Little Cataloochee Trail

This morning I dressed in the same hiking clothes I had on yesterday.  They don’t seem to be as fresh as they were.  This is just like backpacking--putting on the same stinky clothes you wore yesterday and probably the day before and the day before that.  These clothes, however, had the chance to dry out overnight as I was sleeping in my nice soft bed after a long hot shower.  That is not at all like backpacking.

Cook Cabin

We were up and out early again this morning and drove that same horrible road to our trailhead on the very edge of the eastern park boundary.  I say the eastern edge of the park; it would be more accurate to say the northeast edge.  The park lies in a diagonal orientation straddling the Tennessee/North Carolina border.  Our hike today was in North Carolina in the area of the Little Cataloochee settlement.  There were two Cataloochee settlements--the Big and the Little--with about 1200 residents farming the rugged mountainsides in this area.

Little Cataloochee Baptist Church

We were on the trail by 8 AM and passing through what remains of Little Cataloochee.   The Park Service has restored two cabins in the area.  The Little Cataloochee Baptist Church is also located along this trail and is still being used for special occasions.  It really looked nice with a fresh coat of white paint.  As is typical of the old churches, especially in the south, there was a small cemetery in the side yard.  The church was located 2 miles from the trailhead along a dirt road.  The park service keeps some of these old roads passable for those special occasions (usually homecomings) when there is a service held.  Some of the old cemeteries are still active and many, active or not, have “decoration” days periodically.  The gates that bar these old roads are opened on those days to allow access.  The old road we hiked today as far as Cook Cabin at mile 2.6 was actually in better condition than the road we had to drive to get to the trailhead.  Beyond Cook Cabin we were still on the old road, but this portion is no longer maintained.

Hannah Cabin

Old stone walls

Our hike took us up and over Davidson Gap and down the other side to the junction with Pretty Hollow Trail at Pretty Hollow Creek.  We had our lunch at the trail junction  overlooking the rushing water and then retraced our steps to the truck.

Pretty Hollow Creek

Tomorrow is moving day.  We are going to the other side of the Smokies to the community of Townsend where we will spend the weekend.