Our route shown in yellow
This hike was in the Big South Fork NRRA on a series of
unofficial horse trails just west of Honey Creek and south of the O&W
railroad bed. I’d read about the hike in an article posted in the Oneida
newspaper that was listed as part of a hiking challenge posted by the paper.
The lure of a 150’ long natural tunnel was too much for Jean and I to resist.
Claudia and Dan, who had done a Honey Creek to Leatherwood Ford key swap with
us through the area in 2016, were also intrigued by the tunnel and joined us.
The toughest part of the hike was the drive. It is 75
minutes from Knoxville to the junction of TN 297 and Toomey Road. Then there is
two more miles of asphalt before the road becomes gravel at the top of a steep
hill leading down to the road/abandoned O&W RR grade. The article advised
parking by O&W Bridge, so we expected decent road conditions for the 4.2
miles to the bridge, and that’s mostly what we found. However, the road had
plenty of pot holes and we chugged down it for 30 minutes at roughly 10 mph to
a parking area just short of the O&W Bridge over the Big South Fork. Jean
correctly pointed out that we could have parked at Leatherwood Ford and hiked
down the John Muir Trail (JMT) to the bridge in about the same time as the
drive in via Toomey. A light drizzle during the entire drive down from TN 297
did not help our mood any.
TN was still advising social distancing to reduce the spread
of the coronavirus at the time of our trip. We were well out of our “local”
area for outdoor recreation, but did not see anyone all day on the trails, and
saw only three vehicles on the O&W road.
Crossing O&W Bridge
We started hiking south from the far side of the bridge on
the steep ascent of the JMT out of the gorge of the Big South Fork River. The O&W
bridge decking was repaired in 2017, so the crossing feels much safer vs. our
last trip in 2016. It’s been wet enough lately that Jakes Falls was flowing. We
stopped for a quick check on the Devils Den rock house, located on the trail
just below the rim of the gorge. We’d brought along a copy of the article from
the Oneida paper, and used it to find the obscure side path that starts just
beyond the Den and leads to the O&W overlook. After great views of the
bridge and river, we continued south on the JMT.
Just beyond the overlook is a picnic table along the trail.
It was the first of several we would see on the hike, an unlikely occurrence so
far from established roads, and in an area that was never an established recreation
trail system. The JMT between O&W Bridge and Honey Creek is a relatively
recent addition to the BSF trail system, the rest of the route is unofficial
trail primarily by horse riders accessing the trails from private camps on the
park boundary. I’d found a map of some of these trails and it was useful in
navigating the many tail junctions we would encounter.
Our first option for leaving the JMT was on a horse trail
not part of the route used in the Oneida article route, that looked much more
direct route to Needles Eye. At this point we still getting some light drizzle
and decided to be conservative, skip the short cut, and follow the article
route.
By the next junction the drizzle had ceased and we decided
to add on a side trip to the article route and continue south past the junction
with the main horse trail, and then take different horse trail out to Jakes
Hole Overlook. This trail wasn’t too heavily used and proved to be fine
walking. The trail ends at a cliffy viewpoint not too far east of Devils Den.
Again, we could see the O&W Bridge, rapids in the river and impressive
cliff bands along the plateau rim to the north. This overlook occupied an
almost perfect, if waterless, campsite complete with another inviting picnic
table. After a quick snack, we returned back to the junction with the main
horse trail.
View from Jakes Hole Overlook
The horse trail connecting the JMT to Needles Eye at one
time was likely a two track road. Now however, it is so damaged by horse
traffic that the roadbed is a long string of puddles and mudholes. We walked
mostly on paths through the woods that bypassed the worst of the mud, but that
also seemed likely to soon join the road bed as an unappealing mess. We passed
junctions with horse trails leading left to the private Honey Creek Horse Camp
and then to Panther Creek, and then took a left off our main loop to make a
side trip to Needles Eye.
The trail to Needles Eye also appears once to have been an
old two track road, but was just as damaged by horses as the main trail. Oh
well, we knew the Eye had been written up in the local paper, and was on the
private horse camp route, so we weren’t expecting to stumble across a pristine secret
spot. Following our article directions, we looked for another picnic table and
shortly spotted it; unfortunately laying under a 2’ diameter tree that had so
recently fallen that the leaves had not yet begun to wilt.
Crushed picnic table near the Needles Eye
The entrance to the Eye was just beyond. The entrance is
relatively small, but a thin arch splits the entry. Once inside there is a
short upper level, then a rickety old ladder leads down into a much longer
lower level. The newspaper article calls
it one of the most impressive geologic features in the park, and we all agreed.
The Eye is 150’ long, probably 30’ tall in the main section and up to 30’ wide
at its base. It is dry and just long enough to traverse without a headlamp.
Despite all the horse visitors there was no graffiti and little trash. This was
the taste of the little known treasures of the Big South Fork that we had
craved ever since finishing our Big South Fork Trail Map back in late 2016.
The small arch at the entry to Needles Eye
Descending the Needes Eye Ladder
The temperature had been dropping all morning and the tunnel
gave us a nicely protected spot for lunch. Next, we traced our route back to
our last trail intersection with the Oh Poop Trail. The newspaper article
described Oh Poop as very difficult and dangerous for horses, but only as difficult
and steep for people. Apparently there had been a rescue and horse fatality
from a fall on the trail not too long before the article writer had visited.
We found Oh Poop to live up to its name. It is super steep
in sections, has lots of steep steps and is deeply rutted with often slick
rocks. We did see signs that it might have been used as a road way back in the
day, but even a few vehicles cannot destroy steep trail as efficiently as the
steel shoes of horses. Jean took one skidding fall, but sustained only a minor bump.
The BSF had posted a “no horse” sign on the trail, but we could see both prints
and droppings from recent horse trips.
We next found the junction with the “short cut” trail
leading back to the JMT near Devils Den. It looked like the short cut would be
only ~0.2 mile, a substantial savings if one were to skip Jakes Hole Overlook.
We didn’t explore the shortcut, but after seeing the conditions on Oh Poop
Trail, it hard to imagine that conditions on the short cut would be any worse.
The descent on Oh Poop had two gentler sections that teased
me into thinking we were close to reaching he O&W railroad grade, but each
time we plunged down another steep, eroded and deeply rutted pitch. When we did
reach the railroad grade it was just east of an unnamed stream at a vertical
wooden post used to mark the trail as closed to motor vehicles. In another mile
of easy walking we were back at the bridge to finish an 8.6 mile hike.
