View Full Version : GSMNP manways
mtntopper
01-20-2013, 19:29
I am looking for information from anyone that has hiked any of the manways in GSMNP. I have hiked Porters Creek up to Porters Gap on the AT. I plan on hiking some in late spring perhaps before the tres leaf out. I would like info on trail markings, trail condition if possible. location and any routes that you may have hiked.
flemdawg1
01-20-2013, 20:17
What is a manway?
mtntopper
01-20-2013, 20:52
What is a manway?
an unblazed, unmaintain trail, usually marked by cairn, very difficult to find and follow, there are some in the GSMNP
WingedMonkey
01-20-2013, 21:07
That should make it fun for park rescue.....NOT
restless
01-21-2013, 13:07
I would suggest trying to obtain a copy of the Great Smoky Mountains Park map "East Half-West Half". The Park does not sell these maps. To the best of my knowledge, the Map Store on Dutch Valley Road in Knoxville is the best source for these maps. Most manways are minimally followable. Some have a fairly obvious path in places, others are non-existent. I would recommend a good compass, the aforementioned maps, and a plan B. I've hiked a few over the years; if I ever make it down there for any length of time would love to do more. None of them are marked, although there may be markings to help locate them. If you can find the maps I mentioned, a lot of them existed as pre-Park roads.
Violent Green
01-21-2013, 14:44
There are a couple good books out there that cover them. Ken Wise has a great book that includes several as well as the old Sierra Club trail book(the blue one). I've hiked a couple of them, and know of probably 15-20 of them. Do you know which ones you are looking to hike, or are you trying to determine what manways are out there?
Ryan
flemdawg1
01-21-2013, 16:30
About 185 lbs
Well played, sir.
Pedaling Fool
01-21-2013, 16:34
To whom it may concern: I don't care what manway you're hiking, if you are using hiking poles you're nothing but a big weenie.
To the best of my knowledge, the Map Store on Dutch Valley Road in Knoxville is the best source for these maps.[/COLOR]
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the map store has been closed for a few years now......
they sold out to another map company that does online sales (and sorry, dont recall name)....
and likewise----i have both heard of a bunch of manways along with hiked a bunch of manways......
stuthetraveler
01-22-2013, 18:21
Check out the Library of Congress website... in the map section are maps of a lot of the national parks and some date quite a ways back. If you look at the GSMNP maps dating back a ways there are trails drawn on those maps that don't exist today. You might be able to locate the manways on there. Some of the trails have washed out and others go back to old cabins or other spots in the forest that were just never developed.
Here's the link the National Parks section: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/nphtml/nphome.html
Hope this helps.
mtntopper
01-23-2013, 07:34
To whom it may concern: I don't care what manway you're hiking, if you are using hiking poles you're nothing but a big weenie.
Are you no longer a big weenie? Have you quit using your hiking poles?
Interesting...
http://streamsandforests.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/shanty-mountain-manway/
I imagine the term goes back a long way in the region and has its origins as a borrowed term from coal mining.
We would just call them "footpaths" and sometimes "deerpath", deerpath being somewhat more natural.
Deerpath and footpath are often used interchangeably, as something narrower and less maintained than a trail.
From "The Way of the Drummer", Chapter 3, "Grooves are the Footpaths of the Soul" describes the relationship between deerpaths, footpaths, and trails when talking about music and the human soul. Interesting when you think of hiking as a form of music. Jamming, composing, or just playing an old tune.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=Uzqv2nH3_0IC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=%22deerpath%22+%22footpath%22+%22trail%22&source=bl&ots=aUdcLR5b7O&sig=su5iXJpqq9_hjMZxBJg7HEj7T8M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Jdj_UPmBLMTB0QHht4DoBw&ved=0CGQQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22deerpath%22%20%22footpath%22%20%22trail%22&f=false
General Custer before Little Big Horn...
"I don't like the sound of those drums!"
The Indian scout listens for a second and replies, "That's not their regular drummer.
Another Kevin
01-23-2013, 08:48
Around here, they're called "herd paths" or "social trails," and they're not that uncommon a feature. Peakbaggers grow quite familiar with them, since about half of the Adirondack 46 and the Catskill 35 don't have maintained trails.
Some of them are historic features - the grades of abandoned roads and railroads. Some are well-beaten trails, and even marked with cairns or flagged with tape. Some are, instead, nearly impossible to follow.
Some are tolerated by the authorities, while some are actively suppressed, with workers breaking cairns and piling brush at turnoffs. Some are both tolerated and suppressed: there's one spot in Harriman where the AT leaves an old woods road, where maintainers pile brush across the road because AT hikers would tramp a long ways down it before realizing they'd gone astray. The road is on the trail maps, though, and offers easy hiking.
It's been at least twice that I've bagged a peak and not found the "obvious" herd path until running into it at the summit. :-?
Another Kevin
01-23-2013, 08:52
That should make it fun for park rescue.....NOT
Off-trail hiking is one thing for which I'd bring a PLB. It's not about saving my arse; it's that if I don't come out, I know SAR is coming in, whether I want them or not. I can save them a ton of expense, effort and danger if I can tell them exactly where I am. The last thing I want is for someone else to get hurt looking for me.
rocketsocks
01-23-2013, 09:06
We alway's called em "game trails" or "Deer run". Are "Manways" particular just to GSMNP, never heard of this term....except in coal mining.
WingedMonkey
01-23-2013, 09:43
Off-trail hiking is one thing for which I'd bring a PLB. It's not about saving my arse; it's that if I don't come out, I know SAR is coming in, whether I want them or not. I can save them a ton of expense, effort and danger if I can tell them exactly where I am. The last thing I want is for someone else to get hurt looking for me.
Can't say I haven't followed more than a few hunting trails or old logging rails off in to the woods in the National Forests. Looking over the maps now for the old logging railroad around Laurel Falls.