Run in the Smokies

Chris Brown and I decided to find a “back way” into the Smokies this weekend. After staying the night at a family cabin in Maggie Valley, we drove up some of the new development roads west of the Cataloochee ski area…and hit a gate on an unmarked dirt road far below our goal…Not to be deterred, we parked and started running up in hopes of finding a connecting trail into the park…After about an hour, a few wrong turns and an extra 1500 feet of climbing, we found the park border and the Hemhill Bald Trail…The original plan was a long loop encompassing the Rough Fork Trail…But, with wives and kids waiting at home, we settled for a 3 hour out and back over Hemphill Bald and past Calswell Fork & McKee Branch…Fun day in the hills though…Click the pic for a short slideshow…

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Hiking, Trail Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.