View Full Version : Birch Springs
Bear Cables
06-04-2008, 11:27
Can anyone give me a description of the Birch Springs campground out of Fontana? I hear it use to be a shelter and is now a backwood camp. Are there platforms or just a clearing for tents? We leave for our hike tomorrow.
bigcranky
06-04-2008, 14:03
It's okay. The site is completely wooded. There is a central area for cooking, and several tent pads in the woods around it. The area is quite hilly, so they carved flat tent pads out of the slope. They are designed in such a way that any serious rain will run directly through your tent. :(
Bear Cables
06-04-2008, 15:25
It's okay. The site is completely wooded. There is a central area for cooking, and several tent pads in the woods around it. The area is quite hilly, so they carved flat tent pads out of the slope. They are designed in such a way that any serious rain will run directly through your tent. :(
Genius:eek: Maybe we should hike on to Mollies Ridge.
bigcranky
06-04-2008, 16:09
Yeah, well, we saw a lot of tent pads built this way in the last few years. Makes hammocking look better and better (though that was tough with three people.)
The best tent pads I ever saw were at Pass Mountain Hut in Shenandoah.
smokymtnsteve
06-04-2008, 17:13
wet, all the time
Hikes in Rain
06-05-2008, 10:45
Great spring, pretty wooded section. The old shelter was reputed to be wet all the time, and the tent sites were wet when I was there back in dry November 06.
Two Speed
06-05-2008, 11:14
Pretty sloppy when I went through that area in '03. In addition lotsa horse droppings. I'd keep moving to Mollies Ridge.
Hikes in Rain
06-05-2008, 11:35
Photo of the gap
Unless you hammock, it would be worth pushing on to Mollies. The spring at Birch Spring is very nice though. However, the pads are pretty uneven from what I've seen.
Besides, Mollies Ridge is probably the nicest shelter in the Smokies, with the possible exception of Icewater Spring. And Mollies doesn't get the heavy traffic of Icewater.
Red Wolf
06-05-2008, 12:51
Bearpaw, the BEST shelter in the Smoky's ( GSMNP ) is PECK'S CORNER. Sweet site nestled in old growth spruce, good spring, and only 5 minutes slightly down from the AT.
---Reed Wolf o'da Smoky's .