The abandoned Smoke Hole picnic area.

So this is the picnic area on FS810 just before you get to CR79 where the little store and St. George's Church are? I believe the South Branch Trail (TR 539) comes out of there also.

Strange, the USFS specialized topo maps still show the picnic area as though it’s active. I’d like to do that trail also. BTW, has anyone tried to follow the abandoned road down through Smoke Hole Canyon beyond Big Bend? I can see some double-track on Google Earth at various places so someone is driving something in there. Might make for an interesting hike.

   I think the trail is still active. I took a pic of the trail marker. It just doesn't have a # on it.   You can still make out the foot tread where it goes up the side of the hill

   It's a shame they just let that place go like that.

  As for the old road out of Big Bend,,,,no idea how much of that would be on private property down through there.  Probably just be easier to float it.

  Well, let me know if you want to float it sometime.  Need two vehicles anyway unless you want to rent from the place outside of Petersburg and have them drop you at the head of the canyon.  I have a place to stay up here.

I knew we should have went back there the other evening and picked some pawpaws....

I think what happened to that picnic area was a flood, the parking area got washed out, the FS closed it, and they just never fixed it. I'd say the place has been abandoned for maybe 10years or so. The outhouses were starting to fall apart from what looked like termites, and the size of the trees growing in the parking area, leads you to think it has been a while since any care was taken of the place.

It's a weird placed, kinda reminds you of the walking dead or something without the zombies!

Looks like the trail is still well marked and defined. That's good. I think it was slated to be removed from active maintenance since it's kinda out on it's own away from any other trails.

Interesting - looks like they're working on it but it is odd that they would be doing it in February.

Well, here's the update on the Smoke Hole picnic area - it's gone! A buddy and I went down to Smoke Hole today to fish since that was the only place with no snow and a bit warmer. Tried to fish a bit and while it was around 45°F the wind was strong and biting. Around noon we decided to hike the South Branch Tr. Started in across the low water bridge and a little ways in is the blue diamond showing the south end of the trail. We kept going down the road towards the picnic area. We first came to a stone wall that appears to have been a parking area beyond which was a sign with the map in the pictures above. That was it! The pavilion is gone as are the outhouses. It looks like an end loader was in there. The elevated area where the pavilion was is still there. Beyond that we saw a sign that said "trail" so we headed down and saw another one. There is a tread way and the occasional blue diamond. In short order we were negotiating downed trees. We came to an old little wooden stairs at the gas pipeline, went across it and hit more blowdowns and decided to backtrack. In all from the main road we went .85 miles and back. I suspect the area was prone to flooding and was deemed unnecessary. The Big Bend campground at the end of the road is very, very nice and has newly paved roads and there is the more primitive Jess Judy campground before it. It is obvious that the USFS is putting it's efforts into Big Bend and tore down Smoke Hole picnic area so it wouldn't become a liability. Good luck to anyone who tries to hike the trail - I'm certain it's been removed from maintenance.