Once you’ve been in the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club a while you can appreciate the skill of the hikers selected to lead the club’s hikes. It takes effort to scout out a route, write up the trip description, and then lead a group through a long hike safely and with no one getting lost. I’d already co-led one hike with the club when I was asked to help lead an off trail hike for November 1998 on the Collins Creek Manway.
Leading
hikes on marked trails is tough enough, but leading hikes off trail in the
Smokies is at a whole other level. I’d been on some off trail hikes with the
club and done well on those, but leading off trail requires even more
responsibility. Luckily Ronnie McGaha would lead the hike, I would co-lead, and
Charlie Klabunde had offered to help us scout the manway. My role as coleader
would be to sweep to make sure the hikers stayed on the route together, and to
help with the navigation as needed.
Collins
Creek was considered a “manway” a loose term for a trail or road that had once
been established, but was no longer maintained. In the Smokies manways ranged
from those nearly as well beaten in as maintained trails, to those heavily
overgrown and nearly impossible to find. Collins Creek was in the middle of
that range. Part of the route was originally an old logging railroad, and the
rest was foot trail, likely built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation
Corps of CCC. Many of the old CCC trails were never maintained by the park
after World War II, and never considered part of the official park trail network.
Collins Creek Trail is shown on the 1931 park topographic map, and the 1949 topographic
map shows that the CCC had added the long switchback at 4200’ to the trail. The
trail is shown on the 1968 park topographic map. However, along with Big Branch
near Mt Sterling and the Porters Creek manway up Dry Sluice Branch, Collins
Creek was one of the three trails described in the 1973 Sierra Club Smokies
trail guidebook (aka the old blue book) that was not part of the official trail
network, but still got a full trail write-up. From that timing I guess that the
trail had been abandoned by the late 1960s.
In
the analog era of the 1990s there was no GPS to guide hikers on old overgrown
trails. But Charlie had hiked the route three times previously, and had sent
Ronnie a detailed description and map of the route he had used. To guide us
through, we would have the Sierra Club guide, Charlie’s notes, and best of all
Charlie himself, who was one of the most respected and skilled off trail hikers
in the club. Jean, who had done little off trail hiking, would join us along
with James, who was curious to see the route.
The
first hurdle for the hike was snow. Fresh snow is a nonstarter for most off
trail hiking as every step through the thick Smokies vegetation seems to dump a
fresh load of cold wet slush down the
hiker’s clothes. Driving in, we saw our first snow near the Alum Cave Trailhead
and there was about three inches at Newfound Gap with light drizzle. But by
Collins Creek Picnic Area we had lost the snow and rain. The PC Area was closed
but we were able to park and meet up with Charlie and Ronnie. There was
substantial hog damage at the PC Area.
Charlie
would lead almost all the scouting hike. From the pavilion, the route started
as a quiet walkway which passed a pumphouse, then climbed to the right to reach
the railroad grade. We passed two old bridges, the second on a tributary to the
NW. About two minutes later we crossed to the left side and picked up a decent
path. Then we crossed two small branches on the left side. It took about ten
minutes to reach the first blowdowns. Much of the lower railroad grade was
still visible, but it was overgrown and covered by blowdowns making a difficult
first 1.2 miles, that probably was more used by fishermen then hikers. There
was at least one creek crossing and a lot of rhodo here. Beyond that the valley
opened up and we had only minor rhodo. A set of switchbacks took us above the
creek on the left side. The hiking through the valley section was very pretty
and there was even a touch of fall left. We cut directly across Newton Branch
to avoid more rhodo. The Sierra Club guide indicated that the railroad grade
ended about a half mile past the Newton Branch crossing, and before the next
crossing of Collins Creek. At 4200’ we bypassed a long switchback to go
directly up hill, and away from the creek, a maneuver that Charlie recommended.
Overall, the unobvious spots were the first creek crossing, the first set of
switchbacks, and the final switchback near Thomas Divide. However, if one lost
the route a default, but much more difficult option, would be to just follow
the creek.
We
generally followed the map route, but did cut off the meandering switchback at
the 4200’ level. With a strong scouting crew, it took 3:15 to reach the Thomas
Divide Trail at its junction with the Newton Bald Trail. This was rougher than
Jean needed for her first off trail hike, but she was strong enough to be able
to enjoy the route.
Ronnie
and Charlie elected to return down the manway for another view of the route.
Jean, James, and I hiked out via Thomas Divide Trail
to our car. It was our first time on that amazing ridgetop hike. We saw two
backpacking groups that had braved the snow. There was minor hog damage on Thomas
Divide.
Collins Creek on the 1931 Smokies Map
10-24-98,
Recon by Jean and HR
With
the SMHC trip coming up, Jean and I decided to review the lower section of
Collins Creek, after a hike on the Newton Bald Trail. We limited ourselves to
30 minutes on the way out, so didn’t have time to reach the switchbacks near
the one mile mark. We ended up turning around in a nasty patch of rhodo for
about 1.5 miles roundtrip. We found some fishing gear along the manway.
Collins Creek on the 1949 Smokies map.
11-15-18,
SMHC Hike
The
club hike covered 10 miles and included Ronnie, Jean and I, Charlie, and Ray
Payne. I was nervous about leading some of the more difficult route finding,
but Ronnie and Charlie did almost all the leading. Luckily, our weather was
good, cool, and clear.
Charlie
made the first creek crossing higher up than Jean and I had, and at a tougher
spot. But then he moved more left and hit the railroad grade at a better spot. It
took 30 minutes to reach the first clearing. Ray had also done the route before
and thought that the small clearing at the point where the RR grade leaves the
creek was an old home site or lumber camp. Unfortunately, he also thought it
was the place where the trail kept along the creek, and I had a brief scare after
spotting him from above and needing to track him down. It was one hour to where
the trail returned to creek past the Newton Branch crossing.
Otherwise,
we repeated our scouting route except for a modified Klabunde cut-off at about
the two hour mark. Instead of climbing a small draw we went up an allegedly
easier ridge to avoid blowdowns. We got to the Thomas Divide Trail in only
three hours and ate lunch there. I don’t know of any other trip where the
scouting hike was slower than the larger club hike. Our return was down the
Kanati Fork Trail (my first time), which was unexceptional with the leaves
down.
Overall,
the trip had gone well. Our obsession with off trail hiking wouldn’t fully
bloom until we finished hiking all the trails in the park in 2002, but Collins
Creek was a great chance to start to learn how to follow old trails, navigate
in the dense forest, and lead an off trail hike from one of the masters.
