Cat Stairs and Greenbrier Pinnacle Manway, 10-26-24

Mike’s brother John was in town for a visit and suggested to Mike that they rehike the Cat Stairs, a trip he remembered them doing from a long time back. Mike contacted the rest of us, who were all excited for the chance to redo a classic off trail hike that none of us had done recently. My summary of two previous Cat Stairs trips and other hikes on Greenbrier Pinnacle is (Greenbrier Pinnacle OT).

Keeping an eye on the map.

We met at 8:15 on a Saturday morning. The area is closed midweek due to work being done on the Ramses Cascade Trail by the Trails Forever Crew. We shuttled two cars to the Ramseys Cascades Trailhead, and rode Ed’s truck back to a pullout near the start of the old Barnes Road. The Old Barnes Road begins as a deeply dug road with stacked rock walls on either side. There are fewer rock walls after the first crossing of Bird Branch, but the trace of the roadbed can be followed all the way to the Barnes Cemetery at the head of the branch. A cairn marked the only tricky left turn along the route. My new GPS track did not match my 2003 route, but I think the 2003 track was more of a sketch than a true GPS track.

This cairn marks a left turn.

The Barnes Manway to the cemetery was in good shape, with evidence of past clearing. Ed speculated that the NPS did work on the manway to try to keep the cemetery accessible. Throughout the hike we saw small piles of bear scat. The wire fence that used to protect the Barnes graves was gone, but otherwise the graves appeared well tended. Beyond the cemetery, the manway leading north was narrower and less clear. We found the chimney from the main home site, but then struggled to stay on the beaten path, probably by keeping too low.

Barnes children graves.

Once at the head of Little Bird Branch there is another old homesite, and here Ed got us back on the Barnes manway. Ed told us the story of John Barnes who had eight kids with his first wife, then married another woman. When John’s first wife gave birth again, his second wife became jealous and burned down the first wife’s home. 

Chimney from the Barnes Homesite.

We contoured along the manway over to the crest of Cat Stairs Ridge, where we turned right to climb the crest of the ridge. There was still a faint path along the ridge crest, probably the result of off trail hikers rather than a path used by the original settlers. The start of the ridge is steep, but there is a flatter section where we stopped for lunch. A second steep pitch leads to another short flat section.

John on the crux of the Cat Stairs.

I was wearing my Altra Lone Peak running shoes, which I had bought in a successful effort to rid my left foot from plantar fasciitis. The wide toe box helps my foot, but it is less useful on steep climbs. My old shoes were much narrower, and worked well edging up steep dirt slopes or climbing in a herringbone pattern. But on the Cat Stairs these steep sections were short, so that the loss of edging ability with the wide toe box was only minor issue.

This second short flat leads to the base of the Cat Stairs. The route had so far been steep but not cliffy, but it was now blocked by a ring of sheer rock highwalls extending far around the nose of the ridge. None of us recognized this view of the nose and we couldn’t immediately identify the way ahead. I scouted to the right side of the ridge and found no climbable break in the walls in that direction. 

Bobby Trotter's picture of the Cat Stairs from 2005.

A few sprinkles of unexpected rain motivated us to climb past this crux. By moving a bit to the left we saw a potential route. Once we started up the route  I recognized the narrow ledge that was the key to the lower section. Looking at a 2005 image of me at the base of the stairs it appears that a large thin slab of rock on the left side of the crack had fallen away. Two of us climbed the regular route, which has only one difficult and exposed step. The fall of the flake revealed a wider crack exposed on the left that looked easier. The rest climbed the wider crack. Jean was able to stem her way up the left side, which she declared was much tougher than what we’d climbed on her 2006 trip.

Jean on the final scramble.

After the crux, there was still steep stuff ahead of us. But we were rewarded with a few long vistas across the valley toward LeConte. There was only one more rock band, this one much easier to navigate. 

Ed at an overlook on the Cat Stairs.

The top of the stairs was well defined, but one major obstacle remained. The brush on top is exceptionally thick, and I’d remembered crawling through this on previous trips. There was a bit of a bear trail through it at the start, but not tall enough avoid crawling. Ed thought this growth was a rare form of dense heath called fetterbush. But soon we could follow a trail that grew wider, and eventually we could crouch, then walk to the junction with the old Greenbrier Pinnacle Trail.

With Jean at the overlook in 2006. Steven Miller Photo.

The skies were threatening and none of us had the appetite to detour up to the old fire tower site on the top of Greenbrier Pinnacle. The former GBP Trail has not been formerly maintained since at least the early 1990s, and is now a rough manway. Greenbrier Pinnacle was described as a trail in the 1973 Sierra Club Blue Book, but had been abandoned by my 1993 SMHC trip. What was once a jeep road for access to the fire tower is now almost too overgrown to walk through. Even the old Overlook just beyond the manway junction is closing in.

We bashed though the brush as efficiently as we could, breaking and snapping as much of the rhodo and other understory as possible in an effort to help keep the manway open. We knew much of the middle of the manway was in open forest and were glad to get into this easier walking. John is a retired forester and especially enjoyed the huge poplars and oaks growing in this section. But we were soon greeted with a ten minute rain squall. As much as our area currently needs rain, we were anxious to avoid a soaking from the rain or the wet vegetation. 

Mammoth poplar on the Greenbrier Pinnacle Manway 2006 from Steven Miller.

As we reached the lower switchbacks on the GBP Manway we began to see large, recently cut through logs. We could only imagine the chainsaw cuts had been made by the NPS to provide access, but had no idea what that would be.

By the time we reached the Ramses Cascade Trail the rain had quit. Despite being back in civilization, we still had to walk 1.5 miles more down the old road to the trailhead. We saw several groups heading up toward the cascades, and got some good views of the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River, still flowing through the gorge below us.

The hike was 7.7 miles by GPS, and took 7 hours including a couple of lunch breaks.

Aspire Park, Mountain Biking, 10-11-24

Over the last few years I’d heard from DK about a trail network being built in Clinton. DK is a member of the Clinch Valley Trail Alliance (CVTA), and that group was involved in the trail building. But we didn’t know who was in charge of the project, nor when it would be open to the public.

Finally, this summer some FB ads and the park’s website started promoting the official opening of Aspire Park (Aspire). It turns out the park is privately owned by the Hollingsworth family who envisioned it as a community development project for the nearby city of Clinton. The project also includes a restaurant, pavilion, and boat launch. There is also a dog park, adventure playground, and pump track/skills area. The grounds include a wildflower meadow and a war veteran memorial. The property covers 370 acres, and is billed as the largest private park in the Southeast that is freely available to the public. The hiking and biking trails are listed at 22 miles. A TVA easement covers about half the bike trail area. There is no map of the trails online (yet), but the Trailforks website shows all the current trails (Aspire Trailforks).

Aspire Trail Map from Trailforks.

I’d been watching the opening date and wanted to get onsite the first week the trails would be open. I went over on a Friday of school Fall Break on a perfect cool clear day. There’s no dedicated parking for the trails, but I started from the lot near the Pearl Restaurant. There were only a few other cars when I started at 9AM. I biked through some of the Great Lawn before finding the start of the greenway along the Clinch River beyond the playground and pump track. There didn’t appear to be any place to pick up a paper map, but there were signs, arrows, and map boards at all the trail junctions. This was a good thing as I had left my phone at home, so I couldn’t take pictures or use links. The trail system is a spaghetti bowl, a bunch of trails all twisted together. I decided the easiest thing would be to ride the perimeter of the park counterclockwise. This course would loop me around the base of the small ridge that constituted the trail area.

The paved greenway started down a wide path alongside the river, and would be a great family walk. My first trail was Fortitude (#9), rated easy. Like all the trails I rode it was dirt single track, often twisty and occasionally rocky. I found their easy and moderate ratings to be accurate, with only a slight difference between the easy ones and moderates. An interesting feature of the trail signs was the listing of the trail builder, almost always different for each trail. A few trail builders apparently liked rock work, so rock gardens and rock bridges would irregularly appear to challenge my bike handling. The green trails rarely connect, so except for the Hustle/To-Hi circuit, any loop at Aspire will include both easy and moderate trails.

The toughest trail on the loop was Virtue, a short trail which switch backed tightly and steeply to the top of a small ridge. The rest of the perimeter to To-Hi was moderate and was fun biking. I only saw a few other riders, and they were invariably, focused on the trail maps. The system is complex, there are lots of trails, and lots of junctions. I spent a lot of time looking at the maps, and planning my next leg. I imagine most riders will eventually ignore the maps, but for a first timer, following a set course took some concentration.

To-Hi and Hustle gave me some easy riding and I was able get into the flow more. I was feeling confident in my ability to handle the terrain, and decided to take a side trip on the west ends of To-Hi and Relentless Ridge. This was great riding, at least until the point where I should have rejoined the perimeter, but instead got myself lost in a devils triangle of intersecting, switch backed trails.

The rest of the ride was a fun tour around the west end of the ridge, finishing at an upper trailhead. I passed the bottom of Right Stuff (marked as a one way downhill trail on the junction posts and in Trailforks, but not so on the maps) and the bottom of To the Top  (marked as a hiker trail on the junction posts and in Trailforks, but not so on the maps).

I’d only ridden about 7.5 miles and was having too much fun to go home. So, I eyeballed a route for second loop, then headed back to the car to freshen up on bug spray. I’d seen deer twice on the loop, and thought that could signal chiggers, even though the terrain had mostly been open forest, and the trails were cleared wide enough to keep riders away from the underbrush. 

Lap 2 would be mostly moderates. I again started on the greenway, but rode back on inner Vim and Vigor and took Relentless Ridge and Renegade to the crest of the ridge. This route might have been even more fun than the perimeter, though I saw fewer bikers on it. The flow was good, there were old trees in the forest, and the surface was more dirt than rocks. From the crest of the ridge, I rode Renegade and Contender back to the trailhead at the top of the bike park.

I still wasn’t ready to quit so I copied the plan of another rider I’d talked to out on the course and rode the paved walkways around the grounds of the rest of the park. This was nice cool down, but a bit risky as there were now crowds of families to weave through. It was great to see all the little kids fired up to explore the bike and adventure parks.

After stowing my bike back in the car, I headed over to what is called the Onward and Upward Center. I found it housed the Pearl Restaurant and also had an information desk where I could get a copy of the trail map. The handout map differed from the trail intersection maps in the info shown for each trail, but also has very poor resolution, so I’d advise using a downloaded map for one’s first trips at the park.

10-11-24 ride at Aspire Park.

Aspire is the second new, nearby trail system I’ve ridden this year. Most likely the availability of Ditchwitch type mini excavators has brought the cost of single track trail building down substantially. Aspire, Wildside in Pigeon Forge (Wildside), Fire Mtn. in Cherokee, NC (Fire Mtn.), and Vee Hollow in Townsend (Vee Hollow) are all new areas where mountain bike trails have been built on private land. So far, Aspire may be my favorite. I like old style cross country trails, where the rider is exploring new terrain and seeing new trails, and Aspire is just big enough to fit that bill. Wildside has great downhill riding, but you can cover the area in a morning, and the fees ($20 for the trail pass plus $20 for the shuttle) are high. Vee Hollow is free, but I found the trails steeper, and the turns tighter, than I was able to enjoy. But I rode Vee Hollow on my old mountain bike, and have not tried it on my new bike. I’ve only hiked at Fire Mountain, but the green trail we hiked looked fun, and the many blue trails we crossed looked ridable, so that area deserves a second look.

Smokies, Dudley Creek Horse Trails, 10-8-24

After my introduction to the Dudley Creek Trails on Ed Fleming’s SMHC hike to Mount Winnesoka (Winnesoka) this March I’d thought that Jean would really like this area for hiking. The Dudley Creek trails were last used by the park’s horse concession, but were not reopened after the Covid 19 pandemic in 2000. Five years has proven enough time for the trail beds to rehabilitate, and the vegetation around them to grow into the trails. The old horse trails are now grown over enough to be considered off trail hiking. There’s just enough underbrush and fallen trees to force you to concentrate on following the route, but no impenetrable sections that are too difficult to follow.

Our group at the cemetery. 

We picked the first cool day of the fall to explore the area. Ed was able to join us along with Claudia. I wanted to explore a loop including the Bell Branch and Duds Branch trails that I had not done on the Winnesoka trip. We parked at the Gatlinburg Community Center and hiked across the highway and down a short steep paved road into the park. Near the park boundary we saw an informal campsite.

Ed at the start on our March trip.

Once onto the trails, we turned right to hike Little Dudley Trail first, and to make a counterclockwise loop. We passed two side trails back up to the concession stables, then headed south up the narrow valley of Little Dudley. Early fall proved more overgrown than early spring, but the trails were still remarkably clear for having no maintenance for the last five years. There were even a few patches of the concessionaire’s gravel left. We found Little Dudley and Duds Branch less clear than wide open Big Dudley, but Bell Branch was less clear, and we wondered if Bell Branch had not been used or cleared in 2019. One homesite was marked by wide patch of periwinkle.

On the Winnesoka trip, Little Dudley had been our route out, and I had been tired enough to ignore its features while trudging back to the car. On both trips I had missed the start of an even longer abandoned (pre 2014?) connecting trail leading west to Roaring Fork. Ed, of course had spotted it, and mentioned that he thought the manway looked rough. Further up Little Dudley he pointed out a rockpile that marked a collapsed chimney and home site, then we stopped for the remains of another chimney at the Allison Ogle homesite.

With Jean at the Allison Ogle chimney.

Ed passed out a hand drawn map of the homesites on Little Dudley and Big Dudley creeks that his aunt Ida Wright had made for his cousin Glenn Cantrell. He also had copies of several pictures of the homesites and residents of the area from the early 1920s when the settlers began to move out of what would become the park. It was hard to imagine the busy community in what is now a dense and mature forest.

Next we turned out of Little Dudley, climbing to the divide where Ed’s ancestor’s had a small family cemetery. Three large markers have replaced the original trio of headstones including that of Ed’s grandfather There are also some smaller markers. We ate lunch and rested at the cemetery. Our weather had remained cool and dry. I had stripped down to a tee shirt for lunch.

Group at the Ogle chimney.

Leaving the cemetery after lunch we took a cross country short cut to join the Bell Branch Trail. This trail was more overgrown that the other trails in the system. Ed had brought clippers and used them, while the rest of us broke branches behind him. Bell Branch and Duds Creek trails do not show up on the pre-park settlement maps and were likely built in the 1960s for the horse concession. This leaves them with very few cultural features compared to the main forks of Dudley. 

Headstones in the cemetery.

When we reached Big Dudley we turned briefly upstream to reach the south end of the Duds Branch Trail. With a short climb over a ridge, we were again cruising downstream on an open manway. I was not paying attention, missed the first junction with Big Dudley, and was surprised when we closed our loop to begin the short, paved hike to the highway.

Marshall Ogle headstone.

The hike totaled 6.7 miles with only 1100’ feet of climbing, but the important stats were no bad rhodo, rough stream crossings, nor extensive blowdowns. Those conditions may change in the future, as it does not appear that the horse concession is likely to re-open. But for now, these trails lie sweet spot between system trails with heavy horse traffic, and abandoned trails reclaimed by a wilderness of deadfall and thick underbrush. 

We topped off the day with a stop at Ed’s place that included test runs on his famous backyard zipline.