GoSmokies VIII - The Wiley Frontier

During our bi-annual GoSmokies Events we try to provide some variety and hikes to accommodate hikers of varying degree. Today, in the spirit of the Roamin’ Man of the Mountains we would do some serious eating, some easy hiking, and some more advanced hiking and above all laugh until it hurt! And finally we hoped to find the Roamin’ Man Wiley Oakleys second home up Painter Branch.

Just in case Roamin’ Jedi Mike Maples got lost, he was provided with a shirt to identify him in case he was found. He was also given a note that said, “If found please return me to Twin Creeks Pavilion.”

As is customary, we began with an easy stroll around the Bud Ogle Nature Trail.

Mike Maples began by showing us a single grave near the Ogle Place that most people are unaware of. I forgot my dowsing rods today so was unable to dowse the grave. I will let Mike Maples share his sources and tell more about the grave is he so desires to comment.

We enjoyed a lot of fall splendor today in the Roaring Fork section of the National Park. There were a lot of folks who called Cherokee Orchard home and we were able to visit several of those old home places today.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a hike with Mike Maples without some tall tales. Maples shared a story about a fish he once caught in LeConte Creek near the home place we had just visited.

I think I heard Wiley yodeling in the distance after that story!

After Maples whopper of a story, folks was gettin’ hungry so we started back for the cars.

Back at the Pavilion the real stars of this event were preparing and fixing up a spread for us hungry hikers.

Of course, they got no help from that guy in the middle. He is Sir Richard of the Dark Side who shows up in hopes of defeating Jedi Mike Maples in a battle of wits. The Force was strong today and Sir Richard would turn tail and run away in defeat.

Thanks Bonnie for grilling up some good ol’ burgers and dogs! I do not know who stresses out worse in the preparation of this event – Eleanor or Bonnie; but without them this would simply be a hike and not the event that it is. So if you did not give them a big hug and a thank you then you best git on it!

While lunch was a grillin’ we took a moment for the customary Group photo. I also took a moment to ask, “who are all these people and why do they keep following me!”

After which, I was sedated and we were able to proceed with the Group photo.

Now these two guys look like TROUBLE with a capital “T.”

Nearby, that Richard Owen guy was plotting his strategy to overthrow the “Mike’s” and was attempting to bring Marlene over to the Dark Side.

I happen to catch this suspicious woman taking an exuberant amount of photographs which I suspect she was giving to some high ranking Park Officials who might be keeping tabs of the “Mike’s” activities.

Maples, as usual, was showing off his dinner etiquette as he passed through the lunch line.

Everyone enjoyed lunch and fellowship as we regained energy for the afternoons hike.

Mike Maples lead a group from the Pavilion and met up with myself and a second group that started out from the pull off at the Grassy Branch trail head.

Folks rebelled against me leading the group, so a new leader was chosen.

He had us off trail in seconds and just that fast we were at our first home site.

Our new leader had some tough decisions to make but had us heading for our second home site in no time. Maples group caught up to us at the second home site. The Jedi tried to act unimpressed at the young Padawan and proceeded past the home site with his group.

But the groups managed to reunite and proceeded to the Obie Husky Place.

There are lots of things to find at this home place including both chimney remains of this two room log house.

A small group of us went to check out the nearby spring house and that’s when Maples made his move.

Was it a test or some Evil plot? We may never know, but the small group went wandering up the path in search of the missing Jedi.

Actually, Mike M had made the suggestion that we go up to one more home site so when we lost him at the spring, we assumed that he had gone forward. Thus, we went up to the next home place which does not have much left of the chimney but Marlene managed to find something nearby.

In the meantime, I questioned one of the locals to inquire if he had seen Mike Maples.

We proceeded up to one more home place where I found some items and leaned them up against this tree.

We decided that Maples was no where to be found and proceeded back down the trail.

Despite his efforts at eluding us, we caught up to him at the creek near the Obie Husky place.

He was running away in an effort to not show Marlene some car parts near the creek. But NOBODY escapes from Marlene and he was forced to reveal the car parts.

We actually uncovered several more parts sticking out of the leaves close by.

Now it was time for the off trail trek to begin as the smaller group of five headed over the ridge for a Wiley adventure.

We dropped down to a creek where I had pulled several stove parts out and leaned up against a tree about a year ago. The stove parts pictured above where ironically found again a week later by Mike Maples. Maples had also found the home site on the ridge above the creek which belonged to Harrison Ownby.

However, we found some additional items at the home place. Pictured above, Mike Maples finds a bed frame on the ground. He also found the end of a hoe. I found a bottle and a small kettle to add to the home place collection.

It was now time to head for the end of Painter Branch which in the pre-Park days was known as Panther Branch. On a well known map by Lucinda Oakley Ogle, the Harrison Ownby place is shown along with a well known inhabitant of the Smokies. And who to better know that Wiley Oakley himself made his second home at the end of Painter Branch. While nothing remains at his first home farther up the road, we had hoped to find some remains of his second home today.

We found a small clearing and a large rock pile at the home place.

I went up the creek a little farther to explore but found nothing. Although, there was a larger clearing where the home might have been. It was hard to know for sure if the large rock pile was indeed the chimney or remains of another structure. In either case, we were standing on land one occupied by the well known Roamin’ Man of the Smokies, Wiley Oakley.

Now it was time to celebrate so bottoms up Terry, nice find!

It did not appear old enough to be Wiley’s so we figured it washed down from some time in the past when Maples was sittin’ above on the ridge pounding down a few.

As we headed out we did come across what looked to be the remains of Wiley’s barn.

Obvious from the cuts that this was not just a pile of wood scraps.

This was the find of the day and all five of us were elated to be standing on the soil where the famous Roamin’ man once stood.

Tammi found an interesting item in the creek which we still have not positively identified.

She continued to find stuff on the way back. Come on Maples where are those Jedi points?

We had no idea going in what we would be up against; however, the terrain was not too bad other than a couple climbs up the ridge.

Me and Maples were pretty impressed with his first off trail hike and had to get our picture taken with Frank. Sorry Frank, I think Maples forgot his Jedi points today.

I had pretty much had my fill of Maples and his forgetting the Jedi points, so I asked Terry to escort him promptly out of the Park. Later Jedi!

I had been more impressed with Tammi and her skill at finding hidden treasures. After the hike she took me and Frank to a hidden treasure right behind one of the Twin Creeks buildings.

Of course, I had to climb up for a closer look!

Thanks Tammi for this after hike treat! Thanks to Jack Lail and Knox News who have been supporting this event from the beginning. I know you wanted to do that last hike Jack and Maples will be severely flogged for losing you guys! And I want to give one more BIG thanks to Eleanor and Bonnie who really do all the work while we get to play in the dirt! Love you both!

Lastly, a word of thanks to my good friend and hiking buddy Mike Maples who I incessantly tease (all in good fun of course), but is a big reason why I joined this group. Say what you want about GoSmokies, but I have found more good friends on this site than I possibly could have elsewhere. There are those who want to keep everything a big secret and frown upon what we share. I have seen other sites where people are grilled beyond belief for asking a simple question. All of these places are vanishing as nature reclaims them. We are trying to document some of them before they are gone. We hope others will visit and share their findings as well. Hiking off trail is a risk, and should not be taken lightly. That is part of why we do these hikes and part of why we share. It is not my intent to glorify or have anyone go off trail unprepared. We spend a lot of time preparing for these hikes and anyone going off trail should do the same. And take it from one who knows: If your gut tells you to go back – then go back. Thanks everyone for your support and hope to see you at future events.

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GoSmokies Spring Event - Lucky #7

In spring of 2012 we had our first GoSmokies Event in Greenbrier. We had more than 50 people show up to show support for this Event and it proved to be a huge success. We return again to Greenbrier in the fall for another Event that proved the first one was not a fluke. We did do a Saturday hike associated with the second event which I was unable to attend but it did have a good turnout. It was far less people than the Sunday hike and was geared for more experienced off trail hikers. A few of the folks who attended both hikes did indicate that they were somewhat tired for the second day’s hikes; however, they did have a good time. Perhaps, we will try a weekend event one day; however, it has been difficult due to people’s schedules and other issues. Sunday has been the traditional day mostly because of the planners schedules, however, for most people this day seems to work best. Like anything else, planning an event is going to be good for some and not so good for others. As I have often said, none of us that plan this event are dictators and there is nothing stopping another GoSmokies member from staging their own event. We have been especially appreciative of the support that Knox News has given us for all these events. We have had someone from the Newspaper at all the events. Jack Lail has been to many of the hikes and has been nothing but supportive of our efforts. Not only has he shown support but also his own personal love of the Smokies through his attendance.

The third GoSmokies event was at Metcalf Bottoms. Mike Maples stepped aside and the group was lead by Mark Snyder for a historical look at Walker Country. We took the off trail route to the Walker Sisters place and again the Event had more than 50 people.

The fourth event in the late fall of 2013 almost did not take place. Some of you may remember the Government shut down that took place that year. A few people suggested having the event anyway as a protest to the shut down. Of course, we did not do this for multiple reasons with the first being the safety of our members. The event did occur shortly after the Park reopened with a mid November hike in Cosby. Even with short notice we still had 21 members show up for a great day of off trail hiking in Cosby.

We moved to Twin Creeks for the 5^th Event in spring of 2014 for some good hikes in the Twin Creeks/Roaring Fork area. One thing we were starting to notice was the difficulty of doing a morning and afternoon hike with so large a group. There seemed to be less time for socializing and lunch as we had to get going for the second hike. Furthermore, some folks would not do the second hike due to time concerns. Traditionally, the morning hike has been intended to be easy for folks of any skill level. The afternoon hike was intended as an introduction to off trail hiking.

We returned to Cosby for the 6^th GoSmokies Event in the fall of 2014. Trying to switch things up a bit, I asked Jim and Renee of the Remembrance Project to lead a hike to the Dorsey Cemetery. Me and Mike Maples would do some off trail hikes that afternoon after lunch. It worked out to be a great hike; however, we did do some “spur of the moment” decisions along the way. Jim and Renee did take us to the cemetery, but we had some side trips and the group split from the cemetery. Some returned with Jim and Renee while the rest headed off trail with Maples toward the Picnic Pavilion. Lunch was late and many people did not do the second hike. In fact, the second hike was somewhat unannounced and consisted of a small group going with Mike Maples and a second group that wanted to return to a spot we had visited earlier in the day. It was a great day from a hiking perspective, however, a bit crazy from a planning perspective.

All this leads us to spring of 2015 and Lucky number 7 with another stop in Cosby. This area has been chosen a few times for the parking lot size, picnic pavilion and ease of access to several hiking areas. However, we are looking at other possibilities and are hoping to have the fall event in another part of the park.

We have been blessed with beautiful weather for all these events. However, it seemed that out luck was going to run out for number seven. Storms were predicted for the weekend and rain on Sunday seemed imminent. The question of cancelling or postponing the event came up a few days before the event. However, the Picnic pavilion had already been reserved and we knew that some people had already made plans that were coming from out of town. Therefore, we decided to go forth as planned. Besides, we are hikers and what’s a little rain to hiking folk!

As it turned out we had people from as far away as Wisconsin show up and despite the weather forecast we had 28 attendees! The planning for the event was a little different with a short easy hike planned at 9:00am for those who wished to show up early, followed by lunch, socializing and the main hike. To my surprise as I drove into the parking lot, most of the people where already there for the early hike.

In fact, by the time we set out for the Cosby Nature trail everyone had showed up and were ready for a good day of hiking! I encountered a few sprinkles on the drive over, but at least for the moment we had no rain! Mike Maples was pointing the way as we set out to do the entire Nature trail and a little bit of the Low Gap connector.

One thing the rain brings out is all the color of the forest. Think about how you feel after your morning shower: Vibrant, refreshed and alive! That is how the forest appears after some rain fall. The colors are vivid, drops of water dripping from wildflowers and the landscape comes alive renewed and refreshed. Everyone was enjoying the wildflowers and leisurely pace of this first hike. We past some rock piles that Maples believed to be a home place. Unfortunately, there were no Nature trail pamphlets available at the trailhead for us to describe the various sign post. This place was at sign post #5. If someone has a pamphlet handy I would like to know if someone lived here. Also, information on signpost #7 and #8 would be appreciated.

Number 7 appeared to be where a barn may have been located and nearby #8 was definitely a home place. Jack Lail declared it his place!

The trail passes through in front of the chimney remains with the rock structure of the house directly on the other side of the trail.

According to my GPS we had hiked 1.6 miles and saw three home places on this first hike.

Maples took a group of people for a side trip to the car we visited last GoSmokies event, while I took the rest of the group back to the pavilion for lunch and some socializing. It was shortly after 10:00 am and still no rain!

We had plenty of time for lunch and chatting with friends new and old. We had not planned the main hike until noon so it was nice to enjoy the day with no rush.

And of course, we had the official group photo!

The atmosphere was relaxed and for the first time we actually set out for the second hike ahead of schedule! Another first was the way that the hike was planned. The map below shows the entire hike for the afternoon. I will break this down later.

The hike was designed to give people multiple options. The first part of the hike was to the Williamson Cemetery. We walked from the pavilion, through the campground, and to the trailhead for the Snake Den Ridge trail.

It is a short hike up to the Williamson cemetery and along the way we encountered our first rain of the day.

The rain was more like sprinkles and had little effect on our enjoyment of the cemetery. Ella Costner the “Poet Laureate of the Smokies” is buried here, as well as Joseph Campbell and several members of the Williamson family.

The rain was short lived and rain gear was removed as Mike Maples predicted no more rain for the moment. When asked how he knew this, he replied, “A little Birdie told me.”

Well, he is the Jedi… so we took his word on it and proceeded up the trail. At this point, I informed the group that we would be looking for home places on both sides of the trail and that anyone who wished to return via the park trail the could at any point. Everyone follow us up to the point where the road bed loops around and it becomes a trail up the remainder of Snake Den Ridge. I had marked several waypoints on my GPS from the 1931 map that were in this area.

The Snake Den Ridge trail does not appear on this map but we were at the upper home site on the map. There was no indication of a home place off the trail other than my waypoint, so a group of us headed off trail to explore. We were not disappointed as four of us found the home place above the trail.

We sent someone down to inform the rest of the group of the home place and that we were going to continue off trail from here.

We ended up with 9 members to do Part two of the days hike while the rest returned via the park trail. We took our brave souls back up to the home place for another look before departing down the ridge.

Very close to the home place, Mike Maples noticed a very large rock standing upright on what appeared to be a man made mound. The mound was adult size and you could see where dirt had been dug right next to the mound. It did not look natural and very much had the appearance of being a grave.

I happen to have my dowsing rods and did get a positive indication; however, with the rain and the damp ground this may not be accurate. Still, it looked like a possible grave. At this point, it is unconfirmed.

We headed down the ridge to look for two more home places. We found some old roads, but no home places. However, we did take note of where we might return to look for them next time. We still enjoyed the wildflowers and stopped now and then to relax and just soak in the moment.

We came out on the Snake Den Ridge trail with another opportunity for anyone to bail out and take the park trail back down. All nine of us decided to proceed down to the old road on the 1931 map below the cemetery. We came to a rock wall that I followed across to where the upper home site was supposed to be located. I did not find anything other than the old road heading down. I met back up with the group as we attempted to follow the old road. Storms and Tornado damage has ravaged this area and we kept getting driven farther from the old road. In fact, it was so bad that we crossed in between the other two home places I had wanted to find in an effort to evade all the blow downs. Some members of the group were elated to discover something else that made the effort worthwhile.

Even though we were side tracked away from the home places, the hike was enjoyable with wildflowers and lots of scenic beauty to take in.

We took the path of least resistance back to the campground and had a great hike with only an occasional sprinkle of rain. I check the time and it was only 2:30, so I began thinking about those home places we had missed on the way down. As we came to the campground connector trail to the Gabes Mountain trail, I announced that I was going to head up the trail to look for the other home places. Mike Maples and Joel Parton said they would accompany me and we bid farewell to our fellow hikers.

Here is how the afternoon hikes break down on the map. The blue shows the initial hike up to the cemetery and the Snake Den Ridge trail. The red shows the second part off trail with the group of nine. The yellow is the last part where the three of us went to find the other home places.

We took the connector trail toward Gabes Mountain and left it near a home place I had previously been to with Mike Maples.

Here is where the real rain of the day began. We continued off trail and found the old road and once again ran into all the blow downs we previously encountered. Had it not been for my waypoint on the GPS, I do not know how we would have found the home place. It turned out that my waypoint had been plotted very close to the actual home place and we located a chimney amidst the ruble of fallen trees.

I managed to bushwhack around the chimney for some closer views.

We continued across to where we had come down earlier to look for the other home place. We got close to my GPS waypoint but the area was in such bad shape that we could never locate the chimney. With so many fallen trees it could be buried beneath one of them. Since it was raining most of this hike, I did not get pictures of just how bad this area was. Maybe some winter we could return and do further exploration.

For all but the three of us, it was a relatively dry day. Only the rain on the last part left three of us wet. Luckily, I had dry clothes waiting in the car so it was no big deal. Once again, it was a great event and despite the forecast we had a good turnout for an enjoyable day in the Smokies! All of the GoSmokies hikes have been wonderful experience; however, I think today’s event was the smoothest and best planned one to date. I would like to think we have learned a few things along the way. When dealing with nature and the elements there is always going to be an element of the unknown. However, the unknown is often what makes hiking so enjoyable. Thanks again to Eleanor and Bonnie for all their hard work and effort in making this thing happen for us. Thanks to Jack Lail and Knox News for their continued support. And thanks to my partner in crime. Mike Maples for your friendship and help in making these hikes so special. And most of all thank you to all our members who have come to these events to make them the enjoyable days that they have been!

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