Smokies, Bunker Hill Mountain Bike Ride, 12-18-94,

At the beginning of the year Peggy and I had done a hike up Gregory Bald from Cades Cove. This is a common route, except that we had ridden our mountain bikes from Cades Cove to the trailhead. This time Jonathan, Peggy, and I were looking to do a similar hybrid bike/hike trip and targeted the old Bunker Hill Fire tower site.

The Bunker Hill Tower and cabin in 1941 from Open Parks.

At that time the spur road to Bunker Hill was still shown on park maps. The spur starts from the gravel Parson Branch Road, the one way road connecting Cades Cove to US 129 (Aka, the tail of the dragon). Parson Branch Road is prone to washouts from rainstorms, and can be closed for years at a time before the NPS is able to reconstruct it. Sometimes the road is closed to vehicles but remains open to hikers and bikers. We decided to take advantage of one of these windows.

We rode from the entry to the paved Cades Cove Loop Road around the north side of the loop for 5.5 miles to Cable Mill. Here we turned off onto the gravel Forge Creek Road, and pedaled another 2.2 miles to the Gregory Ridge Trailhead, where the gravel Parsons Branch Road begins. December is as quiet as the Cove gets, and we must have had an uneventful ride as I made no notes for this part of the trip.

Parson Branch is steeper, and rougher than Forge Creek (hence its susceptibility to flooding), and gave us our first real climbing of the ride.  But even though it was closed to vehicles, we found it in reasonably good shape for biking. The bank was eroded away in one spot, and there were other areas near the start where cobles had been washed into the road, but a good 4WD driver could have driven it easily.

In 1.3 miles we came to an open gate that marked the start of the tower road to Bunker Hill. We started in on the bikes, but the tower road quickly became too rough and overgrown for riding. We didn’t know how long the tower had been closed, but obviously long enough for trees to start growing! The tower was probably abandoned in the mid-1970s when the park service switched to areal fire spotting, and was torn down in the mid-1980s when liability from the abandoned and unmaintained towers became a concern. The road to Bunker Hill is shown as a trail on the 1931 park map, and as a road to the tower on the 1949 map. The access road and tower are both shown on the latest USGS Quad.

After a half mile we gave up trying to ride and walked the last ~1.8 miles to the tower site. The tower road was visible, and it was an obvious and easy winter walk. At the tower site we could see the footings, some old car batteries, and an antenna, but there was no view. A 2011 MS thesis on Smokies Towers from Clemson University indicates that the tower was built in 1941 by the CCC. The 60 foot metal tower had an accompanying cabin that was still standing in 1968.

On our return we noted that much of the south side of Bunker Hill Lead had burned relatively recently. Once back on the bikes it was an easy ride under cold clear skies back to the cars. I thought this was a trip worth repeating, but have subsequently only been back twice to the tower site, both times on off trail hikes coming up from US 129.

On 11-18-07 with Jean, Claudia, Clyde, and Nan we climbed off trail up Tabcat Creek to the tower and back. The batteries and footers on Bunker Hill were still in place, along with a few scraps of metal.

On 11-20-11 Jean, Claudia, and I hiked the off trail Grassy Flats-Revenue Road Loop. At the tower site we still saw the batteries, this time with some sort of stand and some PVC piping. We walked some of the Bunker Hill Road down to the south end of a “V” where the Revenue Road started, and the tower road was well overgrown by then! 

Jean and I at the Bunker Hill Tower site in 2011.

Curry Mtn. Meigs Creek Trail Run, 12-11-94

 At first glance East Tennessee doesn’t seem like the type of place that gets more than its fair share of storms. It is a long way from the coast, not in tornado alley, and receives relatively little snow. But the Great Smoky Mountains get plenty of severe storms, and especially did so in the first few years I lived here. My move in day was during the Blizzard of 1993, when Knoxville got an unprecedented 15 inches of snow. In 1994 a late March rainstorm triggered record high river flows, and closed three roads in the park. And in 1995, the strong winds and heavy rains of Hurricane Opal closed multiple trails in the park.

It was the March 1994 storm that taught me a few lessons about making the best of these events. The storm damaged three main park roads: the Laurel Creek Road to Cades Cove, the Little River Road between Elkmont and the Townsend Wye, and the Tremont Road between the Laurel Creek Road and the Tremont Institute. The Laurel Creek Road was fixed relatively quickly, but the damage to the other roads was severe, and the roads were closed for months. Streams had risen to record levels, closing all the roads in the park, and causing an estimate $1million in damage, to trails, campgrounds, and picnic areas.

But the 1994 storm did not destroy entire roads, just certain sections where the power of the flooding carved away banks and undercut roadbeds. The park kept these roads closed until repairs were complete, but also allowed foot access when safe and practical. As repair stretched into the following winter the two roadways were open to foot travel, providing a unique opportunity to run on what is normally a heavily trafficked highway. With part of the Little River Road closed to traffic, but open to foot traffic, I could complete the Meigs Creek-Curry Mountain loop, a trip I never would have contemplated with normal traffic on the two miles of busy, narrow, and curvy roadway. I also was able to run on the closed Tremont Road and Lumber Ridge Trail during a lull in that road repair. 

Both runs were part of my training for the long ago Smoky Mountain Marathon (Marathon), much of which I did on the trails. Both runs were also recorded in my Smokies Notes, an early attempt at an electronic journal. For this post I’ve included a copy edited version of my original notes for both trips, along with some recent (2025) annotations. I do not have pictures from any of my early Smokies trail runs, and these runs took place well before the development of GPS.

Curry Mountain-Meigs Creek trails loop run, 12-11-94

~12.5 mi., 1100’ climb, 2:20 for the main 10.9 mile loop, Solo

I ran all of the loop except a few food breaks.  There was a dusting of snow on Curry Mtn and Meigs Mtn, both of these are old roads.  The snow was beautiful and temperatures around freezing. Jean is grading exams; too bad she missed it.  There's a random sign on Meigs Mtn. Trail reading “Meigs Creek.” I'll bet it marks the start of a manway.  Meigs Creek Trail itself is tough. I barely made some of the crossings without getting my feet wet.  I ran back to Metcalf Bottoms on the Little River Road which is now closed again after last spring’s flood.  The 2.2 miles of road I ran did not look to be in that bad shape, but it was great to run the road and watch the river without any traffic.  Since I still felt strong, I also ran up to the Little Greenbrier School and returned by the road to add an extra 1.5 miles to my loop.

This was my first trail run since the 17 mile race at the Big South Fork in the fall, and I missed these runs.  Jean and I will be apart four weekends in a row over the holidays, and as much as I will miss her I know I can spend my time on the trails looking forward to the hikes we'll take together next year.

2025 updates: The loop was clockwise from Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area, up Curry Mountain, over on Meigs Mtn., down Meigs Creek, and back on the closed roadway. The Meigs Mountain mystery sign may have marked Campsite 19.

Lumber Ridge Trail Run, 1-22-95

12.4 miles, ran about 9 miles, 2400’, 2:41, Solo

I chose Lumber Ridge for another run because Jean probably wouldn't be interested in it, and it is also a short section of trail I haven't been on.  The Tremont Road is closed to unauthorized vehicles, so I ran it also.  The road is washed out in four places, the last is the worst. Here the road is undercut, and one lane has dropped into the river.  This is the best spot I've seen for an erosion photo yet.

Lumber Ridge is a tough climb, and I could tell early on that I didn't have much energy.  There are two areas of bad blowdowns, but nothing like Roundtop.  In some shaded areas there was nearly complete ground cover of snow, other areas were completely bare.  Saw some tracks, mostly deer, and no people on the trail.  There may be a fourth unmaintained trail at the junction with Meigs Mtn and Meigs Creek trails. There appears to be another trail that comes up from Tremont to intersect the trail at an old signpost.  There are a few winter views through the trees, otherwise not much to recommend this trail.  

Crested Dwarf Iris on Lumber Ridge Trail (5-3-15)

2025 Updates: Lumber Ridge Trail, plus various distances along the Meigs Mountain Trail, would become one of my favorite trail runs due to the nearly perfect footing on the trail. I now hike up the long first climb from the Institute. The Tremont Road is also the start of both my 12 and 17 miles loops from the Townsend Y, so I’ve now run that section of road over 100 times. The nearby Roundtop Trail was covered in blow downs when I ran it on January 7. The “fourth unmaintained Trail” is the start of the Spruce Flats Manway, later to become one of our favorite off trail routes. The “old signpost” or “M” Trail is a Tremont Institute trail that I have never explored. Besides having great footing for running, Lumber Ridge is an excellent wildflower trail in spring.

Pink Lady Slipper on Lumber Ridge Trail (5-3-15)