Boogerman Trail Loop, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
6/14/2024	7.6 miles	4 hours 47 minutes	1,066'	2.0 mph	432.7 miles

Parking: 

• See 100 Favorite Trails Map

Map:

• National Geographic Great Smoky Mountains National Park East, Clingmans Dome, Cataloochee

Directions:

• 100 Favorite Trails of the Smokies and the Carolina Blue Ridge (for directions)

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges:

• #34 Boogerman Trail Loop
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Glen and I headed out this morning to hike with Phyllis and Paul, who are close to finishing the 100 Favorite Trails Challenge. This is a hike you want to do in the summer because it has several unbridged stream crossings. The recommended route is to do the section with the stream crossings first - that way if they are too high and you have to turn around, you have a shorter hike out. Some of the crossings were high - mid thigh. I was happy that I got instruction from Arlette Laan a few years ago on water crossings, because they can freak me out. I was comfortable crossing these though. I don't own water shoes, but I brought my Crocs. I changed my shoes 2 or 3 times, but then gave in and just hiked in Crocs, which I don't recommend. We also encountered a bunch of mud. There was one muddy section with slices of wood stumps that you could take across. Glen tried walking on the stumps but slid and fell in the mud. I was laughing so hard that I was crying (after realizing he was okay). Glen is typically a very clean hiker - keeping his pants clean and his shoes dry. I am definitely not a clean hiker. But the joke was on me. I didn't walk on the pieces of stump, because they did look treacherously slippery. I didn't want to fall. But one of my feet got stuck in the mud and I couldn't pull it out. I was able to get my foot out, but not my croc. So i had to stick my hand in the mud and feel around for my Croc and try to pull it out. I thought I was going to have to leave it there, because it was so stuck. I managed to pull it out eventually, but then the same thing happened to my other foot. OMG. It was hilarious. Back to digging around in the mud trying to get my shoe out. I managed to rescue both shoes. At that point, after I rinsed off a bit in the next stream crossing, I decided its just time to wear my hiking shoes for the rest of the hike lol.

Where Glen slipped and fell

Ghost pipe

Flaming azalea

An old growth tree

Chanterelles

Stuck in mud