Above: A section of the old Hyatt Ridge path about a mile from Hyatt Bald. It's a tough ridge to ramble, but worth the effort. I hiked the trail not long after it stopped being maintained, and then stayed away for decades. This year, while exploring the Raven Fork drainage, I decided to return to the old path. It's been a lot of fun, and I still haven't had a chance to traverse the entire ridge (as of 12/06.) Before spring, I hope to push all the way through to the Balsam Mtn. trail, for old times sake.

Below: Another 'beast' of a manway. It hardly qualifies as such, since so far as I know, only two people have ever wallowed their way down it - Paul Kirkland and myself. It starts near Hyatt Bald and weaves and dips down to Right Fork. Though the distance is short, it took me several days of rambling on hands and knees to find a viable route to the creek below. It's rougher than anything that I've ever encountered in the Smoky Mountains. I used slides and small streams when possible, but for the last couple of hundred yards, crawling through an incredibly dense rhododendron hell to reach the stream. For over 100 feet, I was unable to even touch the ground. I think that I may like that little nook of the Great Smokies more than any other.
Raven Fork, or any of its 3 forks, is not a place for casual off-trail adventures. The distance just to reach the jumping-off spot at McGee Springs involves a long climb, making an early start extremely difficult on a dayhike. There are no maintained trails once you leave the end of the path at McGee Springs, and the undergrowth, or hells, are as dense as any that I've ever pushed through. If you get hurt and you're alone, there is a good chance that you'll never be found. There are no towering waterfalls or cliffs with far-reaching views. It's hard to express what draws me time and time again to the area. Part of it has to be the knowledge that at times, I'm traversing ground that might not have ever known a human footstep. It's dark, mysterious, and magnificently hard to access. It's as good as it gets to this old bushwhacker.