Trillium Gap - Baskins Creek Loop + Twin Creeks

Date: 12/28/13
Distance: ~13.8mi

Today I hiked several trails that are around the Roaring Fork Motor Trail.  I parked in the Rainbow falls parking lot and started my hike on the Trillium Gap Trail.  The trail parallels the road for about 2.3 miles.  The road is always in sight, so it was nice that the road was closed for the winter.  Once I reached the Trillium Gap parking area, I took to the road and went down the  mountain.  The walk down the road was about 1.5 miles to the Baskins Creek Trail. I did spot 3 deer on the side of the road on the way down to the trail.

Once on the Baskins Creek trail, you almost immediately pass by a Cemetery.

About 1.3 miles down the trail, a sign indicates that you should take a side trail to the falls.  The side trail is probably about 0.2 miles with a big descent to the bottom of the falls.

A father with 3 young boys were at the falls.  He indicated that they had come directly up from Gatlinburg somehow and a group I passed on the way out said that they had left a car "at the bottom".

Shortly after returning to the main trail, a sign points to a side trail indicating the Baskins Creek Graveyard.  It was a bit of a climb to this graveyard which was perched on the side of the mountain.  It wouldn't would be much fun carrying a casket up to this graveyard.

 Once back at the car, I ditched the pack and walked down to the Bud Ogle Cabin so that I could hike the Twin Creeks trail.  This is the cabin.

After looking around for several minutes, and not locating the trail, I hoofed it back up to the car and drove to the bottom of the mountain.  I parked across the street from the Twin Creeks sign and headed up the mountain.  As it turns out, the trail terminates on the Nature Trail.  I turned around and made my way back down to finish off a nice day.

Trillium-Baskins loop

Twin Creeks up and down

Grapeyard Ridge Trail

Date: 12/26/13
Distance: 15.2

Grapeyard Ridge is a trail that connects Greenbrier to the roaring fork motor trail.  This time of year, the motor trail is closed, so I started at the Greenbrier end of the trail.  At approximately 1 mile, there was the 1st of 5 creek crossings.  None of them was "easy" as the water was moving fast and was deeper than most of the good rocks for hop rocking.  I probably spent 10 minutes looking for a good crossing spot at the 1st one.  Each of the next 4 were a bit easier than the 1st, but still troubling.  There was ice and snow on all of the logs laying in the creek, so many of the good options were treacherous.

 There was a light snow on the parts of the trail in the shade making the trail very scenic.

At 3.2 miles, a short trail goes down to Campsite 32.  I didn't go down to investigate as time was short.  

1.7 miles after the campsite, there is a sign for the Big Dudley Horse Trail.

 At the end of the trail, there are several rustic buildings.

I had read that there was a steam engine on this trail, but I missed it on the walk from Greenbrier to the motor trail.  I had phone service during the walk back when I got up high, so I looked it up on the Internet.  The engine was located 2.85 miles from Greenbrier.  It was obvious in the creek on the hike back once I knew to look.

There was a decent climb along the way with several up and downs.  It was a pretty good workout.

Total time was 6:19.  I'd guess that the creek crossing cost me at least 1/2 an hour.

Little Greenbrier

Date: 12/23/13
Distance: 8.6

Today was cloudy as a front was moving out.  The weather indicated that the rain would be gone by 11:00, so I headed over to the Little Greenbrier trail about 11:00.  The trailhead is on the road which goes from Wears Valley into the park at Metcalf Bottoms.

About the time I entered the park, it started drizzling and it continued to drizzle until just before I returned to the car, so I wore a poncho for the entire hike.

I had previously hiked the first 1.9 miles on another hike back in August.  On this hike, I did the entire trail (4.3 mi).  It was a nice walk in the woods, but it was more of a climb than I was expecting (~1800ft).

I turned around at the Laurel Falls Trail.  If it hadn't been raining and if I had started earlier, I would have gone down to the falls, but the additional 1.8 miles weren't too tempting in the drizzle.

Total hike time was 3:15.

Jakes Creek

Date: 12/31/13
Distance: 9.2mi

Today I headed out to hike the Jakes Creek and Miry Ridge trail.  There was a good chance of rain late in the afternoon and tomorrow, so I was prepared in the event of rain.

The Jakes Creek trail was 2.9 miles on the trail map, but I had read that it was actually 3.3mi.  When I got to the trail, the sign said 3.7mi.  When I actually got to Jakes Gap, my phone indicated 3.9, so the hike was longer than I expected.

The 1st 1.8 miles of the trail are on a gravel road.  It has some rolling hills but goes up much more than down.  At 1.8 miles, a foot bridge crosses the creek and the trail eventually turns into the classic single track trail.

The climb up to Jakes Gap was pretty tough with the elevation gain.  It was a nice climb through the woods.  At the Gap, the wind was roaring through the trees.  It sounded like the beach.  I headed on up Miry Gap, but about 0.6 miles up, the trail turned and I ended up directly in the wind.  At this point, the sky looked threatening and the wind was howling, so I made the decision to turn back.  I'll have to get the top part of Miry Ridge another day.

By the time I got to the gap, it was raining, so I hustled back down the mountain.

Even with the change of plans and the off and on rain, it was still a nice day in the woods.

Long Bunk Trail - Little Cataloochee trail

Date: 12/19/13
Distance: 11.4mi


Today I hiked the Long Bunk trail in the Cataloochee area of the park.  Getting to the trail isn't easy in this part of the park.  I exited I-40 at the Waterville exit and followed the Mt Sterling Road to where the Little Cataloochee trail meets the road.   Mt Sterling road isn't paved and was more than 10 miles long, so the trip up the mountain was pretty slow and tedious.  I went out in the other direction and the road seemed even worse.

The trail was nice though.  After the 1st mile on Little Cataloochee, I turned right onto Long Bunk.  Little Cataloochee is an old gravel road, so it is wide and smooth, but a little hilly.  Long Bunk starts out as a road, but turns into a single track after a mile or so.

 The Hannah Cemetery was a few tenths of a mile up the Long Branch trail.  It had graves as new as 2000.

Along the trail there are several locations where you can get a view of Mt Sterling.  The tower was visible from the location in this picture.  Its hard to see in the small photo.

When the trail reaches the Mt. Sterling trail, there were also some nice views in both directions.

I turned around at the Mt. Sterling trail and headed back down the mountain.  I hadn't noticed the small water feature on the way up.

 Back at the Little Cataloochee trail, I turned right to hike a bit longer.  When I started the day, I intended to hike the entire trail, but the long travel time caused time to be short.  I decided to hike down to the baptist church and then turn back.  A short distance down the trail, the Hannah Cabin was up in the woods.

The cabin was a nice 1 room with a loft.

About 1 mile from Long Bunk, sits the Little Cataloochee Baptist Church.

The climb up had about 1300' of elevation gain with a few rolling hills along the way.  The trail was a little muddy in spots and there were a few small stream crossings.  It was a very nice walk in the woods.

Noland Divide - Pole Road Creek - Deep Creek Trail

Date:  11/30/13
Distance: 15 miles
Today was my first visit to the Deep Creek area of the park.  We left a car at Deep Creek and returned to the Clingman's Dome road at the Noland Divide Trailhead.  We left Sugarland's Visitor Center about 8:00am after waiting for 441 to open due to ice on the road.  By the time we drove to Deep Creek and returned to the trailhead, it was a bit after 10:00.

The trail was covered with snow for the 1st few miles and was a little rocky for the 1st couple miles.

After the 1st mile or so, the trail became very smooth and was easy to hike fast as it was downhill, but not too steep.

After 3.7 miles, we reached the intersection with the Pole Road Creek Trail.  We followed Pole Road for 3.3 miles before turning right on Deep Creek Trail for the rest of the hike.

 At one point, the trail turned into a creek for about 50 yards.  We managed to rock hop it without too much trouble, but it did slow us down.

 There were also a number of creek crossings which we had to navigate.  A couple of them had large trees which were strategically located across the more difficult crossings.

At Deep Creek there was a very scenic waterfall.

 Back near the car, we took the short loop trail to Juney Whank Falls.  It was smaller, but had a bridge right at the base of the falls.

The hike had about 4000' of elevation loss, but it didn't feel too steep.  We hiked at about 3mph as we were anxious to get back over the mountain before the road closed again.  

Up on the Clingman's Dome Road, we saw this.

Little River Trail - Cucumber Gap Trail

Date:  11/23/2013
Distance: 14.8 miles

Today I hiked the Little River Trail which starts just past the Elkmont Campground.  The day was very foggy with a light drizzle most of the day.  It made for an eerie day.  The trail looks to be an old road or railway.  Plenty wide for several people to walk side by side and graveled most of the way.

This was a nice little water feature which was about 2 miles into the hike.

I saw a bear scamper across the trail and then a young buck was just at the edge of the trail.  He is impossible to see, but he is up near where the trees cross each other.

 About 2.8 miles into the hike, you cross a good sized bridge over a rushing creek.

The Little River trail is 6.2 miles from the parking lot until it ends at Campsite 30.  There were several semi challenging creek crossings in the last mile.  The worst one was right at Campsite 30.  The Campsite looked very large with multiple good sites.

Because of the tough creek crossing, I decided to not eat at Campsite 30.  Instead I crossed the creek and then just ate as I walked back down the trail.  It was too wet to sit anyway.

On the way back, I turned on the Cucumber Gap trail.  This trail is more of a classic "single track" trail. (not an old road). It immediately started up hill through a rhododendron thicket that creeped me out a bit.  The wind would blow and water would fall from the leaves giving the feeling that something was rustling in the bushes just waiting to jump out.  About 0.8 miles up this trail, the environment changed drastically.  The rhododendron gave way to a forest that was full of vines.  The vines had killed many trees.

The Cucumber gap trail is 2.4 miles long with a 500' or so elevation gain and then loss.  The trail ends on the Jake Creek trail which is another old road.  This section was 0.7 miles back to the road and then another few tenths of a mile back down to the car.  Jakes Creek has several dilapidated cabins along it. 

Total time was about 5 hours.  This trail was a nice walk in the woods with many scenic creek views.