The Old Meigs Road was one of the last of the classic manways left for us to tackle in Tremont. As described by Clyde It started at Upper Buckhorn Gap on the Meigs Mountain Trail, wound along the west shoulder, then nose of Meigs Mountain, and ended at a junction with the Marks Creek railroad grade near the ford of the Middle Prong. The Smokies 1949 map shows it as a trail, but it does not appear on the 1931 map. On this trip I took a GPS track, and we took pictures.
We
decided to start by hiking up the Spruce Flats Falls manway from Tremont to
Buckhorn Gap, then by trail to Upper Buckhorn Gap. At the end of the Old Meigs
Road we would ford the Middle Prong, then walk down the upper Tremont Road back
to our car for a 12 mile loop.
Spruce Flats Falls.
Jean,
Claudia, and I left Tremont about 9:15. The Institute had relocated the start
off their Spruce Flats Falls (aka Buckeye Trail) trail to a short way up the
Lumber Ridge Trail to keep hikers from wandering through their campus. We took
a quick stop at the falls, forded the creek, and then climbed up the steep bank
to the old Spruce Flats RR Grade. The grade was wide, and well groomed, except
at the junction with Honey Cove. We walked about a quarter mile up Honey Cove
before realizing that we were going the wrong way. We should have followed the
main RR left across Spruce Flats Branch, and then back up the bank to rejoin
the grade. We saw lots of RR artifacts along the grade, and one potential side
spur. The grade was occasionally used for guided hikes as part of Wilderness
Wildlife Week, and it appeared that it got some maintenance in preparation for
these trips.
We
reached Buckhorn Gap about 11:20 and saw three parties there. At Upper Meigs
Gap we found the start of Old Meigs Road, not an easy task as we would discover
on subsequent trips. It started exactly at a T-junction just south of the gap.
It was faint at the start, but definitely road width wide. There was a brier
filled area, perhaps an old burn, just above the head of Honey Cove Branch.
A CCC-built rock wall.
The
hard began near Bowman Stand Branch with a long stand of dead, presumably
beetle-killed, pine. The pines had been down long enough for greenbrier to
weave itself in, but not long enough for the limbs to have fallen off. I did my
best to push through all the limbs and snags, but this was slow, unpleasant,
and often bloody travel. This mess prompted a rest break about 1:45. But we
were rewarded with some good views off to the west, and there were some
CCC-built rock walls for us to admire. We did not see any evidence of recent
work on the manway. Eventually the route drops off of Wilkinson Ridge and
became overgrown with laurel and pine.
Fording the Middle Prong.
We
reached the Marks Creek RR grade about 3PM, then forded the Middle Prong near
the mouth of Marks Creek. We walked the Upper Tremont Road back to our car at
Tremont arriving about 5 PM, finishing with 12 miles. I noted that my GPS track
was partly incomplete. The weather had been cooperative, 60F and sunny. We all
thought that this would make a great SMHC trip.
2-24-12
SMHC Trip
This
club hike was led by Michael and Jenney Bennett and attracted 19 hikers.
Despite the large size the group moved well. A few things had changed. The
start of the Old Meigs Road was above where I remembered it. But the “road” was
in great shape, having received recent clipping by the Thursday Hiking Group.
We were able to move without problems through the pine deadfalls that we had
struggled so much with in 2007.
The
club trip repeated the route of my 2007 trip with Jean and Claudia, except at
the end of the Old Meigs Road. Instead of continuing all the way on the old
road to the Marks Branch RR grade intersection, this version split off the
manway to the right soon after crossing Wilkinson Ridge. Then we descended a
super steep ridge directly down to the upper Tremont Trailhead. This route had
the advantage of cutting off mileage, but also avoided the ford of the Middle
Prong, a special inducement for winter hikers. The club trip also used a short
car shuttle, reducing the overall distance to 6.5 miles.
I
took a GPS track of the route, but did not take pictures. My notes from the
hike are brief.
