Smoky Mountain Pre-hike

What is a pre-hike you ask? Let me explain. On November 9 & 10 our Fairfield Glade hiking club is going to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for 2 days of hiking. Normally we hike on Fridays, but once in a while we do a 2-day overnight hike. We will stay in motels and eat dinner in restaurants, but hike 2 consecutive days in an area a little further away than normal.

Nancy and I, along with Ray and Marion Miner are in charge of this particular 2 days of hiking. So prior to November 9 we have to pre-hike the trails to make sure that the length and difficulty are appropriate for the club. That's Nancy looking cute during a short rest on the trail.

Yesterday, 7 of us drove to the Smokys and hiked 7.1 miles on a 3 trail loop. We determined that the hike is probably not a good one for the club for 2 reasons: length and difficulty. A group of people hiking together is like that saying about a chain being only as strong as its weakest link. A hiking group is only as fast as its slowest hiker. The first 1.8 miles of yesterday's hike was straight uphill for about 1,500 vertical feet. The next 5.3 miles back to the trailhead was much easier but the total hike took us almost 5 hours. A larger group would hike slower and stop more often. So we found a way to do a 5 mile hike on some of the same trails but without the 1.8 uphill in the beginning. It will take a car shuttle, but that will work OK.

We had pre-hiked another 5.4 mile loop trail 2 weeks ago and that one will be fine for the group.

But be warned! If you plan to visit the GSMNP in the next couple of weeks be prepared for traffic. Two weeks ago when we were there hardly anyone was in the park. Yesterday we could hardly get across the road to get to the trailhead. There was a steady stream of cars. As you can see from the top photo the leaves are just barely starting to change on the higher elevations. The leaves should be extraordinary in a few weeks, but then again so should the traffic.