{"id":4251,"date":"2026-02-23T14:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/?p=4251"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T14:51:18","slug":"cumberland-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/2026\/02\/23\/cumberland-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Cumberland Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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John Dempsey and I made the familiar trek up the Chadwell Gap trail. Rising 2100 ft in 3 1\/2 mi, it is a steep little ascent. When I left on Friday the temperature was in the high 60s. That would change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John had a nice fire waiting when I arrived around sunset. Wood was plentiful and the views were amazing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saturday morning we opted to explore Hensley settlement and the local area instead of going out to white rocks and sand cave.. I’ve spent a lot of time in this area and made many jaunts out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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we had the entire place to ourselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the vastness of this plateau and the rolling hills is a curiosity. Hensley and his group lived up here for many years.. it’s easy to see why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I found this cabin out on the ridge trail as I went exploring that area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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there are plenty there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saturday night the temperature dropped and the wind came in.. with a vengeance. It got down in the twenties and then the sleet started. Just drove us to our tents at an early hour as the precipitation pelted nylon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

when we woke up water bottles were frozen solid and so were we. So we made an early and hasty retreat from this mountain top abode. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was reminded of the many many times when I was in this area with the Highlander crew. The old martins fork cabin is closed for business permanently. But I enjoyed the Hensley camp and the company of John Dempsey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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when I got back to the car the temperature was showing mid twenties. Maybe wonder how truly cold it got a couple thousand feet higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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John Dempsey and I made the familiar trek up the Chadwell Gap trail. Rising 2100 ft in 3 1\/2 mi, it is a steep little ascent. When I left on Friday the temperature was in the high 60s. That would … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4263,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions\/4263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}