Smokies, Foothills Parkway Scout, 12-17-22

Recently Ed has been exploring the undeveloped right of way for the Foothills Parkway between Gatlinburg and Cosby. The ROW was acquired by the National Park Service in the 1960s, when the parkway was planned to circle the north side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from US 129 to Cosby. However, there has never been funding, or plans, to complete the Gatlinburg to Cosby section. Ed and others feel that the best use of parkway ROW would be for a hiking trail that would be easily accessible to local hikers and to visitors. He wanted to show the area to the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. We’d take two trips to the area to scout a route before leading the club hike.

2022, 12-17, Smokies, Foothills Parkway Scout, 5.3 mi., 1400' climb w/ Jean and Ed

Ed had previously scouted the ROW from Powdermill Road on the east side of Gatlinburg to Buckhorn Road (TN 454). He had led a hike across that section for the Retired Citizens of Gatlinburg the previous week. As we were planning the scout I was still a little uncertain what Ed had in mind for our hike, beyond that we would be using part of the ROW near Emerts Cove in Pittman Center.

Jean and I met Ed at his home. We shuttled our Subaru to the east end of the route at a pullout by a cemetery on Emerts Cove Road, just south of where Spring Branch Road intersects at a now closed to vehicle bridge, and just north of a covered bridge (Hills Creek Road). Temps were in the low 40s, with scattered sunshine.

Along the right of way.

We drove Ed’s truck to the west end of the hike at a one car pull off where the ROW crossed Powdermill Road. Ed was navigating using Google Maps, which showed the FHP ROW, but not the topography. Google showed several small errors in the roads. I had my GPS, which showed our track, but not the topography or the FHP ROW. I also had a topo base map that I tried to sketch our route on. The mishmash of maps made quite a mess. There was no old road that followed the ROW, instead it was alI cross country hiking. I soon figured out the FHP ROW didn’t even follow any geographic feature, and seemed to climb ridges and descend creeks indiscriminately. 

Open ridgetop.

We started up the crest of a small ridge to the northeast. Much of the west end of the ROW had a manway on it, Ed mentioned that his cousin liked to hike the ROW, and the Retired Citizens group had also just hiked it recently. The going here was fairly easy with minor brush and decent footing. For much of the length there were numerous old roads intersecting. These were probably local roads predating the ROW acquisition by the park. Old, barbed wire strung along the ridge crest was fairly common.

Just over the first highpoint Ed found an old road leading downhill to the site of a now abandoned trailer park owned by his cousin. Ed could get access to the park, and we were eventually able to use it for a parking spot for the club hike. There were several log benches at a clearing between the manway and the trailer park.

The route next turned north, then east to reach a highpoint.  Beyond here the trail was a bit rougher, as if few hikers from the trailer park went this far. The ridge continued east until we started a steep descent toward Ogle Hill Road. There was a steep walled cut, then we turned left to descend to the paved road. We turned right on Ogle Hill Road, then left on Glades Road. 

Door of the old van.

Next we climbed a steep slope from Glades Road up a very narrow draw, the intermittent manway was less apparent here. But at the top of the hill was the surprise of the trip, what looked like the top of an old bus. Ed had determined that it was the top of an old delivery van, though we could not see any evidence of a road nearby. Two doors were nearby, but we didn’t see the frame, engine, or other major parts. The roof top was positioned like it could be used as a very shallow Quonset hut type shelter.

Beyond the van we exited the ridge to descend down to Buckhorn Road (TN 454), arriving at a swampy area where we needed to be careful to cross with dry feet. We went right, down Buckhorn Road a bit, and then started up and old dirt road. Ed had not yet hiked this section east of Buckhorn Road. We passed a mysterious wood structure, then stopped for lunch at the head of a small draw. We backtracked a short bit to leave our small draw for the main FWP ROW ridge.

We were navigating then primarily by the Google FWP ROW map, often at the edge of the property line. The Google map showed a few roads extending into the ROW, but those did not exist. Next was a “hidden” ridge, at least to me, that Ed spotted. From the ridge we did a short, steep descent. At the top of the next climb, we found a boundary survey marker, our only one of the trip. The markers had a handy engraving of the direction of the property line.

Survey marker showing bearing.

The ROW east of Buckhorn Road was proving more difficult than the more travelled section to the west, By then we were getting tired, and confronted with another steep climb, we decided to end the exploration to descend a draw towards Perry Way, even though we expected we might need to cross some private land. We soon hit a gravel road. Luckily the first house we saw had no dogs, and we had no problems getting on the road near a Town of Gatlinburg park. We walked a bit of Spring Branch Road, crossed the bridge, and reached the Subaru in less than a mile. I GPS’d the return drive to Ed’s truck.

We wanted to make another trip to explore the last mile to Emerts Cove for the club hike. The rest of the FHP ROW to the east  also looked fun just for pleasure of exploring. Still 4.4 miles of all new off trail route is a big day for us, especially in such surprisingly rough terrain. Though we got a bit worn out, we really enjoyed the hike and appreciate that Ed so often steers us to such interesting places. On our next trip we’d get the chance to return and iron out all the logistics for the club hike, and explore more to the east.

3-28-23, FHP ROW Scout Trip 2,  w/ Jean and Ed, 4.7 mi, ~800’ climb

Our goal for scouting trip #2 was to try to extend the end of our last scouting trip at Perry Way further east to the next bridge north across the Little Pigeon River. We met Ed at the Gatlinburg Community Center and shuttled his truck to the north bridge. Then we parked our Subaru near the closed bridge at Spring Branch Road at Emerts Cove. We hiked east in Spring Branch Road to the city park, then turned north, then northeast on the park roads before heading cross country north off trail up a ridge. Just below 1800’ we crossed a new development road, probably coming up from Perry Way. We continued up the ridge off trail, joining our original track. We took our previous route to a highpoint where we went north of our previous track and slightly off the ROW by mistake. We dropped into a steep gully and over corrected too far to the south. We climbed out of the draw on an old road, which led us to a homesite carpeted with Periwinkle where we had lunch.

Lunch homesite.

Part of our trouble was with our maps. Ed had an app which showed the FHP ROW, but not the topography. I had Maprika which showed the topo map but not the ROW. There were lots of boundary markers, most of which showed the bearing of the ROW boundary, but it was hard to put it all together enough to be able to follow a sensible route that stayed in the FHP Corridor. We assumed the initial FHP idea had been to use a lot of huge bridges to cross the deep draws we scrambled in and out of. It is hard to imagine how expensive that would have been.

After lunch we followed an old road east, eventually reaching the edge of some houses and an abandoned car on Grassy Branch Road. We went a little more cross country then joined Grassy Branch Road again. We stopped at a homesite Ed had visited previously that had a cistern capped with a heavy cement lid with some writing on it. Ed had brought flour to enhance the readability of the writing and after discussion we believed it read “New Years 1942.” 

Writing on cover of cistern.

We followed the road again a short bit downhill then turned east and explored another old road that started at a turn. This road was OK walking, and eventually ended at another homesite. With only steep side hilling ahead we decided that the club hike could end at Grassy Branch Road, and we didn’t need to scout further ahead to Ed’s car. All three of these last homesites were likely “modern” second homes and had been bought out for the FHP. The third home had some poured concrete foundation with rebar.

It was a quick walk retracing our route to Grassy Branch Road, then back to our car at Emerts Cove. 

5-13-23, SMHC Trip,  ~6.5 miles, w/ Ed & Pam

For the SMHC hike we met at the Gatlinburg Community Center and carpooled to the inactive campground site. 

SMHC group from Connie.

All went well on the well-traveled west end of the manway to Glades Road. But at the intersection with Ogle Road, Pam’s friend Cheryl took a fall and got a puncture wound in her arm. She and Pam elected to walk back on the road to the cars.

The rest of the hike was very slow going as the leaves were fully out, and the visibility minimal. Ed and I both needed to consult our maps a lot as we went, probably frustrating some of the group with the delays. The spring wildflowers were long gone, but we saw lots of box turtles. There was abundant poison ivy, but luckily I was wearing long pants. 

SMHC Group at the Van.

It seemed we needed a stop to look at the GPS every few minutes. By Grassy Branch Road my phone battery was down to 10% so I had to turn the unit off. Our route was essentially what we scouted out to Grassy Branch Road, with the absence of our previous scouting errors. We added one new homesite  on a side road off upper Grassy Branch that Ed had visited previously. 

Ed read from Broome’s journals at both sites. The group was unanimously in favorite of using the ROW as a trail, accessible to both locals and visitors. We also visited the “Periwinkle” and “New Years” homesites. At the end we walked down the Grassy Branch Road to the Emerts Cove Branch where Ed had stashed his pickup. Ed shuttled the group back to the community center, then took Connie and I back to her car at the start.

Ed and Frank March are continuing work to identify the owners of homesites along the route.