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Sure, you Tennessee Volunteer
fans all know the tune Rocky Top but how many of you have actually ever been there? For that matter, how many of you really know WHERE Rocky Top
is located?
Come along with me via my photo hike journal as we hike to Rocky Top near
the peak of Thunderhead Mtn in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The Route
Our route will start on Anthony Creek trail and then progress along Bote
Mountain trail, the AT, Greenbrier Ridge trail and end with Middle Prong trail.
Before we start hiking I'll throw you a few tidbits about the route:
- A visit to Rocky Top requires a hike of at least 13.6 miles if you do an out
and back hike from Cades Cove.
- Rocky Top is on the AT, about 1.25 miles east of Spence Field.
- My hike was 20 miles. I opted to continue eastward and ended on Middle Prong
trail.
- Starting at Cades Cove your elevation is 1,966'
- Rocky Top is at an elevation of about 5,440'
- Thunderhead Mtn has an elevation of 5,527'--the highest point along my hike
and the highest point in Blount County, TN.
- Absolute elevation change is only half of the story about hikes like this
one. Those Smokies trails UNDULATE (that's a fancy way of saying they go up and down). In fact, they do that undulating
thing a lot!
- For this hike, my mapping software reported that I had a total of 6,713'
of climbing and 6,756' of descending at an average grade of 13%.
- Here is an elevation profile for the full hike:
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- Did you imagine that walking along the AT would be a level
path once you got up there to Spence Field? Ha! Here is the elevation profile of the 6.5 miles along the AT that
I hiked on Friday:
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- This hike took me 9 hours.
- The last two hours were after sunset
- 1.5 hours were in the dark with a headlamp.
- My average hiking speed was 2.32 mph.
- I had breaks that totaled 30 minutes.
- Along the AT my average was only 1.9 mph (all those stops to catch my breath).
- The last 8.3 miles (all downhill, thank you very much) I averaged
3.0 mph even though the last 5 miles or so were hiked in the dark.
- The weather was very nice. I never had to dress more warmly than a
long-sleeved hiking shirt and a lightweight pair of gloves. Most of the hike was in short sleeves and hiking shorts.
Click here to see my captioned photo gallery for this hike. Included are some
nice views of Rocky Top and shots of the renovated Derrick Knob shelter.
Tell me about your trips to Rocky Top!
Who Knows? A Poetic Musing by Al Smith. Click here to see a full size image of the poem and image " Moonrise Over Thunderhead".
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