3000 Miles and a Million Memories

It has been almost a month since the GoSmokies event, where we celebrated the life of dear friend Mike Maples, with a hike up the Old Settlers Trail to the Christopher Parton Cemetery. Unknown to me at the time was another event that I just recently realized. Many moons ago, I began a spreadsheet to track my hikes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My goal was to hike all the trails that made up the 800+ miles within the Park. It was a goal shared by many other hikers; however, at the time I was living in Ohio; thus, it was an even bigger challenge. By the time I moved to the land of Orange, I had hiked just over 580 miles of the 800+. Soon after moving to Tennessee, I discovered that there was much more to East Tennessee than just the National Park. I came across a website known as Tennessee Landforms where I found GPS waypoints to over 600 waterfalls in East Tennessee alone. I set  out to locate and hike to many of them which included a lot of off trail hikes. For the better part of 2009 and 2010, I visited many of these beautiful cataracts. Furthermore, I ventured into Western North Carolina and in 2010 traversed the Blue Ridge Parkway on two occasions. Paradise was all around me! In the fall of 2010, I set my sights on hiking to some of the off trail waterfalls within the National Park. I had also developed a keen interest in the parks cemeteries by this time. Like the waterfalls, I discovered that there were many cemeteries not found on most park maps and some that also required off trail hiking to reach. My concern at this point was where to park my car to access some of these destinations. I don’t remember the particular waterfall that I entered into the Google search engine, but I remember what appeared when I did. It was a blog by some fellow named Mike Maples! At the time, I did not try to follow his blogs, rather, utilized his descriptions of where to park in order to reach my destination. Still, I began to notice the rock wall foundations and home site remains along my way to those destinations on those early hikes. I also discovered GoSmokies where these blogs were located. I had questions. Oh Boy, did I have questions! So I joined GoSmokies in order to ask this Maples guy about a particular waterfall. He answered succinctly and without suspicion. Hmmm, maybe I could ask him some other stuff as well. After about three times emailing him through GoSmokies, he suggested we should get together for a hike. So I went to meet the man they called the “Jedi.” I would have him all to myself to pick his brain and learn more about this wonderful place we call the Smokies. Or at least that is what I thought until he told me that we were meeting this Ben Bacot guy. I did not like him already! I did not want to share my new found source of everything Smokies with some other guy. No, I wanted him to myself! It did not take long for me to see the error of my thinking and I soon was hiking with two men that I would come to know and love like brothers.

It was early 2011 and the beginning of one of the best years of hiking in my entire life! Meeting these guys only fueled my desire to leave the beaten path and discover as much as I could about my Garden of Eden. Furthermore, I began to realize just how much I had been missing by simply completing trails. Side trails leading to cemeteries had been skipped. Home places only a few yards off the trail missed and many other things not beheld because my mission was to complete a trail. Don’t misunderstand me as knocking any 900 miler. It is a worthwhile goal and an awesome task. Anyone who has completed it should be proud of the accomplishment. My biggest mistake was in not completing the longest and hardest trails early on. By the time that I had moved to Tennessee, age was catching up to me. I either had to hurry up and accomplish the task or change my focus. I decided that I wanted to focus more on the off trail destinations. Thus, in the ten years that I have been in Tennessee I have only added about 60 miles of new trails to that list. To date, I have hiked 642 miles of the 800+. Still, not bad for a guy from Ohio! I kept doing my list to see how close I would actually get, but to also track the off trail miles. I had to make an educated guess on some, but with better GPS systems I soon was using my track profiles that have been in many of my own blogs. Of course, I have duplicated many miles on the park trails, but to date have hiked 1262 miles off trail in the Smokies. The accomplishment that I was unaware of that came to fruition at the recent GoSmokies event; was that I crossed over the 3000 mile threshold for overall miles hiked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park! The last time that I had looked at my list, I remember thinking that I would love to share the moment with good friends. Well, I suppose that I did; however, it was unknowingly. And that is the real purpose of this blog, to share and say thanks to all those who have shared the mountains with me over the years. Most of us met through GoSmokies and for that I am eternally grateful.

With every GoSmokies event, it seemed like more friends were made. And just like I contacted Mike Maples, many folks have contacted me throughout the years.

And of course, every time that I hiked with Mike Maples it seemed I was meeting new friends. Some have become much more than just friends. People I love like Marlene and George Denton.

The GoSmokies events were a great time to place faces with names. And sometimes they were a reunion of those near and dear to my heart.

About a year after meeting Maples, I had the good fortune of meeting and hiking with David Ledbetter and his family.

The senior Ledbetter, I soon came to see as being the Jedi of Cades Cove. Through him, I was taken too many places not found on any of the many Cades Cove home site maps.

In fact, the two Mountain Jedi’s came to meet at one of the GoSmokies events.

And through my association with the Ledbetter clan, I did my one and only hike with the well known Dwight McCarter.

Speaking of “one and only hikes;” another meeting of the Mountain Jedi’s was a hike in 2011 with Maples and Jenny Bennett.

It was a great day in the Horseshoe with Jenny, Mike and Ben. Jenny was kind enough to take a pic of me and brother Ben by the Jeter Whaley Chimney.

 The GoSmokies site continued to be a breeding ground for Mountain Jedi’s and soon another Mike entered the picture.

Turn around and say “Hello” Mr. Poppen! This was one of many times we would find MP scanning creeks for debris. Maples dubbed Poppen the “Creek Walker.”

Of course, the GoSmokies events were not the only times that various groups formed for off trail excursions. Soon we were joined by Curtis Travis who had a passion for Chimney measurements!

Big or small, we traveled near and far to explore up creeks and old forgotten pathways.

I can’t believe that I never got a picture of myself, Maples and Poppen; however I did get one of myself, Bacot and Poppen!

As if all these folks were not enough, into my life came yet another off trail lunatic – David Sands. I shall never forget our memorable day hiking to Mount Mingus and beyond!

I have often used the phrase, “Let them not be forgotten;” which has been one of my motivations for writing about the places that I have visited. Many people sacrificed their homes so that we could enjoy this sacred land for generations. Time and nature are slowly making these places vanish. Keeping them a secret only serves to make them vanish even quicker. I see the National Park much different today than I did on my first visit in 1996. I can not look up a creek without pondering those who once called it home. Everywhere I travel within the park there are some remnants of past history whether it be those that settled and farmed the land or the Lumber Companies that set up camps to harvest timber. Good or bad, these mountains hold many stories of a people who survived off the land. Future generations may never know these stories if they are kept secret. Thus, it is an honor to pass any knowledge along to those who will carry the torch into the future. Just this week, I had the pleasure of taking my friends Blake and Kathy back to the old Cadillac off the Middle Prong trail. It was great to share some of the history of this area with them. It really changes your perspective when you think about the railroad that traversed the road into the forest, the many lumber camps, and how the land had once all belonged to Will Walker. While we did not hike up to the CCC camp, I told them about it and the waterfall nearby. According to the “Hiking Trails of the Smokies,” the Cadillac, presumable early 1920’s, belonged to one of the supervisors. One day it stopped running and Camp personnel pushed it off to the side. I have always felt that the best way to get people interested is to take them out and show them the wonders of nature. Seeing these artifacts seems to make the stories come to life. Great to share this with my young friends!

In the last ten years of hiking, I have had the good fortune of visiting almost 1000 home places within the National Park. Also, more than 200 cemeteries and grave sites. Almost 100 waterfalls and several other places of interest all within the Park boundaries. Add to that, hundreds of other waterfalls, cemeteries and places of interest in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. I am so happy and honored to have shared many of them with such wonderful people. A few years ago I came to realize just how many of these people had become far more than just hiking buddies. We had become family. When I hurt my back and had to have surgery, the outpouring of help, prayers and good deeds were overwhelming. This bearded fellow is not only a lean mean hiking machine, but he also mows a mean lawn!

But seriously, I could post a hundred pictures and probably not get everyone that has shared a trail with me over the last ten years. My back has slowed me down and my knees are getting weak so I don’t know if I will reach 4000 miles in the Smokies. But as long as one foot moves in front of the other, I will keep on trekking on!