Looking back, I thought there was more time between when Jean and I finished hiking all the trails in the Smokies and when we started to do serious off trail hikes. However, though we didn’t become regular off trailers for while, it was only a week after finishing the Smokies 900 miles that I tried my first off trail route on LeConte.
The LeConte off trail hikes had always intimidated me. I
imagined that they were done only by the toughest, fittest, and most experienced
hikers in the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. Even though I’d done a lot of hiking,
backpacking, and trail running I wasn’t sure that I’d be up to the task. Lowes
Creek is also one of the toughest of the LeConte routes. All the major
drainages on the east side of LeConte are serious undertakings with 4-5 miles
of hard core bushwhacking, about 4,000 feet of climb, plus a ten mile hike back
to the car at the end of the day.
This SMHC trip was led by Mike Harrington and Mark Shipley. My
notes say there were 13 people on the trip, but I remember much more. The group
left Porters Creek TH at 8:30, and hiked up the trail to the first bridge over Porters
Creek. We then rock hopped 30 minutes up Porters to the mouth of Lowes Creek. It
was slow going on slippery boulders as we all tried to keep our feet dry. We struggled
with blowdowns and rhodo going up the creek. One person turned around before reaching
Lowes, and another really struggled in the creek. I thought the leaders might
turn that person around, but they did not. Lunch was at 12:30, and we were
still below 3,000’ and only a mile up Lowes Creek. Mike had told us we would be
eating dinner on top of LeConte, but I hadn’t believed him. Now it looked like
that was an optimistic guess on his part.
I don’t have many notes on the route finding, Basically, it
was just a relentless journey further up the creek. At one point we followed
the right bank for 30-45 minutes, then went back into the creek. It was
actually a relief when the grade steepened, at least that meant we were making
some progress. Next, we all struggled up a series of cascades. Having long ago
gotten soaking wet. I took a small fall and hurt my thumb. We all had cuts and bruises,
and one woman severely bruised her shin on a fall that could have broken her
leg.
The route keeps right at all the major forks on Lowes, until
about 5,000’, where it branches left. The altimeter is the only useful
navigation tool here, no one used GPS in those days. Near the top, we left the
creek on the right and climbed to the base of the talus slope below the exposed
part of the Boulevard Trail below Myrtle Point. The last scramble up a
landslide scar was steep, loose, and a bit spooky. This was probably debris
slide LW1 of Feldkamp (1984) which was dated to 1970 mostly based on estimates
from the LeConte Lodge Crew. I was one of the first up the scar hoping to make
the scramble before all the holds were scrapped away, and reached the trail about
6PM. The group was very spread out at this point. We ate dinner at Myrtle Point
and took a water break at the lodge (I’d already drank 4 quarts by then).
With dinner eaten and clear trail ahead, we all felt much
better on the descent. We turned on the headlamps near the Trillium/Brushy trail
junction. We reached the cars about 12:30 and I got home around 2 AM.
This was one of the longest day hikes I’d ever done; I don’t
recall any other 2AM finishes. Mike and Mark did a great job leading. I’d
managed to call Jean from the Myrtle Point on Cindy’s phone, so the late return
home wasn’t an issue. Cindy had to deliver her daughter to the airport early
the next AM, and she did it on about an hour’s sleep.
In some ways this hike was also the end of an era for the
hiking club. Club trips were often “led” by the fittest hikers who kept their
own pace while it was up to the group to keep up. On this hike there was a very
large group, and many were not fit enough or really understood what they were
getting into. Soon after the SMHC went through a period where leaders for
difficult off trail hikes became very hard to find. It turns out an important
reason was their reluctance to “have to take along anyone who showed up.” The
club board then started a policy to allow leaders to screen hikers either by
limiting the size of the group and/or not publishing the hike meeting place in
order to allow the leaders to talk to any unknown hikers and make sure they
were likely to be able to complete the hike.
This trip also marked a major change in my usual group of
hiking partners. The trip leaders were Mike Harrington and Mark Shipley. Mike’s
been a great partner on many hikes through the years, and I’ve learned a lot
about off trail hiking from him. I didn’t know Mark before the trip, but spent
a lot of the hike with him as he swept. We both had an interest in adventure
racing, and were able to eventually plan to team with Steven Miller in a couple
of the full day races sponsored by RiverSports. This led to some great trail
running, off trail hiking, and mountain biking adventures as Mark developed
into a close friend and most reliable partner for tough days in the mountains.
