Old Settlers Trail (Southern Half)

Date: 2/14/15
Distance: 16
New Map Miles: 8
Total Map Miles: 774.6

Today started out cold, but the forecast was promising up until late afternoon, so I decided to hike the southern half of Old Settlers Trail.  Old Settlers runs from Maddron Bald Trail to Greenbrier.  The best way to hike it is as a 17 mile shuttle hike (1.2 on Maddron, 15.8 on Old Settlers), but I didn't dig up a shuttle partner, so I decided to hike 1/2 of it.  I'll hike the other half on another day, or if I find a shuttle partner, I'll just do it all.  Either way I get to hike!

I knew the trail passed by many old home sites, so I expecting an old road for a trail, but was pleasantly surprised to find a normal single track trail.

The trail was easy to hike.  It wasn't very rocky and while it had a few hills, they weren't bad.   I did have to hop rock about 10-15 small creeks.  The trail passes by numerous old chimneys and several rock walls. 

At 8.7 miles on my phone GPS (probably only about 8 miles in reality), I turned around.  The pictures below were to help me find the spot when I come from the other direction.  There was a corner of two rock walls.  A tree growing out of the top of the wall, and a very large tree back behind the wall.