City of Kingsport, Bays Mountain Park Association, and Laurel Run
Park (Church Hill) have developed a roughly 2 mile connecting trail
between the two parks. The trail is up Kiner Hollow along some
existing path about half the distance, but the Tennessee Eastman
Hiking & Canoeing Club along with other volunteers installed a
new switchback on May 7th and finished the trail on June 4 & 5,
2004 (for National Trails Day). The upper end connects into Kiner
Hollow and Indian Pipes Trail within Bays Mtn Park.
As of March 2008, the cache (an ammo box) was relocated to be on
the hillside above the 6’ drop (sometimes called the middle
waterfall) along the developed trail in the switchback area. The 3
difficulty is due to sometimes poor GPS signal under the tree
growth in the hollow (as with a Garmin Legend, but not a 60CSx).
Stay on the path until right near the cache.
The closer access is from Laurel Run Park. This park is now open
year round with hours 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Do not attempt to this cache
outside these limits as there is an onsite caretaker and the front
road gate will be locked. (Bathroom in main parking lot is only
open April 1st through October 31st.) The trailhead begins behind
Shelter #5, but do not take the path marked “Walking Trail” but
head up the gravel roadway.
For the more challenging route of 5-6 miles one way would be to
park at Bays Mtn Park and then hike up to my firetower cache
(waypoint GCHXDM), take the side path to the Indian Pipes Trail,
and then down the new trail through Kiner Hollow to this cache.
5/12/04 update - added pix I had taken and waterfall background
with the instructions provided by Cache-bert (thanks!).
3/21/09 relocated cache from rhodi tree roots by the water to up
higher on the hillside since it has disappeared twice at the
original placement.