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Jordan McLaughlin's Porters Creek Manway hike

Hello Ed, My name is Jordan McLaughlin, and I am from New Salisbury, IN.  That's near the Louisville, KY area.  My father, two friends and I just got back from Gatlinburg.  We decided to hike the Porters creek manway. Apparently we had some really bad directions from an old guidebook, because we kind of got lost.  Now we weren't just hiking for the first time, we have hiked a lot in the Smokies, but we didn't really know where and what to look for. We made it to campsite 31, and the directions told us to follow the trail past the site.  I guess it used to be a trail, but it soon dissipated.  We read that you cross the creek many times when hiking the Porter Creek Trail.  So we just decided to follow the the creek bed up until we found the manway.  Needless to say we never found a manway, but yet we kept climbing.  That might sound a little idiotic, but we kept climbing anyway. We ended up a few hundred feet away from the top of the Lester Prong.  We were to the point that we couldn't climb up anymore, it was literally a vertical climb from there.  Our plan now was to abort the creek bed idea and just climb to the top of the ridge and hopefully be able to find the AT.  Well that idea was even worse and was about 3:00 p.m., we had started at 8:30 a.m., now we had to decide to keep trying for the top, or to try and climb, I mean slide back down.  I did not mention before but the creek was incredibly steep. I am talking hand over hand on moss covered rocks, and running water, oh and in higher parts snow!  Yeah, but anyway we ended up making our way back down and to our cars at about 6:00., and only minor cuts and bruises. So I guess I just wanted to thank you for posting this website, because now we know how to find the manway, and are planning to go back up soon! Sincerely, Fellow hiker Jordan!

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