Michael A. Howitz's Hike from Cades Cove to Clingmans Dome 8/14/07


       On Aug. 14th my buddy Bryan and myself drove out to Cades Cove and parked at the visitor center.  We got there a little before 8 am and walked thru the picnic area to Anthony Creek trailhead.  The first  1.3 miles was an easy
ascent, very wide bridal trail that followed the creek.  At the fork we went right on Russell Fields trail.  This trail
was a little steeper but no prob-we were on fresh legs.  For the most part this trail was a walk in the woods but as we approached the App. it opened up a little.

       We reached the Appalachian Trail and the shelter and took a pit stop and read the journals a little continuing toward Spence Field.  At this point we we over 4000 ft and climbing. Along the way we ate a few blackberries and noticed that some of God's other creatures had been too.  As we neared Spence the woods opened and the scenery
was great-so great that we took another pit stop-at this pt. we had traveled 8 miles. 

       Just as we were about to leave five backpackers were leaving Spence and heading east to the next shelter.  We quickly overtook them as they were taking pix at one of the many balds.  We were very impressed with this part of the
trail and stopped briefly several times to take it all in.  Looking west  we saw Cades Cove and Shuckstack tower and part of Fontana lake.  To the east we saw Clingmans Dome 15 miles away-ouch!  Our last open trails were Rocky top-excellent panorama- and Thunder-head mountain. After that the trail tucked into the forest until just before
Clingmans.

        We met a guy from Miss. at Derrick knob shelter while we were taking a rest-we had over 14 miles by now and still felt ok.  As we left four guys passed us  heading west-they were moving at a pretty good clip.  The trail  was pretty
uneventful up to Silers bald where we saw a group of guy spending the night.  At this point we were pretty tired and ready to get this thing over with, shortly after leaving the shelter we got a very good glimpse of the dome-it looked so close.  The trail then dropped quite a bit-not what we wanted. The rest stops also became more frequent as we approached the end.

        Within half a mile of the dome the trail opened up with awesome scenery both north and south, this lifted our pace a little.  We finally reached the blacktop at 7:30 where we met  Ken and Diane-who had just hiked up from the gap.  We walked down to the parking lot with them and bummed a ride down to the gap to meet up with our wives at eight.

       Total miles hiked was 24 with a lot of elevation gained-I thought it would be cooler at 5000 ft but it was in the mid 80's.  To me this stretch of trail is not as scenic as the part from the gap to Tricorner Knob, but is still better than a good day at work.