House Mountain Dayhike

Back in New Mexico, I was used to going off on my own for serious caching adventures. The kinds of hikes not suitable for the kids (or even the dog). Rugged back-country, rocky peaks, exhausting days, that kind of thing. I love that kind of caching. Well today was my first chance to have one of these days. Liz agreed to watch the kids for the day allowing Sasha and I the day to explore. I selected a relatively modest goal, House Mountain Natural Area just north of Knoxville. Maybe only 5 miles of trails, and as many geocaches, with less than 1000ft elevation gain. But considering I am still new to the area and am not sure how hard to push myself, this seemed like a good start. It also boasts the oldest still active cache in Knox County, Penguin's Roost, which is also pretty worthy. We got a nice early start and were on the trails around 9am. We had dense cloud cover and fog, even a smattering of rain, but that only served to keep the hiking cool. I knocked off the first few caches easily enough (well, using the hints). Finding caches in dense tree cover still gives me fits sometimes, even regular sized caches. I need to develop a better woodsy geosense I guess. At the top of the ridge, there were cool sandstone rock outcrops, but the clouds blocked any views of the valleys below. The hiking along the ridge was a snap, and I passed several other hiking parties and dogs. When I reached the far side of the ridge, the clouds were starting to lift or burn off and I caught a glimpse of the valley below. I ended up scoring almost all the caches in the park, which were all ammo cans or equivalent and loaded with good stuff. The aforementioned Penguin's Roost cache even had a replacement ammo can right in front of the old container which was in perfect shape. Odd... I only missed one of the park's caches on the descent, and was back at the car a little after 1pm. Not really a full day hike, but a satisfying day none the less, and not something I could have done with the two kids. Hopefully I'll have many more opportunities to explore the wilds of Tennessee.