Mike Gourley posted a blog post
Up the Noisy Creek
I have never been much of a morning person and the older I get the harder it gets to win my morning self arguments. I can understand the internal conversation about going to work. It makes sense – who wouldn’t rather stay under the covers than go to work. “I’m tired, I’m cold, my head hurts, my back hurts, it’s raining, it’s snowing” etc. etc. are words echoing inside my head. However, when it comes to hiking, I would not expect such arguments to matter. I remember going out on cold Ohio winter days when the wind chill was below zero and snow blanketed the ground. I’d layer up and head for the trail. I never gave it a moments thought to “wuss” out and go back to bed. But now I am a few years older and the voices in my head seem to be getting louder and louder. Now I find it helpful to be hiking with friends as this motivates me to tell the voices to shut up and get my butt out the door. On solo hike days those same voices can be over powering and seem to push my ever aging body back into the comfort of my warm bed. I never used to care about rain, snow, hot or cold. These were factors only used to decide how many layers and what type of clothing to wear.Being a “local” here in the Smoky Mountains has it’s advantages. However, it can work against you when it comes to those “voices.” When you come here from another place, you take the weather as it comes. You deal with it. What else can you do? However, when you live here then you have those voices that tell you to go back to bed and do the hike another day. Or you leave later and end up doing a shorter hike. Oh those darn voices!It’s bad enough arguing with other people – but arguing with yourself can be much harder. You get to feel the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat all in one package! You may feel the thrill of victorious warmth under the covers as you drift off into glorious sleep. But when you wake up to a beautiful fall day and realize that you could have been out on the trail then the pains of defeat fill your head.Most of the time the hiker in me wins the internal battle, but the struggle gets harder with each passing ripple of time.Today, the voices would have to shut up as I needed to pick up my good friend Dave Ledbetter and head over toward Greenbrier and Noisy Creek to meet up with Mike Poppen and some other folks for a hike up Noisy Creek.A couple months back I had been informed by Jenny Bennett of a waterfall on Upper Noisy Creek beyond the Old Settlers Trail. She had been up Noisy Creek with a group back in 1986 when she saw the cascade so details were sketchy as to exact location. Still, it was worth investigation as I could not find where anyone else had seen this cascade or any other information on the internet. I had been up Noisy Creek a few times and knew that there were several home places and I had never been on the old trail which the 1931 map shows going all the way to the Pinnacle.We began our hike with a group of 7. We ended with only 3. News at Eleven!You won’t be traveling long before reaching the first home place. According to my good friend Mike Maples this was the home of Eli McMahan.Mike Maples knows a lot about the area and I give credit where credit is due. Besides, if the name is wrong than I can always say it was his fault – LOL!By the way Mr. Maples, Marlene had a few things to say to you…Sorry, I can not repeat what she said as it would not be appropriate for this forum!Don’t feel to bad Maples for after this creek crossing Marlene had a few words to say to me too!Next, we reached the William Anderson Ramsey Home Site on the left side of Noisy Creek.The tall chimney lies in a nice flat area perfect for a small farm and enough trees that it could easily be missed from the manway.The fall colors here added a lot to the scenery and the remains of the original chimney can be found nearby.Keep looking and you will find some remains of the old barn as well. This is one of my favorites, not just because of the chimney, but its location and beauty. It was noted as well that the creek below was perfect for a tub mill. We wondered if much had been left behind and how much of it had been taken due to the close proximity of the Old Settlers trail and Highway 321. Sadly, I wonder about this all too often. I find more and more that I do not want to include maps with my blogs if there is anything of potential value to be stolen. Wash Tubs are dime a dozen in these mountains but things like saws, kettles, tea pots and other artifacts seem to grow legs and walk off. Truly sad to have to consider this factor.The manway ends at the Old Settlers trail with two signs to keep OST hikers on the beaten path.There are a couple home places right off the OST and are easy to miss if you are not paying attention. The Norman Ramsey Chimney is just to the right of the trail, however, the trail turns left and crosses Noisy Creek. There is no bridge so if your mind is focused on the stream crossing you might just miss a chimney visible from the trail.Continue up the OST and just before you cross back over the creek again there is a home site to the left that could be easily missed. Several Yucca plants mark the home place but the chimney is somewhat hidden in the background.The springhouse was just across the creek and the trail follows uphill alond an old rock wall. Look for some fence posts up the trail just past the rock wall.The trail begins to ascend the ridge away from the creek. If you continue up Noisy Creek you can find three more home sites. The last home site belonged to Thomas Fox. Mike Maples and I have both blogged about these home places in the past and Maples referred to the old trail above as the Sapp Manway. It’s use is unknown as there are no home places known along its route to the Pinnacle. Perhaps Mr. Fox and other locals used it for hunting or perhaps it was just a recreational trail to the Pinnacle. The trail is not clearly visible from the OST so you need to know where to jump off. Initially it is fairly obvious where to hike as you follow the ridge up toward the Pinnacle.Both sides of the ridge here are quite ugly, but as you climb the tops of other ridges start to appear and with the fall color was stunning.Marlene, George, Curtis and Cheryl decided to go back down and go to the Fox Home place and let the three crazy hikers go on to find the Upper Cascade. Noisy Creek at no point was visible below us. We continued up the ridge until we reached 3200 feet. At this point the old trail becomes obscure and quite ugly.Both sides of the ridge were steep and we had about 160 foot drop to get in the creek. Mike Poppen lead the way as the three of us made our way down the ridge. The creek itself was open in spots and ugly in other spots.As we moved up the creek we realized that we had dropped down at the right place. Had we gone up the ridge any farther it would have been a very dangerous drop into the creek. Jenny’s group in 1986 came up the creek from the home sites below. They must have went up the ridge further up the creek – perhaps at the cascade. We went up the creek and stopped just past 3300 feet. Had we not had a weather forecast for bad weather we might have gone on, however, darkening skies made us think that we had best get out of the creek. Not finding the cascade was a bummer but we knew we were seeing an area of Noisy Creek few had traveled. Mike Poppen noticed this cool boulder leaning against another rock by the creek.Might be a good shelter in a pinch, although I doubt that two Mike’s and a Dave could have fit under it!We went back the same route as we saw nowhere else to climb back up the ridge. We considered going down the creek to the home places, but decided the creek would not be a good place if heavy rain started to fall. I stopped to take a picture of a small cascade on the way back and commented that perhaps this was the cascade and that maybe Jenny had exaggerated just a bit. Instead of a 50 foot cascade it really was a 5 foot cascade. Shame on you Jenny for adding a “0.” LOL!We climbed back out the same way we came down and just as we rejoined the ridge a light rain started to fall. We had light rain off and on the remainder of the hike and so considered our decision to get out of the creek a wise one. One day later and we would not have even been able to do the hike. The next day this mountain would be blanketed in snow and attempting to access the upper portion of Noisy Creek would have been foolish. Even on a good day, I would not suggest this as a solo hike. Were you to get injured in the creek it could be a long wait for a rescue. There has already been one sad event that claimed two lives near Noisy Creek back in 1973.If you have read “Mayday! Mayday!” by Jeff Wadley and Dwight McCarter, then you may be familiar with this airplane crash. On November 2, 1973 two men, Jack Roberts (the pilot) and Jim Yett (a photographer) were flying in a two person Cessna 150 taking pictures in the Cobbly Knob area near Highway 321. The exact cause of the crash is unknown but after investigations it was determined that engine trouble was the likely cause of the crash. The Cessna fell through a canopy of trees near Noisy Creek and came to rest upside down almost intact. Unfortunately the two occupants died immediately remaining strapped to their seats inside the plane. For more details, I strongly suggest purchasing the book mentioned above. The book is not a resource for hikers but provides details on airplane crashes in the National Park from 1920-2000. The book notes that for a number of years this crash site was used by the Park Service and the Civil Air Patrol for practice searches. It further indicates that the crash remains had been removed.Still, people have searched over the years to try and locate any remains of the crash and found nothing. That is until a recent hike done by Mike Poppen in the area. Thanks to Mike, we were fortunate to visit what remains of this sad and tragic event.While there is the typical joy of finding historical items such as chimneys and other artifacts, it was with mixed feelings that we stood over what remained of the Cessna150. No doubt there have been others that have stumbled upon this wreckage and kept it to themselves. No doubt a few of them collected a piece of the wreckage for their own personal collection. For this reason, I have included my pictures at the end of the blog and not in the order of the hike. For the same reason, I have not included a map in this blog. Two men lost their lives here and the group that visited this site were mindful of this fact. We took with us only pictures and the memory of having visited the site. We had the same respect and attitude that we would have if we were visiting one of the parks many cemeteries.Not far from this location there is another small fragment of the Cessna 150.Despite not locating the Upper Cascade on Noisy Creek, it was a great day with good friends hiking both on and off the beaten path. Should you be fortunate enough to come across any of these places or other places in the National Park, please be considerate and take pictures and leave the sites the way you found them. Take home the memories not the artifacts. Off trail can be both rewarding and dangerous. It is best to hike with someone and if you are not experienced in off trail hiking then go with someone who is. Don’t add yourself to the list of tragic events that have happened in the park.See More