Anthony Creek - Bote Mtn - AT - Greenbrier Ridge - Middle Prong

Date: 4/2/16
Distance: 20 miles

I was planning a solo hike down the AT from Clingmans Dome today, but last night I was surprised with a message from Roger inviting me to hike with He and Annie today.  I ditched my plans without a 2nd thought.  I had been worrying about how to hike the AT from Spence Field to Greenbrier, so I was super excited that they were hiking this route that I needed.

We started the day by leaving a car at Middle Prong and then driving up to the Cades Cove picnic area.  We hit the trail about 8:00 on a very beautiful day.

Anthony Creek climbs 1600' over 3.5 miles, so it took some effort to cover.  I was excited to see a few Trillium making their appearance today.

 There were also a few smaller flowers along the trail.

At the end of Anthony Creek, we turned right on Bote Mountain for the final 1.7 miles to the AT.  The 1.7 miles climbed another 1400'.  Bote is a pretty lousy trail with a steep climb on a rocky old road.  At the AT, we turned left.  Spence field is  a couple tenths of a mile up the trail.  The views were great.

 Annie was excited to reach the field.

 About 1.1 miles from Bote Mtn and after another steep climb, we arrived at Rocky Top.  The views were off the chart.

 The 6.5 miles we spent on the AT were dominated by awesome views and a large number of steep climbs up and over various ridges.  The Elevation chart doesn't do the hike justice.  This hike is very difficult on the AT portion of the hike even though the graph looks fairly tame.

 The Derrick Knob shelter was a welcome sight as it signaled that the climbing was over.

 At Greenbrier Ridge, we turned left and started our descent.  Greenbrier was a very nice trail.  It drops 1600' over 4.2 miles, but it didn't really seem too steep compared to some of the steep sections on the AT.  We moved out pretty fast down Greenbrier and then Middle Prong.  Middle Prong drops another 1300' in 4.1 miles.  Middle prong is an old road and it is pretty rocky, so the hiking isn't great.  It hugs the bank of a very lovely creek and has several bits of history along the trail.

This hike is quite difficult, but rewarding to complete.