Post-900 Hike #156: Trails: Gatlinburg, Old Sugarlands, Twin Creeks,

The 11/16 and 11/23 hikes were cancelled because of rain; a hike to and from Clingmans Dome today was cancelled yesterday because of snow (resulting that the road to the Dome was closed two days earlier than its usually planned winter closing date of December 1st. Bob Bolinger, BZ Lane, and I decided to do a hike that would least be affected by the weather.

I met Bob at our usual meet-up site on Dolly Parton Parkway in Sevierville at 0815; with Bob driving we arrived at BZ's home in Gatlinburg ~0835 and at 0845 we began our hike. We walked from BZ's home through a section of downtown Gatlinburg to the start of the Gatlinburg trail (1.9 mi., parallels US 441) which has as its terminus the Sugarlands Visitor Center. (Similarly if one follows US 441 to Cherokee NC, the Oconaluftee River Trail, 1.5 mi., connects the town of Cherokee with the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

Just prior to SVC we crossed US 441 to take Old Sugarlands Trail (3.9 mi.), a little bit of Cherokee Orchard Rd, then most of Twin Creeks Trail, finishing up on Manways to BZ's home. My GPS indicated that are total hike of trails plus was 6.6 mi; our moving average speed was 2.8 mph and we had 1,265' of climb. After we reached BZ's home we ate at a little restaurant that serves the best .