Where do trails come from? Who made them, and how did they manage to connect mountain vistas, scenic waterfalls, and wildflower meadows?

Today I’m finding out. I’m part of a Cumberland Trail scouting team whose assignment is to design a route from the southwest rim of Big Possum Creek to the northeast rim of Little Possum in eastern Tennessee. After our exploratory mission comes the hard part of flagging an exact route for the trail crew.

The Cumberland Trail Conference, a non-profit organization with a small army of volunteers, plans to connect existing trails on the Cumberland Plateau with new segments of the Cumberland Trail by 2008. The Cumberland Trail will run from Signal Point National Military Park near Chattanooga, where Union troops signaled to supply trains when it was safe to approach, to Cumberland Gap National Historic Park on the Kentucky border, were Daniel Boone led settlers to the west. When complete, the Cumberland Trail will be over 300 miles long.

Backpackers will be able to thru-hike or choose shorter trips, including day-hike loops. Plans are also underway to connect the Cumberland Trail to the Georgia and Alabama Pinhoti Trail for a western alternative to the overcrowded Appalachian Trail.

Already the existing Cumberland Trail-a 133-mile linear state park-weaves through some of the most spectacular sections of east Tennessee, including Snooper’s Point, Suck Creek, North Chickamauga Creek, Devil’s Breakfast Table, Frozen Head, and Smoky Junction. The Possum Creek section I am exploring today is another one of those magical places. Big Possum and Little Possum creeks run through cliff-edged gorges near Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, about 20 miles north of Chattanooga. An old road, possibly a logging railroad bed, extends along Big Possum, but otherwise, the Possums have no hiking trails. There’s a waterfall on a side creek and probably one in the upper part of Little Possum.

I begin the morning’s trail explorations by fording the creek and climbing the opposite slope to look for a gap in the bluff, while other volunteers bushwhack upstream to find a bridge site.

Hollering back and forth, we record field observations: “Good bench over here,” “Might not be high enough along this bank to survive floods,” and “Steep but doable with a switchback.” We explore caves and rock shelters, then climb over boulders lying downhill that tumbled out...a decade ago, a century ago, millennia ago? We examine maps to determine the best way for the trail to connect Cannonball Bluff and Hanging Table.

After a full morning of trekking and plotting GPS coordinates, we have lunch on a sun-warmed rock slab along the creek. Yellow and red leaves float across a deep pool, fed by ledge waterfalls upstream. Trout hover in the shadows beneath the leaves. This spot will no doubt provide solace and inspiration to future hikers of the Cumberland Trail.

-Doris Gove