A Little Porters Creek and a Whole Lot of Fun

Hike #45 : August 23, 2015

10.2 miles

1.8 new miles
562.5 total overall miles

384.5 total miles of 800.8


I don't know why in the world it has taken me so long to hike on Porters Creek Trail but I'm glad it did. Why? Because if you're going hiking in Greenbrier, nobody knows it better than my friend and guide, Mike Maples. Although its not really off trail season, one little adventure wouldn't hurt. So let's go!

Randy and I met Mike at the ranger's station in the Brier at 8am and headed on down the gravel road as Mike gave us a history lesson along the way. Mike has an incredible knowledge of the places and people that made up this once thriving community. His love and passion for this area is abundantly clear in every word of every story he shares. I only wish I could retain a small portion of his knowledge.

The first mile of the trail is a wide gravel road bed that follows alongside of the creek. About .7 of a mile in, we cross Long Branch (see, Mike, I finally remembered the name!) by way of a footbridge and come to the rock stairs and a zig-zagging rock wall to the right side of the trail. This was home to Joel Ownby and later to Vanderbill Whaley before the creation of the park*.

*Edited from an earlier post where I confused this with the Cantrell place. Thanks for keeping me honest, Mr. Maples! Lol!

Steps leading to the old Joel Ownby place

Just a short ways from the Ownby place, a side trail to the right leads to the Ownby Cemetery. Although I'd been here a few years ago, I was glad to be back. My love and appreciation for these beautiful fading cemeteries has grown immensely and I feel somehow connected with them now.

Ownby Cemetery

Just a ways beyond the cemetery there lies the old remains of a truck just off the trail. I'm sure this is missed by most but is clearly visible once you know its there.

Rusting away

After a mile, the road ends at what is called Porters Flat. From here the trail goes on to the left but we head to the right toward the Brushy Mountain Trail to the John Messer farm site. Here we see the beautiful cantilevered barn along with the hiker's cabin built by the Smoky Mountain Hiker's Club in the 30s. There's also a two person outhouse on back beyond the cabin.

John Messer Barn

Spring House

Hiker's Cabin

Now, when hiking with Mike, he sometimes shares some (never all, I suspect) of his secrets and hidden places. These belong to Mike and I'm not giving them away. I guess that's the main reason I've never blogged about our hikes together. That and the fact I seldom even know enough about where I'm at in the first place! Anyway, after leaving the Messer place we head off trail. Mike leads us right to several cool spots including the nearly reclaimed foundation of another cantilevered barn.

Barn remains

As Mike was sharing the history of this barn with us, a deer walked right up to us. She seemed fascinated by us as if she'd never seen a human before. She stayed within sight for quite a while. Sometimes the mountains are like your own private Disney movie.

After a while just meandering around in the woods, we connect with the Brushy Mountain Trail and head back to Porters Creek. Along with a little light rain, we reach Fern Branch Falls. There wasn't a lot of water flowing but that didn't take away the beauty of it. I made the slippery walk up to the falls while Randy and Mike took a snack break.

Fern Branch Falls

Just a little cold water trickling down...

From the falls, we head back down Porters to the car where we head off to the next adventure of the day... the Barnes place.

The remainder of this hike is all off trail. As Mike always says, "Hike off trail at your own risk!"

Again, its not my place to reveal exact locations and such but there are several blogs about the Barnes site including one from Mike himself on his GoSmokies blog.

After reaching the trailhead, which is not marked or particularly well visible, we begin the climb up. The climb is around two miles up and I mean UP. Unrelentingly up. Going off trail around Porters Creek was relatively easy but this climb is more what I'm used to with a Mike hike. Mike is also a hiking machine and he can be hard to keep up with but Randy and I do our best. As we reach the last little bit of the climb, things become rather overgrown and the briers are thick but we scratch our way through and find the three small tombstones of the Barnes children waiting at the top.

The Barnes children cemetery

I've seen this small cemetery referred to as the saddest place in the entire park. Maybe it is, maybe its not... but it does evoke emotion. The thought of a family losing a child on Christmas Day is horrible in itself but to then have another child born exactly one year later, again on Christmas Day, like some Christmas Miracle only to lose it... Well, I can't even imagine.

A little further past the graves, Mike showed us the remains of the Barnes cabin. All that's left is a portion of the stone chimney.

John Barnes' place

The hike back down was much easier than the climb up but still steep. And that's where the trip comes to a close. I love hiking the park's trails and I hope that someday I will be blessed enough to walk each and every one of them. Still, I have found there's so much more out there than what's on any map. You just have to know where to look or who to walk behind.

Until next time, keep it in the dirt and happy trails!



TRAIL REVIEW

Porters Creek Trail - 1.8 miles

Brushy Mountain Trail

Off trail - somewhere around 8 miles, give or take.



Messer Barn, Hiker's cabin, spring house, etc.

John Barnes Home site

Barnes children graves

Other old homesteads, barns... and just a bunch of cool stuff




Do yourself a big favor and check out Mike Maples on GoSmokies.com! You might learn something!

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

There is loads of information in the pages of GoSmokies.com.

Appalachian Trail: Clingmans Dome to Newfound Gap

Hike #44 : August 15, 2015

8.4 miles

8.2 new miles
552.3 total overall miles

382.7 total miles of 800.8


For this hike, I'm joined by Eddie and Randy (who was fashionably late, I may add) at Newfound Gap where we drop a car and head for the highest point of the entire Appalachian Trail, Clingmans Dome.

Newfound Gap

From the parking lot at Clingmans Dome, we head up towards the observation tower. Its a nice cool morning with fantastic views as we walk the paved road up. This little walk, although a short half mile, is always surprisingly rough. Its no wonder there are several resting spots along the way. I imagine many a tourist cuss that walk.

We, of course, stop by the tower and soak in the views which were much better than I thought they'd be. Its always hit or miss at such a high elevation.

Clingmans Dome

From the tower we connect with the Appalachian Trail heading towards Mt. Collins. The trail is a lush explosion of mossy green.

The Appalachian Trail

The trail is absolutely beautiful. The surface of the trail is rocky with many steps along the way as we make our way downhill. You would tend to think that walking from the highest point of the AT to anywhere would be all downhill. You'd be wrong. This is the Smoky Mountains and the rule of thumb is: Its always uphill! At about 2 miles down, we reach Collins Gap and begin the climb to Mt. Collins. For the next mile the trail is rather steep and strenuous before leveling back out in time to arrive at the junction with Sugarland Mountain Trail. Just past Sugarland Mountain on the left, we come the Fork Ridge Trail junction exiting to the right. Its just a short walk along Fork Ridge Trail to Clingmans Dome Road, so we walk out and back to go ahead and collect that small section of trail.

The trail rolls up and down for the next 2.5 miles through more mossy beauty. This part of the trail is very unique with many uprooted trees. The enormous roots, exposed, are awe inspiring.

Eddie standing beneath a huge exposed root holding a large boulder. 

These roots stand easily 15 foot or higher as I stand 6'2" in front of them.

The trail continues mostly downhill until coming to the junction with Road Prong Trail. Here the trail briefly emerges from the forest meeting with Clingmans Dome Road before continuing on back into the woods. Here we begin to get a little rain and I soon meet with my second bee sting of the summer. This time a honey bee somehow found his way beneath the tongue of my shoe where he gave his life just to sting little ol' me. Honey bee or no, it still freaking hurt! Time to hike the pain away. I pour it on and double time it up the next half mile until reaching the Beech Forest Exclosure where the trail actually goes over the fence, twice.

Platform to walk over the fence at the Beech Forest Exclosure.

From here, its pretty much downhill and we keep our eyes peeled for the famous and yet somewhat hidden "Hiker's Tunnel". There are several 'trails' that walk to the road along this stretch. Although Eddie had convinced Randy and myself he was 99.9% sure he knew where the tunnel was, my confidence was waning. Oh, who am I kidding? I thought he was full of crap and that we'd most likely missed it. Just then we came to a steep and rocky water drain and Eddie attempted a joke by saying that it was the trail to the tunnel. When I turned to look, I saw what could possibly indeed be the tunnel. What a coincidence, eh? I nominated myself to scout it out and sure enough, we'd found it. If not for Eddie's smart aleck little joke, we'd probably missed it.

The Hiker's Tunnel!

View from Clingmans Dome Road directly above the Hiker's Tunnel.

From here, the hike is all but over and we are soon back in the Newfound Gap parking lot. This is a very impressive hike and certainly one worthy of doing again someday. Just another reminder of how blessed we are to live so close to not only the Smoky Mountains but also the Appalachian Trail that dissects it. Great hike!


TRAIL REVIEW

Appalachian Trail - 7.7 miles

Clingmans Dome Overlook

The "Hiker's Tunnel"

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

There is loads of information in the pages of GoSmokies.com.

West Prong, Bote Mountain and Crib Gap Trails

Hike #43 : August 7, 2015

18.5 miles

8.3 new miles
544.1 total overall miles

374.5 total miles of 800.8

West Prong Trail

What to do on a Friday when I don't have to go to work? Let's go hiking!

As I arrived at Tremont, the weather was a bit on the wet side. Actually, quite a bit.

The hike begins at the West Prong Trailhead parking lot which is located on the right just before reaching the Tremont Institute. As the hike began, it was raining and cool. Yes, cool. After so much 90 degree plus weather lately, it felt almost chilly outside. I love it!

Almost immediately, there is a side trail leading up to the Walker Cemetery. Its an uphill walk but not as steep as many cemeteries. I give it a quick look before heading back down to the trail since its raining a bit much for picture taking.

Walker Cemetery

After making it back to the trail, it waste no time heading uphill. At a little more than a quarter of a mile, a well traveled trail branches off to the right. This trail returns to the cemetery so I keep to the left and continue a steady climb for about another mile or so until it levels out and begins a downhill walk. For about a mile the trail drops steadily until coming to Campsite #18. This is a rather large, nice campsite divided by the West Prong and joined by a footbridge.

Footbridge at Campsite #18

Here's where doing my homework would have paid off. Would have. After crossing the bridge, the trail spills into the other side of the campsite. There are several "trails". A well worn trail to the left, a clumsy trail straight up a ridge, a trail to the left that appears to lead to another campsite... uh, hmmm. Which way to go? The trusty ol' GPS is telling me the trail continues to the left so I go left on the well worn path. After a short while, the path becomes less and less worn and damn near disappears. The GPS now informs me the trail is to my right so I take a few steps off the trail (I know, bad idea) just to see if I can see the real trail. Soon I'm standing next to thick Rhododendron and a huge ridge. Time to retrace my steps back to the campsite. I return all the way back to the bridge and then I see a campsite sign to the right and boom! The trail picks up directly across from that sign. So, a right turn from the bridge and a left turn at the camp sign. Got it.

From here, its just over half a mile up to the junction with Bote Mountain. Its a very steady uphill half mile. At the junction, I take a right onto Bote Mountain and its .3 mile to the next junction with Finley Cane Trail. This is where I'll be coming out later on my way back out. For now, its onward and upward on Bote Mountain.

The evil majesty that is Bote Mountain

Bote Mountain has a reputation as a steep, rocky hellish trail. The first mile and a half does nothing but justify that reputation as I climb and climb and climb. Then something unexpected happens. It levels out to a flat comfortable and, dare I say, easy trail. I found it remarkably beautiful as I was surrounded by pine trees and the foggy mist that is so common in these wonderful mountains.

There are several glimpses of the surrounding mountains along the way as I reach the junction with the Lead Cove Trail. A right turn leads down Lead Cove. I've previously blogged about this trail here as part of my hike to Thunderhead so I'll skip on ahead to where Lead Cove connects with Laurel Creek Rd.

Directly across Laurel Creek Road is the Trailhead to Turkeypen Ridge Trail which connects to Crib Gap Trail. I hadn't planned on taking Crib Gap since it would add over 3 miles to an already lengthy hike but the weather was cool, it had stopped raining some time ago and Randy, my hiking buddy who was not with me today, had encouraged me to go ahead and knock it out while I was here. So at the junction, just .2 mile along Turkeypen, I could have turned right onto Finley Cane and headed back out but instead I go left onto Crib Gap.

Crib Gap begins as a rather easy uphill walk and I soon spot what must have been an old homestead. Rock piles indicating there was probably a farm here and what looked like a long ago fallen chimney are all tell-tale signs. So, of course, I have to wander around off trail for a while as the rain picked up again. As I finally reach Laurel Road again, I notice there are no trail signs on either side of the road but I knew from looking at the map (I did do a little homework!) that Crib Gap crossed to the other side and continued on to the Anthony Creek Trail. So I crossed and continued.

After crossing the road, the trail heads up. Steadily. Its not really steep but more than I'd expected. Now there have been a few occasions in my many hikes that I have felt, quite strongly, the the park's mileage is slightly off. This is one of those times. 1.6 miles my ass. This trail seemed to go and go and go. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice trail and all but knowing I have to turn around and come back is severely hurting my moral. There is a really nice resting area for idiots like myself just before reaching Anthony Creek.

A nice resting spot near the end (or beginning) of Crib Gap

  
Just for the record, I checked my GPS when I got to Anthony Creek and again when I made it back to the Crib Gap Trailhead and it was exactly 2 miles. Just saying.

After getting back to the the beginning of Crib Gap and the junction with Turkeypen and Finley, I continue straight on to Finley Cane going through the tunnel beneath Laurel Creek Road.

Very cool tunnel to rock-hop through on the Finley Cane Trail

I've also already blogged about the Finley Cane Trail here. After 2.8 miles, Finley comes out onto Bote Mountain as I stated near the beginning of this long winded blog and then I retrace me steps along the West Prong Trail back. I will share this nice little tidbit. I was stepping up the pace on the way out because, well, frankly, I was over it and ready to get back to the cemetery and on to the parking lot. I was at a slow jog until I came upon a bunch of roots and slowed back down. No sooner had I slowed down, I slid on a wet root and wiped out pretty badly. I'm sure it was a funny sight to see but, fortunate for me, no one did. Guess I should have kept the jog going. Anyway, I stopped by the cemetery and paid my respects and took some pictures before finally heading out.

I was exhausted! But it was one heck of a day!



TRAIL REVIEW

West Prong Trail - 2.7 miles (one way)

Bote Mountain Trail - 4 miles

Lead Cove Trail - 1.8 miles

Turkeypen Ridge Trail - .2 mile

Crib Gap Trail - 1.6 miles (one way)

Finley Cane Trail - 2.8 miles

Campsite #18

Walker Cemetery

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

There is loads of information in the pages of GoSmokies.com.

Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail traverses roughly 71 miles through the Great Smoky Mountains. Rather than trying to hike the whole thing at once (as if), I pick up sections here and there along the way. Below are links to the various blogs that include bits and pieces of the AT.

Shuckstack

This is where the AT begins in the southwest part of Smokies at Fontana Dam heading northbound. It's a 3.7 mile hike passing the Shuckstack Fire Tower and intersecting with Twentymile and Lost Cove trails.

View from the Shuckstack fire tower

Rocky Top

This section of the AT goes from the trail junction with Russell Field to Rocky Top and on to Thunderhead Mountain and covers approximately 4.5 miles.

View from good ol' Rocky Top, Tennessee

Derrick Knob

This section of the AT connects the Derrick Knob shelter to Cold Spring Knob at the junction with the Miry Ridge Trail and covers about 2.5 miles.

The Derrick Knob Shelter

Silers Bald

This section of the AT travels from the popular Clingmans Dome to the Silers Bald shelter covering just under 4 miles.

One of many magnificent views from the Appalachian Trail heading to Silers Bald

Charlies Bunion

This section of the AT begins at the Newfound Gap parking lot and continues about four and a half miles up past Icewater Spring shelter to Charlies Bunion passing Sweat Heifer and the Boulevard trails along the way.  

A nice view from Charlies Bunion

Cosby Knob

This section of the AT travels from Inadu Knob past Camel Gap Trail and Cosby Knob shelter to Low Gap Trail covering 4.7 miles.

White Blaze from near the Cosby Knob shelter

Mt. Cammerer

From Low Gap, the AT travels 2.1 miles to the Mount Cammerer Trail and continues 5.2 miles on to Davenport Gap to the northeast ending its journey through the Smoky Mountains.

View from the Mount Cammerer Fire tower just over half a mile from the AT

Appalachian Trail Conservancy

Visit Hiking in the Smokies for more information.