Compared to the other high summits in the Great Smoky
Mountains, Mount Sterling is often overlooked by off trail hikers. While Mt. LeConte,
and to a lesser extent Mt. Cammerer get most of the attention other peaks such
as Clingmans Dome and Thunderhead might
see only a few off trail ascents a year. Sitting well off the stateline ridge,
and at the very eastern edge of the park, Sterling has only one commonly used
route, the old Big Branch Manway on its north side.
Mark Shipley though is one of those folks who is good at
spotting new routes in the Smokies. He had identified this route after looking
at some maps and old Smoky Mountain Hiking Club handbooks. He, Ed, and Jenny
had scouted the route the previous fall and reported it to be reasonably open,
with some old railroad grade sections, some logging era artifacts, and a nice waterfall.
Naturally, that got the SMHC off trail crowd very interested and we managed to
put together strong, experienced group for a club hike.
We started by hiking up Big Creek Trail, just past Mouse
Creek Falls and crossed Big Creek on the trail bridge. An old railroad grade
was visible on the south side of the creek, but it looked to get little use. We
turned up Mouse Creek before the crossing near the falls and were rock hopping
along the creek at the start. We first spotted the RR grade on the right side before
the first side creek at around 2600’. Most of the time when we found it, the RR
grade was within 50’ vertically and 100-200’ horizontally from the creek,
though it was not always easy to see. Somewhere in here we lost track of Greg,
who was following the creek. We’d later see tracks ahead of us, so we felt we didn't need to stop and wait.
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| The group at Mouse Creek Falls |
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| Along the lower section of Mouse Creek. |
Most of the climb was as advertised. The creek sections were
moderate rock hopping (I was able to keep my feet dry). The RR grade sections
were reasonably open, mostly just some thick dog hobble. Generally, the RR grade was on the right side
of the creek, but I remember at least one long section with it on the left. At
one point we saw some old RR artifacts, including a large heavy piece that
looked like a stove or boiler, but I forgot to notice our elevation there.
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| Ed and I with an unidentified railroad artifact. |
You get a good view of the waterfall while approaching it
from below. There is a small pour off at the top, but most of it is a pair of
long cascades over a dome shaped rock. We got some good photos from below and
from a shelf about halfway up. At the falls we got a pair of surprises. The
first was the appearance of Jenny. With the hike capped at 8 people, Jenny had
dropped from the official group and started off ahead of us and waited at the falls.
It was her tracks we were following and not Greg’s, which meant that Greg was
somewhere else, hopefully behind us. Luckily, he showed up not too long after,
he had waited a bit around 2600 feet, descended nearly to the mouth of Mouse
Creek, then realized we had probably bypassed him from above while on the RR grade.
He’d hustled to catch up.
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| Alan and I at the upper waterfall. |
We turned right to climb an easy slope alongside the
waterfall to the railroad grade about 100’ above. There was a nice shelf about halfway
up the waterfall and we could walk out on it for another set of pictures. This
was one of several cases where it looked like the grade would go up a side
branch, but it always swung back into the main creek.
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| The group below the base of the falls. |
The railroad grade immediately above the falls was some of the
easier going of the trip. But around 4300-4400’ we hit some difficult rhododendron,
where it wasn’t certain if the creek or slopes would be faster. Somewhere in
here was the last of the RR grade, though I do remember seeing a blasted in
rock face nearly at that elevation. At 4400’was the last of the water in the creek.
We took the right fork there.
We hit a nice section with really deep moss, and then
another rhodo section around 4800’. Things got a bit steep here, but nothing
like some of the LeConte or Cammerer headwalls we’ve seen. Above 5200’ we moved
left to spot a nice rocky ridge crest. Things were pretty open beyond there.
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| An open section near the top |
There were no campers at CS #38 when we arrived, so we had
the firetower all to ourselves. The views were as good as I’ve ever seen. The humidity
was remarkably low and the air as clear as a January day. We could see all of
the eastern end of the Smokies. Low Gap looked like a deep V gun site.
Mark needed to get to Cades Cove that evening for a camp out,
so he decided to run down, and Kathy asked to join him. They made it down in
about an hour, but it took me every bit of two hours to walk down. I did the
whole descent by myself. My knee held up fine, but it was a bit sore the next
day.
Route summary is: Big Creek Trail to first bridge 2.3,
bushwhack downstream to mouth of Mouse Creek, follow Mouse Creek to top of Mt Sterling,
and return via Baxter Creek Trail. The off trail section took about 5 hours.
Started 8 AM and reached the summit by 2 PM. We arrived back at the trailhead close to
4:30 PM. Overall, this is a great route. Approximately 4.3 miles is off trail,
and there is only a little bit of rhodo. We saw some huge trees, some logging
artifacts, and a great waterfall. The attached pictures were sent to me by Kathy
and Mike. It’s a rare route that is easier than it looked to me when I first
checked it out on the map.
