My Last Unhiked Step in the Smokies
I can vividly recall my first trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park in 1963 when I was only 13 years old. Joan Giles, a good friend and neighbor, took my younger sister Jane, little
brother Johnny and me to the Smokies with a side trip to Cherokee in 1963. It'd be another sixteen years before I'd
hike in the Smokies again.
Thirty Years Later (July 2009)...
It was to be a three-day outing but shortly after our trek began,
we decided to truncate our hike by one day.
We’d previously hiked the
Newfound Gap to Charlie's Bunion section of the AT many times. This
trail section was built in one month in 1932 by 22 crewmen and a supervisor. The work was done by hand, using picks and shovels
and according to park archives, this trail was the first development in the park for the benefit of the public. Interestingly,
the Hiking Guide of the Smokies, (Great Smoky Mountains Association) informs us that the first 0.25 mile east of Newfound
Gap is heavily traveled but within 0.5 mile, most hikers decide to return. For one Indiana family on the trail with us, that
was not the case! Their nine-month old baby probably won't remember the hike but I bet their other grandchildren will!
At approximately 2.7 miles, the AT intersects with the Boulevard Trail, a popular route to the summit of Mt.
LeConte. Shortly after that junction, we paused at the Icewater Spring Shelter for a quick snack and added some natural spring
water to our water supply.
Next came Charlie's Bunion. Found near the end of a 4.0 mile
section on the Appalachian Trail (AT), this is a prime tourist destination in the park. 
Brushy Mountain, Mt. LeConte, Porters Mountain, Laurel Top, Mt. Sequoyah, Mt. Chapman and Mt. Guyot can all
be viewed from this precipice.
We left this sometimes crowded rock and entered the deep wilderness leading to Peck's
Corner. Jagged, sawtooth-like rocky spurs along the AT offer views into both Tennessee and North Carolina. Arnold
Guyot noticed this distinct formation when charting these previously unnamed peaks in the late 1850s. He aptly called
them "The Sawteeth." Source: Hiking Trails of the Smokies (Great Smoky Mountains Association).
Soon we crossed False Gap where an AT shelter once stood but was dismantled in the 1980s. Climbing out of False Gap, we skirted
below the summit of Laurel Top (elevation 5,907').
We noticed a wall built of flat stones along this section of the trail, probably constructed by the CCC. A cut through the rock a little further along may
have served as a source for the stone.
Peck's Corner Shelter is located 0.4 miles down the Hughes Ridge Trail. We arrived at the shelter at approximately
3:15 p.m. to find no one there yet. Randy at the Backcountry Campsite Office had told us that our reservation would fill the
shelter to capacity (12 people). We enjoyed a cup of hot tea and decided around 4:00 p.m to hike out and back the 1.8 mile
section of Hughes Ridge Trail that I'd not previously hiked.
Hughes Ridge Trail was a pleasant stroll for us. Shortly after we started the hike, we passed a small shack
on the left which once was used by horse patrols.
Near the junction with the Bradley Fork Trail, we spotted an elegant stinkhorn
mushroom. 
We returned to Peck's Corner Shelter around 5:30 p.m. and about an hour later,
the only people who would share the shelter with us for the night arrived-- a couple from Charlotte, North Carolina who were
on their first backpacking adventure. We chatted with them for awhile and eventually settled down shortly after dark
as we'd all had a full day of fun! They were trekking on to the Mt. LeConte shelter the next day. Our plan was to spend two
nights in shelters at Peck’s Corner and Tricorner Knob. The Charlotte couple’s next day destination was to be
the Mt. LeConte shelter. We thought their hike from Peck's Corner shelter to Mt. LeConte shelter would be a daunting one.
Leaving Peck’s Corner early Thursday morning, we entered the heart
of the Smokies wilderness along the Appalachian Trail. 
I was excited because
I had never hiked through this section of the Smokies before. Historians write that this section was never logged and was
rarely visited prior to park days. Other than the AT, there are no other trails in this wild area. About a mile beyond Peck’s
Corner, we reached Eagle Rocks (elevation 5,849') and a spectacular view. We descended into Copper Gap (elevation 5,490') and started climbing toward Mt. Sequoyah.
Mt. Sequoyah (elevation 6,003')
is named for Sikwa’yi, the inventor of the Cherokee written language.
Sikwa’yi was born along the Little Tennessee River (now flooded as Tellico Lake and lived in northern Alabama. To create
his alphabet, he borrowed letters from English and German books (although he was illiterate in those languages) using them
to denote syllables, rather than sounds. He printed the foreign symbols "as is," upside-down, or with added marks of his own,
and created an alphabet for his people. The Cherokee learned Sequoyah’s invention rapidly and began publishing The
Cherokee Phoenix, a newspaper, in 1828. No man before, or since, is credited with creating an entire written language.
Both this secluded mountain and the world’s most impressive tree are honored with his name.
After Mt. Sequoyah, we descended into Chapman Gap only to climb again toward another mountain, Mt. Chapman
(elevation 6,417'). It was near here that we encountered the first backpackers since leaving Peck’s Corner shelter.
Heath (a park ranger in the Little River section of the Smokies), his wife and two sons were heading for Peck’s
Shelter for the night. Their two sons were hiking 75 miles to earn a Scout patch. Because the AT in the Smokies is not quite
75 miles in length, the family was hiking various spurs along this route to attain the 75-mile requirement.
We paused at the Tricorner Knob shelter for a hot lunch. It was only noon and we decided we were feeling
energetic enough to continue to Cosby instead of overnighting at the Tricorner Knob shelter. The rainy weather forecast for
this evening and the next day probably helped us make this decision!
Heading toward Mt. Guyot and the last 9+ mile portion of our hike, we soon met a group of five young men from
the New York and Chicago areas. They were found resting alongside the trail wondering if they’d already scaled the "big
one"–Mt. Guyot. They were happy to learn that they were well past that peak. Their plans included spending the night
at the Tricorner Knob shelter.
Mt. Guyot was our next ascent but it was relatively easy when compared to Mt. Sequoyah and Mt. Chapman. We
skirted Mt. Guyot (elevation 6,621') but never approached its peak.
As this section of trail nears its high point at 6,300', there are several small springs. The most reliable
of these is Guyot Spring that rivals the large spring on Mt. LeConte as the highest reliable water source in the Smokies.
Past the spring is a manway that leads about 0.4 mile to the summit. The steep route is obscured by thornless blackberry and
blowdowns. Guyot’s summit is broad and forested, so there is solitude, but no view. It was somewhere along this area
that we encountered the final group of backpackers we would meet on this trip–three hikers from Philadelphia, PA. They
looked to us to be family, perhaps grandfather/father/granddaughter, and they were also heading for the Tricorner Knob shelter.
Continuing on, the AT enters a clearing, then skirts the summit of Old Black (elevation 6,370'). The name
refers to the dark appearance of the mountain due to its dense conifers.
Inadu Knob
We saw scattered debris on both sides of Inadu Knob resulting from a plane crash in January 1984. Four hundred and fifty miles per hour was how fast
two U. S. Air force crewmen were flying when their Phantom F-4 struck Inadu Knob. Striking the Smokies near the Snake Den
Trail just below the its intersection with the AT, the aircraft tore off tree tops 150 feet below the summit. At 80 feet below
the summit, it hit the ground. Debris was scattered in all directions from the impact zone, creating the largest crash site
in the Smokies–almost twenty acres. Source: Mayday! Mayday!, Jeff Wadley and Dwight McCarter.
The Last Step!
Arriving at Snake Den Ridge trail junction marked for me the completion of my goal of hiking all of the trails
in the Smokies (at least once!).
The Snake Den Ridge trail was steep and badly eroded in sections. We delighted
in finding Rosy Twisted Stalk in the berry stage. We also saw our beloved Painted Trilliums
in the seed stage as well. We’d seen both of these wildflowers in bloom only
a couple of months before on this very trail!
We hiked 30.3 miles during these two days, July 14 and 15, 2009.
I thank Al
for helping me achieve my
goal of hiking all 900 miles of maintained trails in the Smokies!
Click here to view my photo gallery for this hike (opens in a new window).
Comments, questions? Email me.
Posted 7/23/09
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