Jean and I had volunteered to lead the newest section of the Cumberland Trail at Arch Mountain for the SMHC in 2012. Since the acquisition of the much of the Cumberland Mountains by the State of Tennessee under 2008’s “Connecting the Cumberlands” initiative we’d been exploring both the Emory Tract addition to Frozen Head and the new properties that were now part of the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. We’d found a rugged, little known area in the heart of the Cumberlands, in many respects similar to the Smokies in the 1920’s and 30’s. Though not far from Knoxville, few people have visited here. The land has been heavily logged and was sparsely settled. Most recreation use is by ATV or hunters, but the opportunities for hiking and mountain biking are tremendous.
Looking at the Arch Mountain CT section map, we saw that
just west of the trail was the two-mile long crest of Arch Mountain, which if
passable, looked to be an enticing off trail return route. We decided to scout
the hike, and use the crest route on our return to avoid an out and back trip. From
previous trips in the Cumberlands, we’d learned a few crucial differences
between off trail hiking in the Smokies vs. the Cumberlands, the main one being
that in the Cumberlands the route always goes somehow. There are no
impenetrable rhodo hells in these mountains, you may fight the briers and
blowdowns, and be forced to detour around scattered cliff bands, but you can
almost always eventually get where you want to be.
The first hint that this was to be our day came as we drove
beside the New River on the Norma Road south from Huntsville. In the huge field
along the river bottom were eight grazing elk. Considering ourselves to be tourists,
we parked the car in the middle of the road and watched as one bull slowly
gathered up his harem and escorted them off into the trees along the river.
Elk along the Norma Road
The start of our hike wasn’t quite so auspicious.
Immediately after fording knee deep, but chilly, Smoky Creek we lost the CT by
following an obvious gravel road. To be fair, this section wasn’t yet
officially open so the absence of trail markers might have been deliberate.
We’d make two other “side trips,” once missing a turn off an old coal bench and
missing another turn near a log loading station. 
The ford at Smoky Creek
The trail generally heads east up Smoky Creek, then turns
south to follow Straight Fork. The creekside walking is beautiful, with either
the creek or rocky bluffs generally in view. We passed an unfinished hog trap,
where TWRA was attempting to habituate hogs by feeding, so they can be then
trapped and removed.
There are two easy rock hops of the Straight Fork, then the
trail climbs steadily toward a saddle just south of the high point of Arch
Mountain. On our scouting visit, the trail ended at about 2500’ below the
saddle. We stopped for lunch at the end of the trail then followed the CTC
flagging to the small saddle on the crest about 200’ above us. Ahead lay 3-4
miles of unknown bushwhacking along the crest of Arch Mountain.
Steps along the Cumberland Trail
Open Forest along Arch Mountain.
We turned south to follow the crest and soon came to the
first rock tower. We’d gambled that the long straight crest of Arch Mountain was
topped with a thick sandstone caprock layer that would offer the cliff line
walking so distinctive of the Cumberlands, and in this case our gamble paid off.
The vegetation on the crest was never too thick for travel, but there only a
few snippets of game trails to follow. The slopes of Arch however are a different
matter. While its coal mining in the Cumberlands that gets the attention, its
logging that is doing the damage. A quick of the Cumberlands on Google maps or
the Acme mapper shows a dense network of clear cuts that are devastating the
Cumberlands. Like the loggers who chased every tree in the Smokies before the
coming of the park, the Cumberlands are being logged with little thought of
sustainability and no plans for renewing the forest. We passed above the tops
of several clear cuts, mostly on the east slopes of the mountains that
stretched from the crest of the mountain all the way to the creek bank.
Although the views were fantastic, they only served to reveal even more clear
cuts. We soon realized that even the CT along Straight Fork had wound up the
mountain in a narrow strip of mature forests sandwiched between timber cuts.
Cliffs at the Crest of Arch Mountain.
In the center of the crest is a particularly steep section of
cap rock. We had to do some backtracking to find a chute we could down climb,
and then walked the west side for a while until we could regain the crest. Despite
all the rock formations on the crest we never found an arch and speculated that
that the mountain’s name derived from its arched shape. Up ahead, Jean flushed
out a sounder of eight wild boar, two adults and a pack of little ones. We’ve
had several boar encounters in the Cumberlands and so far, they all ended with
boars fleeing at full speed.
At the north end of Arch Mountain, the crest split. We
followed a sharp, steep ridge to the northeast down to a coal bench at about
2000’. Here we were looking for an old road, but were lured onto an active
logging road which brought us back to a crossing with the CT. We ended the day
with about four miles of off trail, ten miles total, and about 1,500 feet of
climb.
Descending to Straight Fork.
Our SMHC trip that May was a ten miler extending past the end
of our scouting hike to the crest, and then beyond to an old road at about 2900’,
just north of Grassy Gap. Smoky Creek was much lower then, almost dry enough to
be rock hopped. The TWRA hog trap was now fully functional. The logging crew on
Straight Fork was still active.
Smoky Mountain Hiking Club Members Crossing Smoky Creek.
I did one more trip on the Arch Mountain section in
December. We organized this as a trail run key swap, with my friend Brian and his
friend William starting at Smoky Creek and running south, while Susan Fiscor and
I ran north from Frozen Head State Park. We measured the route as 16.9 miles
and 4,000’ of climb which took Susan and I almost 6 hours. Between the long
climb up the FHSP Jeep Road and the technical tread of the CT Susan and I only
ran 4-6 miles of the route. The stretch between Bunch Gap and the crest of Arch
Mountain was new to me, and was the last piece I needed to finish the CT between
FHSP and LaFollette. Two new bridges had been placed on Straight Fork. We were
lucky to get a chance to run this section so soon after its construction. As is
typical for the CT, the new trail receives almost no maintenance, and the dense
overgrowth discourages most hikers from using it.
Runners on the Cumberland Trail.
The Route of our Scouting Hike.
Here’s a link to the Cumberland Trails Conference’s page for the Arch Mountain Section: CT Arch Mtn.
Note: As of November 2019, the CT is closed between the
north end of FHSP and the Cave Branch Trailhead due to numerous blowdowns.
