Roundtop--7.5n

A windstorm, with gusts equaling as high as 106 mph, hit the GSMNP the evening of October 16. In addition to many road closures, numerous windfalls could be expected on any trail in the Tennessee part of the park; the North Carolina part did not suffer nearly as much. Because of this, I called Bob Bolinger on 10/17 to see if he wanted to hike Roundtop with me; because this trail is accessible at the Wears Cove entrance to the park, I knew that we could get to the trailhead. We agreed to meet at the Townsend Y at 8:30 so we could check the river crossing and leave a car.

I arrived at Food Lion in Maryville a little before 8:00. Although many hikers were there to determine what they wanted to do, no one indicated a willingness to do Roundtop. As I was about to leave I told that to Bill Woodrick; he asked me if that told me something (e.g., deep water).

I arrived at the Townsend Y a little before 8:30. I started checking with fisherman who were in the water and who knew the stream. When Bob arrive we walked up river to see if we could (1) see where Roundtop trail terminated at the river and/or (2) find a place that we could wade across. We found neither. I suggested that we do Chestnut Top; this is a trail that I had done previously but Bob had not yet done. We were about to embark on this when Bob noted on his topographical map that Roundtop could be accessed off U.S. 321; we then thought that we could do just part of Roundtop and then on a later day do an in-and-out on the remaining portion. I then left my car at a rafting place on U.S. 321 and went with Bob in our endeavor to find an out-of-the-park entrance to Roundtop; we were unsuccessful. We then decided that we would start on Roundtop and try to find where a quasi trail left the park and hit U.S. 321.

It was 10:30 that we started Roundtop. We immediately noted many windfalls on the trail from the Monday night storm. We shortly passed a tourist home almost on the trail; shortly thereafter we met the Minnesota occupants. We talked to them briefly and they informed us that there was another group of hikers ahead (with a guide) who planned to hike the 7.5 mile Roundtop trail and then cross Little River at the Townsend Y via a bridge. That interested us. Shortly thereafter we caught up with the group and their guide. The guide informed us that there was not a bridge but that there was a easy crossing at the trail’s terminus. Although neither Bob nor I were carrying watershoes because we had not planned to cross Little River, we went on taking the pro’s advice for some in his group were going to cross the river bare footed. (After we passed this group and encountered many windfalls across the trail, we assume that they might turn back--see pic.)

When we reached the trail’s terminus we zipped off the lower sections of our trousers and removed our boots. Because I had extra socks, I decided to cross the river stocking footed; Bob followed me barefooted for he did not have extra socks. The water was well above mid-thigh level in parts (see pic); however, it was difficult but not extremely so (it would have almost been a breeze if we had had our water shoes). After we crossed we put our boots back on fairly close up-stream from the Y; the 7.5 miles took us ~4 hrs. (That included stopping for lunch and getting through or around many a windfall—this was not conducive to having a fast time.) If we had originally planned to cross the river one of our cars would have been at the Y; thus we had ~1.5-2 mile walk to my car in Townsend.