Newton Bald Trail to Thomas Divide to campsite #52 5.6
Day Two: 10.8
Newton Bald Trail 0.5
Mingus Creek Trail 5.6
Newton Bald Trail 4.7
Day Three: 5.2
Big Creek to campsite #37 5.2
Day Four: 10.2
Camel Gap Trail 1.0
Gunter Fork Trail x2 8.2
Camel Gap Trail 1.0
Day Five: 5.2
Big Creek Trail 5.2
Total Miles: 37
Lora had a few more trails to mark off and we had five days. This is our anniversary hike for 2018. We parked at Smokemont campground to start the hike up to Newton Bald. It was hot and the trail was steep climbing 3000 feet. On the way up we saw a couple of park workers with two horses and two mules toting chainsaws. We thanked them for all their work. We hiked to the Thomas Divide trail and then back tracked to campsite 52 for the night. It was a peaceful night under the stars.
Day Two:
We hiked back to Mingus Creek to get that trail marked off. We headed South down to Deeplow Gap trail. Got to see some grouse and some huge mushrooms. When we got to the bottom, we turned around and headed back up, just because. Then we took the Newton Bald trail to Smokemont for the night. We took a side trip up Big Cove Road to Mingo Falls. Mingo Falls is a 120 ft high waterfall located in the Qualla Boundary—a land trust of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians—near the town of Cherokee. When we got back to camp we found that we had neighbors with lots of little children. Not a quite night.
Day Three:
We got up and drove to Big Creek campground where we started our hike to campsite 37. We stopped to look at the waterfall, when a large tree fell next to the trail. That will get your heart a pumping! We were the first ones to camp so we gathered all the firewood we could find.....not much! We ended up with about 19 campers in the area that night.
Day Four:
We got up and hiked to Camel Gap , then on to Gunter Fork. We saw 6 hikers from the Great Smokies Hiking & Adventure Group. Steve H. was hiking his last trails needed to finish his map. Their plan was for 26 miles. Hope they made it before dark. We had one crossing of Big Creek and then about five crossings of Gunter Fork. It is a beautiful trail with two large cascades. One of which had a nice plunge pool at the bottom which we took advantage of on the way back down. There were a few less people at camp tonight. Sometime in the morning we got a few sprinkles so we had to get up and put the tarps up.
Day Five:
We headed back to the car. It was another great five days on the trial.
Pictures:
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