Cumberland Gal: Porters Creek Manway

Above: a weird trillium found on Porters Creek trail

Porters Creek Manway

Kenny & Dana Koogler

Oct. 5 2003

Total hike distance 11 miles

Total elevation gain

Gradient is 37.8 % on the final mile

Off Trail Distance 2 miles

On Trail Distance 9 miles

I learned of the Porters Creek Manway from the book Trials By Trail authored by Johnny Molloy.

He refers to the blue Smokies hiking guide. I now own a copy of that book, but at the time I did not.

I attempted this hike with two friends one Saturday. It did not go well. We ended up atop a fin of rock sitting out there in the Porters Creek watershed. It was the same spot Morgan Briggs ended up stuck on when attempting this off trail hike many years later. Thankfully we were able to realize we were on the wrong course and get down again. The challenge of this hike lies not in the distance, but the physical exertion and navigation off trail. It is traditionally marked by cairns or little piles of rock that lead you from one spot to the next.

It is not the sort of trek that should be attempted solo. I waited until Kenny could go with me.

We set a shuttle at Newfound Gap and took the other around to the Greenbrier section of the park. Up in the top vehicle we had a cooler with drinks, snacks, and clean clothes tucked away in a bag. We are a good team. We spent plenty of time researching this and planning for it. We picked the optimal time of year to make it as simple as possible. The advantages of making the hike in early Fall are:

Cooler
Snakes are in bed
Bears are in bed or about to be
Stinging nettles and vegetation is not as bad
It is our driest time of year so makes the creek levels manageable.
Climbing the Wall is a tad easier since it is a little drier and not as slippery.

The hike begins on the Porters Creek trail and you go out to CS 31. Once there it is necessary to leave the trail and begin the manway to progress. You walk down to the stream below CS 31 and start heading up the mountain or upstream. Watch for piles of stones in the creek. These are the cairns.

One of your landmarks above you in the distance is Charlie's bunion. We had studied the map and knew the simplest way to proceed and the correct way is to avoid Lester Prong and go up to the AT beyond the tourist bunion. I was cautioned back then to avoid trying to come down it, and I never have. Since that time I've encountered numerous persons who have done it downward from the A.T. or done it as an out and back going both up it and back down it. It can be done, but it is tricky.

The entire hike is 11 miles long with a shuttle vehicle. The off trail part is 2 miles long with

9 miles total on a trail. Four miles out to CS 31 2 miles up to the AT, and 4.9 miles to Newfound Gap parking lot and the shuttle. The final mile push is where the difficulty really kicks in to high gear. The grade becomes steeper and steeper until you are literally holding onto grass to stay on the mountainside and you pop out on the A.T. nose first. The difficulty of it was such that I did not take any photos of this attempt. I didn't even carry the camera the day we tackled this to lighten my pack as much as possible. Porters Creek is one of the steepest streams in the park. I cannot recall sitting here typing this if Porters Creek or Roaring Fork is the absolute steepest, but those are the two worst ones.

Once you have left CS 31 you will be rock hopping upstream. There are anywhere between 10 to 13 crossings. The route weaves back and forth across Porters Creek. It is such a flashflood stream that the route does not remain the same from year to year. It is continually changing. I spotted the first cairn.

If you find a cairn that is down please restack it. Do NOT knock these down as they are traditionally and necessary. After a lot of rock hopping we took a wrong turn at the confluence of two streams. We ended up going a hundred yards or so up Lester Prong by mistake. It was very dramatic and rugged scenery. We saw little water as much of it goes subterranean. We could see Charlie's Bunion looming over us too large and close for comfort so we knew we'd made a wrong turn.

Back down we went and this time bore left to remain with Porters Creek as it climbs into its headwaters. The confluence of Lester Prong and Porters Creek is a critical point in this trek.

Stay to the left here heading upstream. Once we did we began seeing the cairns again. We finally came to a very large cairn on the left. It is another critical turning point. We climbed a waterfall at one spot which was covered in all the logs, trees, and debris washed down from above. Again by this point the stream is largely subterranean. That is where the name Dry Sluice comes from. The stones are very slippery. Now we began to see Charlie's bunion again to the right, but further away. The higher we climbed the steeper the grade got. This is the holding onto grass part. We were growing tired of climbing on our bellies to hold on. It is scary, but the focus required is so intense that if you keep your mind on staying on the mountain you don't have time to be scared. You are just surviving one moment to the next. I did not look down until I got nearly to the top. I was weary, but about the time I was most tired my nose popped out at the top of a dirt ditch along the AT .

I let out a Rebel Yell that echoed through the mountains. We had done it! I was elated. Kenny enjoyed the navigation challenge as well as the physical challenge. The view from the trail up here is great. We took a breather and had a drink of water before starting our final part of the hike out to Newfound Gap. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

Not to diminish the difficulty of this off trail hike, but since this I have done many other hikes that while shorter have had an even steeper gradient. One such scared me the first attempt so badly I swore I'd never do it again. The grade was 65%. I ate those words a few years later when we took a friend back to see Gold Creek Falls. The way we went before was THE easy way. The second time around wasn't as bad since we were aware. We were able to make the off trail part a bit longer, but not quite as steep by doing lots of back and forth across the slope instead of straight up the gullet!

In typing this up and reviewing the material I learned something I did not know.

There used to be a campsite on the left side of Lester Prong. The blue hiking guide calls it "Obscure".

Below: a photo of me and Kenny taken together back when I was a total pussy. We had hiked to Dark Hollow Falls as a family. I had not a speck of dirt on me. I am sure I did not look this way by the time we reached Newfound Gap Road and the jeep. It just happened to be the first photo I ran upon when digging through the photo albums. It was taken with a film camera and blurry as can be.

I recalled a friend wildflower hiking with me in April 2003 after my first attempt on the manway.

He pointed out the water levels. Would you want to try to cross that stream right now? To which I responded of course not! Then it hit me what he was telling me. I was so new and green to off trail.

I realized the foolishness of attempt #1 and how dangerously high the water levels had been in Spring.

I buried my face in his chest and burst into tears. It is a good friend who lets your folly come to you in your own time. He was a wise man and showed me a lot of grace.

Below is a photo of Gary Powell who took time to help a green kid understand the hiking world without being mean about it.

Johnny Molloy tells of reading the description in the Blue Sierra Club guide to the Smokies.
Page 244 says thus" The trail consists of two sections very different in character. For 4 miles it is an easy hike in undisturbed forest. After that it turns to an unmaintained manway and becomes very steep, rising nearly 2000 feet in the last mile. It is for the experienced hiker only and even for him only one way! Nobody should attempt to descend this trail from the AT. The latter section is the steepest, most difficult hike in this entire guidebook. DON'T DO IT!

To Johnny that was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. He was hell bent for leather going to do it! It is the first chapter of his book Trial by Trail. He titled the chapter appropriately "Don't Do It!"

His description tells of falling down the manway and landing. He was bunged up, but not seriously hurt.

Just bruises and scrapes. He tells of arresting his fall and having to gather his composure and crawl back up to where his friend Calvin was. He tells of laughing and crying intermittently as he made his way back up. That sounds like my style. Cope by laughing AND crying! If you've never read his book you should especially if you travel off trail. It is very honest and relatable. One thing that I will say about Johnny's book. I read his account of a canoe trip down Abrams Creek. I wanted to do it since it was adventurous and sounded beautiful. Greg Rowe of Little River Trading Company heard me talking about it. He had done it and honestly recounted the event to me and Kenny. It did not sound fun. Johnny's trip was shall we say "eventful" in that they lost the keys to the shuttle vehicle in the stream. They finally located them, but the trip had its difficulties. I was young and very foolish. I am now grateful I listened to Greg. I think he almost certainly spared us a misery trip.

Since I have no photos from that trek I will use photos of Porters Creek from another trip. I will also use photos I took on a hike along the AT through the Sawteeth. I did photograph the spot where you emerge on the trail from the manway.

Below are two photos of the spot where the manway meets the Appalachian Trail at Porters Gap.