Details:
Middle Prong Trail Features; water features, history, photography Difficulty: Moderate Middle Prong Trail follows the railroad bed upon which the last logs were hauled out of the Smokies in 1939. Because of negotiations that made land purchase possible during the Depression, the Little River Lumber Company continued to log for 5 years after the establishment of the park in 1934. The company removed one BILLION board feet of lumber (enough for 10,000 homes) from this area between 1903 and 1930 and probably used almost as much for fuel and building. The top yielding tree species were tuliptree, American Chestnut and basswood. The trail moves away from the prong after passing a house-sized rock flanked by yellow-birchs. It ascends a bit and then levels out in a wide, flat area. At mile 2.0, look for a narrow trail to the right and follow it about 50 years to an oldcar frame. The car frame. The old Cadillac belonged to the supervisor of the Middle Prong Civilization Conservation Corps camp. One day it quit running and the camp members just pushed it off the road and left it. The MIddle Prong CCC Camp with a crew of 172 men built trails, bridges, and roads between 1933 and 1937. The trail becomes rocky and a little steeper as it swings around a series of switchbacks. Soon you will cross a side creek and drop down to cross Indian Flats Prong on a flatbed bridge at mile 3.5. You turn around 3 switchbacks in quick succession. The long extensions on these switchbacks allowed the lumber trains to switch direction - if the engine was pushing, it pushed the whole train out the extension and then switched to pulling. On the smooth, gray rock faces on the left of this section, look for dynamite bore holes. *RSVP is required for this hike. Please RSVP to hike leader Dolphin Riggs at dolphin@littlerivertradingco.com. Once registration is confirmed, Dolphin will shoot you hike details on where and when to meet.
