Since 1999, Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation has awarded 175 grants statewide amounting to over $289,000.
"With the continued support of Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, the Cumberland Trail project will continue to move forward. This corridor will provide numerous recreational opportunities and preservation of the historical, cultural, and natural resources on the Cumberland Plateau. This trail will create one of the last remaining unbroken greenway corridors in the state, creating a lasting legacy, to be shared and enjoyed by all those who value the great outdoors."
The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation
is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving the beauty of Tennessee. The Foundation's mission is to preserve Tennessee's scenic beauty and rich wildlife by creating an interconnected system of parks, greenways, and wild areas from the Mississippi River to the Great Smoky Mountains.
"Since September 1997, we have spent considerable energy and time building funds and building a constituency of supporters. We've enrolled over 2,000 individual members, "says Kathleen Williams, President and Executive Director. "Simultaneously, we began accomplishing work 'on the ground' for Tennessee. Our first project was State Park Connections program. By giving away small grants each year to others, we will stimulate big projects that contribute to our mission. Another strategy to accomplish our mission is to purchase and protect scenic properties throughout Tennessee, which began in 1998 with protection of 419 acres in Fall Creek Falls State Park,' Williams added. For more information on the foundation, call Kathleen Williams at (615)386-3171.
Core drilling was recently done in the Rock Creek watershed to determine the economic feasibility of surface coal mining. Past mining in the same Sewanee coal seam in the Possum Creek and Board Creek watersheds resulted in environmental disasters and fish kills that persist to this day. Many years after mining, both of these streams have brown AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) entering them and resulting in low ph readings and minimal if any aquatic life.
Rock Creek is one of the few streams on the Walden Ridge that is in still near pristine condition, unaffected by coal mining. The Cumberland Trail runs beside Rock Creek for approximately seven miles, and recreational users are treated to numerous swimming holes and wading pools. Rock Creek is also very popular with whitewater paddlers. The threat of surface coal mining fowling this creek is unconscionable.
CTC supporters and volunteers feel an obligation to be a voice to protect Rock Creek from environmental degradation. We want to preserve the hiking and whitewater paddling experience that recreational users presently enjoy in this unique Tennessee linear state park. In order to prepare to have our voices heard, a new Protecting Rock Creek blog has been created.
For up-to-date information on the surface coal mining threat, please visit our new blog, Protecting Rock Creek.
Ten students from Grand Valley State University and six students from Kansas University travelled to Tennessee to help with trail maintenance in the North Chickamauga segment of the Cumberland Trail. Also lending a hand, several CTC/TTA volunteers worked with the students. Volunteers repaired areas of the trail tread, removed rotten wooden steps and constructed stone steps, and corrected trail erosion issues. A total of 480 hours were donated for this maintenance project.
CTC WEBSITE NOMINATED FOR BEST WEBSITE
BY AMERICAN TRAILS
This website has been nominated for the 2009 American Trails annual contest to seek out the best websites in the cyberworld of trails and greenways. American Trails seeks to recognize the diversity of the trails community, including urban trails and bikeways, greenways, wilderness hiking trails, motorized routes, and winter trails. Non-profit, government, and commercial sites may all be considered for awards.
The CTC website was nominated for the "Trail tour or virtual visit" award category. This is in recognition of the excellent pictures, maps, and descriptions contributed by volunteers and supporters. Members of the CTC Web Committee and our team of web professionals at Multipro feel honored that this website has received nomination.
Cumberland Trail Conference 19 East 4th St. Crossville, TN 38555
(931) 456-6259
Thanks for being visitor number
The Multipro Network of Cookeville, TN is providing this website to the CTC. After generosly providing our website to us for over three years, Multipro generously increased their contribution by hosting this site, our new domain name, at no charge in 2000. This website, donated by Multipro, is property of CTC. Since its inception, this website was created and is maintained at no cost or expense to CTC or the State of Tennessee by unpaid volunteers and donors.
All of this website's content is donated by volunteers or is available from public contributers at no expense. Please feel free to use content from this site royalty-free for non-profit making, non-commercial purposes only. We ask only that you give proper credit to the volunteers whose work is identified on this site.
Multipro's Cookeville personnel have been especially supportive and we appreciate their continued generosity and support. The efforts and contributions of community and private supporters are helping to bring the vision of the Cumberland Trail closer to completion.
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