Finley Cane - Bote Mtn - Lead Cove

Date: 5/30/15
Distance: 7.3 miles
Bears: 1
Year to Date Bears: 2

Today I woke early and took off for Cades Cove about 7:30.  I started the day with a bike ride around the cove before heading down to the Lead Cove Trail parking area to begin my hike about 9:40.

I decided to hike in the clockwise direction, so I started on Finley Cane Trail.  I did take the short 0.1 detour on the spur that goes under the road over to the Crib Gap trail.  I immediately backtracked to Finley Cane for the rest of the hike.

Finley Cane is a really nice nearly flat trail. The 2.8 miles went very quickly.

 The trail terminates at Bote Mountain which immediately turned steeply up the mountain with 750' climb in about 1 mile.  I heard some rustling off to the side of the trail and spotted a black bear running away, so that was exciting.  Bote Mountain is an old road and was pretty rocky for the 1st mile.  After the 1st mile, the trail leveled out nicely.  There were a few flowers and some views as the trail meandered along the ridge.

 The trail went up another 250' before reaching the Lead Cove trail.  I hiked a total of 2.5 miles on Bote Mountain.

Lead Cove gives up the elevation gain over 1.8 miles.  I moved pretty fast on this section as I had a goal of getting back home by 1:00.

Total hiking time was 2:05.