Kephart - Sweat Heifer - AT - Dry Sluice Gap - Grassy Branch

Date: 1/25/14
Distance: 14.7mi

Today's hike was a very challenging winter hike with deep snow on the trail and snow failing for much of the day.  We started at the Kephart Prong trail which is about 7 miles past Newfound Gap on the NC side of the park.  Kephart is 2 miles long with an elevation change of about 800'.  The Kephart shelter sits at the end of this trail.  Kephart looks to be an old road bed with artifacts along the way (chimney, rail track, etc.)  It has several log bridges on the way.  The bridges were a little exciting as the were frozen over.

After a short break and donning the Micro-Spikes, we head up Sweat Heifer trail.  This trail was a trudge with an elevation gain of 2400' and snow several inches deep.  It also started snowing on this leg of the route.  The streams were frozen over in many places.  At one point, a cascade on the side of the trail was completely frozen on top, yet water was still flowing underneath the ice.

When we reached the AT, the wind was howling and it got cold very quickly.  We turned right and hurried to the ice water springs shelter.  In the shelter, we ate lunch and warmed up a bit with some hot chocolate.  At this point, I put all of my clothes on and put the hiking poles in my pack as I wanted to keep my hands balled up in my gloves to get them warm.  

We left the shelter and went by Charlies Bunyon.  Is was very foggy at this point, so we didn't venture out onto the Bunion.  We were anxious to get out of the wind, so we kept moving.  At Dry Sluice Gap, we turned right and after a short climb, the downhill portion of the hike began.  We also got less of the wind and thus the hiking got more enjoyable.  The snow was very deep at places as no one had been on the trail before us.

At Grassy Branch Trail, we took another right and continued our down hill slide to the Kephart Shelter.

The final 2 miles on Kephart was a fast hike to the car as we were becoming very concerned about getting back over the mountain with the snow that had fallen.

Back at the car, we found the road frozen over with no one on the road.  We turned the car around and I drove back up and over the mountain.  We didn't see a single car in any parking lot on the way back and we only saw 1 car on the road.  It was a park ranger headed up the mountain in a 4 wheel drive vehicle.  It was quite strange and eerie to be completely alone in the park.  Back at the gate, they had left the exit side open, so we could get out at Sugarlands.  The snow on the road lasted to well past the Chimney tops parking lot.

Today was a BIG adventure with challenging hiking, tough conditions and a high stress drive over the mountain.