r/MountainstoSeaTrail • u/beegunns • Aug 07 '24
East-bound Section 1 next month
I’ll be completing section 1 next month, with one-two nights in the back country. Any tips from those who’ve completed it?
Current advisory about fording the creek between campsite 54 and 55; has anyone seen it recently?
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u/beegunns Sep 08 '24 edited Sep 08 '24
I thought I’d come back and respond to my own question, in case others are curious.
I completed this section with my 68-year-old mother. We are doing the trail in sections, with the hope of completing it in 5 years. We are cycling some sections/parts of sections that are on roads.
First attempt of section 1 was 8/14/22: We did the first 4 miles, eastbound, from Clingman’s Dome to the Fork Ridge trailhead on Clingman’s Dome Rd, but then had to pull out due to a knee issue. Thankfully it was a busy day in the park and I was able to hitch a ride back to our car. We ended up camping in the park at the Smokemont campground for a few days and doing some other short, easy trails around the park.
Finally returned 9/3/24. We cycled westbound from Waterrock Knob to Mingus Mill. 20 miles on the BRP, mostly downhill other than a ~3.5 mile, 1000ft climb in the middle. It was a lot of fun, and only took about 2 hrs. We stayed at a hotel in Cherokee that night.
We started our backpacking trip from the Fork Ridge trailhead and went eastbound to back country campsite #57. The first 5 miles were really nice and all downhill, saw a variety of wildflowers and fungi. The ~4 mile section along the creek involved a lot of bushwhacking and rock hopping, at times making the trail hard to follow, however the water was not so high that you had to “ford” the creek. I had brought sandals to change into for the water crossings, but was lazy and didn’t change, and miraculously didn’t fall in. The crossing at deep creek is pretty difficult rock hopping, and while we were stopped for lunch we witnessed a fellow hiker fall in and get soaked, destroying some of their electronics. Along the creek we saw lots of critters: snakes (including a big rattlesnake), skinks, crawdads. The campsite had two fire rings and 3 cables to hang packs. We hammock camped, which worked out great. There were 9 of us there on a Wednesday which was surprising, but everyone was very nice. The water source was flowing well; used a small handheld water filter pump. Day two we did the 13.2 miles back out to Mingus Mill. Saw wild boar, grouse, rabbits, and a variety of songbirds. Stopped for lunch at back country campsite #52, which is on a bald. It was noticeably cool and windy there midday, so I imagine at night it gets quite cold- worth noting if you plan to camp there. We were exhausted after the long day, but were greeted by a pair of elk at the Mingus Mill parking lot, which was a nice way to end it! We had gorgeous weather the whole 3 days, and no rain. We never saw any bear, but were prepared with bear spray, bear canister for food, and hung our pack at camp using the cables. I have AT&T and had mostly no service while in the park; we had a Garmin InReach messenger to check in with family and in case of emergencies.
If anyone has questions, I’m happy to help!