July 18, 2023
Little River Trail is not that difficult of a hike at 6.4 miles long and 1,202’ of elevation gain, but today it was hard. The Canadian wildfires continued to waft in huge amounts of smoke and the weather was extremely hot and humid.
The trail is a forest service style road for the first half of the hike, before switching to a more traditional single track past the junction with Goshen Prong. Most if not all the elevation gain is in the last 1.8 miles to campsite #30. Near campsite #24, there is a potentially difficult creek crossing (pictured below). Past flooding wiped out the bridge and erased the trail. It would be nearly impossible to ford the river with any recent, substantial rainfall. However, a small little trail is to the left of the river that will lead around the ford that was not too difficult.
The trail was overgrown in parts for the last mile. Campsite #30 is a tremendous site just above Little River. It looks to be a delightful place to stay. I always have a penchant for sleeping next to swift creeks.
Next on the list was the awkward, 2.8 mile Rough Creek Trail. I will be honest; I did not care for this trail. Was it inhaling the smoke while ascending 1,400 feet? Was it stinging nettle overgrown along the entire stretch? Was it the overgrown briers and pampas grass that made it impossible to see the trail? Yes. Rough Creek just wasn’t a good time. About a ½ from the top, I considered stopping as I could not see if I was about to step on a snake due to the grass, but I bushwhacked it and turned right around, happy that this trail was done and happy that I had finished all the trails in the Tennessee side of the Smokies.
Total mileage is 20.4 miles.
