Smoky Mountain Hiking

My friend Justin and I had been planning on hiking on Monday, Octber 14. But after arriving late Sunday night (around 1 a.m. SMT (Smoky Mountain Time), we decided to postpone the hike til Tuesday. So Monday we slept late and then headed to Gatlinburg for the day.

The area known as “The Village” offers a great pastry shop in “The Donut Friar”, and there is also a hiking store there, “The Day Hiker”.

While in the store, i spotted a book called “Day HIkes of the Great Smoky Mountains”, which i bought. It was a good book, especially since it gave elevation charts of various day hikes, specifically the one that i was going to attempt the next day. When the lady working in the store asked us what we were planning on doing the next day, and we told her Low Gap to Mt. Cammerer, she started laughing.

That couldn’t be good.

The next morning, we had planned to be on the trail by 8:30, but after waiting for our wives to wake up and get ready, and then after driving to the end of the trail to leave a car, and then drive back to the trail head at Cosby Campground, it was 10:00 when we hit the trail.

The trail parallels Cosby Creek just about the entire way up to Low Gap. It started out nicely, a few steep inclines, but always buffered with some flat areas to stretch out our legs. The first leg of the hike from Cosby Campground to Low Gap would be the worst part of it, with an elevation gain of over 2000 feet in just under 3 miles. As we neared the top, the steep inclines got a little steeper, and the flat areas got a lot shorter. The trail was also rocky and rough. We did pick up another hiker along the trail. His name was Brian, and he was from Hunstville. He was camping at Cosby and was just out doing a little dayhiking to stretch his legs. I think he was planning on doing some backcountry camping later in the week. He joined us and hiked to Low Gap with us, then hiked back down after a short break at Low Gap.

We reached Low Gap around 12:30, and it started to rain a little. We almost broke out the rain gear, but decided that the trees would shield us from most of the rain. I snapped a few shots of some wildflowers, although i am not sure what they are. We continued on the Appalachian Trail towards Mt. Cammerer.

From Low Gap, it was 2.6 miles to the junction with the Mt. Cammerer Trail, a small spur off the AT that led up to the Mt. Cammerer Lookout. The elevation gain along this leg was only about 500 feet or so, and we moved pretty fast along this stretch, making good time.

At 2:00, we reached a small gap at the top of Mt. Cammerer and headed off towards the Lookout, which was0.6 miles away. The terrain was very rocky as we got closer to the lookout, but the views were worth it.

Mt. Cammerer is named for Arno Cammerer, director of the National Park Service from 1933-1940. The Lookout was built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) for the purpose of watching for fires. Most fire towers are built up on steel or wooden frames to sit above the treelines. But because of a rock outcrop at the top of Mt. Cammerer, known as “White Rocks” before the mountain was given the name Cammerer, the structure is a lookout, built of native stone and wood. It offers excellent views for miles in just about any direction. I took a few shots, including one looking southeast toward Mt. Sterling.

The lookout was used regularly until the 1960’s, and fell into a state of disrepair between then and the early 90’s. In 1993, the Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was formed to raise funds for restoration of the lookout, which took place in 1994. The lookout has also been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

After leaving Brian at Low Gap, we were beginning to think that we were the only two people on the trail.

At the lookout, three other hikers arrived who must have been only a mile or so behind us. We did not get their names. One of the guys had grown up in Gatlinburg, another was from New Orleans, and another was originally from Grenada, MS. The guy from Grenada had been in the park since May, doing some kind of a Park Ministry, going to the different campgrounds and doing sunday morning services. Kind of neat, i thought.

As we were leaving the lookout, another gentleman walked up, but we did not get any details on him, as we had another 6 miles to hike, and were getting worried we would get caught by darkness.

The views from the lookout were incredible. It started to rain again after we arrived, and the smoke started to rise from the surrounding hills. As the cloud cover got thicker, we were above the cloudline, and it was an erie feeling. Almost as if I was standing on a shorline, watching a lake of clouds wash up on the mountains.

We left the lookout around 4:00 and proceeded on the AT towards Davenport Gap. About a mile or so down the hill, we came upon a rock outcrop that offered excellent views to the east, including mt. sterling.

As we continued, the trail got muddy, which started adding wieght to our boots. We also started to enter the cloud line, which made for an erie, foggy scene in the surrounding woods.

We came across some park service volunteers who were making trail repairs to the AT and the Lower Mt. Cammerer Trails. Without volunteers like these, the trails would probably be in pretty bad shape, so i thank them, whoever they were.

We reached a juntion with Chestnut Branch trail. This trail went directly to the Big Creek Ranger Station, which is where we had left our car earlier in the day. It was 2 miles to Davenport Gap, then another 1.3 miles to the Ranger Station, and it was getting late, so we decided to take the shorter path down Chestnut Branch.

This trail proved to be a little rough as well, with lots of rocks and roots. We reached the car around 7:00 and headed to the house for a shower and homemade spaghetti and meatballs.

We hiked 12.2 miles, the longest hike so far.