Wildcat Ridge Spur Trail

January 9 was another gorgeously mild winter day. What better opportunity to hike a segment of the East Lakeshore Trail along Tellico Lake! Although the temperature early this morning was 28 degrees, the day warmed up into the upper 50s to lower 60s. Perfect for hiking! 

The trailhead begins at the edge of the parking lot at this park, but during the winter months the gate is locked. So, we parked outside the gate just off the road but not blocking the gate.

 It's just a short walk from the gate to the trailhead. We are not quite sure why the spot is called a "park" because the only structures on the property are a block restroom facility and the kiosk describing the trail segment. We wonder if there will be picnic tables, standing grills or a playground constructed one day. This park is the terminus for the southern end of the trail system. 

 Wildcat Pointe Trail begins at the kiosk. 

 The northern terminus of the East Lakeshore Trail system is 28.5 miles from where we began our hike today. 

 After a steep 0.2 mile climb, we came to the marker indicating the Wildcat Ridge spur trail which leads out to the overlook. 

 Chris and I both set our watches to measure the distance from the marker to the pointe. It was actually about 1.5 miles to the pointe. But who's counting!

 One of the lovely things about the trails along East Lakeshore is not only the view but the abundance of very large trees, mostly oak, although we did see some large hickories as well. 

 Yes, we are tree huggers!

 We had nice views from along the ridge top, but when we reached the pointe, we had spectacular views of the lake in three directions. 

 Looking closely, you can see a railroad truss bridge and beyond it the US 411 bridge.

 The trail wound among these three giant oaks, sentinels on top of the ridge. 

 Our return trip gave us a view of the communications tower and an interesting knotty tree bulge. If you zoom in on the tower just below the bottom panels, you can see the 2 large vultures that were keeping an eye on us. Of course, we insisted that we felt fine. Our exertion was not going to kill us.

 A field of goldenrod fluff danced in the wind and sunshine. 

Out of curiosity, we actually hiked down into the woods along a manway. We thought perhaps we could access the lake cove beyond the parking lot. We came across some interesting "debris." An old collapsed log structure was covered in vines.  Two tiny creeks merged to become a bubbling creek. The manway ended at a wide place at the creek. Crossing would have required some serious rock hopping. Across the creek on the side of a tree was a bucket mounted on a platform about eye level. We spotted a couple of large empty cat food bags nearby, so we wondered whether someone was feeding wildlife such as bobcats or raccoons. Just speculating! 

We returned to our vehicle and headed home after spending a lovely day hiking and exploring.