Cades Cove Weekend - Day Three - A Tom Sawyer Detour

Turkeypen Ridge Trail/Schoolhouse Gap Trail and two side trips/Bote Mountain Trail/Finlay Cane Trail - 11.8 miles (plus?)

After a rowdy Saturday night in the Cades Cove campground (we were out for the count by 10:30 PM) we woke up Sunday morning with intentions of packing up and leaving by 8:45 AM for an 11.3-mile hike (Hike #2 in the Tremont/Elkmont section of "Day Hiker's Guide"). But cooking an actual breakfast and then packing up absolutely everything, of course, took forever so we were a little late. We wanted to be off the trail and headed back to Charlotte by 2:00 PM. Our trailhead was close by, though, so no worries, and today was another loop hike. The Turkeypen Ridge Trail begins at a little pull-off spot on Laurel Creek Road, also known as a speed zone for motorcycles, pickup trucks, pop-up trailers and huge camper-mansions. Be careful crossing this road!

At the beginning of Turkeypen Ridge was a warning sign that bears have been very active in the area and it is possible to be hurt or killed..hmmm. Well, we know bears are in the park and we've seen 'em, but this was a little disconcerting. For the prior hikes we had often been out of sight of each other as one (Jim) sped up or one (me) stopped to take pictures, but we agreed that today we would stay within reaching distance of each other. The behavior for discouraging an aggressive bear is to stand tall, look big and shout at the bear, and the two of us clinging to each other for dear life would look bigger than one whimpering person alone.

And on this trail we heard many noises among the trees and stopped often to check it out, thus we made slow progress. We can't swear to another bear sighting, but we can almost promise that we saw one. A funny thing: bears have a magical ability to look exactly like tree stumps. Out of the corner of your eye you know it's a bear, but when you look straight at it, it's just an old stump. We saw dozens of bears who have learned this trick. Pretty cool.

Jim was ahead of me so I could protect his rear end, and he saw wildlife on the trail, including a huge owl taking off silently through the trees and a smaller-than-a-bear-but-bigger-than-a-breadbox animal that we concluded was a wild boar. We saw where the creature had been rooting around in the dirt and we heard him trotting away through the leaves. Later we read that this area has many wild pigs. I myself saw three wild...lizards.

At the end of Turkeypen Ridge, we turned left onto Schoolhouse Gap Trail, a mile out-and-back section that I needed to cover (yet again - seems I am always doing this). Within a few hundred feet we saw a well-worn side trail to the left, and my guidebook invited us to explore an area called White Oak Sinks, a low flat area where a group of 10 or so families had once lived. This area is quite popular in April with an extensive variety of wildflowers in bloom. We didn't know how far the trail went, but we gave ourselves ten minutes out and ten minutes back because of time constraints. We found the area but no evidence of homes. Check out the humongous fungus we saw there.

Back on Schoolhouse Gap, we found ourselves on yet another gravel roadbed. I've learned that there was is no record of a school being located here, but perhaps the name came from this being the route that kids walked over to school in Townsend. We walked about 1.2 miles to the end of this road and ended at the Park boundary, looking at someone's home with a picnic table nearby. As we sat down to take a breather before hiking back, the owner came driving by. When we asked if the picnic table was his, he said, "It belongs to me and it's there for you." This very nice man asked if we were going on the "back" trail and we confessed we knew nothing about it. "Well," he said, "there's caves on that trail and they are a sight to see, and the trail goes through White Oak Sinks." He gave a quick description that neither Jim nor I fully got, something about following the creek and going right and bearing left with the cave to your back, and he wished us a nice day.

So we went on this trail...because it sounded interesting and we are not very smart.

The trail actually was not hard to see and it did follow the creek bed, but it was much fainter and there was much ducking under limbs and scrambling up banks. We soon encountered a fork in the trail and my orienteering skills said, heck, I don't know, let's keep left. Eventually we came upon a cave in the side of the mountain with a warning sign advising that written permission from the park rangers was required to go into the cave. (Read about some folks who did not heed this advice.) As we stood before this black hole, cold air swept all around us and I felt chills, from the air and from the stillness and from the fact that nobody knew where we were...

But we had farther to go and another cave to find and hopefully we would recognize White Oak Sinks since we had been there earlier. Then it got interesting. The vegetation grew taller and the trail divided several times and at some points was harder to discern. We stuck with the wisdom of bearing left and we found another cave. This one was covered by a cage to keep people out and protect the large bat habitat. Cold air was blowing up from this cave also. I'll bet it is really something to see those bats come out at dusk. Batman meets Tom Sawyer!

This cave is where our friend had instructed us to stand with our backs to the cage, head right and then bear left. So far we were not officially lost. As we continued on we noticed the time slipping by - this trail was supposed to be about a mile and we had been following it for 45 minutes. Were we lost yet? Who could tell? What happened to all those rules about telling someone where you were going, sticking to your original agenda, having a map (this trail wasn't on the map) and knowing how to use a compass (I was a little rusty)?

By the grace of God we found the third cave along the trail that our friend had talked about, and this one was awesome. The rock face of the mountain was enormous and there was a small waterfall dripping over the top and down into a black hole. The cold air was incredible. We got out the camera, knowing that our amateur photography skills would not capture the essence of the place. If we were not so concerned about the time or where the trail went next we would have lingered. But miles to go...

And where DO those miles go now? Looking up the mountain beside the cliff face, there seemed to be a trail, but it was ridiculously steep and there was certainly no way that the average wildflower lover would scramble up or down it. Perhaps it was just a vantage point for actual good photographers to shoot the cave and waterfall. Jim went up to check it out, and I followed, realizing that there was no way we could safely get back down. At the top we saw that a trail continued, and we followed it on blind faith and hope that we would recognize something. Within five minutes we were strolling through White Oak Sinks -- and past another side trail that probably was a less steep route to the big cave. But, hey, at least we knew where we were now. We are genuiuses!

Now there was a decision to make, though, because we had lost quite a bit of time and we had gone officially only a few miles. I suggested that we go straight out Schoolhouse Gap Trail to the right to where it intersected with Laurel Gap Road and hitch a ride back to our car and call it a day. We were tired and hot and now almost 2 hours behind our planned departure time. As we walked out, Jim wondered how I would make up the other part of the planned hike, and I said that I could come back any time and pick up the 6 or 7 miles. My Jim is a great guy - he told me that we should just suck it up, go for it and finish the hike and get that feeling of accomplishment.

So we did. We crossed the road, headed up Bote Mountain Trail (gravel roadbed, yawn) and turned right onto Finlay Cane Trail. This trail was a pleasant walk and we soon heard the sounds of motorcycles and saw our car waiting patiently right where we had left it. We had covered 5.3 miles in under 2 hours. We stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center to cruise the gift shop and then drove via Gatlinburg and the Foothills Parkway towards Asheville, then Charlotte and home.

When I put my head on my own pillow that night I smiled at the memories of another phenomenal trip that I will always remember. Thanks, Jim.