I’m
not sure I had heard of the Naked Lady before she appeared on the SMHC
schedule. Mike and Ray described her more discretely as the “Amazon of Shop
Creek,” But her nickname was too good not to stick. This hike promised to be a
fun adventure with long sections of relatively easy off trail hiking, and was
billed as one of Mike’s “easy” off trails.
The Amazon of Shop Creek.
Our
route was essentially up Shop Creek to its head, then follow Skunk Ridge down
to its base at Tabcat Creek and exit to US 129 via an old road along Tabcat.
The hike required a short car shuttle. With Jean and I, plus the leaders, there
were only three other hikers for this seven mile loop.
For
such a memorable hike it is a shame I did not take better notes. But I did take
a GPS track. We must have been warned off from bringing our camera by talk of
numerous stream crossings. We started with “a lot” of fords of Shop Creek, but
were then able to follow an old manway to the carving. We may have passed and
old home site with a chimney pile on the way. The Lady was a remarkable piece
of folk art, carved rather graphically into a large beech tree facing upstream.
We spent some time mulling her age, her origin, and her place here deep in the
Smokies Wilderness. Based on the comparison with dates carved in other beech
trees in the area Woody Brinegar in his Maryville Daily article on 10-1-87
estimated that the carving could date back to the 1910s.
From
the Lady, we continued up Shop Creek to its head, where there was collapsed cabin,
or more properly, a pile of logs that looked like a collapsed cabin. The 1931
park map shows this entire route so far as an old road. From the cabin site we
climbed cross country 0.6 mile up to the crest of Skunk Ridge at BM 2324’. I
guess we were due for a downgrade on our place names for the trip.
Skunk
Ridge was relatively open, and we made good time here. We ate lunch at the
modest high point of the ridge. This was my first trip to US 129 side of the
park, and I’m not sure if this hike was prior to the pine beetle infestation
that killed so many trees and made for difficult bushwhacking on my subsequent
trips.
In
Tabcat Creek there is an intersection of a pair of power lines. We spotted a
group of bear poachers here, below us in the powerline right-of-way. At first
they tried to warn us out of their way, but we yelled back that they were in
the park and poaching. Back at the mouth of Tabcat ,their vehicles were parked
by ours. Hunting is legal across the highway and one hunter claimed that’s what
he was doing with his radio unit. But he got mighty upset when we started taking
pictures of their vehicles and license plates and calling them into the park.
After we drove back down to the Shop Creek pullout, the whole outfit roared by
us with fingers flashing.
Group shot from scanned slide.
11-16-04
At
this time, I was between jobs and volunteering once a week at the Smokies
Backcountry Information Office at Sugarlands VC. Through this position I met
some folks who knew huge amounts about the backcountry, both on and off trail.
In a conversation at the volunteer’s annual picnic, the Naked Lady came up. Two
of the regular volunteers, Buck and Zane had been to the carving twice, but had
been unable to find her on their last visit. My visit had been less than a year
previously, so I was confident that I could find her again. We made plans for a
day hike that also included Cathy, a hiking partner of theirs.
Starting up Shop Creek.
The
start of the hike was similar to my 2003 trip, a decent travelling manway. We
had only one rough spot, where Shop Creek makes a sharp left turn to the
northeast in a boggy area. We lost the old road where it moves left and north
to avoid a steep narrow canyon. Instead, we walked the canyon to a small
waterfall which we hadn’t seen previously. We realized our error, and retreated
to the boggy area, then found the old road above us.
Above wrong way falls.
I
used the GPS to find the exact location of the tree in an old clearing. This
would be the first “clearing” after the old road turns to the northeast. Though
I was using the GPS, I took a few pictures. Buck and Zane though took
many, and gave me a CD full of their images. Buck was especially animated
cuddling up to the Lady, who remained unmoved by all his attention.
Buck.
The
hike was only four miles long, but seemed farther than any of us remembered.
Cathy, Zane, and Buck.
My
ability to guide Buck, Zane, and Cathy to the Naked Lady gained me some unusual
notoriety. One day not long after our trip a Smokies ranger called our house. I
was out so Jean answered. The ranger explained who he was, and that he needed
to talk to her husband whom he’d been told was the Naked Lady expert. Luckily
Jean had been on the club hike knew the story. 
Detail of the Top of the carving.
The
ranger was calling to find out a location for something he needed to follow up
on. The person who gave the original report had only told them it was near the
naked lady. After talking with the folks in the backcountry he’d been referred
to me as the Naked Lady expert. I was able to provide the ranger with a map
location.
Trip map.
The carving was in good shape in a photo from a 2009 GoSmokies Post. Mike Kneis found it in 2015, but the carving had deteriorated to the point of being unrecognizable by mid to late 2010s.
