This on and off-trial hike will explore regions around familiar trails near the entrance to Cades Cove. The hike starts on the Crooked Arm Ridge trail but leaves the trail to continue straight up the Crooked Arm Branch to explore the cascades and territory above. It will be steep and may involve wet feet so you may want to bring dry socks to change for the latter parts of the hike. After about a mile climbing Crooked Arm Branch we will regain the trail and follow it west and then south for about 2.5 miles to what used to be an overlook. Then we again leave the comfort of the trail to head steeply down Cave Ridge and see if we can find Gregory’s Cave near the bottom of the ridge. We will just look in so as not to disturb the bats and then follow the woods to the Rich Mountain Loop Trail which will take us back to the cars. The hike is about 7.5 miles long with about 2200 ft elevation gain, rated difficult due to the off-trail parts.

Leaders: Steve Dickinson and Mike Harrington

To register, contact the leader directly via email, text or phone. You can find contact information in the March 2023 newsletter writeup for this hike.