Baker TrailVentures

 We decided to kick off this challenge at the end of the year in 2024.... we were excited to get started and had thought about waiting until 2025 to start but we decided this would be a great way to end 2024 and bring in 2025! We chose to do four trails to give us a good start. Obviously we had to start with the Gatlinburg trail! This trail starts at the Sugarlands Visitor Center and takes you to Gatlinburg and back to the Visitor Center. It is about 4 miles total with very little elevation gain. This trail is one of only two trails that allows dogs.  Our next trail was Metcalf Bottoms. This trail is a short 1.5 mile out and back trail. You are hiking up, up and up for this first half. When you reach the top you will find the historical Little Greenbrier School House and cemetery. This was a nice short hike! Trail number three was Middle Prong Trail to Indian Flats Falls. This trail is 8.5 miles out and back with a gradual uphill hike until you get to the turn around point at ...

If you love to hike and live close(ish) to the Smoky Mountains, this may be a good challenge for you! Chuck and I decided at the end of last year to take this on. We love that there is not a time limit on it and we can make it fit into our schedules!  You can find details about the challenge HERE . We decided to have a large map printed out for a bulletin board along with the excel spreadsheets that you can find on the challenge website. It is fun to see the map of the entire park and also the breakdown of each trail and segment. We also purchased the book Day Hiker's Guide To All The Trails In The Smoky Mountains by Elizabeth L. Entire. This one is hard to find if you want to order it, but we found after visiting the park that most of the gift shops have this in stock! The author does an amazing job of describing all of the trails and possible hindrances as well as putting the trails together in loops or point to point format so that you can try to hike the trails without having t...