Old Settlers Trail

Date: 8/29/15
Distance: 17 miles

Today's hike was with the GSHAG group.  I had an enjoyable day with old friends Conrad, Bill, Heather, Lynn, Dawn, Lori and Ahmad, and met a few new hikers: Greg, Bev, Steve, Michelle.

We started the day by taking a few cars over to the Maddron Bald Trailhead before heading to Greenbrier to start the hike.  The day was beautiful and it was relatively cool to begin.  The part of the group that wasn't shuttling cars went ahead and got a head start on the trail, so the 1st few miles passed quickly as we moved out to catch up.

About 6 miles in is campsite 33.  We used the campsite as a re-gathering point.  The trail to this point had a few ups and downs but made for pretty fast hiking.  About 4 miles in, there was a sign pointing to Greens Cemetery.  I went up for a look.  It had about 10 graves up on the top of the hill.  At campsite 33, we took a short break and an early 1/2 lunch, we moved out with instructions for the lead hikers to stop at 1:00 at a nice spot.

From this point the trail gets a little rough and overgrown.  I probably covered 4.5 miles from 11:30 to 1:00 where I stopped at a creek.  I figured I had some time, so I pulled off the boots and did a little soaking the the stream.

 The trail is very close to the edge of the park, so it was full of the remains of old homesteads with a number of falling down chimneys and rock walls.

About 10 miles down Old Settlers there is a sign which marks a spur over to the Tyson McCarter place.  It has a sign indicating the site is 140 years old.  We spent a little time at the place before backtracking the the Old Settlers Trail for the last 5 miles.

Old Settlers is a total of 15.8 miles, but you must hike an additional 1.2 miles down Maddron to reach the car.   It is at low elevation, so it was hot and even though the elevation changes are relatively tame, there were some steep sections for short distances.  There were lots of small creek crossings.  On this summer day, all were easily rock hopped.

On my 1st map, I had to hike this trail in and out from both directions, so it was nice to knock it off on a single day this time and having company on the trail made it even better.