Sugarland Mountain - AT from Clingmans to Sugarland

Date: 3/26/16
Distance: 16.4 miles

This winter has been rather mild and as a result the Clingmans Dome road opened a week early.  Russ, Chris and I took advantage and shuttle hiked the Sugarland Mountain Trail today.  I met Chris and Russ at Fighting Creek Gap where we piled into Russ's car.  About 30 minutes later, we arrived at the Fork Ridge Parking area.  A short access trail across the street from the Fork Ridge Trail took us over to the AT, where we turned left and walked 0.2 miles over to the Sugarland Mountain Trail.

As you would expect, Sugarland Mountain loses lots of elevation (3700') over its 12 miles.  Surprisingly it also has several short uphill sections.  The day was very beautiful and the trail was very nice.  Much of it is close to the ridge.  There aren't many views along the trail, but there are a few spots where you can catch glimpses of Gatlinburg down below.

 What looks like a small bump down at the end of the hike seemed extra steep, but now that I see the graph it is almost embarrassing that I thought it was so tough.  Chris and Russ got motivated to get out before 12, so we moved out on this hike finishing up in a bit less than 4 hours.

I drove Russ back to his car on the Clingmans Dome road.  He offered to run me up to Clingmans Dome so I could solo hike the AT from Clingmans back down to Mt Collins where my car was positioned.  I took advantage to do a bit more hiking.

At the Dome, I went up the paved trail and took a few photos from the tower.

It was pretty cold on the tower, so I took off down the AT pretty quickly.  I was disappointed to then learn that my lunch wasn't in my pack.  I had left it in my car while rearranging my pack before going up to the Dome.   Fortunately the hike to the car was only 3.5 miles.  The thought of arriving at my car and eating my lunch was my motivation.

Surprisingly there is a rather large climb on this section of the AT.  From the tower, the trail loses about 1000' and then gains 1/2 of that back before the final downhill section the the car.  The trail is quite rocky with lots of "stairsteps", so the hiking wasn't too speedy.