A geek walked into the woods..

Old Settler’s Trail OR How to Make a 17 Mile Slip and Slide

LyttleBryan October 27th, 2009

This Saturday was a verrrry long day. Probably one of the longest I’ve had in a while, if not ever. It started at about 6:15am which is a horrible way to start a Saturday. It was worth it though because myself, Gabe, Emilie, and Tim were setting out for Old Settler’s Trail and a wonderful day of hiking. Unfortunately mother nature tried to dampen our enjoyment, but, thankfully, didn’t.

Old Settler’s Trail is a roughly 16 mile trail stretching from the Greenbriar area to Maddron Bald Trail. To do a successful thru hike you either hike 32 miles in and out (not happening) or you shuttle. In this case, we shuttled. We started at the Maddron Bald trail head in Cosby. From there we took Maddron Bald up about a mile and a half until it intersected with Old Settler’s and Gabe’s Mountain. I was especially excited for this as I needed that little offshoot of Maddron Bald for my trail completion. It was a big day for marking numbers off my map. The Maddron Bald trail up to that point was kind of, well, boring. It was a graveled path that reminded me more of a road than anything. There wasn’t much to see either. I’m glad the rest of Maddron Bald is better than that one small area.

Once we got to the Old Settler’s Intersection things got really interesting. The insane amount of rain we’ve had here lately kept the ground nice and wet. It wasn’t muddy, but it was just wet enough that you could actually slide a little bit. Combine that with the fact that leaves are starting to come down and it was a day of slips, slids, near misses, crash and burns, and other fun things that are usually reserved for skiing. It’s all part of the fun though. Actually, you know what else is part of the fun? Doing around 1356901751313351 water crossings without poles. That’s part of the fun! Seriously, I had no idea Old Settler’s had that many water crossings. There were multiple places that you crossed the water and then 30 yards down crossed it again and another 30 yards crossed it back again. If I had known that I would have just followed the river bank up! Not to mention that the rain kept the creeks and rivers much higher than usual so it was near impossible to stay dry. It was one of the few times I wish I had three or pair of socks!

Okay I really shouldn’t complain so much, but it was a wild day. The area did have a lot of neat redeeming qualities. The signs of settlement from the trails namesake were quite evident. it’s fun walking through an area where people lived and thinking about what they had while they were doing it. These days we get out and stay on a marked trail with a days worth of supplies and someone waiting at home that knows to call the rescue squad if we’re not back by a certain time. We have it so much easier than back then. Is it strange to be jealous of the way life was then? Simpler times, simpler lives, but yet so much more complicated seeming. The trail is in desperate need of maintenance though. There’s down trees everywhere, and not the small limb variety either. Maybe a target for future work!

About 4-5 miles to the end we ran into Carrie who had hiked in from the opposite direction to meet us. It was good to see her especially since she brought cookies! I’ll admit by the time we hit ~2 miles to go I was begging to be done. I’m not usually that way, but the hike really took it out of me. I think it was all the slipping and sliding, but I could have just been off that day.

Overall it was a really awesome day on the trails. That night we got to go see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Tennessee theater and it was AWESOME! I love this time of year!

until next time!