Old Sugarlands, Twin Creeks, Gatlingburg Trails (~9 miles)

Hike 11-9-05

This was a relatively short hike that was scheduled to mesh with Mike Miller’s completion of the 800 miles of trails celebration at Twin Creeks Pavilion. For this reason there was an extremely larger group of hikers (30-40) and a relatively short hike (~9 miles).

For most hikes those in the vicinity meet at Food Lion on 321. I volunteered to drive; my passengers were Jim Harb (with whom I hiked previously), Nancy Olsen (new to our group) and Mike Miller (have done many with Mike—he rode with me only to Sugarlands Visitor Center (SVC), from his celebration picnic he would ride home with wife Pam). The ones that I hiked and talked with were Dale Teague, Bill Broome, Jim Harb, and Gary Niebar.

I had completed the Old Sugarlands trail alone on my first day at Sugarlands VC when I visited Dan Lawson who volunteers in the Back Country Office (June 05). It looked quite familiar but now the trail was lined with leaves and really was more scenic. This time from its terminus we walked against Roaring Fork Motor Trail until we arrived at Ogle’s Cabin. Then we went on Twin Creeks trail and proceeded to Twin Creeks Pavilion and ate. After a long lunch we proceeded to Gatlinburg, walked through the edge of town, and then got on the Gatlinburg Trail. The latter is a 2-mile trail that leads to SVC; it is a nice easy trail and somewhat scenic except for a long stretch that runs adjacent to parking etc., for Park maintenance vehicles.