Green Camp Gap Manway, Smokies Off-trail, 12-21-02

If I had to pick the trip that launched our passion for off trail hiking the Green Camp Gap manway would likely be my choice. By then Jean and I had finished hiking all the trails in the Smokies. I was working on my biking guide, but we missed the thrill of chasing a big goal, and exploring the Smokies off trail would become a huge one. I had been keeping a boot off the trail, going on a couple of off trail trips every year, mostly with the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, and was picking up some skills. Early in our off trail days we mostly joined club hikes, or tried to repeat recent club hikes that we might have missed.

Green Camp Gap was one of those missed hikes. The week before we had passed on the hike because of bad weather, but a group had gone out anyway. But we knew the leader and he gave us some good information about the route. We also got some information from Charlie Klabunde, whose route information was always top notch. I was able to enter some waypoints into my old Garmin Etrex that would help to verify our progress. With that knowledge, the fitness we had gained from hiking the 900 milers, and the experience we had gained with the club, we felt ready for the challenge.

I’d worked hard preparing for the trip, doing all the GPS and map work. If we were able to pull this trip off, I felt that a lot of off-trail trips would be within reach for us.

The route started at the Upper Tremont Trailhead. On the far side of the bridge over the Middle Prong, a side trail splits to the right. It was 10 AM. In a few hundred yards is a metal bridge over Thunderhead Prong. Charlie indicated that the metal bridge was relatively new, and had been put in place to support the red wolf introduction program. The experimental reintroduction of red wolves into the park lasted from 1991 to 1998 when the USFW agency cancelled the property due to the low survival rate of pups born in the park.

On the far side of the bridge was the famed Thunderhead Prong RR grade. Our first obstacle was Long Branch (10:19, my notes on times are reassuringly precise). The foot log was in the middle of the creek and covered in ice. On what should have been an easy rock hop of Thunderhead Prong, I dropped one boot in the water. Jean crawled across the log there with no problems. We found the switchback at Sams Creek at one mile easily. We knew another manway extended upstream along Sams from the switchback, but there would be time for that another day. There was a rock hop to cross Shut-In Creek that was harder than Long Branch. We reached it at 10:59. Another switchback at BM 2732’ was obvious. We were clicking off our landmarks at an assuring rate. I was taking GPS waypoints and Jean was taking photos.

We reached the start of the Green Camp Gap manway just past BM 2732’ at the third switchback at 11:17 and at 2.25 miles. The Thunderhead Prong Railroad Grade had been wide and well used to this point. It continued to look good heading further upstream to New World.

We stopped at the junction for lunch, then began to hike east on the manway. It started as a short railroad switchback, then narrowed to trail width. Presumably Green Camp Gap was part of the CCC-era mid-elevation trail system that was abandoned by the park shortly after WWII. The trail was easy to follow to another tough rock hop of upper Shut-in Creek. The trail was briery and more overgrown from Shut-in to a gap at 3154’ which we reached at 12:38. Then it was better walking on the east facing slope to the crossing of Sams Creek, except for a patch of rhodo near the creek. We reached Sams Creek about 1:30 and at about  4.2 miles. The Sams Creek Manway looked well used and was marked by a large rock pile. The crossing was downstream by a well-used trail. We both took our boots off and waded. The crossing was less than knee deep.

Fording Sams Creek 2002.

The east side trail was in much better condition, I described it as “great’. We zipped over Green Camp Gap and reached the Middle Prong Trail near BM 2515’ and the location of an old, abandoned car at about 5.75 miles, all new off trail miles! The Smokies brown book relates a recollection that the car was a Cadillac, owned by a CCC supervisor. When the car broke down, the camp just moved it off the road and out of the way. We had just a short walk back to the Upper Tremont Trailhead to finish at 7.4 miles.

It wasn’t until after our hike that we discovered that the leader’s advice was much less reliable than we had thought. It turns out that his club trip did not complete the manway. They had been unable to ford Sams Creek, and turned back from there to return to Tremont. I don’t know what type of advice would rise to the level of relatable, if news of an impassable creek ford did not. But we learned a valuable lesson, choose reliable sources.

We would hike the Green Camp Gap Manway twice more on 3-7-07 and 2-16-08. By March 2013 Clyde would report that the west side was very overgrown while the east side was still reasonably open. Though we haven’t used the manway much since, the Thunderhead Prong RR Grade remains an important gateway for off trail adventure.

The hike is on the club schedule for 2024, and I hope to be there.

3-4-07, Green Camp with Claudia

This was a last minute substitute as we bailed out of an attempt on the Dry Sluice Gap Manway after seeing how much snow there was in Sevierville.

The Green Camp Gap manway loop.

Cold may have contributed to sparse notes from this trip, and we did not even have a map for the route with us! 

Crossing Thunderhead Prong, 2007

We had a tough first ford over Thunderhead Prong. The were two hog traps before the Green Camp junction.

Testing the hog trap.

The manway was very brushy before reaching Shut-in Branch, but was better beyond. Sams Creek would have been another tough crossing, but luckily Jean found a log that led us across. We found manways up both Sams Ridge and the Green Camp Gap ridge, light snow makes old grades easier to see. We could also spot the manway up Sams Creek, which looked wide enough to be a road.

The Sams Creek crossing.

We also saw tracks on the east side of the manway coming up from the Middle Prong. 

Creel crossing on a log.

We did a lot of clipping on the manway, except in the areas of heaviest overgrowth. We got great pictures around the abandoned car near the Middle Prong Trail junction. Looking at my old map, it appears that I didn’t yet have a complete GPS track for the manway.

Old car near the Middle Prong Trail.

2-16-08, Green Camp with SHMC

My notes for this hike are sparse as well, perhaps because Jean and I were leading a SMHC group of 22. From the photos I can see Keith, Claudia, Dan, Guy Griffin, Bob & BJ Perlack, Carol Anderson, Elizabeth Davis, Ed Fleming, and Andy Zimmerman. 

Hikers along Thunderhead Prong.

I noted that I missed the Sams Creek switchback while absorbed in conversation. Luckily Keith caught my error, its always embarrassing to miss a turn while you are leading. We passed one hog trap on the Thunderhead Prong RR grade. Stream levels must have been down because we had no trouble with either ford of Shut-in Creek.

The west end of the Green Camp Creek manway was flagged. Along the manway we spotted some CCC-built rock walls. The upper Shut-in Creek watershed was briery. Guy Griffin fussed a bit, but the rest of the group took it in stride.

Ed along Sams Creek.

Most of the group were able to ford Sams Creek. On the east side of Sams Creek, the manway was in very good shape. We saw no one off trail, but lots on the trail.

The old car along the Middle Prong.

Smokies, Cataloochee Bike, 12-8-02

Cataloochee was the second of two rides that I decided to write up after Hurricane Helene damaged so much of western North Carolina and extreme eastern Tennessee in September of 2024 (Balsam). Both rides were part of my research for my 2003 guidebook “Backroads Bicycling in the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains” (Bike Guide). The nuts and bolts of both rides are included in the book, but some of the experiences I had riding these routes are left out. For the Cataloochee trip, I was also able to add part of the abandoned Hoglen Road, and a short stretch of the well maintained Asbury Trail. 

Elk in Cataloochee Valley

2002 was an incredibly busy year for Jean and I. I was contributing to the second edition of the Knoxville Sierra Club’s “Cherokee National Forest Hiking Guide” and finished up my scouting hikes in the Big Frog and Ocoee areas for that project in May. In June, Jean and I completed our project of hiking all the trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park together (900 mile finish). We would launch our Smokies off trail hiking adventures with my climb of LeConte via Lowes Creek in June with the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club Lowes Creek), and our solo trip on the Green Camp Gap Manway in December (Green Camp). We managed to still squeeze in some backpacking, including a trip to Cataloochee in October to view the elk bugling, and get some bonus pictures for the book.

Young bear exploring our Cataloochee campsite.

My scouting trips for the bike guide started in July. By December I was still on schedule and nearly done with all the rides. I’d left the Cataloochee ride for near the end, not realizing the danger of having the access roads closed by snow.

The Cataloochee road network is unusual in that Cove Creek Gap Road, the main access to Cataloochee is dirt, but there is an orphaned stretch of paved road in Cataloochee Valley. The paved segment is the remnant of a now abandoned plan to access Cataloochee from I-40 through Hoglen Gap. While the road to Hoglen Gap was paved, the rest of the project was abandoned soon after.

Fog in Cataloochee Valley.

I started my scouting ride at Cove Creek Gap at the park boundary. This minimized my driving, but left a long climb at the end to regain the highpoint of the ride. The book already had several long trips, and I was looking to add a moderate ride in Cataloochee. So, for the book, I moved the start down to the junction at Sal Patch Gap, which made for less climbing, plus eliminated another section of out and back riding. The book ride would follow the gravel road down to Cataloochee Creek, turn south and follow the road all the way to end at the Rough Fork and Big Fork ridge trailheads. Then it would return back past the campground and follow the paved road back to Sal Patch Gap. The 12.7 mile ride would be a loop, with a short side trip. 

The Palmer House.

As with my Balsam Mountain Ride in September I was going old school, using my bike odometer, paper maps, and a notebook. But this time I recorded the loop by GPS. I found the Cataloochee Auto Tour pamphlet to be a handy and informative. It saved me from having to transcribe all the information on the various displays across the valley. Cataloochee was the most settled of the areas that were incorporated into the national park, and much effort was made to preserve the buildings and heritage of those settlements.

From Sal Patch Gap I rode straight across the pavement and down gravel NC 284. The descent was smooth and easy with views of Mt Sterling ahead. After Old NC 284 turned north toward the Tennessee state line at two miles, I kept on the Cataloochee Creek Road which continued to drop toward the creek bottom at a bridge over the creek. That was easy! So far, so good. Next up was the Palmer House, first built in the 1860s and used as a ranger station in the early days of the park. 

Bridge over Cataloochee Creek

Four miles in I reached the paved section of the Cataloochee Creek Road. Here I turned right to continue to start the out and back section on the road along the creek out to its most distant trailheads. The riding was easy and there had been almost no traffic. Next I passed the seasonal Cataloochee Campground, a potential base camp for exploring the valley. I’d pass the “new” ranger station before getting to the end of the pavement at the Palmer Chapel at 6 miles. Just beyond is the Cataloochee Horse Camp and the trailhead for the Pretty Hollow Gap Trail. Pretty Hollow is one of those trial trails for hikers who need to tolerate the heavy horse traffic, and navigate all the droppings left behind by the horses. 

Palmer Barn in Cataloochee.

My comrade Hiram Calwell built the next house on the route in 1906. His is a much more modern building than the cabin style structures usually seen in the park. The gravel road ends at the trailheads for the Big Fork and Rough Creek trails. Unfortunately, it was time to turn around and head back. 

The Hiram Caldwell House in Cataloochee.

The wide meadows along the road back past the Palmer House are now the prime viewing areas for the Cataloochee elk herd. 52 elk were released into Cataloochee Valley in 2000 and 2001. In 2002 as I was writing the book, the release was still considered an experiment to determine the suitability of habitat for the elk. But elk have thrived in the valley and the herd will remain. Viewing the elk, particularly during the fall bugling season, proved so popular that a volunteer group was created to help monitor visitor interactions. Surprisingly, in fall Cataloochee was getting crowded. Relief from the crowds came from an even more surprising event. A few Cataloochee elk proved adventurous enough to explore other park areas. Some settled around the meadows of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center. The lush grasses around the VC proved prime habitat. Despite distracted drivers, the elk have prospered; emerging dutifully at dawn and dusk to graze and be photographed. That October, Jean and I had backpacked the short distance into nearby CS 40 to view photograph the Cataloochee elk.

Cataloochee Elk.

I finished the out and back leg just past the campground at ten miles where I turned off the Cataloochee Creek onto the paved road climbing toward Sal Patch Gap. So far the ride had been all downhill or flat, the surface smooth, and there was almost no traffic. Now was time to pay some dues, I was 900 feet below the Gap.

The climb proved steady and had several good vistas, especially from the overlook near the top. To the west I could see Balsam and Spruce mountains, and to the north was Mount Sterling Ridge. At 12.7 miles I finished the route I would use for the book and was ready for the adventure that I’d planned.

I knew that the paved section of the Cataloochee Road continued past the locked gate to the park boundary at Hoglen Gap. I also knew that the Asbury Trail connected Hoglen Gap to Cove Creek Gap where I had parked my car. Was it possible to ride the road, and then the Asbury Trail back to the car? This would depend on the condition of the Asbury Trail. If the scouts had abandoned their mission to maintain it, it could be impassable even on foot. But if maintenance was good, it might be possible to ride it on a mountain bike. Either way, I’d at least get a look at the paved section to Hoglen Gap. 

Start of Hoglen Gap Road.

The Hoglen Gap Road proved to be in great shape, The wild Smokies had still not reclaimed the unused section of pavement. The road ended just short of a fence at the gap on the park boundary. Here the yellow blazed Asbury Trail came in from the south alongside a collapsed rail fence.

Cataloochee Road junction.

Tentatively, I turned south on the Asbury Trail. To my delight it proved wide, well-marked, and easy to follow. Though it was mostly within the park, it was yellow blazed. There were a number of small blowdowns, but nothing major. Before the trail skirted the park boundary fence I passed a stack of stones that was probably a collapsed chimney. I was a tremendously lucky to be on the trail with it in such good condition. Back in those days finding any ridable single track was a rare treat. Near the end I could see the park road below me, and the trail became a bit rougher. Just shy of Cove Creek Gap was a metal Asbury Trail marker, but there was no Asbury marker at the gap. I assumed that the Asbury Trail continued east on a good dirt road that I learned on a 6-11-06 SMHC trip was on the Hultquist Property. My extra riding only accounted for four more miles. 

Metal marker for teh Asbury Trail.

The Asbury Trail is an historic route across the Appalachians near the Pigeon River. As a hiking trail, it extends along the eastern edge of the Smokies from Mt. Sterling Gap south to Cove Creek Gap. Farther north, the historic route presumably followed current NC 284 to Mt Sterling Village and Waterville. The trail also extends south from the park through the Hultquist property, where Charlie Klabunde had led a SMHC trip in 2006. Though it not an official park trail it is managed via a cooperative agreement between the park and the Pigeon River District, Daniel Boone Council, Boy Scouts of America. The Scouts were responsible for the marking and maintenance of the trail, but I was unable to confirm if that agreement is still in place. The agreement also gives the scouts access to a campsite near the crossing of NC 284 and Cataloochee Creek.

Charlie Klabunde leading SMHC hikers on the Asbury Trail

Jean and I would hike the rest of the Asbury Trail in two segments. On 6-10-06 (the day before our Hultquist trip) we hiked from the crossing at Cataloochee Creek to Cove Creek Gap and back for 5.2 miles roundtrip. That evening we hiked into CS 41 in the Cataloochee valley, then walked back in the valley at dusk to photograph elk. We hiked the northern section of the hiking trail from Cataloochee Creek to Mt Sterling Gap on 7-11-09 with the SMHC as a loop hike with the Long Bunk and Little Cataloochee trails picking up another 3.1 miles of Asbury Trail.

Smoky Mountain Hiking Club in Cataloochee.

The Asbury Trail wasn’t the only “off-trail” bike trip I took in the Smokies. Soon after I moved to Knoxville I was able to ride a section of the abandoned road to the Bunker Hill Fire Tower on the very west end of the park (Bunker Hill). Bunker Hill is now almost too overgrown to hike, but I do not have any current information on the Asbury Trail, or for that matter any of the Cataloochee Valley since Hurricane Helene.

Big South Fork Adventure Race, 11-2-2002

For their 2002 Pickett Adventure Race, Riversports was only accepting entries from three person teams. Luckily in June I’d met Mark when he was leading a SMHC trip off trail up Mt. Leconte. Mark is a strong runner and mountain biker, and also had some rock climbing experience, so he had the right skill set for the Pickett races.

We showed up at Pickett SP on Friday night for a gear check, I assumed we stayed at the group camp again. In the morning, we did a short shuttle for our bikes, and picked up our maps at 7AM for the 8AM start. The course was completely new, but the style very similar to 2001. The order was run, bike, rappel, orienteering, then a short bike ride back.

To start we ran out of the group camp across TN 154 onto Spraughs Ridge Road. At a turn off marked by a pumpkin we headed cross country down into Rock Creek and onto the John Muir Trail. CP 1 was an unmanned punch hanging above the creek. This was the narrow canyon section of Rock Creek, and we all got jammed together where a beaver dam had flooded the valley floor. At least we weren’t carrying the bikes this time! Luckily the racers could spread out after that. 

East side of the 2002 Pickett Adventure Race Map.

We ran past the John Muir Trail Trailhead on Blackhouse Mtn. Road to onto a less developed part of the Muir Trail, then finally hiked cross country to pick up our bikes at the intersection with Wagon Gap Road. The bike route was mostly wet and sandy roadway with a few side trips to checkpoints. A couple CP’s had minimal clues and were tough to find. But basically, we rode the Redmon Loop to clear four CP’s, and added a long out and back leg to the Yellow Doors Overlook and CP 6. This was remarkably nice gravel riding in an area unknown to local mountain bikers. Unfortunately, the area was found later by the local ATV riders, and has suffered from overuse since.

There was a difficult descent down a steep rocky route to Little South Fork (Little Rock Creek in my notes). One rider had fallen here, and needed to be hauled out. On the climb out we first noticed Steven slowing down due to cramping in his calf muscles. The out and back leg to the Yellow Doors was next, and we could see that five teams were well ahead of the rest. We were 11^th at the turnaround and managed to hold this place all the way to the rappel, despite some relatively slow biking. 

West side of the 2002 Pickett Adventure Race Map.

The rappel site was off of Blackhouse Mtn Road on private property above Johnson Branch. Despite having three ropes to use, the teams got all bunched up waiting to rappel. We waited about 30 minutes for our turn. I was about 3^rd in line when all of sudden one of the race people called for someone using a figure 8 descender, and next thing I knew I was up next.

There was about a 25’ drop to a shelf then a 150’ overhang with a completely free rappel. I was essentially too scared to look down, and descended super slowly. A woman on my right got her bib caught in her descending device. She called for a rescue, but then was able to rappel through it. Somehow our team reunited at the bottom of the rappel, and Mark took the lead on our navigating segment. We would end up circling around and below what is now (2025) the northern end of the Pouge Creek trail system.

Mark took a bearing, and we headed up a steep cross country slope. Steven was now moving very slowly. I had to do a quick scramble up a rock crack to gather CP 8. We gave Steven some salt tablets and water, but he immediately threw those up. Still, he was game to finish and forged on. Our pace was slow and steady, and we lost little ground to the other teams that we still clumped together with from the waiting in lines at the rappel.

Mark did the route finding as we traced a counter along the base of an awesome series of cliffs (now part of Pouge Creek). Steven was sick again at CP9, but we were nearly out of the woods (literally) by then, and still in around 11^th place. We had to run back on the road to fetch our bikes at the CP before the rappel, and a couple of teams caught us there. We tried to push hard on the bikes, but Steven once stopped hard enough that Mark almost rammed him.

We ended up in 9:08 and 17^th out of 25 finisher teams and 28 starters^. 11 teams finished within 17 minutes of each other. The distance measured with my Topo! software was 25.7 miles. With all his effort and sickness Steven was nearly done. He’d gotten sick one last time after the finish. I ended up driving him home to Knoxville, and then Mark drove me back to my house.

I don’t have a record of any other Riversports races at Pickett. As much fun as these races were to ride, the logistics involved must have complex with course monitors, gear shuttles and the like. Our group would team up again to do one more Riversports race at Fall Creek Falls in 2003, but it seems the race series did not last long after that season. 

My Topo! version of the 2002 Pickett Adventure Race Map.

Smokies, Foothills Parkway Mountain Biking, 10-5-2002

My preferences for places to enjoy the outdoors rarely change. I love the Smokies and Cumberland mountains for hiking, running, and exploring off trail, and cherish the many parks around Knoxville for shorter trips on the bike and on foot. And I’ve run the West Hills and Tenmile Greenways near home a couple of times a week for decades. But sometimes my tastes do change, and courses that were once solid favorites can fall completely off the radar. One of those lost and “almost forgotten” routes is the section of the Foothills Parkway east of US 321 near Walland.

Welcome to the Foothills Parkway.

I’d lived in Knoxville for six years before I headed out there for a run, and wouldn’t return for another three years to try it on the bike. But something clicked and the Parkway (including the western section from US321 to US 129 past Look Rock) became one of my favorite places to ride and hike for an intense three-year stretch. After that I’ve made a few trips, but the Parkway has changed so much that I hardly recognize my old friend.

The gate at the US 321 access to the Parkway.

Current Knoxvillians may not believe it, but when I first moved to the area in 1993 neither trail running nor mountain biking were popular activities. I was used to having a million acres of national forest roads and trails out my back door, but there were few places nearby Knoxville with the distance, surface, and scenery for good mountain biking. There wasn’t much help from guidebooks in the 1990s either, though I would eventually help fill that gap with my own backroad bicycling guide for the Smokies and Blue Ridge areas Guide.

What information existed then was on the East Tennessee Mountain Bike section of Tom Dunigan’s Tennessee Landforms website. (TN Landforms)

The SMHC trip to the snowy Parkway.

1-3-99, “Trail” Run

East Tennessee Mountain Bike was a bare bones site, but it had all the info needed to plan a ride serious or otherwise. I’d read through the site, but never tried the Foothills Parkway section until January 3, 1999 after I drove Jean to the airport for a conference and I was looking for somewhere to run close by in the Smokies. At that time, we referred to the section to the west of US 321 (formally sections 8G and 8H) as the “Look Rock” section, and the uncompleted section (formally sections 8E and 8F) to the east as the “Closed” or “Gated” section. The NPS allowed hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders on the closed section, but kept it closed to motor vehicles except on special occasions, such as fall leaf viewing.

Jean and a rare Tennessee snowman.

I knew little about the Parkway then and was surprised to find the road was paved, but rough in places. The first three miles were a serious climb before the grade lessened. I went about seven miles roundtrip in 66 minutes, turning around at a survey marker after completing the first big climb. There were great views south toward the Little River and across to the Smokies foothills. I couldn’t help but notice the rocky roadcuts with strong iron staining among the shales and sandstones. The weather was clear and calm and around 20-25F. I saw one other pair of hikers, first timers as well. The Look Rock section was also closed that day.

On the Look Rock section of the Parkway.

10-5-02, Bike Ride

Despite having such an enjoyable inaugural run, I did not return to the Parkway until late 2002. At that time, I was writing my biking guide and was looking to achieve a balance of locations and conditions for rides. I planned to include the Look Rock section in the book and then briefly describe the closed section as an alternative or addition to the Look Rock Section. I’d already ridden the west section (a 35-mile round trip twice over the top of Look Rock) when I headed to the closed section on October 5, 2002.

The Look Rock section was in good shape, and I usually used my road bike there. The closed section was rougher, and I suspect I used my mountain bike, but didn’t record which bike I was on for any of my rides on the Parkway. For the ride I made a detailed road log, noting all the features that a curious rider might encounter, and took the picture that would be used in my book to illustrate the ride.

From the dirt parking area at the gate across the Parkway it was a quarter mile to the end of the bridge over US 321, The first climb is a doozy, about 760’ in the next 2.5 miles. A pair of pullouts with views over Tuckaleechee Cove provide excuses for pulling over to rest. This was what it was all about; a remote mountain road with an easy surface, lots of views, and no cars(!), things don’t get much better. Once on the crest of the foothills the riding is gentler on what the quad sheet calls Bates Mountain. There was one large pullout used to store materials for the road builders, and another pair of overlooks.

The shallow overlook at 4.8 miles marks the start of the descent to the Carr Creek Bridge. This is a good spot for those looking for an easy day to turn around. In the next mile and a half, the road drops 520 hard earned feet. Beyond the Carr Creek Bridge the road climbs steadily, twists past a pair of overlooks, and gains another 1,000 feet. At about 9.3 miles, near Caylor Gap, there is a spacious overlook. In 2002, (and again in 2004) two huge bridges beyond led to the end of the road at a berm at 9.8 miles marking the end of the 1980s era road building. According to Dunnigan, “There is 1.8 miles of technical single track in the middle with steep pitches and one rocky push” to connect to the completed road on the Wears Cove side. I never explored the 1.8-mile single track connector nor the completed roadway (4.1 miles long according to Dunnigan) on the Wears Cove side.

The substantial vertical on this ride was ideal for bike climbing training. My friend Mark was especially eager to polish his climbing skills on this route and made it a regular ride.

I came less frequently but often enough to get lazy in my record keeping making at least three trips with only a note that I’d ridden the Parkway and my mileage. But on 7-7-2004 I did another ride making a GPS track and taking waypoints. At the far end of the first bridge was a memorial to Roger Bonneteau, “A construction of the highest order,” who was killed working on the bridge on 8-10-2000.

1-19-03, Hiking Trip

In addition to biking on the Parkway we found it a good location for hiking on snow days, especially when we were looking for hikes close to home. Jean’s first trip was on 1-19-03 and featured three inches of new snow. We hiked about nine miles, probably out and back to the start of the downhill to Carr Creek. We almost always saw other people on the Parkway. This time we saw three other groups. I took some black and white prints, hoping to be able to use those for my biking guide. The snow was thick enough that we could see ski tracks heading up the unplowed Look Rock section of the Parkway. In those conditions we’d find US 321 well maintained even when it was impossible to get around in the main part of the park.

Jean and I on the Parkway.

We would repeat the snow hike on 12-12-04. This time we found one of the access points from private property leading to the “blue house that was visible from the Parkway”. In January of 2006 Jean’s SMHC hike to Rich Mountain in Cades Cove was snowed out, so we substituted another trip to the closed section. Our final hike was 12-20-09, and featured a visit from a group of friendly llamas of unknown origin.

Llamas on the Parkway!

The Walland to Wears Cove sections (8E and 8F) were completed and opened in November 2018. Like the adjacent sections (8G and 8H) from Walland to Chilhowee Lake, the new Parkway is lightly used by sightseers, and the few cyclists willing to battle the long climbs and to share the road with distracted drivers and aggressive motor cyclists. Jean and I have only driven the new section twice, once shortly after the opening and again supporting a recent hike. The Parkway takes some extra time compared to the highway through Townsend, and is more scenic, but requires some vigilance in dodging motorbikes.

Our own interest in the Parkway has come full circle. The next stage in the development of the Parkway is section 8D from Wears Valley to the Gatlinburg Spur. The first step in the proposed project is a mountain bike trail system within the Wears Valley portion of Foothills Parkway. A plan has been approved, but not funded, that will develop 12 miles of trails plus build another mile of the Parkway in the area just north of Metcalf Bottoms. No work has been done on the project since it was approved in May 2022. We enlisted our friend Ed to join us in exploring the property where the trails are planned. Though well intentioned, the project was a response to demand for mountain biking trails on the north side of the Smokies that has since been answered by commercial areas developed at Vee Hollow (Vee Hollow) in Townsend, Wildside (Wildside) in Pigeon Forge, and at Ober Mountain in Gatlinburg, not to mention the extensive system at the Urban Wilderness in South Knoxville.

More alarmingly, the planning for completing the Parkway section of 8D is underway with public scoping conducted in late fall of 2023 and early 2024. The NPS and Federal Highway Administration originally completed baseline studies and preliminary designs for Section 8D between the late 1980s and early 1990s to develop a draft Environmental Impact Statement in 1994. They propose to use this outdated information to complete 9 miles of Parkway, including a 1,200-foot tunnel. Though there are various options for connecting the Parkway into the Gatlinburg Spur, there are no alternatives to a full build of the Parkway, despite considerable local enthusiasm for converting the Parkway Corridor to a system of hiker/biker trails that would be easily accessible to the local community.

Most tellingly, there is no mention of cost estimates for the project. The completion of the missing link between Walland and Wears Valley was a financial boondoggle, with individual bridges costing over $12 million and costs through 2013 of nearly $100 million. A biking/hiking trail would easily cost less than a tenth of that and would fit more appropriately with the park’s mission.

Here is a summary of Foothills Parkway history prior to the closure of the Missing Link in 2018.

Partial Foothills Parkway Timeline.

Here’s an overview of the FHP and details for the proposal for section 8D.

Foothills Parkway Project Overview.

Smokies, Balsam Mountain Bike, 9-22-02

In September 2024 western North Carolina and extreme eastern Tennessee were hit by Hurricane Helene which severely damaged the area between Asheville and the eastern edge of the Smokies. A few months later most of the roads are still closed, and are expected to stay closed for months to years before they can be rebuilt. The parts of the Smokies farthest from us around Cataloochee and Balsam Mountain are closed, and not expected to open soon. Because they are so far away we rarely visit these parts of the park. But these are some of the park’s most interesting places, in part because of that isolation.

Since the storm I’ve been remembering some of the trips that Jean and I had made there. With my renewed interest in mountain biking, two trips stand out; the Balsam Mountain and Cataloochee loops that are described in my guidebook “Backroads Bicycling in the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains” (Bike Guide). The nuts and bolts of both rides are included in the book, but some of the experiences I had riding these routes are left out. For the Balsam Mountain ride it was another, milder storm that made the ride so memorable.

I only had about six month to ride all the routes I had proposed to include in the book, while I was still working full time. With 27 rides that turned out to be about a ride a week. I tried to alternate two trip weekends with weekends off to stay on pace. Because of its length, and the lack of a nearby partner, Balsam Mountain was a rare ride that consumed an entire weekend.

The loop I planned started at the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Cherokee, NC. I’d turn off on the Heintooga Ridge Road into the Smokies. The road becomes the gravel, one way Balsam Mountain Road, then the two way Straight Fork Road, before the Big Cove Road in Cherokee leads back to the start of the BRP. Jean and I recently finished hiking all the trails in the Smokies (Smokies 900), so I had driven the loop previously. But on those trips the road was just a means to get somewhere, not the destination to be savored. I was eager to get to enjoy the parkways and scenery instead of just motoring along. 

The southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The only part of the loop I was unsure about was at the start, but I found a small pullout just north of the entry sign to the Parkway. This ride dates from the analog era so I had no GPS or digital camera, only a bike odometer, film camera, paper map, notebook, and pen. My Olympus pocket camera was loaded with black and white print film as the book pictures would be printed in black and white. I also took some pictures at the start with my 35 mm Minolta. I recorded my mileage and observations in a field notebook carried in a pouch attached to my fanny pack. I was riding my mountain bike (a hardtail Specialized Stump Jumper) with a rear rack for my gear. My road bike (a 15 y.o. steel Schwinn Traveler) would climb better, but my mountain bike would better handle the gravel sections.

The initial climb was relentless, 3500’ of almost nonstop climbing in ten miles to the Lickstone Overlook near where the route splits off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Bike guide research is a great way to get in biking shape, so I was ready for the climbs, and they were  good incentives to linger at the overlooks, I learned that Ball Hootin’ was the practice of rolling cut timber down a hill to be loaded for rail transport to a mill, a sure way to make a destructive practice much worse! There were five tunnels along the way, none too long, but still a potential hazard for bikers. I passed a short side road to the Barnett Knob Lookout Tower. Normally I enjoy visiting towers and old tower sites, but the length of this ride gave me no cushion for extra side trips.

Approaching the Big Witch Tunnel.

To Big Witch Gap the BRP corridor is now part of Mountains to Sea Trail. From the gap to Heintooga Road the Parkway can be bypassed on the MST which follows dirt BIA 407 on the Cherokee Reservation, and is generally a short distance north of the BRP. If I was doing this loop again I would take the dirt road to have less traffic and less pavement.

The Lickstone Overlook not only marked the end of the major climbing, but also had a display outlining the history of the Qualla Indian Reservation. Beyond, I’d finally get to enjoy some cool high elevation riding after all my climbing.

Entry to Heintooga Road from May 2002.

At 11 miles I turned off the Parkway onto paved Heintooga Rodge Road and headed north toward GSMNP. I’d soon reach the highpoint of the ride at 5500’ near Mollie Gap. The Heintooga Road is part of the BRP, and has the same features as the main parkway, including more great overlooks. One last stout climb led from Black Camp Gap at 14.5 miles where the Heintooga Ridge Road becomes the Balsam Mountain Road and enters the Smokies at the Masonic Monument. 

Sign for the Masonic Monument at the entry to the Smokies.

Once in the Smokies I passed the south end of the Flat Creek Trail, a nice, but little used route that doesn’t connect with other park trails. Then came the south end of the infamous Polls Creek Trail, a favorite of horsemen, but dreaded by hikers. Years of heavy horse traffic over soft soils had carved the trail bed into a deep muddy trench decorated with horse droppings. In 2003 the trail was temporarily closed, which eventually became a permanent closure, as the trail was well beyond hope of repair. Perhaps in the future ambitious off trail hiking enthusiasts will seek out the now abandoned trail for an exotic adventure.

The Masonic Monument.

At 19 miles I passed the Balsam Mountain Campground on the left. Its high elevation and remote location make this one of the most desirable campgrounds in the park, especially in mid-summer. I noted that water and rest rooms were available for bikers, and that this would make an ideal layover for someone stretching the ride out to two days. But I didn’t linger in the campground, as I now had some concerns about the weather.

Next up was the north end of the Flat Creek Trail and the Heintooga Picnic area. Here the fun would begin. The Balsam Mountain Road ahead was dirt, marked with all sorts of warning signs for unprepared drivers. This was the section I was most looking forward to riding, 13 exhilarating miles of cushy gravel, deep in the heart of the park, and all of it gently downhill. This was the kind of ride people would pay serious shuttle fees to ride. I’d made a 3500’ climb over 20 miles to get here, and now was the time to harvest the fruit of that effort.

Except for one thing, it began to rain. To be honest, I don’t mind day hiking in the rain. If rain is not too heavy, it is possible to stay reasonably dry in your raincoat, and to remain warm and comfy. Taking guidebook notes is hard, because keeping the map and notebook dry is tricky, but it’s possible. But biking is another story. On the bike you go faster, the rain penetrates deeper, and you get colder faster. It’s really tough to keep your maps and notes dry in the rain and tire spray. Even with the luxury of picking my ride weekends in advance I still had three rainy rides while scouting for my book. But no others rain as bad as this one.

This was no gentle rain. I’d have ridden slowly down the road just because it was wet, but much of the time it rained so hard my glasses fogged up, and I could not even see. Instead of enjoying the forest, I concentrated on a narrow window ahead of my front tire as I splashed along, the scenery beside me just a blur. I made one note of a mile marker shortly after leaving the PC, but nothing after that until I jotted down some notes in the refuge of my Corolla.  The top part seemed steep, at least down to the side trail to the Spruce Mountain Campsite. Luckily, I had recorded mileages on this road on the previous trip we’d taken to help finish off our Smokies 900 milers, or I would have had to do the climb again to remeasure the route.

I stopped to take some pictures where the 1-way Balsam Mountain Road becomes the 2-way Straight Fork Road at the auto ford of Straight Fork at about 33 miles. The auto ford was replaced by a bridge in 2006.

Straight Fork Auto ford.

There was still about 4 miles of the paved Straight Fork Road in GSMNP before I entered the Cherokee Reservation. Here I would just follow the paved Big Cove Road back to my car. I’m always hesitant to ride in traffic, particularly on roads where drivers would see few bikers (and particularly in the rain with reduced visibility). But Big Cove seemed wide, low speed, and safe enough to include in the book.

It rained all the back to the car where I dismounted after 48 miles. I’d gotten most of the data I needed for the guidebook, and experienced the character I needed for the write-up. I would do a little clean up on the mileages in Cherokee that November after my Tsali Ride. But the rain had washed away the long scenic woods cruise that I’d hoped for. Much of our biking after the book was published in 2003 concentrated on finding suitable mountain biking for Jean, so I have not ridden the Balsam Mountain loop again. But assuming that the area recovers from 2024’s Helene, this is still a ride I’d love to repeat.

2002, 6-22 Mt LeConte Via Lowes Creek, Off-trail

 Looking back, I thought there was more time between when Jean and I finished hiking all the trails in the Smokies and when we started to do serious off trail hikes. However, though we didn’t become regular off trailers for while, it was only a week after finishing the Smokies 900 miles that I tried my first off trail route on LeConte.

The LeConte off trail hikes had always intimidated me. I imagined that they were done only by the toughest, fittest, and most experienced hikers in the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. Even though I’d done a lot of hiking, backpacking, and trail running I wasn’t sure that I’d be up to the task. Lowes Creek is also one of the toughest of the LeConte routes. All the major drainages on the east side of LeConte are serious undertakings with 4-5 miles of hard core bushwhacking, about 4,000 feet of climb, plus a ten mile hike back to the car at the end of the day.

This SMHC trip was led by Mike Harrington and Mark Shipley. My notes say there were 13 people on the trip, but I remember much more. The group left Porters Creek TH at 8:30, and hiked up the trail to the first bridge over Porters Creek. We then rock hopped 30 minutes up Porters to the mouth of Lowes Creek. It was slow going on slippery boulders as we all tried to keep our feet dry. We struggled with blowdowns and rhodo going up the creek. One person turned around before reaching Lowes, and another really struggled in the creek. I thought the leaders might turn that person around, but they did not. Lunch was at 12:30, and we were still below 3,000’ and only a mile up Lowes Creek. Mike had told us we would be eating dinner on top of LeConte, but I hadn’t believed him. Now it looked like that was an optimistic guess on his part.

I don’t have many notes on the route finding, Basically, it was just a relentless journey further up the creek. At one point we followed the right bank for 30-45 minutes, then went back into the creek. It was actually a relief when the grade steepened, at least that meant we were making some progress. Next, we all struggled up a series of cascades. Having long ago gotten soaking wet. I took a small fall and hurt my thumb. We all had cuts and bruises, and one woman severely bruised her shin on a fall that could have broken her leg.

The route keeps right at all the major forks on Lowes, until about 5,000’, where it branches left. The altimeter is the only useful navigation tool here, no one used GPS in those days. Near the top, we left the creek on the right and climbed to the base of the talus slope below the exposed part of the Boulevard Trail below Myrtle Point. The last scramble up a landslide scar was steep, loose, and a bit spooky. This was probably debris slide LW1 of Feldkamp (1984) which was dated to 1970 mostly based on estimates from the LeConte Lodge Crew. I was one of the first up the scar hoping to make the scramble before all the holds were scrapped away, and reached the trail about 6PM. The group was very spread out at this point. We ate dinner at Myrtle Point and took a water break at the lodge (I’d already drank 4 quarts by then).

With dinner eaten and clear trail ahead, we all felt much better on the descent. We turned on the headlamps near the Trillium/Brushy trail junction. We reached the cars about 12:30 and I got home around 2 AM.

This was one of the longest day hikes I’d ever done; I don’t recall any other 2AM finishes. Mike and Mark did a great job leading. I’d managed to call Jean from the Myrtle Point on Cindy’s phone, so the late return home wasn’t an issue. Cindy had to deliver her daughter to the airport early the next AM, and she did it on about an hour’s sleep. 

In some ways this hike was also the end of an era for the hiking club. Club trips were often “led” by the fittest hikers who kept their own pace while it was up to the group to keep up. On this hike there was a very large group, and many were not fit enough or really understood what they were getting into. Soon after the SMHC went through a period where leaders for difficult off trail hikes became very hard to find. It turns out an important reason was their reluctance to “have to take along anyone who showed up.” The club board then started a policy to allow leaders to screen hikers either by limiting the size of the group and/or not publishing the hike meeting place in order to allow the leaders to talk to any unknown hikers and make sure they were likely to be able to complete the hike.

This trip also marked a major change in my usual group of hiking partners. The trip leaders were Mike Harrington and Mark Shipley. Mike’s been a great partner on many hikes through the years, and I’ve learned a lot about off trail hiking from him. I didn’t know Mark before the trip, but spent a lot of the hike with him as he swept. We both had an interest in adventure racing, and were able to eventually plan to team with Steven Miller in a couple of the full day races sponsored by RiverSports. This led to some great trail running, off trail hiking, and mountain biking adventures as Mark developed into a close friend and most reliable partner for tough days in the mountains.