We drove down to Georgia and just North of Hayesville in the Nantahala National Forest. Our plan was to hike the 30 mile Fires Creek Rim trail. After doing some studying on the trail it was between 23.4 and 26 miles depending on the source. USDA Forest Service page has a layout and description. It is trail number 72. I got the following from Richard:
There are at least 6 spots along the rim where water sources are near
the rim trail, and all are marked with a wood "W" painted blue, they
are near Shortoff Knob, a short walk down Rockhouse, Shinbone, Far Bald
trails, near where Chunky Gal hits the rim trail, at Bald Springs trail,
and Cold springs gap.
There is also supposed to be a plane wreck on Johnson Bald.
We were going to hike the trail clockwise. We started out at the picnic area where the trail circles above the Fires Creek water fall. That is where we had our first water crossing. It is a steady climb up to Shortoff Knob. There is a campsite and creek just before you get there. The rest of the trail is straight up or down because you are on a ridge and there are no switch backs. The views are wonderful this time of year with no leaves on the trees.
We saw a spring on the back side of Shortoff knob down from the trail. I had read that there was water at Will King Gap, but there is not. We ended up hiking to Big Stamp for the night which by the description is 7.6 miles. We came in using headlamps, but we started late after driving from Middle Tennessee. We had a campfire and the water was a few hundred feet down the Rockhouse Creek trail.
The next morning we hiked to just before Whiteoak Knob where we found our first "W" sign which was laying on the ground. I don't know if there was water in that area because all the trails were marked with blue and I did not see any markers at all to lead you in the right direction,
From Whiteoak Knob until Chunky Gal or Tusquitee Bald was covered completely with blow downs from either a straight line wind or tornado in that area. Trees pushed rhododendron down over the trail as well. This part of the trail needs to be closed until they can clear it. It is not safe to hike! We snaked our way through, over, under, and around to get through for at least 3 hours. We thought about going down at Sassafras creek trail, but the damage was so great in that area, I wasn't sure which was the closer out. We continued our adventure until we got to Tusquitee Bald and quit. We had 7.3 miles in at that point and were exhausted.
We decided to go down on the 1.9 mile Far Bald Springs trail which was clear. We walked down to FSR 340 and hiked it until dark and made camp. About 11.8 miles in for the day.
The next morning we hiked out about 4 miles. It was a beautiful walk along the Fires Creek without seeing anyone until we got about a mile from our car. We did post a warning on the sign when we left and I have sent emails to everyone I could about the damage.
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