Porters Creek Trail

Cosby Weekend – Day Three - 7/17/08 – Porters Creek Trail (Plus a Little Bit Extra) – 8 Miles

A peaceful night with no rain, but I had something on my mind. Since we had changed our Sunday plans, I was going to come up a tiny bit short on my mileage. I have a goal of 40 miles of hiking to justify all the driving and logistics of coming to the Smokies for a weekend and a Type A person (A for Aries in my case) can get stuck on goals. My ultimate resolution: the Gabes Mountain trail splits at a certain point and you can either hike .3 miles to the campground or .3 miles to the picnic parking lot and either way you have “completed” the trail. Yesterday I went via the campground route, so today I quickly ate breakfast and drove (yes, drove, I know it makes no sense except I didn’t have much time) to the picnic parking lot and happily skipped the .3 miles to the junction and .3 miles back out. This put me at 40.2 miles for the weekend and made me very happy. Say what you want about us Aries people – we are doers (and honest)!

I confess that my right knee had been hurting something awful for most of the downhill on the 18-miler yesterday, but thankfully a good night’s rest fixed me up and it did not bother me at all today. Everyone got up and packed up and ready to have an easy hike all together. Even Dawn was going to give it a go. Of course, “easy” is always relative in the mountains. (Note: An apology here for the grainy photos - remember, I didn't even know if the camera was working!)

Background on the Greenbrier Cove area of the Smokies where Porters Creek Trail is located: According to the Hiking Trails Of The Smokies, this area was heavily settled and farmed and therefore not heavily logged. Near the end of the 19th century “26 families lived here and at one point sent 225 children to the local school.” Now, how many children per family would that be?? Anyway, in this area there once stood “four grist mills, three cemeteries, two churches, two stores and two blacksmith shops” and “the two-story Greenbrier Hotel”. Walk along this trail and just imagine…

We climbed the few steps to see the Ownby Cemetery and the flowers on the graves appeared to be quite recent, perhaps from Decoration Day or simply from attentive descend- ants. There were many tiny graves and headstones, always a sobering sight. If every family had eight or more living children in school, and yet there were so many infants laid to rest…sometimes I marvel at how those mountain women of the past were so strong.

This trail is particularly known for its spring wildflowers, but we were here in July so it was all about the water. We were never far from the sight and sound of the creek and it was breathtaking, gimpse after glimpse of cascades through the trees. This is a four-season trail for sure: spring wildflowers, summer shade, fall foliage and winter with clear views of all that water.

We began to climb and crossed the creek on a long footbridge that was a very wide V shape over an awesome cascade. (Here Ruth Ann turned around to meander back to the car.) I tried to walk ahead a bit to practice hiking alone (ha!) We met a couple of overnighters coming down with their backpacks and then we met two local hikers, Marlene and Glenn. They had on “900-Miler” tee shirts, so I quizzed them and they have hiked all the trails once and I believe Glenn has done them twice (Marlene is almost done with the second go-round). Wow! And they get to come here all the time.

Porter’s Creek Trail does not intersect with another trail but ends at Campsite #31 in a lovely grove of old growth hemlocks above the creek. There is a very faint, very steep, unmaintained trail from there up to the AT near Charlies Bunion. We sat here to munch on lunch and just enjoy it all.

Time to head back to the world. The walk down was quick with lots of spirited conversations, people constantly regrouping and chattering. Soon we found ourselves going past the cemetery once again, where there were special visitors – a doe and her fawn with its Bambi spots! They did not run away but posed for photos and were still grazing when we walked on.

At the cars there were hugs all around, politely ignoring the fact that we were all quite sweaty, and then we all headed back toward home. When I got within cell phone reception there were messages for me that my dad was getting worse, and my mind turned toward him. Perhaps God gave me this wonderful weekend to help me get ready for my dad.