Just found this forum...

[AdventureMyk]

Mission success with a few more good spots to camp out there. Thanks for the heads up! The uphill slog? We expected it to be a lot worse than it was. We rated it about 1/4 difficulty/screaming fit against the trail from Lakeshore Trail to Shuckstack in the GSMNP. At least on this one you have lots of places for breaks, some fun things to climb, lots of great scenery, etc.

One thing missing: The water levels were way down but they were still good where it counted. Pics will be up in a review soon. Oh, and I ended up having a rather large spider checking out my pack. It did NOT want to leave... I think it was trying to explain the 'finders keepers' rule to me while I was countering with the 'excessive force' clause. <grin> Spider is happily alive and webbing away, just not on my pack...

[DustinTN]

Glad to hear you made it out there and enjoyed it! Was there ample water along the main stretch of the trail from the Big Laurel Branch creek? Glad to hear you eventually tamed the spider - ha! And, yeah, the hike out isn't too horribly strenuous, if you're in decent shape. I'm not familiar with the stretch of trail you referenced in GSMNP. I'm hoping to get over there within the month or so and do Mt. Camerer, which I've never seen. My problem is finding a dog sitter when I visit. I understand the prohibition of dogs, especially in the most visited park in the country, but I sure wish I could take the pup along. Look forward to seeing your pics and review!

[AdventureMyk]

Until you got to Big Laurel the creek beds were pretty dry. Even cable crossing was a trickle. Once you got down there though it picked up.

I nicknamed this one Ranger Spider. For scale, that's an Osprey Aether 85liter...

[DustinTN]

Wow. It almost looks like that guy could have been your trail mule. That's a serious spider...