Middle Prong Loop

Hike #24 : September 20, 2014

Middle Prong Loop (Middle Prong, Greenbrier Ridge, AT, Miry Ridge, Lynn Camp)

22.4 miles

16.9 new miles
334.7 total overall miles

234.9 total miles of 800.8


When originally considering this hike, I decided it was too ambitious at my current level of hiking. But at 9:30 the night before we were to hike Roundtop Trail, I changed my mind and sent Eddie a text to meet up at Tremont the next morning. He was all too happy with that. Of course, he is insane.

Arriving at Tremont just before daybreak it was clear there had been a bit of wind overnight. Leaves and small limbs scattered to roadway. When reaching the parking lot for the Middle Prong Trail, the air was cool and it was clearly going to be a perfect day to hike.

We begin at the Middle Prong Trailhead and start by crossing a bridge and embark upon a gentle incline up a wide gravel roadway. Here we come to the first trail sign as the trail forks. Thankfully someone was nice enough to Sharpie in an arrow to the left trail indicating it as the Middle Prong. The right trail is the now unmapped Thunderhead Prong Trail.

There's a sign as the trail begins that states this as a gentle quiet walk not requiring hiking shoes. That would depend on how far you wish to take the trail. After a few miles, it gets rather rocky. In less than a half mile, we came to the first waterfall, the Lower Lynn Camp Falls. The falls look like a giant water slide and the pictures I took do it no justice. Beautiful.

Just a short way from the falls, we heard crashing water and walked a few steps from the trail where we came to the second waterfall.

And at less than 3/4 of a mile, we find the third waterfall. This is the multi-tiered Lynn Camp Falls and is simply a magnificent picturesque scene.

All three of these waterfalls are accessible to most anyone. An easy walk out and back and less than a mile and a half round trip.

After the falls, the trail continues its mild incline as it becomes quite rocky. At just under 2 miles, there is a side trail to the right that was marked by a small stack of rocks.

This trail leads just a few yards to a long abandoned rusted out old car that is said to be a Cadillac. I sure can't verify that but it is a cool sight to see in this surrounding.

At 2.3 miles, we come to the trail junction with Panther Creek Trail. We continue on Middle Prong to the right. On up the trail at 3.1 miles, we found the remains of what looked like an old homestead or perhaps a building used by the Civilian Conservation Corps. All that remains is a fallen chimney and the concrete foundation of the long gone shelter.

Nearby, there is also an old railroad rail and what appeared to be part of a stove pipe and logging cable.

At about 4 miles, we came to another subtlety marked side trail to the right. Since someone had gone through the trouble of marking it with a small pile of rocks, we decided to check it out. Just a few yards and we began hearing what sounded like another waterfall. Sure enough, we had stumbled onto the Indian Flats Falls.

Very beautiful. This picture shows the top of the falls. In the opposite direction there are two more falls. There was no clear path leading to the bottom of those falls and since we have many, many miles to go, we decided to skip trying to make our own and returned to the main trail.

In just about a tenth of a mile or so, we come to the trail junction with Lynn Camp Prong Trail and Greenbrier Ridge Trail. Since we're doing the long loop, we continue right onto Greenbrier toward the Appalachian Trail. We'll be circling around and returning to this spot from Lynn Camp later.

Once we start Greenbrier, we leave the rocky roadbed behind and begin the journey up an underused, muddy, rooty, rocky and rather unmaintained trail. This is a deep forest hike and its all uphill. Our surroundings are still beautiful but if you want views and company, this may not be a trail for you. With all the rocks, the 4.2 miles up is very strenuous at times but we finally made it to the AT. We had previously decided to take lunch at the Derrick Knob shelter. I didn't know at the time it would .3 mile straight up but that didn't stop us. So instead of continuing on our destination to the left on the AT, we go right on the AT to the shelter. We were 9.2 miles into our trip when we got to the shelter.

Its a nice shelter and we enjoyed the break. The wind from the night before had brought down tons of nuts from the surrounding trees and the chipmunks were happy to take advantage. As we had our lunch, there were dozens of the little guys running all around harvesting for the winter.

After lunch, we started down the AT and back on track. The AT soon proved to be a difficult climb. We came across a few backpackers and an ATC volunteer hard at work sawing a tree. These guys are amazing. Its hard enough just hiking the trail but they carry saws and hammers and whatever else they might need just to make the trail nicer for the rest of us.

We hiked along the AT for 3.7 miles until we came to the junction with Miry Ridge Trail to the left. Miry Ridge is another forest hike. If you like the peace, quiet and solitude of the mountains, this trail suits the bill. Its often a narrow and unmaintained trail.

As the picture shows, the trail is a bit overgrown in places so dodging the briers was a challenge. I imagine that in winter with the leaves gone, there would be some nice views as the trail continued along the top of the ridge. Still, we got glimpses of some real beauty through the trees.

After two and a half miles, we come to the junction with Lynn Camp Proing Trail. Going right would continue on Miry headed toward Jakes Creek and Elkmont but we're going right on Lynn Camp and heading back toward Greenbrier and Middle Prong. For the next 3.7 miles, the trail meanders mostly downhill through the forest. Eventually the trail turned into a rocky path that my sore feet found most unwelcoming. Finally we come to the junction with Greenbrier and head back the way we came. We ended up with 22.4 under our belts.  Exhausted, I was so happy to get back to the parking lot!

What a great day of hiking and what an accomplishment for us both!

Happy Trails!

TRAIL REVIEW

Middle Prong Trail - 4.1 miles
Greenbrier Ridge Trail - 4.2 miles
Appalachian Trail - 2.4
Miry Ridge Trail - 2.5 miles
Lynn Camp Prong Trail - 3.7 miles
Middle Prong Trail - 4.1 miles

Derrick Knob Shelter

Wanna hike the 900? Start by checking out the book Day Hiker's Guide To All The Trails In The Smoky Mountains by Elizabeth L. Etnier.

For more pictures of this hike, check out the Smoky Mountain Hikertrash facebook page.