There are so many miles and so many mountains between here and there that it is hardly worth thinking about
IMHO NBK shelter is the worst of the worst and the worst I've seen anywhere on the AT.
Took a noob on her first overnight, telling about stealthing before the hike and on the way. When she saw NBK stealthing took on a new light.
Start out slow, then slow down.
the roof is louder than overmountain. chestnut knob is way creepyer.
matthewski
Cherry Gap Shelter is the loudest. At least in a hurricane.
Let's see. Go straight up the road behind the high school until you reach a forest service road with a gate. (sometimes it is gated and I just walk around) Keep going up this road until it takes a major left. (about a mile) It is soon after a pipe spring to the right and a stream goes under the road at the turn. From this corner, take a hard right through an open area with some fire pits. There used to be a small cabin there but someone pushed it over a couple of years ago. Keep to the right. You'll find a trail that has a small stream to the right. Keep going up this trail until you'll see an obvious turn to the left. You'll know you have missed that turn because the trail doesn't go much further. It should be easy this time of year with the leaves off the trees. Go up through this area and you should come to a big bend to the right on to a much wider road from a century or two ago. This road will go up to a point where you can only go to the left through a rodedentron tail that should bring you out on to the AT and about 200 yards north of Curley Maple Gap Shelter. In other words, take a right down to the shelter.
I know lots of other trails that run near the AT from the Connie's Greasy Creek Friendly back to Hot Springs. Lots of fun bushwhacking around.
Thanks! I will definitely check it out. By chance does this trail cross the AT where the foundation from that old civilian conservation corp building is?
Did you ever hike the Granny Lewis trail up to Temple Hill Gap? It's a hard one to follow because it hasn't been maintained but it's route to the south side of Temple Hill Gap and doesn't involve much climbing.
I've been concentrating on the Unaka Mt. Wilderness area the past few months and have hiked all the marked trails except Stamping Ground Ridge. I've looked unsucessfully a few times for Dick's Creek Falls as well... I've got some new info on where it is but haven't got around to checking them out yet.
All of these hikes are 5-10 miles and make great day hikes. This is a wonderful, wonderful place to live if you like to hike. It's like heaven.
Yes, the foundation is just to the right as you climb on to the AT.
There is no actual trail anymore. There is the Martins Creek Forest Road. The trail was closed years ago. I think it was because of ATV abuse. But the road is high clearance vehicle only. If I the description to the AT is right, head up the road to the top of the Martin Creek drainage. There should be a flag line leading to the trail. I have never walked it myself.
''Tennessee Viking'
Mountains to Sea Trail Hiker & Maintainer
Former TEHCC (AT) Maintainer
Your description to get to the AT works too. It is quit steep and with shale under footing. But deffinitely doable. Also my description of how to get to Curley Maple Gap Shelter is still doable as well. It's called bushwhacking where you walk through the woods from one point to another in a LNT way. I've done this route several dozen times.
Ok, using Fehchet's directions I made it up to the AT from Martin's Creek Rd. It blows me away that the couch in my living room is exactly 4.65 miles from Curly Maple Shelter!
But, I have a question about the directions.... when I got to the rodedendron thicket at the end of the trail I bushwhacked the 200 or so yards up to another trail. According to your directions, this should have been the AT but it wasn't... I knew I needed to go up and south so I made a right onto an unknown trail and in .55 miles came out on the AT right at the stone foundation of that old CCC shelter (which is where I expected to come out.
According to my USGS quad, the trail from Martins Creek Rd is/was the same trail that runs all the way to the AT intersection where the CCC foundation but it wasn't, obviously, because of the bushwhacking segment.
Question: coming back from the AT if instead of making a left and bushwhacking back down to Martins Creek Rd. where would you go if you kept going straight on that trail? Is that an old AT relo? (don't think it is...)
Going back to town, take the obvious left just after the old foundation. That is the rhododendron trail that leads you to a point (about 200 yards or less) where you take a right onto the old road (Martins Creek?).
I'll look you up when I get to Erwin possibly in February and I'll show you. Oh, have you met Grey Wolf (Richard Riggs)? He lives on Gay Street and can lead you up there. Ask Miss Janet if you have to. I don't have his number.
Ok, coming back, I took the left after the old foundation (the same way I came up)....
I went down this trail .55 of a mile and made a left and bushwhacked through some rhododendorn for a hundred or 200 yards and came back out on a very old road. The only way to go is right. I made the right and walked right back out to Martin Creek road where that piped spring is, approximately .65 of a mile.
Bottom line is that I was on the trail that cames out on the AT where the brick foundation is for .55 miles - not 200 yards.
What did I miss?
I guess you didn't miss my way, you just took your way. Both worked. .55 is way too far for the rhododendrons. There is a right at some point.
Anyway, so you had the little stream on your left as you went up near the pipe spring I'm thinking, while I have it on my right going up.
Yes, hopefully things will gel enough for me to come down in a month or so and we can do a few "blue" blazes.
Yes, I did get up there.
I followed your directions I thought... The piped spring on Martin's Creek Rd was on my right just as the road made a hard left.
I took a right off the road where the fire pits are and took the trail that went to the right in that clearing. I walked up a road/trail with a small stream on my right for quite a ways and came to a dead end in with a bunch of rhododendrons on my left. I cut throught the rhododendrons a few hundred yards and came to a very wide trail (might have been a road). I made a right on that trail and in .55 miles I came out at the rock foundation about 200 yards or so north of the shelter.
I guess my bigger question is how to make this jive with my USGS quad which shows an uninterrupted trail from Martin's Creek road up to the rock foundation.
Oh OK. Just before you came to the end of the trail that you bushwhacked from, there actually is a trail to the wide trail (old road). So you were close. Very good. Bushwhacking by dead reckoning is often a gray area. The whole area is crisscrossed with trails and roads some hundreds of years old. Good you like exploring.
You will come out onto the trail that leads back to the forest serviced road. The one you went a few feet too far on.