We’d parked at the tunnel (the Road to Nowhere) and started our hike.
I had never hiked the Bear Creek Trail and this day we’d hike it beginning to end--and back--followed by a few "bonus"
miles along Forney Creek and White Oak Branch trails.
The route was Lakeshore Trail (2.3 mi.)-Forney Creek Trail (0.4 mi.)-up Bear Creek Trail (5.9 mi.)-back
down Bear Creek Trail (5.9 mi.)-Forney Creek Trail (1.1 mi.)-Whiteoak Branch Trail (1.8 mi.)-Lakeshore Trail (1.9 mi. back
to our car)
This is a tale about an 18.9 mile hike that included my blowing out a sole on one of
my hiking boots and a close encounter (actually a few close encounters that night) with a wild hog.
Yep, it was another great hike!
Bear Creek Trail was a pleasant trail on this Veteran’s Day in 2008 (11/11/08).
I especially remember how nice it was hiking back down along Bear Creek while being able to see the terrain we’d
hiked up earlier that morning. I like hiking in the fall and winter when I can see the lay of the land and any artifacts,
structures, rock walls, etc. that are obscured by foliage the rest of the year. Such was this trail for me.
In addition to Bear Creek, I also needed to hike a short section of Forney Creek and
all of Whiteoak Branch trail to help me complete my goal of hiking all 900 miles of trails in the Smokies.
Planning such an ambitious hike, I knew we would be walking back through the paved tunnel after
dark. I am a scaredy cat after dark and this 365 yard-long two lanes of traffic wide pitch black tunnel after dark always
presents me with a challenge. Yep, I always make it though, sometimes holding hands, but I make it.
Lakeshore Trail - The usual boring, somewhat hilly route greeted us
on our approach to Bear Creek trail. Fortunately, we weren't thinking too much about the return trip...
Forney Creek (.4 mi. piece) - Really, you were expecting a discussion about
a 4/10th mile section of trail? Nah. You weren't really, were you?
Bear Creek Trail (5.9 mi. x 2) - We passed an illegal campsite on our left
just after we'd crossed Forney Creek on a nice wooden bridge. This illegal campsite was a disaster area.
There were unopened packages of wieners, empty fuel cylinders, articles of clothing, plastic bags, remnants of tarps,
unopened cans of beans and lots of other items. There was way too much stuff to pack out so, instead, we made a mental
note to notify a park ranger friend of ours after our hike about the condition of this area.
Continuing up Bear Creek trail, we next observed terraced land along both sides
of the trail which had been described in Hiking Trails of the Smokies as part of the system used by Norwood
Lumber company as part of its logging operations to help conquer the steeper slopes. Machines, also known as "Sarah Parkers,"
rode on a track laid along a cleared strip straight up a mountainside and pulled themselves up and down by means of a cable
and a rotating drum. Loggers loaded timber at higher elevations, transported it via the inclines, and unloaded it down below.
Between mile .8 and 1.6 hikers of Bear Creek trail will notice the many ramps or grades that approach the railroad bed.
Judging from their width and slope, they were probably used by loggers to skid logs to waiting trains.
We also noticed in this same area a very short footbridge to our right--approximately 1 mile in
on Bear Creek trail--and verified upon our return home that it was probably a path to the Hoyle Cemetery: A trek for
another day.
Campsite #75, Poplar Flats, located at 2.8 miles, was a really nice backcountry campsite and we paused
there for a leisurely lunch and change into fresh socks.
Hikers of this route will no doubt remember that the slope changes from an easy walk to a grueling
climb just after leaving Poplar Flats campsite. Somewhere between #75 and the crest of Welch Ridge I started asking
myself, "Are we really hiking up to that (distant!) gap?" Yes we were and we did!
We eventually reached the crest of Welch Ridge, elevation
4,890' and some 5.9 miles after crossing Forney Creek. The weather had begun to sleet so we opted not
to continue to High Rocks this day (yep, another trek for another day). How many times have we found ourselves postponing
completion of a short trail segment in the middle of nowhere when we could have finished it with only another 30 minutes or
so of walking? Oh well, just tonight I'm planning another complete hike of Welch Ridge trail just to hike that short
High Rocks segment I'd postponed on this day's hike.
Pilot Snakes? The trek down was pleasant
with the mist diminishing almost as soon as we descended from Welch Ridge. Along the way we enjoyed views of the fall
foliage and good views of Pilot Ridge. The ridge receives its name from the large number of copperheads living
there. In the Smoky Mountain region, copperheads were often called pilot snakes because of the belief that they acted as pilots,
leading rattlesnakes to and from their dens (Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains, by Kenneth Wise.)
Forney Creek Trail (1.1 mi.) -- By now those cloudy skies had begun to drip--even as we suffered a major detour which seemed to add hills and distance
to an otherwise dark and dreary trail segment. We found ourselves breaking out the rain gear and our headlamps.
Near the end of this segment, daylight was beginning to wane, the trail was very moist and there was still that memory of
the trail detour around a slide that we had not counted on. By the end of this trail segment, my right foot felt
uncommonly wet and I decided to stop and change socks; it was then I realized I'd had a shoe blow-out: The sole
of my hiking boot was flapping in the wind (and rain). Where was my emergency supply of duct tape when I needed it? Answer:
Still stored on the leg of the tripod I didn’t carry with me today! (Grin)
Whiteoak Branch Trail (1.8 mi.) + Wild hog encounter. We were now walking
with the aid of our headlamps and, while traipsing through the woods, we encountered a wild hog. He snorted and actually hesitated
as though he was going to challenge us. I immediately looked for a large-diameter sized tree. Al trod on. We commingled with
this wildman (the hog, not Al) a couple more times during our walk in the dark. Al reminds me that on our last
encounter, we could clearly see the critter's beady little eyes reflecting from our headlights--maybe only 10 or 20 feet away.
Back on Lakeshore Trail...I can tell you that between the start and end
of this hike that the hills along Lakeshore trail seemed to have grown taller. Thankfully, with only our hiking headlights
to show the way, we couldn't really see how much farther it was to the top of each rise. The wild hog induced adrenaline
had worn-off about the same time we got back to that long, dark tunnel. Remember the tunnel?
Yep, I'm on one side and the car is on the other. No way was I going to take that
long tunnel bypass route so, once again, without further prompting, I walked bravely thru that dark, dripping hole
in the mountain with my boot sole flapping on every other step.
