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February
21st - After a few weeks of bad weather I
finally made it out for my first hike of February on
Buffalo Mountain. I was alone for this hike
(leaving right after work), and it was my first time
ever on the Buffalo Mountain trails, which is only
about 10 minutes from one of the golf courses where
I work (Pine Oaks).
I
arrived at the trailhead (elevation 2380) at 4:15
and set out on the White Rock Trail. I was
immediately surprised at how well the trails are
marked and maintained, along with the number of
different trails on this mountain (maintained by the
City of Johnson City). There is also a cool
map with accurate mileages here: BUFFALO
MOUNTAIN TRAIL MAP
I
followed the White Rock Trail for approximately 1.65
miles, which is a pretty good climb in some spots,
and ended up at White Rock (elevation 3100) at 5:00
p.m. (which is a large, sheer rock face on the east
side of Buffalo Mountain). The views here were
really good so I stopped and rested for a few
minutes, trying to pick out the surrounding
mountains to the east... seeing Holston, Iron, Pond,
Roan, and others. But I was soon interrupted
by the sound of thunder behind me, and suddenly
realized that dark clouds were moving in quickly
from the west. With no rain gear on me, I
decided to get down off the mountain as quickly as I
could so I started running down the mountain at
5:10. I surprised myself a little bit by
getting back to the Jeep at 5:30... covering that
1.65 miles in only 20 minutes, but nevertheless, I
still got caught by the rain and got a little wet.
I
took no photos on this hike, but I did realize that
Buffalo Mountain is a great place to come for
day-hikes, especially being so close to where I
work. I plan to bring the rest of the family
here very soon and explore some more of the trails.
As with the reputation of this mountain, there are a
few "shady" characters hanging out at the
mountain's park near the trailhead (obviously trying
to "hook up" with each other), but I
didn't pass anyone on the trail itself and no one
bothered me at all.
This
was a quick and nice after-work hike... round trip
of 3.3 miles.
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