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.
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.
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