Old Settlers Trail (Part 1)

Hike #32, Part 1 : January 17, 2015

13.5 miles

7.5 new miles
402 total overall miles

297.5 total miles of 800.8

Today, Eddie and I met at the Maddron Bald Trailhead to do a car drop hike of the eastern half of the Old Settlers Trail. So after leaving a car at Maddron, we head down 321 to find a spot near Texas Creek to park and begin our hike. And then things got... interesting.

There is no pull-off at what we believed to be the Texas Creek manway, only a few businesses across the road. Unsure whether it would be okay to park there, we decided to cruise on down the road where we came to a pull off. I'm not sure why there is a pull-off here but there certainly isn't a trail of any kind, manway or not. So what to do? Ah, let's just throw on our backpacks and head into the woods. We have a couple of maps and my trusty GPS. What could possibly go wrong? (Yes, I actually said that as we headed in...)

Things start off just fine as we make our way along the... uh, whatever you'd call it. The trail-less woods. Stepping over and through the trees and brush, we head northeast toward the OST. Soon, this bushwhack turns sharply uphill and along a steep ridge testing our ankles and balance. This is rough and untamed terrain. I wouldn't really recommend this to anybody but it was extremely challenging and fun in its own way. After a few falls, actually one was more of a four or five foot slide, the climb continues up, through, around and over every sort of hazard the forest could throw at us.

As we continued our steep hike through incredibly thick underbrush and trees, I closely monitored the GPS as we got closer and closer to the trail. Then something strange happened as we reached the trail according to the GPS... there was NO trail. Up until this moment it was all fun and games but suddenly not knowing exactly where the trail was or how far we had to go, things grew a bit somber. There was really nothing to do but stay our course. And we did. Word to the wise: if you happen to have a Garmin GPS and use MapSource to plan your hike, IT IS WRONG! Not a little off, not even a mile off. Completely wrong to the point of being useless. This is the first (and hopefully last) time I've had this happen after over a year's worth of hiking with it. And of course it happened the very first time we decided to go completely off trail. Nice.

Soon we heard water. It had to be Texas Creek. At least we now had some idea of where we were. As I crossed the creek, I came up the bank and there it was. The trail. Thank God! After checking with Eddie's topo map, we figured out where we were and finally began our hike. After nearly 3 miles of off trail madness.

The rewards of hiking the OST were quick and plentiful.

This is a very historically rich trail. It's also a good trail with little in the way of rocks and roots. In the next couple of miles, there is so much to see and so many pictures to take that I can't possibly go through them all. This is easily a favorite trail for me as I love imagining the way things were all those years ago.

Many, many chimneys

There's many of these stone structures along the trail. These were made by the families of the original settlers as a way of marking the now gone homesites

After about a mile, we came across some other hikers. I immediately recognised one as Mr. Mike Maples. Smoky Mountain Guru. We had a very interesting conversation and even got some directions to some cool places we wanted to check out along the trail. Mike's a great guy and I was really honored to meet him. Look him up on facebook or read some of his wonderful stories at Go Smokies.

Me and Mr. Mike Maples

Unfortunately, we didn't follow those directions very well and ended up off trail walking in circles for a while. Not lost... just turned around. The stone walls along this trail are numerous but none equaled to the one shortly before coming to Webb Creek. This wall is between five and six feet tall and seems to run the distance of a football field. Behind it and off trail there are many piles of rock and another wall almost as impressive. The work and time that must have gone into these walls is staggering!

Eddie standing next to the massive stone wall.

At the two mile mark, we come to Webb Creek and the junction with the side trail to the Tyson-McCarter Barn and homesite which is clearly marked. A quick 600ft. walk leads to the barn.

Tyson McCarter Barn

This where we had lunch and lamented the craziness of our first three miles of the day. Returning back to the trail, we are greeted with an uphill climb and the possibility of losing daylight. The trail climbs about 700 feet in just over a mile with more rock walls and piles and piles of rocks everywhere before dropping down for a mile or so and coming to another side trail, marked by a pile of rocks, leading to Maddron Cemetery to the right. From here, its back up for about .3 of a mile to the Maddron Bald junction. Maddron Bald is a wide and smooth downhill gravel roadbed. After a half mile, the Willis Baxter Cabin appears to the left. Its a well maintained home built in 1889. The trail goes another .7 of a mile downhill finishing out the hike.

Willis Baxter Cabin

Signs of life along the way...

TRAIL REVIEW

Off Trail - 3 miles
Old Settlers Trail - 6.3 miles
More off trail - 2.7 miles

Wanna hike the 900 without getting lost? Start by checking out the book Day Hiker's Guide To All The Trails In The Smoky Mountains by Elizabeth L. Etnier.

Hiking Trails of the Smokies or "The Little Brown Book" from the GSMA

Hiking Trails of The Great Smoky Mountains by Ken Wise