BSF TN John Muir Trail

“Has anybody hiked the entire length of this trail? Did you do it as a loop? If so, which trail(s) did you use to loop back? Which end did you start with? And most importantly: What did you think of it?”

“This is the Tennessee John Muir Trail that runs through the Big South Fork Park.”

“Yah, I was almost finished with a post talking about how SnowNymph had thru-hiked it in 30 days when I grokked what "BSF TN" meant.

I've never been on that trail, but the little bit I could find on it seemed to suggest that it comes close to the Ocoee and the Hiawassee rivers. If you wanted to combine a rafting trip with your hike, I've been on both those rivers and they're fun.”

“I've been thinking of doing that trail myself as a loop. Bit, you sound like a Heinlein fan. Got water?”

“well i'll be damned! i totally thought "grok" was from *A Clockwork Orange.* go figure!

(you didn't really expect any knowledge about that trail from me, did ya, skully? ;-) hehe!)”

“It's from Stranger In A Strange Land, which was probably the first Heinlein I ever read. Since then, I've read most of the "juveniles", and some of his later stuff, like Friday and Time Enough For Love. But my favorites are Starship Troopers and Farnham's Freehold.

Poor skully. Now her thread's degenerated to a discussion of Heinlein. I wonder how many posts until the "H" word comes up?”

“Sorry, skully. I didn't mean to detract from your thread. I too, would like more info on the 'eastern' John Muir trail. Actually, I was kind of surprized to hear there was one this end of the world, having always associated the name with the California trail a buddy and I trekked the summer we got out of high scool back in '72.”

“The moon is a harsh mistress.

enough said.
Although Troopers and Freehold are among the best of his works.”

“I'd be interested in this trail too, but it would have to be November, I think. Unless y'all are up for an August hike...”

“But isn't the JMT near Hiwassee river over in Cherokee, not BSF? I've found several references that mention a 6 mile JMT in Cherokee near Hiawassee river and some referring to a 50 mile JMT in BSF. Unless I have misunderstood something bitpusher, I think we're still talking about two different trails. Ummm...but we're in the same state now mentally.


WTF???



Right, like I would be offended by thread degeneration! ¦ ) .”

“That could be, skully. Most of the links I found said that the JMT was 18.8 miles, not 50. And yah, the Hiawassee is nowhere near BSF, so it must be a different trail.

That damn John Muir. Couldn't he have stuck to one place?”

“LOL! Apparently he hiked from Indiana to the Gulf before going out west. Dude did get around, didn't he?”

“The original trailho.”

“I just visited the NPS site for the Big South Fork NRRA, and I'm not finding a John Muir Trail there. Is there a different Big South Fork area, maybe a Tennessee state area?”

“No, it's there. If you go to the park map and zoom in you can see a JMT over by Horse Camp Station and Leatherwood. I've found about a half a dozen references to it on several other sites but the all link back to the park service website. I've done a pretty extensive Google search on it and what I've got so far is that it is 50 miles long, was the first designated National trail, that it is a moderately difficult hike through mountain laurel and rhododendron with very nice views and that combined with other trails it can be done as a loop. So what I'm looking for mostly is personal accounts.”

“And by John Muir's own account some guy on horseback tried to rob him while he was hiking through there.”

“I'm not seeing it on the large park map, but I do see it on the Leatherwood trails map. I wonder if they have expunged it from the park map, lol...”

“Yeah, they don't exactly promote it do they?”

“Skullcap, check out the website Tennessee Trails and look up the Big South Fork Chapter. You should be able to email someone who can give you the info you need.
Hope this helps”

“Ewker, are you sure there's a Big South Fork chapter? I went through that site early this morning with a fine tooth comb with exactly that in mind and found nada.”

“Try here.

There's just an email addy though.”

“bitpusher, thanks for putting the link up for the email.

Skullcap, you might try looking through some of the old Tn. Trails newsletters and see if someone did a trip on the JMT and email them for info also.”

“To add to the confusion, there is another JMT in Tennessee, near the Cherokee NF. Here's the GORP description of this trail.”

“Yeah, I found that one email addy earlier and fired one off. It's way too soon for a response. I hadn't thought of going through the old newsletters, thanks.


Yeah, I went to Gorp yesterday. after getting all the information they had, and having to deal with that flash popup everytime I followed an internal link, I have decided I'm never going to use Gorp ever again! It was the flash popup that did me in.


I really don't need resources guys. I just want personal accounts from TT'ers. If their aren't any that's cool, I don't mind going first!”

“skullcap, looks like you might be the first one...unless Towndawg has hiked it before

don't you have the pop-up stopper than someone posted on here. It works but occasionally it will cause my computer to freeze up”

“It's a flash. It's not a normal popup. You don't want my opinion of the popup stopper softwares, it's not nice. I use to be a techie and I can be a bit harsh when it comes to puter stuff.”

“I wonder if walkindude has hiked this one? Probably. Ohhhhhhhhh waaaaaaaaaalkinduuuuuuuuuuude....where are you?”

“so I'm going out there next week. I'm overdue for a trek, anyhoo. I'll let all y'all know what I find.”

“Cool beans!”

“wow! ask and you shall receive :-)”

“TT'ers are the best!”

“Too bad there aren't enough of us to support a full-time trail scout. Wouldn't it be cool if we could say, send some young guy (nothing against you Father Goose) to scout out a trail we couldn't find any info on, and report back to us.”

“Hey, HeY, HEY!”

“Like I said, nothing against you, FG, just that if we were to contract with, say, Ice Tea to do this, he would probably have more time at his disposal than us older TT'ers, who have jobs, kids, responsibility, et. al., which either eat up our available time, or limit our available time to short periods.

I could put an Ice Tea/spelling joke in here, but since he's not here to defend himself, I won't....”

“some GUY, huh? why you little...why i oughta...

BAN BITPUSHER!

;-)”

“My plan, such as it is, is to drive up Monday and check with the visitors' center and get some maps of the area so that I can plan a route. I'll set out Tuesday morning with 5 or 6 day's provisions,a journal and Mother Goose's digital camera.”

“Well, lyra, most of the women on this board seem to be of the "responsibility-laden" type...even adventuregirl is off being responsible somewhere right now.

But I'd gladly send you, if we had such a program....

Oh I give up. I admit it, I'm sexist AND ageist. So shoot me.

lol....”

“that's true, the monkeys would miss me. never mind! i GUESS you can stay...”

“dont post often but do know some about the jmt in the bsf.
someday the trail is supposed to connect with the cumberland section but it may never be built.
have not hiked the whole trail,
but have hiked sections.
the section from leatherwood ford,
a main trail head in bsf,to angel falls overlook is a beautiful
hike with good views.
have also done the section,between
o and w bridge and leatherwood ford,a nice river walk with good campsites.
also have been on the section that runs with the rock creek loop.
there are very nice campsites on
rock creek.
the best info on the bsf is a book by deavers and someone else,that give a complete description of all trails in the
big south fork.
called hiking trails of the big south fork.
this is co written by a woman ranger who has hiked all the trails!
she works at the visitor center at bandy creek.
you can make a nice loop by parking at bandy creek,and using laurel fork trail to jmt.
other loops in bsf i reccomend,
yahoo falls loop on the ky side,
rock creek,twin arches-charit creek lodge.
town dawg has hiked some of this area.
more info-write garykaupp@fuse.net”

“I wondered if you still lurked/posted around here ky hiker. I saw some of your posts when I was searching the threads archive for some info on this and I figured you for one of the people who might know something about it.


Father Goose, you go guy! And if you have the inclination might you possibly submit your analysis to matt to add to the trails database for thebackpacker?


As to the trail scouts, I nominate Ice Tea for East Coast, Poppinfresh for West Coast and Spirit Coyote for middle.”

“hi skull
some answers to your questions
have hiked most of the jmt in big south fork.
have done it in sections though
not all of the trail has been built.
there is a disconnected section from burnt mill to honey creek in the south.
best place to start is fom leatherwood ford.
from here one can hike about
38 miles on the jmt,ending in pickett state park.
trouble is this is miles from your
starting point.
have used bandy creek,leatherwood
and gret meadows n.fs, campground as jump off places.
love the big south fork,but find
hiking the entire trail impractical.
there are also sections up on the
plateau that have no access to water.
there are many loops to hike
in the park,and hope to be down there in september.”

“Just wondering if you got a reply from the email you sent to the Big South Fork chapter.”

“Yeah but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. He basically just referred me to the guide book and told me which sections they're planning on expanding. I guess he hasn't hiked that one. I got much more from you guys ¦ ) .”

“Actually, I'm planning this the first week of December with the endpoint being Charit Creek Lodge. Also, I misspoke about the map. I didn't find the JMT on the park map, it was on the Leatherwood area trails map. Well, part of it anyway. I have yet to find a decent map but I haven't sent for the USGS quads yet. The one trail review I've seen that didn't put a rosy spin on everything spoke very highly of this trail and went so far as to call it the best one in the park for hiking. It's apparently the one I haven't hiked yet in the Tennesse part of the park.”

“I sent you an email.”

“I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for your trip report and pictures to be posted! I'm also eating my heart out. I wish it was me out there this week!”

“OK, Scully, here's my latest plan. I will start out from Leatherwood Wednesday morning and hike to the park office at Pickett. Mother Goose will drive up Friday night and ferry me back to Leatherwood Saturday morning for a little day hiking. I'll take lots of pictures.”

“I have not done the entire length Sukky.. but I have done parts of it when I hiked Rock Creek... and yes.. there is a portion of the JMT inside of BSF.”

“Gee, I wonder who TD's calling 'Sukky'? Scully, did you do something to p!$$ him off?”

“sorry.. my typing has sucked today.. I didnt notice.. sorry SKULLY!”