Bear Den and the Scar

Last night the winds came howling through. Unfortunately, we ended up with all the bluster, but hardly any of the precipitation. On the bright side, this made today perfect for hiking up to the top of Bear Den Mountain. Bear Den is the highest point on the farm with a spectacular view that includes Grassy Cove (North America’s largest sinkhole), Sequatchie Valley (in between the Cumberland Plateau and Walden’s Ridge), and the Tennessee River Valley, complete with the TVA’s man-made lakes. During Covid, when the air was clear, we could see all the way to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park from here (about 75 miles away). 

Bear Den is most often enjoyed by cattle. We have 6 herds staggered throughout the farm and we’ve been rotating two of them between our fields on Bear Den this winter. They have depleted their fodder, today we moved them down off the mountain to the “Dry Pond Field” through what we refer to as “the scar”. I took over this land after a timber company moved on. They left havoc and destruction behind after they harvested what they wanted. Their machinery left massive divots behind where topsoil had been before. It has taken a lot of time and effort to repair, but with controlled burns, placing trees and branches in ruts, and reseeding the area with fescue, we have successfully reclaimed the land and our cattle are safe and happy to be rotated in. The herd left Bear Den, and came down what used to be an impassible scar. It was fun to see how the three year effort to reclaim the road finally claim to fruition.