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| Footbridge Crossing Thunderhead Prong |
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| click photo to enlarge & see full gallery |
Click Here To See All Photos (will open in a new window)
This adventure is about hiking
along the path of an old trail in the Smokies. This trail has been dubbed by us as the "Thunderhead Mtn Doll's-Eyes
Trail" and it is one of the most interesting routes in the park.
Thunderhead Mountain at 5,500'
elevation is one of the highest points along the Appalachian Trail. On the 1927 USGS Quadrangle maps of this region (1:24,000)
can be seen an old trail that leads approximately 10 miles from the trailhead for the Middle Prong Trail (near Tremont/Townsend,
TN) upward along Thunderhead Prong to the top of Thunderhead Mountain. The trail gains 3,627' in elevation (starting
at 1900' and ending at 5,527'). This journal describes a hike along that route.
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This area was heavily logged by the Little River Lumber Company during the period 1900-1939.
In the 1930's the CCC had a base camp in this area with over 170 men involved in building trails and roads in the Smokies.
Although I don't believe the trail along Thunderhead Prong was ever an "official" Smokies trail, it was still visible enough
for Jan and I to follow it. We began the hike rather too late in the day (afternoon) thus our objective was to just conduct
a preliminary exploration of this route for a possible future hiking trip to Thunderhead Mountain. Although we did not make
it all the way to Thunderhead Mountain on this hottest of summer days, we did get within about two miles and 1,000' elevation
of its peak.
Hiking along old un-maintained trails in the Smokies requires a sense of adventure, long pants, non-synthetic
shirts, heavy leather gloves and something to cut thru the briers. A good compass, topographic map and a GPS with pre-programmed
waypoints also comes in handy. Jan and I had all of this on this hike and we got to appreciate the use of all of it before
the day ended. We crossed Thunderhead Prong on a long, narrow iron footbridge (see photo) and for the first couple of miles
we found the trail to be well-used, probably by trout fishermen. The trail followed an old railroad grade so the elevation
gain was gradual. Stream crossings were a bit of a challenge since all that remained of the railroad crossings were elevated
stonework abutments on either side of the stream with the footpath routing down the banks for a rock hop crossing of the water
(see old bridgeworks photo). Eventually the railroad grade ended and we found ourselves on an old footpath that was generally
easy to follow but with periodic sections of bramble and downed trees blocking the path. The slope also increased significantly,
becoming more like 15% instead of the previous 5% grade. This trail made its way up the side of Defeat Ridge and we followed
it for a few miles--as far as a formation known as Chimney Rocks--before deciding we had to turn back if we had any chance
of getting back to the car before dark. We did miss one hairpin turn on the way back and walked nearly 1/3 mile out of the
way along a well-marked trail segment before deciding we'd boo-booed and turned around to backtrack to our missed turn. We
got back to our car about 30 minutes after sunset.
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Click Here To See All Photos
Highlights of this trail included numerous Doll's Eyes plants with mature berries. We saw so many of these
plants that we dubbed this trail the Thunderhead Mountain Doll's Eyes Trail. A couple of yet-to-be-identified wildflower plants
were photographed along with a very beautiful "Easter Egg" mushroom that was just emerging from its cocoon (veil) (see photo).
There were lots of signs of bears along this trail and although we didn't see one on this trip I'm sure that once berries
begin to ripen they'll be here in large numbers. A Barred Owl enchanted us with its call of Who-Cooks-For-You, Who-Cooks-For-You-All
just a few minutes before sunset. We agreed this trail will be on our list of hikes to do again when the weather is cooler.
Next time we hope to make it all the way to the top of Thunderhead Mountain.
Update: September of 2005 I revisited the Thunderhead Mtn Trail with intentions of
hiking all the way to the top of Thunderhead Mtn. I didn't quite make it.
About one mile beyond the Chimney Rocks area the old path disappears into a rhododendron & laurel thicket
(known by locals as a "hell"). The sideslope thru that area is also about 45 degrees making for a very wicked combination.
I elected to turn back and return another day when I'll look for an alternate route along the adjacent ridgetop.
Al
Click Here to See a Detailed Topo Map
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Last updated on
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