By
2002 Jean and I were well on our way toward finishing up our goal of hiking all
the official trails in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That meant we had
mostly the harder trips left to do in remote places like Cataloochee, Balsam
Mountain, and the Road to Nowhere, along with the harder to access sections of
the Appalachian Trail. But we were in great shape by this point, and a 15-20
mile hike with a long drive was just another day in the park for us. As the
number of trails left to hike dwindled down it looked like our final trips
would be to the difficult to reach trails on the North Carolina side of the
park accessible from Fontana Lake. For example, on April 20 we did a 21.8 miler
to Welch Ridge, including a side trip to visit the site of an old airplane
wreck.
Jean at the plane crash site near Double Springs Gap.
Next
up would be Jenkins Ridge. Our 16.3 mile route would be up Lead Cove Trail to
the Appalachian Trail at Spence Field, and down Jenkins Ridge Trail to the
mouth of Eagle Creek. This tough to get to hike got a lot easier when our
friend Guy Griffith offered to drive us back from Fontana to Lead Cove. Guy was
working on his own map and planned to do the Twentymile loop that day. Guy
already had his first map (900 milers ), but was working on another with his
buddy John Roberts. The shuttle was an incredible advantage for us. Guy would
have to drive from Twentymile to the Marina, do all the driving back, and go
out of his way again to drop us the Lead Cove TH. But Jean and I would be
spared a whole other trip over the mountains, or be forced to make a 30 mile
roundtrip hike.
Jean
and I started at the Lead Cove Trailhead at 7:30AM with plans to meet the boat
shuttle from the Fontana Marina at Eagle Creek at 3:30 PM. The shuttle price
then was only $35. For such a long day my notes are rather brief. I did record
that we had good views of Fontana Lake from Spence Field, but we didn’t linger
long there. We passed a group of five hikers working on the upper part of
Jenkins Ridge who were also working on their 900 miler maps. Sometimes I wonder
if there are a few remote trails in the park that are only hiked by prospective
900 milers.
April
is prime flower season, and we listed trillium, crested dwarf iris, bluets, and
a huge patch of fringed phacelia. We really liked the area around the crossing
of Gunna Fork and around Haw Gap, both were tempting, but unofficial campsites,
and ends of possible off trail routes. The middle section of Jenkins Ridge was
wide enough to have been an old road, but the lower part was far too steep. We
made all 14 rock hoop crossings of Pinnacle Creek on the lower section without
getting wet feet, but several of the crossings stressed our technique. We only
saw two hikers on the lower section.
We
had to hike past Campsite 90 to the low water point and arrived at the pickup
spot only a single minute ahead of the boat. It was just a ten minute ride back
to the marina, and voila!, there was Guy waiting for us. He drove us back
around the dragon (US 129) to our car at Lead Cove, and then we all met up
again in Alcoa for dinner. We logged 100.1 miles roundtrip driving, but I
didn’t note the total time for the trip.
In
June we would join Guy and John for what we expected to be our the finish of
our 900 miler map (900 Miler Finish). Lunching at the
junction of the Hazel Creek and Bone Valley trails (which should have been the
finish of our map) we got a big surprise. The NPS had rerouted the Lakeshore
Trail! The change seemed designed to eliminate both the numerous creek
crossings and the steep grade that we had hiked via Jenkins Ridge. The former
Pinnacle section of Jenkins Ridge from the ridge down to CS 90 with all its
crossings had been removed from the map. The section of Lakeshore trail from
Jenkins Ridge east down to Hazel Creek was now the new lower part of the
Jenkins Ridge Trail. There was a new Possum Hollow section of the Lakeshore
Trail extending from CS 90 on Eagle Creek to CS 86 on Hazel Creek. And, of
course, we had not hiked this new section.
The
guidelines for the 900 miles dictate that you only have to hike the park map as
it exists when you start your map, but
both Jean and I felt it necessary complete the new Possum Hollow Section. One
more weekend and another 20 mile day were enough to get the job done. 
Jean after completing the new Possum Hollow section of the Lakeshore Trail.
