Post 900 Hike #94: Twin Creeks, Bull Head, & Horse trail

Bob Bolinger, BZ Lane, and I decided to hike Bull Head Trail rather than today’s group hike. I went via John Sevier, Chapman Hwy., Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg, and arrived at Mynat Park in Gatlinburg ~08:10 (often times I travel through the GSMNP to get to same destination); Bob (from Sevierville) and BZ (from Gatlinburg) arrived shortly. We had planned to drive to the Rainbow Falls Trail parking lot; however, since the road was closed due to snow, BZ had to park his SUV ~2 miles from the Bull Head trailhead; our start time was ~08:45 on the Twin Forks Trail. In our little 2-mi. jaunt we decided to don our crampons; all of us were using STABILicers Ice Cleats. Somewhat to my surprise, although my little finger of each hand was cold (undoubtedly due to the fact that each had been broken), after removing my jogging glove/X-C ski-mitten combo, my little fingers warmed up (possibly the tight gloves reduce circulation to each?).

Believe that we reached the Bull Head Trailhead ~09:30. Overall this trail has ~3,000 ft. gain prior to LeConte; however, because of our late start and the fact that there were many blow-downs (or snow-downs) on the trail, we only reached “The Pulpit” at ~12:00. That's BZ and Bob at The Pulpit.



After lunch we went a bit further but then once we realized that reaching LeConte was out of the question, we turned around and retraced our steps. In the second picture BZ and Bob had just passed a rock wall that had icicles hanging on it.



The last two pictures present an example of the blow-downs (because of the heavy snow last month, maybe they were snow-downs). In the first of the two BZ had just navigated through the first part of this obstacle course; in the second picture Bob has arrived ~where BZ was in the prior one, and BZ can be seen to Bob's left.




When we reached the Bull Head trail head, we decided to take a horse trail that eventually would take us to Mynatt Park where Bob’s and my SUV’s were located rather than the less then fun route taken in the morning. We arrived at 15:15 and our mileage (by my pedometer) was only 11.5 mi. Bob then took BZ to his SUV and I headed home; ironically, BZ's home was within two blocks of Bob's and my vehicles.

After stopping for a cup of coffee, I arrived home ~16:50; my Airedale Terrier Winston of course expected me to play frisby with him in the yard (in one of his catches he went high in full stride—he looked like a great end).