Today I managed to drag myself out of the apartment and visit some more of the Knoxville Urban Wilderness that I hadn't previously explored. I hiked from the William Hastie Natural Area parking lot over to one of the trails surrounding Ross Marble Quarry.
I was expecting a pretty level hike, but was pleasantly surprised at the difficulty presented. The trail was far from flat, and had a good mixture of ascents and descents. Check out the elevation profile.
These trails are not as scenic as a lot of the trails in the Smokies, but they have the advantage of being only 20 minutes from my apartment, and not utterly crowded with people. I did encounter maybe a dozen cyclists on my walk, and one rather large group of hikers (apparently there was a scheduled group hike on this particular trail). But even so, I didn't really feel they were impinging on my enjoyment of nature.
The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club has done a great job in creating and maintaining these trails. They're well marked, and make good use of the land that's available. Today's route had some short walks on paved roads, but when plotting a route through an urbanized area, it's impossible to avoid.
I ended up not taking any photos - as I said, it wasn't the most scenic hike, and that's ok. It was still a good time out in nature in some great weather.
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