Distance: 15mi
New Map Miles: 8
Total Map Miles: 382.3
Todays challenge was a shuttle hike with Angel and her friends from Louisville. We started by leaving a couple of cars at the Little Cataloochee Trail on the Mt. Sterling Road. We then drove up to Mt Sterling Gap to start the hike. As always the gravel road was rough and seemed to take a long time to drive. We started hiking about 9:40.
The hike up Mt. Sterling was a good way to get the heart pumping early in the morning. It has a 2000' climb in about 2.3 miles. The day was clear so there were some nice views on the way up.
At 2.3 miles the trail turns to the right to go up to the lookout tower. The views were amazing.
After a nice visit at the tower, we backtracked 0.5 miles to the Mt Sterling Ridge trail. 1.8 miles from the tower, Pretty Hollow Gap Trail turns to the left. This start a rather steep downhill section of the hike. We lost about 3000' over the 6 miles or so from the tower. The trail was steep at times and pretty muddy with more than a couple places where the trail turned into a creek. There were also several stream crossings that didn't have bridges. I was able to rock hop them all with relative ease. There were also a few larger crossings near the bottom that had log bridges.
This flower was interesting. It had a nice bloom, but is hidden beneath the leaves of the plant.
After 4 miles on Pretty Hollow, the Palmer Creek Trail turns off to the right. This photo was from the bridge that crossed the water at that trail head.
This trail had about a 1000' climb that we weren't expecting, so it seemed extra difficult. After 3 miles on the trail, signs of civilization started appearing. This Cabin was the 1st indication.
The next sign was a church that I had visited before.
Enjoyable day in the park.
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