Scott Mtn-Indian Grave Gap-Rich Mtn Trail Journal

Let's hike! The beautiful weather here in the Smokies combined with thoughts of all those wildflowers and birds that should be arriving was just too much to resist on Sunday as I stopped-by Jan's house enroute to an 11 mile hike on trails along the northern boundary of the park. Jan agreed to pick me up at the end of the walk at 6:30 pm near Ace Gap (she didn't want to hike this day) so I headed out for my starting point near Tuckaleechee Caverns--just outside the park boundary.

Scott Mtn-Indian Grave Gap-Rich Mtn trails was my route in the Smokies this day (click here to see high resolution topo map of this route). On either end I had another 3.3 miles of walking outside the park along access roads in order to get to/from the trailheads. I hiked 1.3 miles up a private gravel road to Schoolhouse Gap where I found the trailhead for Scott Mtn trail. Scott Mtn trail climbs nonstop for its 3.6 mile length with grades of about 22% along most of its route. Hello, are we awake yet? Whew. It winds in and out of a few coves where there is a wee bit of moisture. Mostly it was dry. Very dry. Death of most of the pine trees (southern pine bark beetle) over the past several years has left much of this trail exposed to full sun. The delayed growth of new leaves combined with the crispy plants (both the result of the Big Freeze we had two weeks ago) made this route looked more like something I'd expect to see late summer after a long dry spell. Lush it was not. I did find a nice stand of green violets and larkspur and there were a few Catesby's and yellow trilliums.

Two or three bears crashed thru the undergrowth while escaping my approach. I caught glimpses of them but couldn't tell much more than the facts that they were bears and there was more than one of them. This sighting was in the same area where I'd been false-charged in 2001 by a moma bear with three cubs. Perhaps this was the same female....

Scott Mtn trail offers a few nice views of the valleys and has lots of steep side-slope exposure. The uneven trail seems to want you to slide off the edge; most of the time you have one foot on the higher uphill side and one on the eroded downhill side of this not-so-wide trail surface. Even though the trail is off-limits to horse riders, they still travel this trail and their 1,500 lb. beasts have done a lot of damage to the trail margins. One good thing: The tricky trail surface combined with the steady and steep climb keep you focused on the present surroundings. Passing backcountry campsite #6 I noticed there was barely a trickle of water in the water source for this trail. There were also no campers--in fact, I didn't see anyone along this trail during my hike--somewhat surprising to me with such nice weekend weather and the proximity to Cades Cove.

Indian Grave Gap trail continues the climb past the location of an old lookout tower on Cerulean Knob, elevation 3,686' (I started at 1,400'). A few bird's foot violets were blooming but not much else. About all this trail has going for it are the views of Cades Cove on one side and Tuckaleechee valley on the other. The views are nice and the gradual hiking grade makes walking much easier than than Scott Mtn trail. Horses use this trail but none were seen today. Where is everybody?

Rich Mtn trail is the final segment inside the park and it is all downhill. Dry and crispy continued to be the norm. Gosh, if there is a fire this area will go up like tinder. I found a few pink lady's slippers -- one was in bud and the other had just opened (photo above). It looked as though the slippers here had dodged the freezing weather bullet. I continued to see a few yellow trilliums (they seemed mostly immune to the freezing weather) and there were some spotted mandarin in flower. Two horse riders passed me near the end of the hike at Ace Gap. I'd exited early so I walked another 2 or 3 miles down the road toward Jan's house while enjoying the roadside flowers that are abundant in this area. I found more green violets, lots of larkspur and even a few pennyworts before Jan met me near the bottom of the mountain for the ride back to my car.

My advice for hikers this season: Take your own water unless you are absolutely positive about your chances of finding a source along the trail. Everything is MUCH dryer than usual. Also, take that sunblock and/or a nice hat; that sunshine bearing down on you without any leaves (killed by all the cold weather) or pine trees to offer shade can be brutal.

Birds? I did say something about birds didn't I? While walking this route I didn't see many birds (typical of warblers) but did hear the following: Hooded warbler, black-throated green warbler, ovenbird, black & white warbler, pine siskin, chickadee, junco, towhee, pileated woodpecker, hairy woodpecker plus another one or two songs/calls I couldn't identify from memory.