One of the
paradoxes of off trail hiking is that while there are a potentially infinite number of possible routes to explore, there are only a limited number of good known ones. This is particularly true if, like Jean and I, you are reluctant to drive too far from home and you are also looking for a known route that isn’t too difficult. Jean and I were in one of those ruts where we had explored most of the routes we knew about, and didn’t know of too many other options that fit the short, cold days of winter.
Allnight Ridge.
Even though the
Tennessee side of the Smokies is pretty well picked over for off-trail routes,
I started looking through my mapping software to see if I could find something
suitable. We’d had pretty good luck around Cades Cove in the past with routes
like Rowan Creek and Pinkroot Ridge and right away Allnight Ridge caught our
eye. The ridge has a long gentle descent off Bote Mountain and looked to make a
nice loop if combined with a climb up Anthony Creek Trail. A quick check on
Google Earth didn’t reveal any obvious rhodo hells. In fact, the ridge looked
open enough that it might have precious sunny sections for winter sunshine.
I checked with
a few of my off-trailing buddies to see if anyone else had been on the ridge,
but came up empty. However, Clyde and Iron Mike got interested enough in the
ridge that they scooped us by hiking the route earlier in the week, in
temperatures that stayed in the single digits no less! They confirmed the ridge
went without any serious rhodo, and highly recommended it to us.
Jean and I
thought the route might be good for the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, so we took
good notes and plenty of pictures on our trip. We launched at 9:30 from Cades
Cove Picnic Area at a balmy 13F and climbed up the Anthony Creek Trail with
Allnight Ridge looming above us on our left. It took 1:35 to reach the Bote Mountain
Trail junction, where we turned cross
country down the ridge. The first 15 minutes or so along the ridge were
relatively brushy with lots of downed pines and some greenbrier to maneuver
through. But as we approached the top of Cold Water Knob things opened up
nicely. There is some old metal piping of unknown origin on the top of the
Knob. We were able to follow an old bear trail, often just a few feet off the
crest on the north side. Galax and Teaberry were common.
Hiking along the ridgetop.
As we had hoped,
the ridge was open and sunny with great views down into Cades Cove. The
“bearway” continued off and on nearly to the end of the edge with only one
detour off to the right to avoid some thick underbrush. At its western end, the
ridge becomes extremely steep and the crest is not well defined. Jean and I started
down a few hundred feet and then traversed north, trying without success to
find some gentler terrain. We ended up much further north than we had expected.
My older map had the Crib Gap Trail misplotted, and so we didn’t realize that
we would need to cross a small creek before reaching the trail back to the
cove. We were back at the picnic area at 2:20 where the temp had climbed to
37F. The total length of cross country hiking on the ridge is about 2.5 miles,
depending on your final exit route down to the trail.
Allnight Ridge.
 |
| Cades Cove from Allnight Ridge (2016) |
The trip was
enough of a success that we led the route as a SMHC trip on January 30, 2016
that included Ed and Claudia, our two main off-trail hiking partners. Maybe the
name of the route sounded too good to pass up, or hike description made the
hike sound easy, but a crowd of 22 people showed up. We tried an alternate exit
off the south end of the ridge which led us back on the Anthony Creek Trail, luckily
just above where the creek crossed the trail. Otherwise the hike and the views
from the Ridge were the same.
The 2016 SMHC Crew.
