Fork Ridge Trail 5.1n & 5.1pd (10.2 mi. total)

Because the road to Clingmans Dome from Newfound Gap closes December 1, I have endeavored to complete all trails emanating from this road. Today my goal was to complete Fork Ridge; its trailhead is 2.5 mi. up Clingmans Dome Road. Because another hiker and I planned to do another trail from this road on Wed., my original plan was to do Fork Ridge on November 30; however, a forecast of rain for Thursday made me up this hike to Tuesday even though the short notice was apt to preclude getting anyone to go with me. However, Ellie Doughty came to the rescue. I have spoken before of Ellie (one who has completed all of the trails) doing the arduous Goldmine Loop so she could help another hiker; today she helped me.

I picked up Ellie at Food Lion at 8:00 and we proceeded to Newfound Gap; as we approached the Gap it started getting foggy. We proceeded past it until we reached the Forge Creek trailhead; there it was extremely foggy and the trailhead appeared to be blocked. We proceeded to Clingmans Dome where telephone contact could be made with the Park Service; we learned that all trails were open so we proceeded back to the Forge Creek Trailhead. When we got there the fog had dissipated to the extent that the trailhead was visible and what we thought was a blocked trailhead was just a precaution to keep hikers from stepping off the parking area into a sunken area adjacent to the trailhead.

Because it was quite foggy, I decided to leave my camera in the car. We got started ~10:00. Because of the weather, a relatively nice trail was not that scenic. The trail dropped ~3000 feet in its 5.1 miles; obviously we would have that amount of climb on our return to my vehicle. We ate lunch at the trail’s terminus by Deep Creek; across the stream we could see the Deep Creek Trail which emanates from the Newfound Gap Road and terminates ~15 miles South at the Deep Creek Campground. (That is on my list of future hikes.)

On our way back we met another couple; hopefully they made it out before the weather got a little worse. We had a very slight rain on our return trip and reached my car ~3:00. Ellie drove so that I could ice my knee. Much to our surprise ~5 miles prior to Sugarlands Visitor Center the sky cleared the weather matched the forecast. That is an example of why one often has difficulty predicting the weather in the mountains.