Birthday Hike 2021

 Middle Prong Trail- Panther Creek junction

When I was growing up, my family spent a lot of time in the mountains, and GSMNP in particular. Hiking was sort of a first love for me in terms of outdoor activities and adventure. By my teen years the trips to my beloved mountains had slowed down. Everyone was so busy with everything else. 

In my mid twenties I began to miss hiking, and decided to start going again as often as I could, even if it meant going solo. I picked it back up slowly at first. Eventually I was doing one to two hikes per week. Then, unfortunately, my trips became more sparse again. 

A few years ago I decided to start a new birthday tradition. So now, every year on around March 8th, I take a drive out to GSMNP and hit the trails. I have done some reasonably long hikes the past couple of years. 8 miles round trip to Ramsey Cascades with snow on the ground at the top in 2019. 10 miles round trip from the Abrams Creek Ranger station out to Abrams Falls in 2020.

This year, I had wanted a much shorter and definitely easier hike due to left over fatigue after having COVID in November of 2020. I reached out to other hikers via the Hiking the Smokies Facebook page for suggestions with just a few particulars. I wanted the Cades Cove/ Elkmont area, and as always with the birthday hike, I wanted something that would feature a waterfall. Everyone suggested the Middle Prong Trail at Tremont.

So, going off of these recommendations I drove out to Tremont. I hit the trails around 12:30 PM and returned to my vehicle at approximately 4:30. Although my hike turned out to be longer than I had originally wanted, I definitely got more bang for my buck on this one.

Lynn Camp Prong Cascades, "The falls of Lynn Camp Prong," and an old rusted down car were the highlights of this hike. Once you cross the iron bridge at the beginning of this hike you come to the trail sign, which is positioned in between two trails. 

Hikers be ware! Despite what the next sign along the trail to the left seems to indicate, this is the Middle Prong Trail. The quiet walkway that this sign references is the Thunderhead Prong Quiet Walkway, which is the trail to the right of the initial trail sign. 

I checked my GSMNP trail map before heading out onto the trails. Yet, I still got confused by the vagueness of the Middle Prong Trail sign, as there are no arrows to indicate which of the two trails the sign is advertising. I took the trail to the right. After a short distance of maybe .1 mile I decided that this was the quiet walkway because for one, this looked nothing like the trail that the other hikers had described, and two, my map showed the quiet walkway going to the right. 

I turned back and made my way to the wider trail only to see a sign that reads "Quiet Walkway." This threw me for a second time, and I returned to the trail to the right. After a short distance this trail comes to an end alongside Thunderhead Prong. According to my map this trail is only .7 mile long. Concluding that this was for sure the quiet walkway, I took the short trek back to the junction. I then began the hike that I had set out to do along Middle Prong Trail. 

About .3 mile in to this hike you will see a bench on your left. The massive waterfall that you see at this point is the Lynn Camp Prong Cascades. As you continue up the trail you will see a rocky point to the left side of the trail that makes for a perfect pic of the cascades flowing downstream from the top. This vantage point may not be safely accessible in wet weather. I was fortunate to have dry, sunny, and warm conditions on this March 8th hike. The trail continues to follow alongside the Lynn Camp Prong taking you past a series of tiered waterfalls sometimes referred to as the "Falls of Lynn Camp Prong," and a couple of trail side waterfalls coming from smaller tributaries that dump over the cliffs to the right side of trail. 

Approximately .6 mi before the Panther Creek Trail junction you will see a path off to the right side of the trail. This would be 1.7 miles into the hike. This is the only path off of the main trail to the right side, and it is marked by a small rock stack to the left of the the path. Take this path and you will find the final highlight of the 2.3 mile trek up to the PCT junction. Some people have said that this old car is a challenge to find. Yet, I simply took the path to right to see where it went and stumbled upon it. In my opinion, if you didn't find this car on the MPT hike... you probably weren't really looking for it. After resting by the river for about 30 minutes, I ended up heading back to the parking lot from the PCT junction. If you continue following the MPT from this junction, it will lead you past Lynn Camp Prong Falls,  and eventually bring you to Indian Flats Falls just before the trail's end at 4 miles. Since I turned back at 2.3 miles, the addition of the Thunderhead Prong Quiet Walkway gave me a total of six miles for this hike. 

The confusion at the beginning only added some beautiful views of the Thunderhead Prong, and added an unexpected element to this hike. I had wanted a "short" and easy hike this time around. It wasn't the shortest hike I've taken by any means. But, this was one of the easier hikes I've embarked on. The first quarter mile is the steepest part of the hike. After you pass by the top of the LCP Cascades the trail levels out and has a very gradual elevation gain. 

With so many beautiful waterfalls along the hike, this is a must do for anyone who is looking for a relatively easy hike with amazing scenery. Another birthday hike down. So many Smoky Mountain adventures still in front of me.