I had never driven past Cosby before either, so I was excited about getting to check out the views from the Foothills Parkway along the way too. I just missed seeing sunrise when I drove up to the first vista. The valley floor was a thick green and the main ridge in the distance possessed shades of blue. For the most part, the skies were completely clear and the visibility was astounding. My anticipation for what was to come that day now shot through the roof.
The trailhead crosses Baxter Creek on an elaborate footbridge similar to that along the Gatlinburg Trail. The scenery here at the creek and around the Big Creek campground is very pretty this time of year. Soon after crossing the creek, the trail swings right and parallels it for a bit then wastes no time in beginning the long and arduous climb to the top. It also passes an old chimney littered with rusty parts not far from the start. Early on the trail makes its way around several rocky cliffs rising out of the the broad mountainside. The landscape the majority of the time is that of open woods with a history tied to the logging days. Much of the forest floor is covered in ferns, pale jewelweed, and black cohosh.
The trail sees a number of switchbacks as it ascends the long arm of Mount Sterling before finally getting high enough to follow the ridgeline. As it does, the scenery changes from open woods to a spruce and fir forest littered with boulders and mosses. I was enthralled by the entire atmosphere during this part of the hike. The early morning light was just coming up over the ridge line, golden rays shimmering through the trees. The moss that adorned the forest floor was such a rich green and it sort of reminded me of Fangorn Forest in "Lord of the Rings." Of course if I ran into Gandalf coming down the trail then I might actually believe I had crossed into Middle Earth at some point. Continuing on...the countless number of exposed boulders that weren't covered by the mosses gave off a shiny white appearance as opposed to a typical, dull gray. The trail's surroundings were like this much of the way in the last mile and a half before reaching the tower. It was more prominent on the mountain's northern side.
I wandered around a little bit, trying to stay out of there way. I went over to the campsite that sits in the tower's shadow and found an unoccupied tent. The campsite itself was closed and I came to find out that the tent was being used as a decoy. Attached to a tree right beside the tent was a motion sensored camera that snaps pictures of animals or people as they move by. We've had to use them on a few occasions on Mt. LeConte in regards to bears, so I knew right away what it was. Of course I didn't leave without making a few funny faces.
I went back over to the tower and politely asked if I could climb to the top for some pictures. After all, I just hiked over six miles and gained about 4,200 feet with hopes of seeing grand views of the park. I was NOT about to get robbed of that. Sure enough, they were about to take a lunch break and were nice enough to let me have the tower as long as I desired. So I started to make my way up.
I was overlooking the entire eastern half of the park. What's unique about Mount Sterling is that it sits higher than the now accepted main ridge of the park in which the AT follows north. West of Inadu Knob all the way to Mount Cammerer, the main ridge is lower than the summit of Mount Sterling as well as Big Cataloochee Mountain and the Balsam Mountain range that forks from the AT. To the south one can see a wall that is the Cataloochee Divide meeting up with the lower end of Balsam Mountain. Nothing obscures these major peaks and ranges because the are only separated by valleys; Big Creek to the north and Cataloochee to the south. Looking toward the east beyond I-40 affords one views of the expansive Pisgah National Forest and its famous bald dome, Max Patch. All impressive to say the least since there aren't that many opportunities to see such views around the park. Obviously the views were better below the boxed in deck, without having to look through the framed-in glass. A few individual window panes were missing or cracked so the wind was still finding a way to funnel through.
The remainder of my hike was going to be fairly level back to the campground, but it was still five miles of walking. Sure, flat ground is nice, but when you've gone a great distance already, it tends to drag on and on. Walking beside Big Creek was pleasnt and the trail zigzags over it on a few bridges wide enough for small motorized vehicles and horses. This stretch had started to wear on my mind and I began to wonder if I had completely missed Mouse Creek Falls. It felt like I had already covered a lot of terrain and even thought about turning back. That would have been crazy, so I just kept going with fingers crossed. Finally, I arrived at a clearing on my right and there it was across the creek. Weather had been dry the last several days, so there wasn't much water coming down the falls, but still nice to see for the first time. At least the falls was obvious.
Just a half mile further down the trail I would come upon Midnight Hole, but there was no sign defining its location, nor was there a path. Luckily, I had seen pictures of it before and knew what to expect, although it took some looking. I came to a point where trail skirts close to the creek and several large boulders. I decided to stop and investigate, coming to the conclusion that I had indeed found it. Again, the water levels were low, so it wasn't necessarily standing out from the normal flow or pools of the average creek. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed, so I took a few pictures then headed out. Maybe I'll think differently when I return in the future. It also didn't help that I was quite ready to be done for the day.
The final leg of the hike dragged on. It was such a relief to finally round the corner and see the campground. I had thus completed a seventeen mile loop that saw me cover aroudn 4,500 feet of elevation gain and loss. I guess I had a reason to be tired at that point. Before I reached my vehicle, I stumbled across a large cluster of black swallowtail butterflies sunning themselves. I got a chuckle out of it. I had seen so many of them, along with their yellow cousins, on so many of my summer hikes, sometimes totalling in the hundreds. I never bothered to get a pictures, though, since I always enjoyed walking real close in order to stir them into a fluttering frenzy.