Well excellent, Ken Wise is a friend of mine and we've done many trips together. I'll give him a shout. I also have his book somewhere, have to dig it out for sure.
Well excellent, Ken Wise is a friend of mine and we've done many trips together. I'll give him a shout. I also have his book somewhere, have to dig it out for sure.
Yeah in my minds eye I was envisioning the manway junctioning right at the campsite so now I'm wondering also. hmm...it may be better to follow TNhikers plan and start from the bottom
Ha, that's great. Sounds like you have a heck of a resource available to you.
so I was surprised that Collins Creek is shown on the map but only given passing mention.
maybe he hasnt hiked it?
based on his hiking resume----i would sorta doubt it but it would make sense that there's no description....
and I think it might be in the blue book's map....
i will have to look here in a bit and see if it's there.....
and ends where it tees into the Thomas Divide Trail some 25 yards South of its junction with Sunkota Ridge
and yeah, it's been about 15 or so years since I have looked for it....
and from my faded memory----it didnt come out exactly at the campsite but a touch a ways from it........i sorta recall a flat spot up in that area and I saw
a the beginnings of an old road bed.....
i tend to think it would be easier to try from the bottom going up....
although----coming down----if one isn't on the manway (or trace), and getting not lost but misguided-----just keep on heading
downhill and eventually run into the road...
I've never heard about this particular man-way, but in Google Earth, it's visually very easy to follow the drainage that starts at the end of the Collins Creek Picnic Area Quiet Walkway and ends at a saddle about 100' from the Sunkota Ridge/Thomas Divide intersection.
I hiked section of trail earlier this summer so my son could pickup Kanati and Thomas Divide between Newton Bald and NFG-Road for his map.
I don't recall seeing any side trails in this area (but then I wasn't looking for one either).
I don't recall seeing any side trails in this area (but then I wasn't looking for one either).
you wouldn't be able to see if if you weren't looking...
a very faint cut of the old roadbed is how I found it.....
and yeah.....that's what i recall is near that intersection....
one has to look really hard to find it..........
also----I dont have my blue book map where i'm living right now.....
once i get back to knoxville, I can look for it and see if it has this manway on it.
Hiker's Guide to the Smokies, A Sierra Club Totebook. My version was printed in 1976.
The map is missing but there is a description of the Collins Creek trail. It is detailed as a
"difficult" trail leading from Collins Creek picnic area to the crest of Thomas Divide. Length 4.2 miles with 2,300 elevation gain.
It mentions that a loop trip can be made by using Kanati Fork, Newton Bald or Mingus Creek trails. "However, the Collins Creek Trail is not maintained, so its use by backpackers, except for the very strong ones, is discouraged."
It is listed as trail #38 on page 147. I cannot locate the map.
The blue book map does have the collins creek manway on it...
i'll try to upload a picture later (i never have good luck with uploading though)
TNhiker,
See post #20. I took a picture from the blue book map and uploaded it. Love the blue book. Its a fun read with usually much more historical insight than the brown book.
TNhiker,
Yeah, that map is a picture I took from the Wise book. Maybe I have a different edition than yours. I have a first edition c1996 of the book which has no contour lines. Maybe later versions added the contour lines. I see an updated second edition came out in 2014. If you have a version with contour lines, I would love to see it.
I saw one review on the 2nd edition which indicates that Wise left a lot of stuff out of it like elevation information for each trail, black and white photos, the exhaustive trail and place name indexes, and information on the manways. I once heard somebody claim the reason they didn't sell Wise's book in the GSMNP Visitor's Center was because it included information on the unmaintained old manways. Not sure if that is the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't want information about the old trails easily available.
If you have Google Earth, here's a kmz file that approximates Collins Creek Trail.
In Google Earth, I've got a Topo overlay that included this trail. I traced the path from the TOPO looking strait down, then zoomed in and looked at the trail from a low angle to clean up the path to better match the topography.
So I don't claim it to be perfect, but it should be a decent approximation.
Post back an updated copy if you're able to improve on it.
Collins Creek Tr01.kmz
Yeah, that map is a picture I took from the Wise book. Maybe I have a different edition than yours. I have a first edition c1996 of the book
this is what i thought happened....
the blue book is different than wise's book...
the blue book was what the sierra club put out which eventually turned into the brown book.......
I once heard somebody claim the reason they didn't sell Wise's book in the GSMNP Visitor's Center was because it included information on the unmaintained old manways. Not sure if that is the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't want information about the old trails easily available.
this is true...
he sued to get it back in there....
but yeah, the Park service doesnt like info about manways to be published......
Greg Hoover (a local to the Park hiker) wrote a book and while he wrote about manways, he never
gave the route out...
Hiker's Guide to the Smokies, A Sierra Club Totebook. My version was printed in 1976.
this is the blue book i am referring to....
I found the map that goes with the blue Sierra Club book.20201208_150200.jpg
thanks....
i got tied up (not literally though) and forgot to try to post it....
Here's a screen shot of the TOPO overlay I've got in Google Earth
CollinsCreek.jpg