This SMHC trip was led by Dick Ketelle and Mark Shipley, with a group of six. The hike proceeded despite a bad weather forecast, but we were lucky and got only a few sprinkles on a cool, overcast day. I took a GPS track but did not bring a camera.
The
route was up Lead Cove to Bote Mountain, then bushwhack down to the West Prong
from Sandy Gap, cross to the east side and follow Bee Cove and its left fork
across the Cross Trail, and on to the summit of Thunderhead. We returned via
the AT, Bote Mountain, and Lead Cove trails. The off trail section of the hike took
about four hours and covered three miles and 2800’ of climbing. Dick scooted up
in three hours, it was not his custom to wait on other hikers when leading
hikes.
Our
start point was about 100 yards above the Lead-Bote trails junction. We spent a
lot of time side hilling before reaching the West Prong, and this descent may
have been the roughest part of the trip. Once in the valley we followed a side
stream a bit before crossing the main branch. We cut left before the Bee Cove-West
Prong junction and never saw the confluence. We headed up the middle of the
open valley which had a fair, but walkable, amount of rhodo. We lost the rhodo
when the valley tightened, and we rejoined Bee Cove Creek again.
We
saw lots of big trees. The upper part of the drainage was very similar to
neighboring West Prong. We stayed close to the creek the rest of the hike, and
were in the creek roughly 40% of the time. The Cross Trail looked very
overgrown where we crossed it. I missed the main split of Bee Cove, just above
the Cross Trail, but we went left to follow the east fork. We saw lots of
trillium and many bluets that were past their bloom. This upper section was
rocky, but very pretty.
Around
4400-4600’ the route got very steep but was still open and walkable to the top
of Thunderhead. We hit the Defeat Ridge manway in a rhodo section and followed
it about 200 yards to meet the Appalachian Trail. We went to the top of
Thunderhead for lunch and found five painted trillium.
Our
descent was via the AT-Bote Mountain-Lead Cove trails. Spence Field continued
to grow over, someday there will be no open areas and no views. We saw lots of
backpackers on the AT, and a huge horse group on Bote Mountain Trail. Total
time was 8AM to 4:15 PM for twelve miles. We all felt this trip was worth
revisiting for the SMHC. Though Thunderhead and Rocky Top are popular day hikes
from Cades Cove, they are very rarely visited off trail. I was lucky enough to
have climbed them from two completely different off trail routes.
