The off trail routes up Mount LeConte are perhaps the most difficult bushwhacking trips in the Smokies. Of the various creeks that drain the east side of the mountain, Cannon Creek stands out as the ultimate. It may not be any longer, steeper, or thicker than the other off trail routes on the east side of the mountain, but it’s got the nastiest reputation, based in part on the headwall at the falls on Cannon Creek. If anything, it is more committing than most off trail hikes. The off trail portion is four miles long, is continuously difficult for eight hours or so, and offers no possibility of bail out or easy access for rescue. And, it also has the huge waterfall in the middle which must carefully be passed.
It took quite a while after the 2002 ordeal up Lowes Creek to
LeConte for Mark and I to dare to try this climb. But in 2007, when the hiking club moved its annual LeConte off trail trip over to the east side, we
volunteered to lead the trip. The club had developed a policy of screening
participants for their more difficult off trail hikes, and we thought that with
the right crew it would be a fun trip. The SMHC also requires leaders to scout
the hikes they will lead before hand, so we wound end up doing the trip twice. Luckily,
we had Alan Householder along for the scouting trip. Alan had been leading the
Llama trips to LeConte for several years, so not only was he in fantastic shape,
but he’d also had the time to explore almost every corner of the mountain.
I’ve included in this post my notes for both 2007 trips, along with notes from a 2017 SMHC trip, and also have added the 2007 “For the record” that I submitted as the official record of the 2007 club hike. I took a GPS track for all three visits. I have a few scanned slides from the scout trip, some pictures from Nan from the 2007 club hike, plus some really poor quality phone images from the beater cell phone I took in 2017.
4-21-07 Scouting Hike with Alan and Mark
Our weather was perfect, temperatures ranged from 40-70F. There had been no rain for a week before the hike, and we were 6” down on rain for the year. We started from Porters Creek TH at 7:40. We left trail at first bridge over Porters Creek at 8AM and descended to cross Porters Creek. For the first hour we followed the right (N) bank of Cannon Creek mostly along a “levee” between the creek and Porters Flat. At 9AM at 2900’ the undergrowth thickened and we entered the creek. We saw “Skinny Dip Pool” at ~3000’ and continued to stay on the left bank or in creek. The woods were fairly open at the Trillium Branch junction. At 10:30 we reached the 3600’ side branch which was clogged with rhodo. We followed the creek, and I was able to keep my feet dry to a junction at 4400’ where we had lunch at noon.
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| Mark and Alan on Cannon Creek. |
After lunch things got steep, but the route was clear to the base of the falls below 4800’. Despite its fearsome nature this waterfall is less celebrated than many in the park, perhaps because it is so difficult to find a good angle for a picture. The headwall has a shelf that angles up going left to right. That shelf was the traditional route, but one year on a SMHC hike one of the larger rocks shifted as the group was going over the shelf and they were lucky to get through. We took a bypass route Alan had done previously which was a narrow chute through the cliffs to the left of the falls. It was the second of two possible chutes, and about 100-200 yards left of the falls. It’s mostly climbing on birch roots and branches, but has a few rough spots with poor holds. We climbed about 200 feet up before we were able to make a very rough ~1 hour rhodo clogged traverse back to the creek at the 4900’ branch, where we took another lunch break around 1:30. I didn’t like this route, and made a note to try and take the club trip over the headwall a different way.
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| Cannon Creek Falls. |
The route is very steep beyond 4900’. We went right at the next two forks, hitting branch 1 at 2:15. There was a nice open area, then forest of dead trees before reaching summit plateau at 6400’. Alan’s navigation was fantastic all day. It was a great relief to realize that yes, this hugely difficult terrain was in fact the route. Mark and I saved a lot of energy by having Alan lead, and make all the route decisions. We wound up hitting the Boulevard Trail exactly opposite the summit cairn at 3:50PM for an 8:15 trip.
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| Alan, Mark, and I on the summit of Mt. LeConte. |
I took a pole on the scouting trip which I decided I didn’t need
with the water levels being low. With more time in the creek the pole would
have been more useful for balance on slippery rocks. I also wore running shoes
which worked well, and was able to keep my feet dry all the way to the top. I needed
long pants for the bushwhacking, but climbed in a short sleeved shirt. Mark and
I left LeConte Lodge at 4:30 and descended to the Porters Creek Trailhead via
the Trillium Gap and Brushy Mountain trails. Alan overnighted on LeConte. Mark
and I reached TH at 7:30 barely ahead of dark.
I got lost driving back home, somehow getting on TN416 or TN456 heading east toward Cosby. After 12 hours and 15 hard earned miles in the wild heart of the Smokies, I’m soon lost on a heavily travelled road.
6-30-07 SMHC trip with Mark, Ed, Nan, and Tom
After the difficulty of the scouting trip, Mark and I were
very careful about who we would take on the club hike. We needed to screen out a
lot of people who called about this trip, and weren’t prepared for the
conditions they’d encounter. We ended up with a strong and small group, ideal
for LeConte.
Our group started about 8:30AM. After leaving the trail for
Cannon Creek we again followed the right bank for the first hour, making
decent progress through the underbrush. Then we were able to rock hop the creek
with dry feet, despite some very slippery rocks. Yearly rainfall was now 12”
behind for the year. We ate lunch above the Trillium Branch junction about
30-60 minutes behind our scout times, but the rocks got drier, and the hiking
was quicker above. Creek flow was intermittent above 4300’.
Approaching the Falls
We walked straight to the base of the falls in the creek and
got much better views compared to what we had seen on the scout trip. On the
scout trip, we’d struggled mightily to regain the creek bed after bypassing the
waterfall on the left and were reluctant to retake the same bypass. Luckily, Ed
Fleming pioneered a route through the cliff band to the right side of the falls.
It had two sketchy spots where we scrambled up massive sandstone cliff bands.
Cannon Creek Falls.
Above the falls we lost the main route at around 5200’, (probably
my fault, I was nervous about some cliffs). My notes say we went off course to
the right, but the map shows our error was to the left, maybe I was still
disoriented when I wrote the notes. Either way it is not unusual to have
difficulty following the main stem of these creeks so high up in their
drainages with so many branches. We intersected the Boulevard Trail at a barren
chute just below Myrtle Point at 5:30. We ate lunch #3 at the lodge at ~6PM. There
was about an hour of rain on the descent, and we used the headlamps for the
last hour of the hike. We were back to trailhead at 9:30PM.
Ed overlooking the Cannon Creek. 
Mark, Hiram, Ed, and Tom near the top.
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| Ed, Mark, and Tom at LeConte Lodge. |
I was apprehensive when this hike appeared on the club
schedule. I still felt that the bushwhack routes up the east side of LeConte
are the hardest hikes in the Smokies and that Cannon Creek may be the toughest
of all. Mark Shipley and I felt the climb was as tough as a loop of the
Barkley. But it appeared that
if I were to try the route again, this would be the time to see if I still had
it in me to tackle a route this difficult. The weather looked cool and dry, and
we received almost no rain the week prior to the hike. To cap it off, Ed and
Pam offered to spot Ed’s truck at the Alum Cave parking area so that we
wouldn’t have to do the long death march back to Porters Creek via Brushy Mountain
Trail.
On the day of the hike, I took exactly an hour driving to
Ed’s and maybe 20 minutes more to reach the Porters Creek Trailhead. There were
15 hikers, all experienced off trail, showed
up. To save some effort leaders Greg and Ken started up Brushy Mountain Trail
then descended to the Cannon Creek to bypass the first ¾ mile of the bushwhack.
I’m not sure if that was their intention, or if they meant to descend to the Trillium/Cannon
junction and bypass even more of Cannon Creek. The descent was thick, but
doable.
Greg and Ken had scouted the route just the week before and
told us Cannon Creek would be wet almost the entire way. The high water level
was the main difference between this trip and 2007. On our April 2007 scout
trip my notes show that we had dry feet all the way to 4400’, and that on the
club hike the route was dry above 4300’. On this trip we were in the water
essentially all the time, with the exception of a few short bypasses along the
banks. Water was often thigh deep and I had a pair of slips that got me wet up
to the chest and chilled me almost to the shivering point. I wore zippy pants
for the hike, but zipped off the lower legs for the creek section below the
falls. Since we skipped the lower section of Cannon, there was very little of
the tedious rhodo wrestling that can be so frustrating while off trail.
Cannon is less of a creek than a long series of cascades. We
alternated scrambling up wet mossy rock, with winding our way through mazes of
jumbled boulders and fallen trees. I know my balance and strength are not what
they used to be, but everything along the creek seemed wet and slick. We had no
major falls in the group, but innumerable small slips and slides. I was in the
middle of the pack through most of the climb, but there were definitely a few
sections where I really needed the rest stops and the food breaks. Before
reaching the big falls at 4800’, the creek valley opens up a bit and I think it
is here where the creek flows over some bedrock, instead of through the jumble
of Thunderhead Sandstone boulders that characterize the rest of the creek. We
got to lunch at the falls around 1:45, a fast time for such a large group.
Cannon Creek Falls from below.
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| The upper section of Cannon Creek Falls. |
Greg and Ken had scouted the traditional route up the falls,
which involves an exposed traverse above the upper shelf of the falls. Even after
two trips, I had not realized that what you can easily see from the creek below
the falls is actually just the lower deck of a two tier falls. On the 2007
scout hike we had gone far left to avoid the falls and struggled for an hour
through thick rhodo to get back to the creek. Harrell had also tried this route
and agreed that it was horrible. On the 2007 club hike Ed led a steep, sketchy
route on the right and we weren’t too eager to repeat this either.
The traditional route goes just left of the falls and then
is a steep rhodo pull up to the shelf between the two decks of the falls. The
shelf is maybe 15’ wide of smooth Thunderhead Sandstone ramping up slightly to
the right. The group ahead of me stopped at the far end of the shelf, leaving a
few of us perched on the middle of the shelf, which was getting wetter and
slicker with each passing hiker. We all got though OK, but this is a dangerous
spot. We did not see evidence of the dislodged rock from the earlier SMHC trip,
and assumed that it had since been washed away.
Above the falls the route gets very steep. The creek was
still flowing, but by now it was all on bedrock. On our due south fork from the
2007 club hike had a nice narrow waterfall within site of the fork, I could not
imagine why we choose to go that way, though my notes indicated that it had
been my idea. The next decision point was a spot where Greg indicated that an
“easy” bear trail led right to the top. This may have been about the spot where
we veered off from the 2007 scouting route. We chose to continue up the main
route which promised a few sets of cliffs.
Upper Slopes of Mt. LeConte.
We picked up some good views out toward Greenbrier Pinnacle
as the upper reaches of the creek got more open. The creek essentially ended at
the base of a narrow bowl surrounded by some high brownish cliffs (my last pictures
of the climb). This bowl looked to be
the approximate contact between the Thunderhead Sandstone below and the
Annakeesta Formation above. There was a ~2 ft thick quartz vein along the base
of the cliff on the right that might have marked the exact contact.
Ascending the upper reaches of LeConte Creek.
From that point we cut right and began climbing through
Frasier Fir forest. We emerged on the Boulevard Trail just below the final
switchback just below the spur trail to Myrtle Point about 4:15. We were very
close to the arrival times that I had noted from the 2007 scout. 
Who wants to take the easy way back?
We had a stop at LeConte Lodge for water, and then Ed and I
split from the group to descend to Alum Cave. Alum Cave Trail had been recently
rebuilt as part of the trails forever program and they have done an awesome
job. The footing is fantastic and a welcome relief after 8 hours of off
trailing. I ended up getting home around 9:15.
I was very sore in the upper body the next day, and had the usual scrapes, scratches, dings etc. from off trailing. My knees were sore, and my right ankle was very stiff on the drive home. I think I had used a world record number of awkward body positions working my way up the creek, I just don’t have the strength and range of motion to do that stuff well anymore.
Not surprisingly there is a great post about Cannon Creek on Jenny Bennett’s blog; 1988 Trip
SMHC For the Record, 6-30-07, Mt. LeConte via Cannon Creek
Due to late cancellations and no shows only five hardy
members made this long and perilous climb. After the first hour of rhodo
bashing, the group was able to stay in the creek because of the current drought
(an annual rainfall deficit of 12 “), and enjoyed the full benefit of a nonstop
string of cascades and pools. The dreaded headwall at Cannon Creek Falls was
passed on the right side thanks to some daring route finding courtesy of Ed
Fleming and the rock scrambling skills of the rest of the group. In the creek’s
headwaters the leaders strayed slightly off their intended route, reaching the
Boulevard Trail near Myrtle Point rather than at High Top. Both rain and darkness
fell during our post dinner descent down the Trillium Gap and Brushy Mountain
Trails. At the end of the day, we’d spent nine hours struggling uphill off
trail, and another four hours racing down the trails, all for the reward of a
beautiful day in a wild and remote corner of the Smokies.
Mark Shipley and Hiram Rogers
