Rough Fork - Caldwell Fork - Hemphill Bald

Date: 10/10/15
Distance: 13.7miles

Today I hiked with the GSHAG group in the Balsam mountain area of the park.  Today's group consisted of Conrad, Lynn, Heather and Paula.  I was hopeful that there would be lots of scenic views on this day, but the weather didn't cooperate.  If you want to see what this hike looks like on a clear day, checkout the blog post from 10/30/14.

I left the house about 6:55 and arrived a Polls Gap about 9:05.  The others were there by 9:30 and we set out down the trail about 9:45 in a steady drizzle.  We had hopes that the rain wouldn't last, but in the end we spent the entire day in a light rain.

The trail begins with a steady but not very steep descent from Polls Gap.  The trail was a little mushy but mostly in great shape.  After about 3 miles, the trail starts descending steeply.  After 3.5 miles, the Caldwell Fork trail intersects from the right.  We took Caldwell Fork and continued descending down the mountain.  A bit more than a mile down Caldwell, a small sign indicates the Big Poplars are off to the left.  There is only 1 big Poplar now, but it is very big.

 After a total of 1.7 miles on Caldwell, we arrived at the Hemphill Bald sign and turned right.  This is the lowest elevation of the hike (~3400').  Polls gap was at about 5100'.  Hemphill climbs up to 5500'over about 4 miles.  I removed the rain gear as the ascent began as I knew I'd get really hot with it on.  The rain seemed to get harder as soon as I took it off.  Even though it was rainy there were still some beautiful things to see along the trail.

 After nearly 3 miles, I came upon a small bluff where I could sit in the dry for a while.  It was an answer to prayer as I was hoping for a place that I could get dry and eat lunch.  I ate lunch and changed clothes, going back to the rain gear before the final climb up onto the bald.

This old dead tree is at the Cataloochee Divide intersection.

There were no views today on the Bald.

 Once you leave the bald, there are several pointless ups and downs over the last 4 miles.