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.

Cooper Road - Cane Creek - Goldmine

Date:  11/15/13
Distance: 13 miles

Today I went over to a part of the park that I'd never visited before.  It is a good thing that I had the GPS with me as I doubt I would have found the Abrams Creek campground with out it.  This time of year the campground is closed, so the Abrams Creek area was deserted on this Friday morning.

Since there is no parking for day visitors over at the campground, you must park near the ranger station and hike about 0.5 miles to get to the Cooper Road trail.  As the name implies, the trail is an old gravel road.  If you hike the entire trail, you'd end up in Cades Cove, but for today's hike, I just followed it to Cane Creek Trail.  About 3 miles into the hike, the Goldmine road trail heads off to the left.  It is only 0.8 miles long, so I turned on this trail and followed it to the end.  I didn't see a gold mine, but I did see an old barn and a sign when the trail leaves the park.  I believe if you continue on this trail outside of the park, you'd end up at the Top of the World Estates.  The end of Goldmine Road is the highest elevation attained in this hike.

Just 0.4 miles past Goldmine road, Cane Creek heads off to the left.  This trail also looked like an old road.  It was pretty mushy in several places and there were several creek crossings that required some effort to hop rock.

The trail ends with a "Posted" sign.

This trail was a nice walk in the woods, but nothing spectacular.  Total hiking time was 4:30.

Clingmans Dome - AT - Welch Ridge - Jonas Creek - Forney Creek

Date: 11/9/13
Distance: 19.7 mi

This hike as a very long difficult hike.  It is the longest hike I've been on and had a total of  >5000ft of climbing to go along with it.

The morning started early with the group meeting at Clingmans Dome at 7:30.  We started hiking about 7:50.  The sun had not been up long, and it was very clear so the views from the parking lot were spectacular.  The hike started by heading up the paved trail toward the tower.  At the top of the hill, we turned left on the AT and headed toward Double Spring Gap.  The trail followed the ridge and had many nice views off both sides.

After 3.8 miles, we turned left on Welch Ridge.  Welch Ridge starts the downhill portion of the hike in earnest.  After 2.4 miles, we turned left on Jonas Creek.

Jonas Creek had a number of creek crossings that we hop rocked (but just barely).  I was tempted to put on my water shoes on a couple of them.

We had lunch at Campsite 70.  It was a very wide open site with a picnic table and several logs to sit on.

Once Lunch was over, we started on the Forney Creek Trail.  There were about 7 more creek crossings that were even more dangerous than Jonas Creek, but I managed to hop rock all of them with only a couple of scares.

The 1st 5 miles of Forney Creek had a steady rise that wasn't too difficult to climb.  Once you reach Campsite 68, the climb is much more severe.  We climbed about 1500' in only 2 miles.

At the termination of Forney Creek, we took a left on Forney Ridge trail for the final 1.1 miles to the parking lot.  This section of the trail had lots of steps and while the view was nice, the hiking wasn't great.  Of course, I had already hiked 18 miles, so maybe it doesn't get a fair shake for that reason.

It was a very long day as we got back to the cars about 5:20.  It was a very challenging hike and rewarding to complete.

Brushy Mountain Trail

Date:  11/2/2013
Distance: ~12

The Brushy Mountain trail begins from the Porters Creek Trail in the Greenbrier area of the park.  The first mile of the Porters Creek trail is a gravel road which passes many historical sites.  Look for the post about Porters Creek for the details.  At the end of the 1st mile, the Brushy Mountain trail leaves Porters Creek.

From this intersection, the signpost indicated that it was 4.5 miles to Trillium Gap.

The 1st section of the trail was through a hardwood forest with many colorful trees.

After a total of 5.5 miles, the trail meets the Trillium Gap trail which goes to Mt Leconte.  I sat here for lunch before walking the last 0.4 miles to the summit.

The peak of Brushy Mountain is a Heath Bald.  The trail winds through the bushes which are over head height most of the time.

However there are several overlooks which give great views of both the park, and areas outside the park.

 This was a strenuous hike due to the elevation rise (3000').  The rise is steady and while it is tiring, I didn't find the need to stop to rest often.  It did offer awesome views at the summit and many beautiful forest scenes along the way.

Start time: 9:40am
Trillium Gap: 12:00
Back to Car: 2:25pm