Pretty Hollow Gap and Little Cataloochee Trails

Hike #65 : April 17, 2016

17 miles

9.9 new miles
732.2 total overall miles

486.8 total miles of 800.8

View from the Mount Sterling fire tower.

I'm joined on my 65th hike in pursuit of the elusive 900 club membership by my lovely wife, Denise, my very good friend and hiking buddy, Randy Hullinger and none other than THE Jedi himself, Mr. Mike Maples!

The gang!

This 17-miler begins on the previously hiked Mt. Sterling Trail. I won't go into detail about it since I've already blogged about it here. But I will say its an amazing trail... beautiful views, solitude, peacefulness, the majesty of the birds of spring pooping on my wife.

Cleaning up the little birdie poo thinking she was well hidden behind Randy.
No one escapes the camera eye! Lol!

Anyway, after the steep climb to the fire tower, Denise and I made our way up while the smarter of the group, Randy and Mike, waited safely on solid ground. As I've said this time and many times before, I hate heights. It was comforting, however, when Denise pointed out the missing step and how rotten the wood seemed to be by stomping it with her foot. That wasn't scary at all. Thanks, babe!

Up on the tower of death.. uh, I mean the Mt. Sterling fire tower.
Photo by Mike Maples

After surviving the fire tower and taking tons of great pictures including one of the distant Mt. Cammerer fire tower...

...we were off down the Mount Sterling Ridge Trail to the junction with Pretty Hollow Gap where the new adventure begins.

At the junction with Pretty Hollow Gap

The first mile of Pretty Hollow was incredibly alive with spring flowers! As far as the eyes could see the forest floor was blanketed in beauty. No doubt how the trail was given it's name!

Pretty Hollow continues downhill and along Palmer Creek passing more flowers and a few really large trees.

Pretty Hollow really reminded me of another favorite trail of mine named Camel Gap. They both follow along a creek looking down to some flat, wet areas. There are numerous cascades and waterfalls along the trail on Pretty Hollow Creek, although nearly all of them would require some heavy duty off trail hiking which was not on the agenda for this particular hike. Tempting as it was. There were a few that were impressive though...

At just under 4 miles from Sterling Ridge, We pass campsite #39. A very large horse friendly camp.

Campsite #39

Since we had the original Jedi with us, we were lucky enough to visit a few old home sites just past the campsite. Mike can smell the dang things!

Some cool Jedi finds off Pretty Hollow Gap

The trail is 4.8 miles from Sterling Ridge to the junction with Little Cataloochee Trail although it really seemed longer than that. Even though Randy really, really, really wanted to add the extra .8 mile one way to Cataloochee Road, I played the part of evil dictator (his words, not mine) and insisted we head on up Little Cataloochee as planned.

Little Cataloochee Trail is an immediate surprise. The uphill was expected but the rocky, wet, muddy mess wasn't so much. Sometimes the little brown book is extremely helpful. Sometimes its extremely misleading, especially when it comes to trail profiles. Regardless of how it looks in the book, after having already walked a butt load of miles, this was some serious uphill.

When doing a little trail prep, I'd read Mike Gourley's Cataloochee Blog and was very interested in finding the single child grave of Charlie Burress. Gourley's directions were right on. Maples and I hiked the steep ridge up to the grave. Probably the steepest half mile of the entire day but worth every step. The grave rests upon the very top of what was most likely the most spectacular view in the area. Beautiful.

The grave of Charlie Burress  1907 - 1909

Returning to the trail and the uphill climb, our next stop was the barn remains just before reaching Davidson Gap.

Fading barn remains

At just under 2 miles along Little Cataloochee (what felt like about 10 miles!) we finally reached Davidson Gap and gladly began a little downhill action! We soon come across many signs of past life. Fence posts, rock walls... and about that time, Randy quietly and nonchalantly says "bear". The rest of us would have completely missed them. A very tired mom and her two cubs.

 A half a mile later the Dan Cook cabin comes in to view.

Dan Cook cabin

The cabin and surrounding property are beautiful. There's also the remains of an old apple house directly across from the cabin.

Apple house remains

From here the trail is more like I expected it to be all along, more or less a flat and wide roadbed. About three quarters of mile down the trail and we came to the Little Cataloochee Baptist Church. A magnificent beauty sitting up on a hill along with a cemetery.

Little Cataloochee Baptist Church

As Randy and I were paying our respects and having a serene quiet moment in the cemetery, a couple of nuts started ringing the church bell and scared the beejeezus out of us! Real funny, guys!

This was Denise's first hike with Mike and it seemed that they really hit it off... she loves listening to a good story and Mike sure loves to tell them! She also did a good job keeping up with him and that ain't easy.

Pressing on, we cross the Little Cataloochee Creek just before reaching the Hannah Cabin at just under four miles.

Hannah Cabin

Just past the cabin, the trail junctions with Long Bunk Trail leaving us with about a mile to go back to the car.

An amazing day! I'm so blessed to be able to hike with such terrific people in the most beautiful place on earth. Thanks for a great day, guys!

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.