Smokies Off-trail, Bunker Hill via Tabcat Creek, 11-18-07

This hike was mostly likely part of one of Clyde’s weekend trips to the Smokies. In those days the “Clydathon” was 3-4 days of solid hiking, most of it off trail, as Clyde added to his encyclopedic knowledge of the Smokies backcountry. Jean and I enjoyed our trips with him, both for the knowledge and skills we picked up, and for the companionship.

Along with Clyde, both Nan (another frequent fan of Clyde’s hikes) and Claudia joined us. My notes indicate that our original plan was to hike up Buckeye Branch, but that we had decided on Bunker Hill as a shorter option. I had visited the Bunker Hill tower site by bike and boot shortly after my move to TN in 1994, but had not been back since. (1994 Bunker Hill) 

Starting the hike.

We parked at first gate on US 129 south of the end of the lake. We then took service road for the adjacent powerlines over a small ridge to Tabcat Creek. There was a rough road along Tabcat Creek to approximately BM 1179’ (using the benchmarks on the 1931 park map which I used for my field sheet). There was a broad, flat area with abundant cane at junction of Tabcat and Maynard.

Blowdown Aerobics.

Above BM 1179 the creek got rough with steeper banks, more rhodo, and it was harder to find the old road. At BM 1405’ we turned right up Bunker Hill Branch, which appeared to be the main stem. This was very slow going, we were forced to walk straight up the creek. We decided to abandon the creek and went directly up the very steep north bank to a pine-covered ridgetop. The ridgetop was easier going, but still had a lot of deadfall and fairly thick greenbrier. It might have been possible to walk the skinny ridge between Bunker Hill Branch and Tabcat Creek northeast from BM 1179 to stay on a drier ridge and avoid some of the rhodo, but we did not try that.

Creek crossing.

We reached the tower site at 1 PM for lunch. The tower was built in 1941, and was still standing in a 1969 picture. But I have not been able to find the date when it was removed. All that was left was two batteries, the four concrete footers from the tower, and a few metal scraps. We could have used a charge ourselves, as the hike had been much harder than we’d expected. We decided we did not have time to explore Panther Creek. From my field sheet, it looks like we had planned to extend the loop to BM 1616’ on Panther Creek using two old manways shown on the 1931 park map. I also did not explore any of the old fire tower access road on Bunker Hill Lead to compare it to the conditions I’d seen on my 1994 bike/hike exploration. 

Trying to stay found.

To search for easier passage on our return, we started down a small ridge about due west of the Tower (Nan’s Ridge). This was also very steep. I fell and did two summersaults before I was able to stop. That was probably the most out of control I’ve ever been off trail. 

Deadfall on Nan's Ridge.

We thrashed through sporadic rhodo on our short loop until we closed our loop near BM 1405’ at the mouth of Bunker Hill Branch. From there we retraced our route back to the cars. The hike out was long and tedious, at least for our tired legs. We saw no wildlife or other people on the trip. There were numerous rock piles in the flat, open area at the Tabcat-Maynard junction. We weren’t sure if there was an old settlement here, or if the rocks were just the result of clearing farm fields. The entire 6.9 mile loop had taken us from 8:30AM to 5PM.

“I guess I would not be especially eager to explore this area again.” But we did make one more hike to the area in 2011 lured by an enticing social media post, and the reputation of the Grassy Flats-Revenue Road loop’s as a type example of Clyde’s Class 2 for off trail difficulty. 

The Tabcat and Shop creek areas.

For an “updated” 2015 trip report by Mike Knies, see his old post about a Shop Creek-Tabcat Creek loop at GoSmokies.com https://gosmokies.knoxnews.com/profiles/blogs/shopping-spree

Smokies Off Trail, Newt Prong and the Wrong Prong, 11-4-07

After my 1998 and 1999 trips up the Bent Arm manway the SMHC continued to lead hikes on the manway every few years. After we missed a couple of the club trips, we got the idea to try to follow the manway ourselves. Mark had been on the latest club trip and gave us good info on the current state of the manway. He also suggested we consider the variation that his group had done, a descent down Newt Prong to eliminate the tedium of the Miry Ridge and Jakes Gap trails. Mark was unsure which fork of the prong his group had descended, but it seemed most likely that it was the named prong on the west side.

Backcountry navigation can get complicated.

Jean, Ed, and I decided to give it a shot for the third of our three weekend trips we would take together that fall. The weather was perfect; cool and calm with blue skies. We left the Elkmont Trailhead at 8:45, and were on the manway by 9:30. I took GPS and Jean took pictures. The old railroad grade at the start was easy to follow with its wide, deep cuts. There was a short unmaintained section at the split with Cucumber Gap Trail (probably to hide the manway from the curious), then we saw a lot of clipping and sawed limbs all the way to the ridge crest which we reached in about 1:30.

With Ed at lunch.

On the ridge crest we found the rhodo tunnel wide open, and the CCC-era retaining walls in place. It took about 30 minutes to pass through the rhodo tunnel. The trail along the ridge crest was obscure, but remains on the crest or left side of the crest. We noted many gnarled and wind stressed beech trees here.

We walked the Miry Ridge Trail to Campsite 26 to descend Newt Prong. We quickly got trapped by rhodo in the flat area around the campsite. We tried a small ridge to the right (east) but that didn’t work well either. We eventually escaped the rhodo after 30-40 minutes of thrashing by going to the left side of the creek in a steep area. But we still found upper Newt Prong slow going with lots of boulders. We did see one waterfall as compensation. It took us about 90 minutes to reach the confluence with the east fork. This upper section appeared much rougher than had been described by Mark. 

In the rhododendron.

Below the confluence with the east fork, the route was much more open. But it still required about 50 minutes to reach the trailhead. We stayed on the left side of the creek through the lower valley and saw one old homesite. On the trail back to Elkmont we encountered a hiker that Ed and I had met on the club’s recent Wooley Tops hike. Total distance was about 8 miles. 

Fall colors.

Mark and the SMHC group had not encountered any of the rhodo that we had seen in the upper west prong of Newt. That led Ed and I to assume that perhaps the club trip had gone down the east fork instead. So, we put the east fork on our “to do” list and were able to make another attempt in January 2009.

1-11-09, Wrong Prong

9.0 miles w/ Jean, Ed, and Claudia

Confident that this hike would be easier than the west fork of Newt Prong, we were hoping that this trip would help start a new winter season off trailing for us. We planned the usual ascent of Bent Arm, with a descent down the new east fork back to Elkmont. The day was cold with fog and blowing snow, along with a small amount of fresh snow from the previous day. I took a GPS track, but conditions were too wet for pictures.

The Wrong Prong looms large as the only trip we ever took where we thought we would get stuck outside overnight. We did almost everything wrong, as if our theme was “a bad plan, poorly executed.” First, we never did follow up to find out which route the SMHC used on Mark’s trip. We just assumed the west side was too rough to be what Marked hiked. Then we assumed our alternate route would be easier, and dressed and fed ourselves accordingly. We also discounted the weather with cold, snow, wind, and especially the old snow coating all the vegetation.

Climbing Bent Arm went well. With the dusting of snow, we could see some old railroad grades coming up from Huskey Branch. The rhodo tunnel and the open ridgetop sections also went well. We had a short, cold lunch at the head of the east fork. This discomfort should have tipped us off that it would be too cold to struggle down the east fork in the salad, but we went on. Both Ed and I believed the east fork would be better than the 30 minute rhodo wrestle we had in the main fork.

The very top did start well, but soon we were consumed in the rhodo. The route was much tougher and much longer, especially with the cold and all the leaves and branches covered in loose snow. It seemed every branch we bashed was covered in powder snow just waiting to soak us as we struggled by. Nearly every step was a wrestling match with the ever present rhodo limbs grabbing our arms, legs, and packs. It took a full hour to get to our first short-lived semi-clearing. We tried to climb out of the creek bottom, but that didn’t help much, and we continued to be pulled ahead by short lived promises of less dense growth.

By late afternoon we were tired, cold, wet and it was apparent that we might not escape the rhodo by dark. Even as we reached a small junction at around 3700’, the battle with the rhodo did not abate. I had entered a few GPS waypoints, but these went by with mystifying slowness. I was just hoping to make the main fork around 3400’ by sunset. By that time, we were mostly going down the creek and were chilled to the core despite wearing all our clothing.

Finally, by around 4:30 we reached the main fork, and the valley soon opened up. There had been no talking for a while, but finally we felt relief that we wouldn’t be seeping in the snow. What had taken us 90 minutes via the west “main” prong had taken us three tortuous hours via the east “wrong” prong. Even then it was still a half hour to the Jakes Creek Trail, and another half hour to the cars, but at least we knew we would make it out.

The only upside of days like these is that the experience ensures more caution on future trips. I’d gotten overconfident from our successes on other off trail trips, and the price for that mistake could have been much worse. We’d go on to make many more great off trail hikes, all bolstered by the lessons we’d learned in the Wrong Prong.

Newt prong and the Wrong Prong.