Finley Cane Trail to Bote Mountain Trail to Lead Cove Trail

We found out that the weather was to be in the 70's over the weekend, so we made plans to hike another trail or two. How can you pass up a clear day in the 70's on December 12? We scoured over the map Thursday night and made up our minds Friday night that we would do one of two loop trails, finally settling on the Finley Cane Trail to Bote Mountain Trail to Lead Cove Trail. We drove one vehicle since it was a loop trail and we didn't have to do a drop off.

Again, we only had 2/3 of our team. Nathan and Rebecca were geocaching in Mississippi. I don't have any worries that they won't catch up.

We got on Finley Cane Trail at 11:00 am, since we drove from home and didn't get a real early start. Chuck and I broke into a Christmas present from my Dear Aunt Nancy early (thank you!!), since we knew what was in the boxes ... and let me tell you, those trekking poles saved my bacon very early on when I stepped on a slippery rock and caught myself with them. I'm a believer now. It didn't take much convincing.

A sink hole on Finley Cane Trail.

Spring flowers in December. This was actually the only one we saw, but surely there were more ... We were all shedding coats 200 feet in and didn't put them on the rest of the hike. We were longing for cool breezes.

This trap was seen toward the end of Finley Cane Trail. It is apparently for wild hogs, and had been sprung, so wasn't really doing anyone any favors.

This is the patch of cane that was spoken of in the Guide Book, which is where Finley Cane Trail likely got it's name.

The two gorgeous pillars that we passed between and that were also mentioned in the Guide Book. I believe these are tulip trees. Their diameter is greater than two feet each.

At the junction of Finley Cane Trail and Bote Mountain Trail, we met up with this group of hikers. From L to R: I didn't get the first gentleman's name, the lady beside him is Elise, who is a member of the 900 Miler Club - she hiked all the trails in one year. (Gulp!!) You can check out her blog here. The Lady beside her is Cookie Joe (I may have her trail name wrong), and the gentleman to her right is Mountain Mike, who is also a 900 Miler Club Member. I wish we had a bit more time to sit and talk with these folks, but they gave us a heads up about another book, which has been ordered already, and sounds like it will be worth it's weight in gold ... 

Right after parting, we sat on the side of the trail and had lunch. Peanut butter and jelly is really delicious when eaten in the woods, just so you know ...

Bote Mountain trail, from the direction we took it, went STRAIGHT UP. I exaggerate, it was an incline of 1000 feet in 2.5 miles. A bit of interesting history that I will copy right out of the Guide Book:

"This ridge trail has a long history. It was used by James Spence, for whom Spence Field was named, who lived and farmed there 6 months each year beginning in the early 1830's. In the 1850's Dr. Isaac Anderson, of Maryville College, used Cherokee labor to build a road up the ridge to the state line which follows the crest of the Smokies.

Legend has it that the Indians selected this ridge, rather than the one to the East as the best route for the road. They chose by voting (Cherokees reportedly were unable to voice the "V" sound). So they "boted" for Bote Mountain, and the other crest became known as Defeat Ridge."

From the ridge of Bote Mountain, where we were able to catch a coolish breeze, and we had a view of Cades Cove to the West. It was a view of the Cove like I've never had, and we could make out the cars  around the Cove as the sunlight glinted off of them. Since it didn't really show up in any of the photos I took, it didn't get included in this blog post.

Here we are on the ridge of Bote Mountain.

We reached the junction of Bote Mountain Trail and Lead Cove Trail and headed down, the decline being 1300 feet. The trekking poles are quite helpful going down too.

Most of the green we saw was from the rhododendron, it formed a tunnel at times. I am looking forward to seeing it in bloom next year.

We call this "The Bear Tree." It appeared to be quite fresh ... somebody took care of any grubs in that tree.

More rhododendron ...

This is the fireplace of a cabin belonging to the Gibson Tipton family, who farmed in the area. They were some of the first white settlers in the Cove in 1821.

Rod standing in Mrs. Tipton's living room

We made it back to where we parked at about 3:40. Good timing, seeing that we had other places to be in middle Tennessee by 6:00 pm Central time. (We were a bit late.)

So the Trip STATS:

Miles Hiked: 7.0

Total Miles Logged So Far: 14.4

Remaining Miles: At Least 900

Happy Thanksgiving

In honor of our 900 Miler Challenge, Rod made the pumpkin pies to reflect our goal. MmmmmMmmmm!

Happy Thanksgiving from us to you and yours!

Rod's View of the Chimney Tops Hike

 This gives an idea of how steep the decent was from the summit of the chimneys

 The 900 challenged has already created some very romantic moments.  Here is Nathan and Rebecca headed to the top.....hand in hand, together!!!

The trail to the Chimney tops include hundreds of stairs made from logs.  

Road Prong Trail Plus Some Appalachian Trail Plus A Bit of Chimney Tops Trail (Is This Title Long Enough Yet?)

Our friends Rod and Pam, two of our six-member team, arrived in Townsend Friday night. Their son and daughter-in-law, the rest of our team, had previous plans, so we went on ahead without them. How's that for team-work? So we poured over the maps and decided very scientifically that we should add mileage in an area that we already had worked on. So Road Prong Trail it was, with a 1.7 mile section of the Appalachian Trail at the beginning and a 0.9 section that we had already done when we hiked the Chimney Top Trail (the easy end though).

Road Prong Trail is a historic old roadbed that linked Sevierville, TN to Cherokee, NC. It was a toll road, according to Hiking Trails of the Smokies and was called the Oconaluftee Turnpike. "Tolls were charged for wagons (25-75 cents), pigs and sheep (1 cent each), cows (2 cents each), and horse and rider (6 and 1/4 cents)." The trail follows Road Prong Creek and includes 10-12 creek crossings. It has around a 1500 foot elevation change, which for us would be a decrease in elevation.

Saturday morning, November 14, 2015, we dropped a car off at the Chimney Tops Trail parking area, and drove on up to Newfound Gap with the remaining car. We picked up the Appalachian Trail  from the Newfound Gap parking lot and started out. It was chilly, in the upper 40s, but we quickly warmed up, as this section of the AT was uphill for 1.7 miles. Going from this direction, instead of starting at Chimney Tops Trail, makes most of the hike a down-hill once reaching Road Prong Trail.

The first thing we noticed was the hoarfrost covering the ground in many areas. What a delicate, yet strong piece of art! Hoarfrost literally pushes dirt aside, yet breaks so easily.

We all had waterproof boots except for myself, which is something I intend to rectify shortly.

Pam sitting underneath a natural cave made from the roots of a large tree. 

This gate was built to block off a section of the forest from the ravages of the wild hog.

Chuck photobombing in the background ...

We turned off the AT and got onto Road Prong Trail at Indian Gap on Clingman's Dome Road. We were passed on the AT by two groups of hikers, otherwise, had the whole trail to ourselves, unlike other trails in the park. We picked up Road Prong Trail and started going downhill almost immediately. We stopped shortly for lunch, sitting on the side of a very steep hill that ended in the Road Prong Creek far below. It was a sunny, peaceful place for lunch, and thankfully my lunch did not go plummeting down the hill. (Nor did I).

We hit the stream crossings. They weren't much to start with.

But shortly I realized the value of waterproof hiking boots/shoes. I didn't actually slip, thanks to Rod's trekking poles, which we all made use of, passing around like the hot commodity they actually were. Trekking poles are on all our mental lists of things we need for future trips.

This log jam is referred to in Hiking Trails of the Smokies. It is immense, when seen in real life. A photo simply does not do it justice. It is hard to imagine the enormity of the flash flood/land slide that brought all this together.

The trees were almost completely bare of leaves, leaving the branches a soft grey. At one point, the lighting was so perfect I thought that the branches looked like smoke or fog. And for once, the picture did do it justice, as this is what it really looked like.

Walking through the rhododendron at one point, I was hit with the overwhelming smell of wet dog. I mentioned it, and Rod said, "Try not to think about what that really is." I wonder how many bears we walked by that we simply didn't see? Maybe none, but they were definitely in the area at some point recently.

This is one of two waterfalls on the Road Prong Trail, this being the 15 foot falls.

This giant boulder is also mentioned in Hiking Trails of the Smokies as having a yellow birch growing out of it. The picture again doesn't do it justice.

We were over half-way down Road Prong Trail, when we met this gentleman going UP Road Prong Trail, and in a hurry. We were surprised to see another human on the trail as all we had seen since starting the trail had been ... well, each other. We stopped to chat with him for a moment. We found out that he's on his FOURTH MAP. WHAT??? That even happens? This means he will have completed the 900 Miler Club 4 TIMES when he completes the fourth map. Our conversation was brief, as he was in a hurry with about 2 1/2 hours of day light left. He was completing a 25 mile loop that he had started earlier (much earlier than us) in the day. We found out that he was from Alabama and drove up to the Smokies two Saturday's each month. We wondered what his motivation was ... he said he had  6 daughters and one son, and a wife that called him crazy. He gave us a bit of info about a shuttle driver named Gene Laney who drops hikers off at the more remote locations in the south-west part of the park down by Fontana Lake. The driver is an 84-year-old walking history book. I hope we get the chance to meet him. Crazy, as he called himself, said that he has used his shuttle services 12 or so times and that he will drop off a hiker anywhere at any time, even 3 am. Sounds intriguing.

We parted ways, and I told Pam that I would have loved to sneak a look into his day pack and see what he considers to be essential. I did notice that he had trekking poles. His shoes were not waterproof, and his feet were soaking wet. He had told us that he didn't like waterproof boots, because if they got water in them, it would just slosh around and add weight.

The boulder below is also mentioned in the Hiking Trails of the Smokies. It is compared to a giant ax-head driven into the earth. Now that comparison I can see.

This is the 60 foot water fall, seen from a distance. 

We finally reached the Road Prong Trail/Chimney Tops Trail Junction, and the remainder of the hike was going over familiar ground. 

We made it back to the car, hopped in and headed back up to Newfound Gap to pick up our other car. It's great to have partners, this being just one of the reasons why.

The photo below was taken before we started the hike on our way into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the Townsend, TN side.

And although this is out of sequence, and looks a little painful, this shows how handy the trekking poles were. And how they were passed around ...

So ... Trip Stats:

Miles hiked: 5 miles even

Miles added to total: 4.1 miles

Total Miles Hiked for Goal: 7.4 miles

Remaining Miles: 900+ (still)

You've got to start somewhere ... right?