Cataloochee in the Smokies a TR

“As some of you know Treebait and I recently relocated just north of Charlotte, NC from Jacksonville, Fl. It was a drawn out process and I've spent most of the last year commuting between the two cities on weekends. Obviously backpacking was not in the picture.

So last weekend I finally was able to get out and do some backpacking in the Cataloochee area of the Smokies. By coincidence this also happened to be my first ever solo hike. Usually I have a gaggle of Boy Scouts with me. So in the spirit of new beginnings I decided to change a few things.

First I got a new pack, an REI quick 3000 CU 2lb 10 oz pack @ $99. I'm liking the feature to price ratio of these REI packs.

I also left behind my PUR water filter and used the katadyn micropur tablets instead.

My headlamp was in the fritz and I couldn't locate my other one so I picked up a Tikka XT.

My intention was to leave after work and drive out to Cataloochee and just hike until I was ready to leave. That alone was novel in that my drive to the Smokies went from 500 miles to 150 thanks to the move. Score!

I arrived at Catalooche after dark and filled out a permit for campsite 39 at about 1.8 miles in tonight and then campsite 41 the following night. Permit acquired, I drove down to the trailhead and made my first discovery. Apparently they lock the gate at the ranger residence at dusk and there is no parking at the ranger station.

Ok, I'll just drop my car at the permit box parking area and road walk it. This added about 2 miles to my hike that night.

It had rained sometime before I arrived and the mist was rising off the ground and plants. There was a full moon tonight but the could cover and the smoke haze from the fire at the other end of the park obscured it down to a slight glow. Since it's road walk I decided to not use my headlamp and I stowed my trekking poles so that I could hike silently.

Once I got beyond the ranger station and my eyes adjusted I could see the fireflys and glowworms everywhere. It was like someone broke a glowstick and scattered glowing droplets all over the ground and much of it was still floating slowing through the air. I could look up the hillsides and see these points of light all the way up and out of the line of sight. As I mentioned on and earlier thread, it was stupendous. A very nice start to the hike.

Cataloochee Valley is like a mini Cade's Cove in that the are several large clearings in the valley. Every once and a while I could hear animals moving off in the tall grass. I would take my headlamp periodically a shine it up the road to look for trail and road signs. At one point I flashed it out into a field and saw a pair of eyes glowing back at me about waist high. I froze and the eyes raisied up higher than my head. More eyes appeared, about ten sets in all and could then make out the shape of antlers. They were Elk. I turned off the light and stood there awhile. After a bit they decided I was mostly harmless and went back to their business.

Hiking on I found the Pretty Hollow Gap trail head and headed up to the campsite. Under the trees it was very dark so I had to use my headlamp. The trail was muddy and rocky in spots but all in all it was about normal for any trail and it climbed slowly.

I made it to campsite 39 a little over an hour of hiking. A clothes line of wet clothes greeted me at the site. Mindful of my headlamp beam and that I was arriving close to midnight I looked for a place to pitch the tarptent. The main site was taken so I pitched down near the spare set of food hangers. Hopefully my activity didn't disturb my neighbors. After making camp I sat on a rock in the dark listening to the night, eating a pop tart, drinking water and watching the sweat smoke off my arms. I ruminated for a spell and turned in for the night.

I woke up late the next morning (10:30) with a flat thermarest. Bummer on that, but much the same I felt rested and not sore at all. Breakfast was nice. I normally have a hard time eating anything in the morning but that was not an issue this time. I packed up and backtracked down the trail to the road and over to Big Fork Ridge Trail. Things looked different in the daylight and I enjoyed seeing the ecology of the Smokies.

The midday road walk was also nice and I saw some Turkeys out in the meadows. As soon as I went to take a photo of the group they noisily scattered off in to the hills.

Big fork ridge was a very mild climb but I managed to develop a blister on top of my big toe. A very unusual location for me. I wasn't wearing my usual liner socks so I attribute it to that. At the top of the ridge I patched my toe and munched on a chocolate bar and a some snacks for lunch. The breeze cooled my off nicely. I considered taking a nap but decided that I had done plenty of sleeping the night before and I wanted to walk so I headed on down the trail.

I soon came to the next rail junction and camp was about 1.5 miles away to the right. It was about 1 in the afternoon and I would rather hike than site in camp so I decided turn left instead and keep hiking. So down the Caldwell Fork Trail I went. The hiking was easy and I was enjoying just being out there. At each trail junction I flipped a coin, well, actually I flipped a soda bottle top. Each flip sent me further down Caldwell Fork. It was a nice sunny day and it was cool under the trees. The trail wasn't bad at all but there were some really muddy spots due to horse traffic.

Eventually I ended up back at my car rather than the campsite. Happy with the hike I decided to just head home. I figure I'll head back in couple of weeks and hike around Cataloochee some more.

Nice place, it's worth a visit.”

“very nice trip report. always good to read about the beloved Smoky Mountains! thanks for posting.”

“very nice trip report. always good to read about the beloved Smoky Mountains! thanks for posting.”

“Glad to hear you're getting back in the swing of things, HPM. 'Tis hard to give up a beloved activity...”

“Glad to hear about the trip.

The main reason I've been itching to hit Cataloochee is to see the elk. Glad the heard is still there now that the experiement with them is over.

A 2 hr drive to that side of the Smokies is great.”

“Up Rough Fork there was a huge enclosure that I assume was where they kept the elk during the early part of the introduction process.

It was kinda strange seeing it on the trail.”

“Next go to Little Cataloochee Valley - you'll like it too - there's an old church in there with a maintained cemetary and a couple of recreated cabins as well. Once a year they open the road into the place for descendents of the families - i stumbled across that after two days out solo and got some odd looks from middle aged folks dressed almost nice enough for church.”

“HPM, hope i bump into you up there...it's about halfway between us”

“Thanks for the TR

Next time you go to Cataloochee try and work the Boogerman trail in, it is one of the few places in that area that hold stands of virgin forest.”

“So Roam, Where is Little Cataloochee in relation to Cataloochee Valley? Are you talking about the Little Cataloochee Trail?

Opie, let's figure out a date.

Boogerman will most likely be part of my next trip there.”

“Little Cat is either south or north over one ridgeline if memory serves - its been a long time since i was there.

Boogerman trail was one of my first hikes in the Smokies back about 10 years ago.”

“If you didn't catch it while you were on the Caldwell Fork Trail already, Big Poplars just before campsite #41 is worth a stop.”

“Definitely!”

“nice area and you don't see many hikers. The drive in sucks if you get behind a woman driver from Florida who does 3mph down the gravel road.”

“Nah, I'm used to that Ewker.
lol.”

“yeah but this woman wasn't old”

“It wasn't me Ewker, honest! Ask HPM about his white-knuckle ride around the park with me.”

“"The drive in sucks if you get behind a woman driver from Florida who does 3mph down the gravel road.”

And she wouldn't even pull over and let us pass”

“oh the drive in is bad if your behind some city folks. my suv is used to small narrow winding dirt roads.
HPM, will do bro, we need to bushwack the boogerman and find all those huge trees i couldn't find, the mud was my prob getting to booger”

“Thanks for your great trip report.

Hmm, that's the first time in years I've heard of them closing that gate. Some things must have been happening. Or/and perhaps they have reason to lock out late arriving horsemen from the horsecamp.

Yes, you're correct. That enclosure is where they have introduced the Elk to the Park.

Going uptrail above the horsecamp and before the Little Cataloochee Trail Junction, there is a log across the creek. The water falls about two feet after passing over the log. Like many other people I've found it to be a great resting place and a good spot to soak the feet. Of course it would be difficult to see it in the dark, and hard to notice when hiking out. It is easily visible when hiking uptrail.

The log is not across the creek by accident. I met a guy whose grandfather helped cut down the tree and drag it to its' placement across the creek.

Also, I met a man, who lived in those hills before the Park. He attended first and second grades in the schoolhouse across the creek at the trailhead.

The top of the ridge on the Big Fork Ridge Trail is a good place to stop. After one sits for a while the birds and wildlife restart their activities. I've stopped there several times.

You did good. It can be a task to locate decent spot for your tent after dark at CS#39.

In the fall between the Big Fork Ridge Trailhead and the enclosure the fallen leaves are about knee high on the trail. I find it fun to hike out there in all those leaves.

Going north from the ridge top the trail gets somewhat narrower as it circles on the hillside to the left. There is a depression or valley that it passes. Near the start of that narrow area a horseman came full speed from above me on the trail. I thought I was going to be thrown into a downhill slide to my right. But he did pull up and walked the horse past me. Seems to me that he could have saved his speed run for the gravel/dirt road. The horse was digging up a lot of the trail. A nice snake on the trail and the horse could have done a nice thing to him for me.

I glad you've made it back into hiking. I thought you had forgotten how to write trip reprts.
last edited: 6/08/07 4:48:11 PM”

“I glad you've made it back into hiking

Thanks, me too.
Open weekends were made of unobtainium for quite a while there.


Oh yeah, gear review.

The REI Quick was a nice pack but I have one complaint. The lumbar pad is really really dang hard. At the end of the day it hurt to put the pack back on. I'm not sure if my lower back has gotten soft or what but I am debating rigging up some softer padding. If that doesn't do it I'll just take it back to REI.

The tikka XT throws a really nice beam of light. I dig.

I did not miss the PUR hiker. Chemicals worked just fine for me.”

“unobtainium must be in my tap water here too.”

“Is that near Cataloochee Ski Place? Maggie Valley? Dude you were mighty close to my Mason Jar man.

I'll do GSMNP someday - dogs be darned.”

“It's on the other side of the mountain.

Maggie Valley, 19 east, 4.5-mi. » Dellwood.

276 north, 6-mi. » Cove Creek Road (located just south of I-40 exit 20).

north throught Cove Creek about 5-mi. uphill » Cove Creek Gap/Cataloochee Divide Trailhead/Park Entrance.

284 north, 4-mi. downhill » Cataloochee Road.

west 3-mi. downhill » Cataloochee Valley - Campground, Ranger Station, HorseCamp, Trailheads, historic structures - school, church, farm, etc.”

“The horrible thing about Cataloochee is that almost all of the hemlocks, including the old growth groves, are dead now.”

“The good thing about it is that finding firewood is easier. Regardless, I never had any trouble. I had a favorite spot or two that never let me down.”