Smokies Off-trail, Kear Branch via Dudley Creek, 1-7-26

Kear Branch and the Dudley Creek Connector Trail got on our radar after Ed led a pair of hikes utilizing the now abandoned horse concession trails accessed by the Dudley Creek Stables. Ed’s first trip took the SMHC up Mt. Winnesoka via the Big and Little Dudley Creek trails on 3-30-24. Then with Jean and Claudia we explored the rest of the network including the Bell Branch and Duds Branch trails on 10-8-24 (Dudley Cr). These horse trails were closed by the Covid pandemic, and were not reopened when the pandemic restrictions were lifted.

After our October visit, one unhiked trail remained in the system. I don’t know if the old horse trail between Dudley and Roaring Fork had an official name, but I am calling it the Dudley Creek Connector Trail in this report. The Dudley Connector Trail crosses over the divide between Little Dudley Creek and Indian Camp Branch near its junction with Roaring Fork. Like the other Dudley Creek horse trails, this one was built in the 1960s for use by the riding concession, but it was abandoned much earlier. Ed remembers that the Connector Trail was closed when horse traffic was restricted from using the LeConte trails. This is likely the period around 1986 when the packtrains that supply LeConte Lodge replaced their horses with llamas. While horses are still allowed to climb LeConte via the Trillium Gap and Brushy Mountain trails, there is very little horse traffic on LeConte now.

I was interested in hiking the connector and Ed suggested we could make an easy car shuttle by substituting an old manway on Kear Branch for the west side of the Dudley Creek Connector, and by leaving cars at the Gatlinburg Park and Ride and at the Rec Center. Though spelled with a “K,” Kear is pronounced like “Carr”.

Jean and I got an early start on the drive from Knoxville leaving us time to visit the small bison herd pastured on TN 454 just north of Ogle Road. We met Ed at the Park and Ride, then carpooled to the Rec Center to start the hike. We crossed US 321 opposite the Rec Center and walked through the maze of still well signed, but now closed, horse trails. As we headed south on the obstacle free Little Dudley Creek Trail, the underbrush around us was ominously thick with rhodo and dog hobble. We scared up a small flock of turkeys.

The understory looked a little clearer when we reached the junction with the Connector Trail. The start was not clear, but Ed soon found the well dug in trail bed. We climbed through a tunnel of rhodo that was working hard to close itself off to hikers. Soon we reached a spot where the trail should have turned northwest, to make an upside down “U” on the map. We lost the trail here and blundered our way west to try to intercept it on the dividing ridge between Little Dudley and Kear Branch. This was frustrating work, our GPS devices showed us crossing the trail twice with no evidence of a trail to be seen. The rhodo was thicker than on the trail, but still in the merely frustrating range.

Eventually Jean spotted the trail and its deep cut above us. We were nearly in the saddle of the divide and rewarded ourselves with our lunch stop.

Before the trip I had found a map I’d most likely copied from a post in the old “Go Smokies” message board about a 2014 trip on the connector and down Kear Branch. The Go Smokies Poster, who called this the “Herb Clabo Trail,” had lost the trail in the same place we had. But they had ended up going further north and west before rejoining the trail at the same place we did. I wonder if the trail had been relocated onto the Go Smokies route before it was closed, or if both parties had coincidentally lost and found the trail in the same spots.

In upper Kear Branch.

After lunch it was a nice walk down to the homesite in the upper end of Kear Branch. There was a rock pile from a chimney and a few artifacts. Below the homesite the trail moved to the left (west side of the draw) and climbed well above the creek level before reaching a split between the Dudley Connector and the informal settlers trail down Kear Branch with both trail beds very apparent at the junction. We’d seen some signs of rooting and soon encountered a sounder of wild hogs on the opposite slope.

Rock piles near the Marion Kear homesite.

Much of Kear Branch was open forest and we could follow the remains of the old settlement road. The Dudley Creek Connector Trail and the rest of the horse concession trails were built in the 1960s and are not shown on the 1931 or 1947 park maps. But the road up Kear Hollow, and its homesites, shows up on the 1931 map. There were many rock piles left over from field clearing and eventually a rock wall appeared along the side of the roadway. The next homesite was larger and both Ed and the Go Smokies Poster show Marion Kear as owner. 

Walnut tree near the homesite.

I assumed that the rest of the walk would be easy, but the lower part of Kear Branch proved choked with rhodo and had numerous messy creek crossings. Ed clipped while Jean and I snapped branches. Eventually we came out to more open ground at the mouth of the branch finding first an old-style hog trap, and then later a more modern baited trap.

Ed near old style hog trap.

The traps were in sight of a paved, one-way, town road that led us to Twin Creeks RV Park, then to the sidewalk along US 321, and quickly to our shuttled car at the Park and Ride for the drive home.

A newer, active trap.

It may have been the bright sunshine all day long, or the warm temperatures that approached 70F, but this hike was a hit with Jean. There are two stretches of modest rhodo bashing, one with a possibility of bypassing with better navigation, but the other is unavoidable. With such an easy shuttle between the spacious parking areas, this is a great option for a short, impactful hike. The total distance was 4.5 miles including short road walks on each end. 

Bison alongside TN 454.