My adventure runs started as I was preparing for my first trail marathon. Jim suggested that we go out to the Smokies, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and run for a weekend on the Appalachian Trail, AT. Since that first trip back in 2014 Jim and I have been back several times to try new routes or redo past runs. The AT is an iconic trail deeply embedded in our history, so it is a must go to place for any adventure.
There is a huge variance in the type trail you encounter. You get every thing from a smooth
hard packed trail to roots and rocks to bouldering to sandy and loamy. You will even find trails with cabling due to the shear drop or stepping over gaps in the trail where 100's of feet down to anything.
All of these runs have either started and ended at Newfound Gap or passed through there. It has easy access for cars and places like Mt. LeConte and Clingman's Dome are 8 to 10 miles from there making them a great out and back trip. Thus making it a great place to go to in the Smokies.
The Boulevard Trail connects Mt. LeConte to the AT. It is a saw tooth trail with narrow ridge trail sections, fir tree forest, very technical sections going up and down. A rock slide section that has cabling. This first time I was on this trail a section of the trail had fallen away leaving a gap that was about 2 to 3 feet long with nothing but air underneath. This trail is also where I had my first bear encounter, thankfully the bear had heard me long before I saw him and was bounding down the mountain when I saw him not 20 feet in front of me.
This part of the Boulevard Trail has the cabling and traveling in the direction of the picture you quickly come to the section of trail that had fallen away. Mt. LeConte is behind me in this shot.
Another route I've enjoyed was from the Sugarlands Visitor Center up to Mt. LeConte. The
route involves using three different trail, The Old Sugarland Trail, Trillium Gap Trail and the
Bull Head Trail and again is very technical and full of waterfalls and rushing streams. Because
of the amount of moisture in this section until mid afternoon most days it is shrouded in mist making for, at times, an eerie run. This route is all up to Mt. LeConte.
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