This hike resulted from observations we’d made on our 12-4-11 Ace Gap-Rich Mountain hike that used part of the Rich Mountain Road. We were reminded of Bull Cave, just inside the park off of Rich Mountain Gap, and had also seen the start of a very prominent ditch leading north off the road near BM 2509’. We though it possible to connect these two intriguing features with a single loop out of Rich Mountain Gap.
To
do so, we turned to Clyde, our first stop for all things off trail in the
Smokies. He had, of course, done a hike on the Bull Cave side, but hadn’t been
in the area around the ditch. Using Clyde’s notes, we put together a route from
Rich Mountain Gap to Bull Cave, to Hesse Creek, to Rich Mountain Road, to BM 2509’, then
down the ditch, and back to Rich Mountain Road. This would be only a 4.4 mile
loop, but it was one of the few times Jean and I headed off on an off trail
trip with a significant leg we hadn’t scouted or researched.
We
discovered that Bull Cave had two large sinkholes, the second was larger and
prettier. Of course, all caves in the park are closed to exploration, primarily
to prevent the spread of white nose syndrome in bats, but probably also for
obvious safety concerns .
Bull Cave.
The
2011 WKYU MS thesis by Nolfie gives this description of the cave The Bull Cave
System is the deepest known cave in GRSM (as well as Tennessee) at 282 m. It is
ranked as the third deepest in the eastern US and the twentieth overall in the
US. Bull Cave has two entrances, the historic entrance, and the more recently discovered
Snakedance entrance. The total mapped length of cave is 3656.4 m. The historical descent
into Bull Cave requires descending three vertical drops of twelve, fifty-two,
and twenty-seven meters as well as exposed down-climbs in often cold and wet
conditions.
Entrance to Bull Cave.
From
the cave we continued upstream along a steep, narrow gorge. We followed a game
trail on its north side. After a small divide we headed left down toward a
branch of upper Hesse Creek. We encountered a lot of rhodo there and climbed up
on the north side to avoid it. Once at Hesse Creek the valley was wider and
more open. We saw several rock piles that we assumed were from chimneys, but we
did not see the old RR grade we expected.
Map reading stop.
We
went up Hesse Creek briefly, then turned up the next side creek to the south,
following the route that Clyde had used on his trip. There we found an old RR
grade about 50’ above the creek on the right or north side. This grade shows as
a trail on the 1931 map from BM 1869’. The grade was intermittent, and had
moderate rhodo. Clyde’s route eventually moved onto the nose of a small ridge
and brought us to the gravel Rich Mountain Road. We walked north up the road to
BM 2509’, and had lunch at the top of the big ditch. We’d now have a short
piece of unknown terrain.
Jean at small waterfall.
We
discovered that the ditch soon split into two branches heading straight down
the nose of the ridge. In places the ditches reached 12-15’ wide by deep. There was no other equipment
around to indicate what they were used by, but we imagined their purpose was
related to hauling logs. Maybe this was some kind of skidder line with the
dragging of logs scraping out the ditch. There were lots of dead pines at this
elevation.
At
the saddle where the ridge turned northwest, the ditches went straight
downslope and became less obvious, before ending in a rhodo patch. We first
attempted to go further downstream but encountered too much rhodo, and soon
climbed a small ridge to escape back to the Rich Mountain Road.
Massive root ball from blow down.
This
hike gave us three miles of new off trail hiking. The section near Bull Cave
was nice, but except for the mysterious ditch, there was nothing else special
about the rest of it. We decided that there would be better options for
including in the next SMHC schedule. We also made the general note that the
ridges were much easier going vs. the creek bottoms in this area.
Hiking on Rich Mountain Road.
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| Bull Cave and Big Ditch Route. |
