Redwine and New Year Cheer

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thanks to Blake Holder, Marlene Denton, George Denton, Phil Baxter, Scottie Lynn Baxter, and Duane Pierce for joining in to celebrate the New Year the best way I can think of – with an off trail hike in the Smokies.

We all met at the Huskey Cemetery and said hello to someone perhaps a couple of you might know

We would have stayed longer but he was afraid that we might not get out by dark; thus, we hopped in our hiking mobiles and drove down the road to a secret parking spot just outside the park. A few years before, I had hiked with Maples in the area, but we headed straight into the Park; while today we walked up the road and went in at Ramsey Creek. I had looked in the past for a home place that I thought was right off the road. Once again today, I found nothing; however, that is because the home place was father up the field below a large tree. I misunderstood GW, whom had been to this home place before, when he pointed toward the creek and I thought he was indicating for me to have a look. I did not realize he had been to it before. “What we have here is failure to communicate!”

Soon I was joined by the rest of the group as we had a look around. Marlene found a pail that Jack had brought up the hill from the creek. Sadly, with a hole in the bottom, Jack failed to fetch a pail of water!

We continued up Ramsey Creek to the Joseph Redwine home place which oddly enough is not on Redwine Creek. Redwine comes into Ramsey Creek near where the first home place is found.

There are two chimneys at this home place.

It was a good spot for a group photo

We had to take a second one as Gourley was not showing his best side in the first photo

As we headed down to cross the creek, I spotted the springhouse.

I did not remember seeing this before; however, upon looking back at the original hike with Maples on March 16, 2011, I realized that I was wrong.

Hard to believe that Nick was only 7 at the time! That was Nick’s first hike with the Jedi Maples, and we also had the pleasure of Ben Bacot accompanying us. Ben came to Nick’s aid on more than one occasion; helping the young one on some of the many creek crossings.

The disturbing part of our return to the Redwine home place was a certain missing item

This was present in 2011 but vanished by 2019. And the reason for no map in this blog. It is sad that people can not leave artifacts for future generations to enjoy. Mike Maples and I shared a common goal in writing blogs. We hoped that future generations would be interested in finding these places like we were. We did not want them to become forgotten. By the same token, perhaps we made it too easy for those unscrupulous people who only care about themselves and not future hikers. SAD INDEED!

On a happier note, I was happy to see that the medicine bottle young Nick found was still there.

Both he and the Jedi were pleased with this find!

That would not be Nick’s only find of the day!

Now I know that most of you could listen to Maples all day and night; however, a 7 year old has his limits!

But Maples hung in there and assisted Nick from time to time

Now Maples may be the Jedi, but it was Ben Bacot that became young Nick’s HERO of the day!

They became best buds!

Still Maples tried

And in the end we were one big happy hiking family!

OK, thanks for indulging an old man reminiscing about the Golden Hikes of yesteryear! Y’all love Maples, so I figured you’d enjoy the flashback! From 2011, we now return you to 2020!

Now today, we cut across Ramsey Creek and headed back over Redwine Creek to the manway leading up Redwine to the Old Settlers Trail (OST.) Back in 2011 Maples, took us the other direction up Ramsey Creek to the OST.

We came across a large mass of rhododendron on the other side of Redwine Creek and cut around it until we eventually came out at the Isham Clark place.

This nice chimney lies just below the manway with a good path leading down to it.

Above the creek, on the other side of the manway, is the SS Green place where we stopped for a snack break.

Blake, being the young whipper snapper of the group, was the first to proudly stand on the OST.

We turned right and quickly found ourselves in campsite 33 where many moons ago was home to John Eledge and family.

Home places can be found on both sides of Redwine Creek; however, today my mission was to cross over the creek and find one of three home places that I had not seen on previous hikes.

The old road up the creek is not visible from the trail so we followed the OST until we were close to my waypoint for the home place. Thanks to a good friend, I had coordinates for all three home places. Good thing because the old road is not clearly visible in places and the home site was down near the creek anyway.

In fact, once found it was easy to see how I missed it. Not far from the rock pile remains of the chimney is part of a foundation where perhaps a barn or other structure stood.

The other two unfound home places were back down the OST in the other direction; however, less than a quarter mile away was a home place that I did see on my previous hike. I could not remember if it was just a pile of rocks so a couple of our group opted for a break on the OST while the rest went up to check it out. What we found got me in big trouble with Marlene who opted not to go.

Those that did make the trek, of course, were very happy!

After 30 lashes and a severe scolding from Marlene, we headed back across Redwine Creek, past the campsite and headed for the next home place. Back at the Redwine Creek Manway, Phil and Scottie Lynn Baxter decided they had had enough of Gourley’s shenanigans and decide to detour back to the road. Marlene commented on Gourley’s supposed 5 mile hike and that we had already hiked 15 miles. Since Marlene learned math from Mike Maples, that sounds about right! I figured I still had 5 out of 7 hikers left, so I wasn’t doing too bad. Thus, we proceed onward…

Very little remained of the next chimney.

However, a side trail (which may have been part of the original OST) led down to where the springhouse likely was located.

We continued along the OST to a side ridge where the third of the previously unfound home places was located.

Of course, Marlene informed me that she had been to this one before. GW wisely decided to stay out of it!

Back down the OST we went. There are some mighty fine rock walls along many sections of the OST

Marlene was much happier now that we went to a home place that she had been to before Gourley!

The OST soon crosses Timothy Creek where just above it is the George Freeman home place

I got back into Marlene’s good graces when I agreed with her that there were remains of a corn crib nearby.

It was here that we left the OST and headed down the Timothy Creek manway.

The manway turned ugly and we began to head for more open terrain to the left of the manway. Unfortunately, the manway turned away and we found ourselves on the other side of a small ridge heading down to some resort houses. We turned sharply, crossed the ridge and found the manway; however, it ended behind some houses.

Once again, time and new development abruptly ended a manway that used to take you to the highway. On a positive side note, we spotted some Yucca just inside the park boundary and I found the chimney pile nearby.

We had little choice but to drop down into a back yard and cut across to the road. Luckily no guard dogs were around, and no one seemed to notice us cutting through. As we walked the road, it appeared that most of the homes were vacant anyway. We had to walk the opposite direction to get to the highway and had about a quarter mile walk (mostly uphill) back to the car. I think this was the hardest part of the whole day!

It was a great way to start off the new year! Marlene exclaimed that we did 19 miles! Using Maples math that would be correct; but according to Mr. Garmin it was 6.2 miles. Thus, 5 miles was a pretty close estimate given that much of the hike was off trail.