Great weekend/3 night hikes in GSMNP?

[TIDE-HSV]

remember you, Force. In fact, where have you been all my hiking life...

[gollwoods]

I just got back from the Newton bald area, I can recomend the sunkota ridge trail for a nice hike it is not too steep but rather long. very nice condition too. if there were a way to newfound gap without going on the road it would make a nice loop going to the AT and heading west to the fork ridge trail or noland divide trail and back down to deep creek.

[Doctari]

here's one i did last month.
day 1 Park at Tremont and hike toward Elkmont via Lumbar ridge/Meigs mtn then go up Jakes creek and camp at #26
Day 2 down Lynn camp prong. up greenbrier ridge to the AT, take the AT to and go down Goshen prong and camp at #23
day3 take little river trail/ cuccumber ridge back to elkmont and then hike back to Tremont.

something like 16 miles, 20 miles, then 16 miles

you could add more to the loop by adding Jonas creek and camping at #70, 69, or 68 (neat cascade here) and hiking up forney creek tho clingmans dome

Or, my next hike is parkingat Newfound gap, doing a look off to the west, then pass thru where i park and resupply, then do a loop on the east side

I have done parts of all of those trails, I love them. The little river trail (most of it) is a forest service gravel rd, so I didn't like that part of it, but it follows the little river, so that more than makes up for walking on all that gravel.

Doctari.

[Chip]

When did you do PHG? I thought I'd read that they'd stopped maintaining that trail. Last time I was through there, it had so many blowdowns, they might as well not have tried. It was no horses at that time, but we met a four horse train. The lead horseman's advice to me was "Don't let him kick you." I understood that he meant "Get the hell out of my horses way." When we got to the bottom, I turned them in to the Big Creek ranger and he took off after them. Around Cattaloochee, it'd be a tossup as to whether the horses or the pigs cause more damage...

Just a couple of years ago. I think I will check it out again to see if it is indeed closed. I hope not. Thanks for the info.

[beas]

I to am planning a trip for late April, 5 nights. We will be arriving in East Tennessee late on the 22nd and plan on staying at #35.From there plan on making a loop from lower mnt to the AT then to low gap at #36 or 37. The 3rd night will be at the end of the Gunter Fork to Balsm to Tri Corner to get some of the AT shelter experiecne?? (not sure about that) From there will be heading back via the Snake Den to site #29 Then back to Cosby via Gabes mt.
Does anyone see anything wrong with this route? Please give me a heads up. We relize there are some issues with the shelter and the thru hikers, and the reserved camp sites.
Do we really want to stay in a shelter with this being the peak thru season?
BEAS

[aaronthebugbuffet]

I would definitely avoid staying at that shelter in April. There aren't a lot of good tent sites (as defined by GSMNP regulations) near that shelter either so it could be rather packed. Even if you have reservations it could be full when you get there. Personally I wouldn't get near any of those shelters during heavy thru-hiker use time. With that being said you could always give it a shot though. You might enjoy talking to the thrus[FONT=verdana,geneva,lucida,'lucida grande',arial,helvetica,sans-serif].[/FONT]

[beas]

something else. I am not bent on that section. It just would be easier since my folks live in that area(shuttles and such). So we are open to most anything in the park. We even have discussed using 1 site as a base camp for dayhikes from that base camp for 2 days, any suggestions there?
As far as the base camp is concerned would that be safe leaving tents food etc as far as vandals? Or do we need to pack up each morning? Providing we were far enough away from the day hikers?

BEAS

[aaronthebugbuffet]

Be sure to hang your food and anything else a bear or other critters may think is food or have food odors ie deodorant toothpaste sunscreen cooking kit etc.
I've never left my gear unattended and wouldn't advise others to do it. I did meet a fellow once though who was hiking in The Smokies in the fashion you describe, setting up a basecamp and hiking out from it on dayhikes.

[gollwoods]

Here is an excellent hike I did a couple years ago . start at the smokemont campground hike in on the bradley fork up to hughes ridge, stay at pecks corner shelter
day 2 hike over the A T and balsam mt trail to laurel gap shelter.
day 3 hike down balsam mt trail to beech gap trail take that to the straight fork rd here you can go right back up the beech gap trail to the hyatt ridge trail or follow the road to the hyatt ridge trail and hike that up to the enloe creek trail follow that to b c site 47 on the raven fork creek.
day 4 leave the campsite and go up the Enloe creek trail to the hughes ridge trail and the chasteen creek trail take that back down to the bradley fork trail and back out to the campground. lots of climbing but very nice circuit

[gollwoods]

your trip is pretty nice i did the cosby area last april. I think if your going from Mt cammerer up the AT to low gap and down to walnut bottoms, it will be strenuous. low gap is 2.5 miles from BC site 37 at walnut bottoms. all down hill. after walnut bottoms you are going up gunter fork , so you could stay at the laurel gap shelter. It is like an A T shelter. The gunter fork trail can be wet and hard to get accros so you could do the swallow fork and Sterling ridge trail instead.
after Laurel gap you can make it to site 29 balsam Mt trail is level so it is not strenuous really.

[madmanhiker]

There are so many 3 day trips your could plan in the Smoky's... so I'll just list some of my favorites:

Trip 1 - Gregory Bald Loop (Moderate)
TwentyMile Ranger Loop (Southwestern Section of the park near Fontana Dam)
Night 1 - TwentyMile Ranger Station to Campsite 92 via Twentymile Trail & Long Hungry Ridge Trail
Night 2 - Campsite 92 to Gregory Bald to Campsite 13. (great place to see deer, views, and flaming azalea's in June!, blueberries in July)
Night 3 - Campsite 13 to Parson Bald to Campsite 95 via Wolf Ridge Trail...


Trip 2 - Thunderhead Mtn Loop (Moderate)
Day 1 - From C.C. Cmp Grnd - Anthony Creek Trail (1.6) to Russell Field Trail (3.5) - 5.1 Miles (all up)

Day 2 - From Russel to Spence (2.9 miles EASY DAY) DAY HIKE ON AT to Thunderhead then back to Spence shelter (total miles for day 2.9 + 1.9(x2) = 6.7 miles total

Day 3 - From Spence to Bote Mountain Trail (1.7) to Anthony Creek back to Cades (1.9 + 1.6) = 5.2 miles

Trip 3 - Goshen Prong Loop (Moderate to Difficult)
Day 1 - From Elkmont to Campsite 23 via Little River Trail to Goshen Prong Trail.

Day 2 - Campsite 23 to Mt Collins via Goshen to AT. Watch out for bear activity here. One came up to me at the fire-ring during dinner. He stole some socks and a trekking pole by reaching his arm THROUGH THE GATE IN THE SHELTER!
Link: http://66.177.194.64:8080/smokys604/pages/100_2066a.htm

Day 3 - Mt Collins shelter to Campsite 24 (Note: If planning in June, watch for syncronous fireflies at night - WHAT A SHOW - been there many times)

then back down and out in the morning.

There are many trips you can do, check out some of them on my archive (link by my signature). It doesn't have all of the trips, but many are listed to give you ideas..... have fun and be safe.