The official length of this hike was 12.8 miles, but that didn't include the mileage from the parking area down in the campground to the trailhead and also didn't include a couple of short spur trails I took trying to get a better view. I estimate total mileage around 14. I had been up the Snake Den Ridge trail once before, so I knew it was quite a climb (4.6 miles long and relatively steep). I also knew, because I last did that trail on Thanksgiving weekend, that there would be several great wintertime views, and this may be the last hike that gives me good wintertime views before leaves appear on the trees for the summer. I enjoyed soaking them all in as I huffed and puffed up the mountain.
In one more nod to the impending end of winter hiking, I came across a dusting of snow as I got within a couple of miles of the top!
Then, as I continued to gain elevation, snow gave way to ice ALL OVER the trail.
I was able to walk around it for the most part, but you know I was prepared in case I needed microspikes because those bad boys aren't leaving my pack until July.
I was pretty excited about this hike because I've never been to Maddron Bald, and I do love a good Bald. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed when I got there because it's not really "bald" anymore, and the views are really only off one side. I came across these views when I thought I was still "on my way" to the Bald but was actually already there:
I continued walking up the trail, which looked very much like a typical trail up to the top of a Bald, and I expected it to open up to some amazing views when I got to the top, but instead it just turned and started going back downhill.
So I walked back and took a tiny little spur trail that went up the hill to the right, thinking maybe THAT went to the top of the Bald, but instead I fought my way through a bunch of laurel bushes for about a tenth of a mile, where the trail stopped abruptly, with no view. I took this pic coming back down that spur trail, for a little more "bird's-eye" view than I had from the main trail:
Don't get me wrong; it was pretty, and I enjoyed it. It just wasn't what I expected. The Brown Book said there was a place where you could climb up on some rocks to get a 360-degree view, but I did not find it. It's not often I have to ask myself, "Did I miss the Bald?" Anyway, there was plenty more to see on my way down the Maddron Bald trail. One thing that really intrigued me was that there were several huge boulder fields, all covered in moss. Some of the rocks were bigger than cars, and it always blows my mind to think that those rocks once made these mountains taller than they are today; then they broke off and rolled down to make these boulder fields. Heck, maybe some of them were the rocks that I was supposed to climb for the 360-degree views from the Bald! Geology, man. It's fascinating.
Another notable feature of the Maddron Bald trail is several large water crossings. If I had done this trail last weekend, I would've had to have waded the crossings, and I'm not sure they would've been safe to wade. As it was, the water was rushing pretty quickly and was covering a lot of rocks that I'm sure are usually used for rock-hopping in dryer weather.
This is one of the more treacherous crossings, which doesn't look terrible in this picture, but I had to walk across that large, sloped rock in the center, and it was slick with moss and the water was running pretty quickly over it. THEN the rocks on the far side were covered in a sheet of ice. Good times!
I'm happy to report that, through liberal usage of my hiking poles, many minutes spent studying crossings for the best route, and the grace of God, I didn't even get a drop of water in my shoes on this hike. There were times that I was standing in water that came close to the tops of my shoes, but luckily I didn't slip or misjudge depth on any of my steps. I feel very fortunate because there were some places (like the sloped rock above) where I could've easily fallen, drifted downstream a bit, and been completely soaked in 40-degree weather (at least it was in the 40s by that point, right?).
As I got to the lower part of the trail (about three miles from the trailhead), there were fewer water crossings, and the ones that remained were much nicer due to tons of work by the CCC to install culverts, footlogs, etc. many years ago (and, of course, efforts by trail maintenance crews to maintain those things over time). Here's the crossing that I think marks the beginning of the "good" trail:
I mean, look at that bridge and the stonework leading up to it! Really nice, and much appreciated after all the harrowing crossings I had done further up the mountain. My legs were jelly on those (which made them that much more difficult) but would've been even worse by the time I got down to this one. That footlog was a breeze! The trail gets really wide and is more like a road from this point on to the trailhead, and it becomes pretty heavily used (I must've seen 30 people - many of them kids - in the last three miles of this hike). I guess that's the tradeoff of a really nicely-maintained trail.
Aside from the water crossings, the middle part of the Maddron Bald trail, and especially the Albright Grove Loop trail that comes off of Maddron Bald, is known for a bunch of huge old-growth trees. I know I didn't get to see all of them because I was watching my footing a lot of the time, but I did see some really cool trees.
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| There were several trees that appear to be standing up on their roots like this, where they've grown over a log or something else that has eventually rotted out from under them. |
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| Unfortunately, this one is a recent casualty, but look at the size of that trunk! I added my poles for reference, but the smaller tree (which wasn't really that small) next to it is probably a better reference. |
And finally, as I got back towards the bottom of the trail, I found some wildflowers!
I had seen some wildflowers early in my hike on the lower part of the Snake Den Ridge trail, but they had all been hit by frost and were droopy. These were perky and were a great finish to my hike that started out freezing, got colder at the top, and eventually thawed into a nice day in the mid 50s by the time I got back to the bottom.
Unduplicated Smokies miles: 189.7
Total Smokies miles: 237.9
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