Hiking in the Smokies - May- July 2014

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has over 800 miles of hiking trails.  These trails are located in all areas of the park, with trailheads located off the major roads such as Hwy 441 and Little River Road and in more remote areas like the North Shore of Lake Fontana and the Twentymile area. The longest trail is the AT which runs 71 miles through the park.  I have done some hiking over the years in the Smokies, but recently I began hiking there more.  My goal is to hike all the trails; time will tell!

Using the official Great Smoky Mountain Association trail map and my record of hikes in the Smokies over the years with the Carolina Mountain Club, I discovered I had barely made a dent in the 800 miles, but I had a start.  In May, I hiked to Ramsey Cascades with the Friends of the Smokies (FOTS).

Ramsey Cascades - May 2014

It is an in-and-out hike of 8 miles, so I logged 4 miles for the trail.  There are many trails like this, so an in-and-out hike means you hike twice the miles you get credit for on there map.  It is estimated that most hikers cover many extra miles logging the over 800 actual trail miles.  Some trails are only accessible by hiking in on another trail; one that you may find yourself hiking multiple times to get to a more remote trail junction.

While hiking with the FOTS, I learned of a group of hikers who hike trails in the park on a regular basis.  The Margaret Stevenson Wednesday Hikers schedule one or more hikes each week.  My first hike with them was on June 4 and it was a serious hike that covered part or all of four trails for a total of over 18 miles.  It was a key swap hike, meaning my car was driven by someone else to where I would end the hike and I drove someone else's car to where I began the hike.  We would hike in opposite directions and swap car keys somewhere on the trail.

Start

 We began on the Lead Cove Trail to the Bote Mountain Trail (4.7 miles) to the AT at Spence Field.  A short distance to the Jenkins Ridge Trail for 8.9 miles to Hazel Creek and 4.5 miles to the North Shore of Lake Fontana.  While we were having lunch on Jenkins Ridge, we met the other group of hikers and completed the key swap.

Bote Mountain Trail Junction

 The Hazel Creek trail ended at Lake Fontana where we were picked up by a boat to shuttle us across the lake to Fontana Village Marina.  A boat ride was a nice way to end a long hike, and sure enough, my car was in the marina parking lot.  The logistics for the key swap were all worked out ahead of time by the hike leaders.





Since driving to the Smokies for day hikes takes time, my friend Rich and I camped three days at Cades Cove and hiked trails in the area.  Wednesday afternoon we hiked Rich Mountain Loop-Indian Grave-Crooked Arm trails (9miles); Thursday we hiked 13 miles on Abrams Falls Trail, part of Hannah Mountain Trail, and part of Rabbit Creek Trail.  On Friday we hiked to Gregory Bald on the Gregory Ridge Trail; another in-and-out hike. As the trailhead sign shows it is 5.5 miles to Gregory Bald, but we had to hike back - 11 miles hiked for 5.5 trail miles on the map.  The bald has a plethora of flame azaleas that were in bloom in mid-June.

A week later I was back with the Wednesday hikers for Hemphill Bald-Caldwell Fork-Rough Fork covering 13 miles.  One of the hikers in the group was finishing his map - meaning that hike completed his challenge of hiking all the trails in the park.  Also, two hikers finished their second map - meaning they have hiked all the trails of the Smokies TWICE!  We celebrated with refreshments at the cars.

The next hike was in the Deep Creek area near Bryson City.  We hiked part of the Noland Divide Trail, the Pole Road Creek Trail, and part of the Deep Creek Trail covering a little over 17 miles on those trails.

Two more days of hiking with the Friends of the Smokies in July added a few more miles of trails, including Metcalf Bottoms and the Little Brier Gap Trail on the first day, and Laurel Falls and Cove Mountain Trails on the second day.  The FOTS organized this event with an overnight stay at the Buckhorn Inn in Pittman Center, TN - not far from Gatlinburg.  Janice and I recommend the inn; there are rooms and cottages, and the dinner and breakfast were delicious.

So that covers most of the hikes over the past several weeks.  I hiked over 80 miles of new trail miles, and I can report I have 181miles so far.  I will try to blog individual hikes and not cover as much ground as I did in this report.