Hiking the Big South Fork
by Brenda G. Deaver, Jo Anna Smith, Howard Ray Duncan
Category: Sports & Recreation

Hiking the Big South Fork combines natural history with folk culture and legend to provide an interpretive guide to the trails of this relatively new National Park Service area. The authors walked, measured, and rated every hiking trail, and, in this second edition, they include information about new trails. In addition, trail descriptions are updated with geological and historical information, a wildflower checklist, and a chart designed for backpackers to combine trails for longer hikes. The guide includes advice on safety, park rules and regulations, and accommodations. Trailhead locations, features of each trail, and difficulty ratings are included in an easy-to-read chart allowing hikers to select trails suited to their interests and abilities. Maps are supplemented by detailed mileage logs to keep hikers informed of their progress and to clarify points of confusion. Strollers, hikers, and backpackers looking for a less-crowded alternative to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will enjoy discovering the beautiful, rugged Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in Tennessee and Kentucky. Only a ninety-minute drive northwest of Knoxville, the big South Fork National River and Recreation Area is easily reached in half a day or less from Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta.