As part of my reseach for the Spacewalk Scout trail, I wanted to run as many of the trails along the route as I could. Having not spent alot of time up on Green Mountain, the Green Mountain Log Trail was one that intrigured me.
Update 3-17-2016 added TRP map and link to the Space Walk article
The only map that I was able to find was from Briatech.com, which indicated that the trail head was on Riverview Drive up on Green Mountain. There isn't much for parking near it except for small tract of dirt on the near by corner which was mostly mud on the day I chose to go exploring. The start of the trail is a big green metal gate, which was hard to miss but from the road just past it you can see what appears to be a private property and no trespassing sign. Seeing that, I was afraid my day was to be over before it even had a chance to begin.
As I made my way to the start, doom and gloom quickly turned into joy as the private property sign came in to view and revealed its self to be a welcome invitation to visitors, assuming you aren't motorized. Luckily I left my Segway at home.
At the start the trail is fairly wide with minimal over growth but it was quite obvious that this was not often used. You can see where a few trees that have fallen across the path had been cut up and moved off to the side, but the further you made your way down you started seeing which had not. Maybe I was tired and still feeling the effects of the upper respitory infection from which I was recovering, but I swear circumference of the trees at the bottom was significantly bigger than those at the top.
Just at a mile in you reach the first powerline cut, which has a view Green Cove Road.
As you exit the cut, you can see someone's attempt at trail maintenance as well.
From here things start to close in and the masive amount of prickly plants speak to the fact this trail is very under-used. At that point was regretting my choice of ankle length socks. The frequency of fallen trees increased as I ran, and as mentioned above, so did their size. It got to the point that at some spots a detour had started to form around them, and in one case a whole section had to be navigated around. One nice thing about its isolation is that a majority of the debris was from mother nature and not humans. I did find an old beer can, the brand of which I am not familiar - read in to that what you will. I of course transported it back with and by now it has long since been recycled.
At the end of the trail there is very steep decline that leads to the TVA Power line cut. When I turned around to look back from where I had come, it was very well hidden, so be sure to drop some bread crumbs to help you can find you way back. If you happen to be attempting to make your way to the trail from one of the TVA easements and are coming from the Ditto Marine Parkway - keep in mind that that if you reach the highest point of easement, you have gone too far.
From here I was able to head west for a view of very South Huntsville and Aldridge Creek Greenway, but what I think was the better view was to the east. From the east you have a fantastic view of Tennessee River and the hills near Lacey Springs.
Green Mountain Log Trail is a great canidate for rehabilitation. While there are quite a few trees covering it, it would not be an insurmountable task for motivated group of volunteers to tackle it in a couple of Saturdays. The only significant erosion project that would be required is on the last part of the trail, just before the power lines - and even that is something easily handled by a group of Boy Scouts. Keep in mind, I say all this not really knowing the ownership of the land. The only part of the trail that was marked was the begining and it clearly stated that I, being a non-motorized being, was welcome.
Also worth mentioning is that just south of power lines is a parcel of land that, as a part of the Ditto Landing Master Plan, will one day be a zip line course. I bring that up because the plans for the course have a trail called out as an extension of the Space Walk.
