Let’s take the opportunity to make a long trek to the Cataloochee area and hike these lesser traveled trails. We will have to make a car shuttle along the sometimes rough gravel road NC284 from Big Creek/Mt Sterling town with extra cars and leave half of them at Mt. Sterling Gap. We then drive on the rest of old NC284 to Pretty Hollow Gap trailhead in Cataloochee and start hiking. We reach the Little Cataloochee trail in a short distance which climbs over a small ridge and descends down into Little Cataloochee Valley with several historic structures to visit. We will follow the Little Cataloochee trail to the end at Old NC284 then backtrack a short distance to the Long Bunk trail. The Long Bunk trail passes a cemetery and has several scenic views as it climbs gradually to the Mt. Sterling Ridge trail at the gap where shuttle cars are parked. We will return along NC284 to pick up the other cars and may choose to drive back via Cove Creek Rd and I-40. Hike is a total of 11 miles with elevation gain of 1500 ft. Rated moderate.Meet at Cracker Barrel off I-40 at Exit 398 in the southeast corner parking lot at 7:00 am. Round trip driving 160 miles @ 0.10/mile=$16.00.

Leader: Tim Bigelow

Leader contact information is included under Additional Information in the email you receive after registration.