All the major roads through the Smokies were closed today (1/09) because of snow and icy conditions, also due to a restriction on salt for de-icing roads which harms the biosphere. But the hike today was pretty awesome and challenging nonetheless.
Walked from Stoplight #10 in Gatlinburg, saying hello to the great folks at The Happy Hiker first, all the way to the Sugarlands Visitor Center 2.0 miles. Backtracking a little, crossing RT 441 to the trailhead marked Old Sugarlands Trail, walked a slight incline around steep rocky hill then traveling a flat trail along the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River for a mile or so, until sharply ascending to intersection with Two mile Horse Loop (or Trail), until my ultimate destination the Bullhead Trailhead, 3.5 miles total. Old Sugarlands continues 0.4 into the parking lot for Rainbow Falls Trailhead as well as walking detour to Trillium Gap. Very dry snow covering most of the way, following impressions of previous hiker's bootprints from earlier in the morning. Traveling by foot down the wrong way on "one way" road to Noah Ogle Nature Trail at the Ogle Homestead approx. 0.5, which runs into Twin Creeks Trail, it’s 1.9 miles to National Park entrance on Cherry Orchard Road, back into town. Peaceful dry snow, sometimes deeper, sometimes hardly an inch, no ice. It was super-cool getting to a Le Conte trailhead without driving. About a four hour hike, including back through Gatlinburg (how many miles?). The sun tried a few times to burn through overcast skies without success. Multiple layers, hat, gloves, a necessity except for the strenuous uphill walk on Old Sugarlands, very pure and beautiful to Bullhead Trail, and fantasizing about the 6.4 to top of Mt. Le Conte only.
One of the most striking features of today's hike, besides the covering of snow, were the multitude of incredibly mangled blow-downs, healthy trees that seem to have been victims of a major windstorm in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a few weeks back. All sorts of trees, both evergreen and deciduous, broken in the weirdest places, looking as if they’d been hacked ferociously by a very disturbed person with a chainsaw, or having seemingly imploded of their own accord. Most of these noticeable on the last two miles of hike and impeding the Twin Creek Trail.
That's my report. Back to Pigeon Forge, safe and sound. Yes, Le Conte would have been an odyssey, although people were heading up Rainbow Falls to see the frozen waters.
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That sounds like a fun Hike! and dudette, you got to see some peaceful yet curious sites. With the snow, the sounds, or not, and those trees...Hmmmmm? Great descriptions.
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Some of my favorites have been in weather which kept the crowds down. One a hike up Big Frog during the coldest weather of that year, another during a heavy rain up The Chimmneys. Both very rewarding.
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