With a splint on my right hand, I led eight other eager Carolina Mountain Club hikers on a loop from the “Road to Nowhere” tunnel in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This area, though beautiful and green, shines because of its history. See this National Park Traveler piece on the background on the Road to Nowhere. Most of the folks that came on the hike were there to see the “Road to Nowhere” for themselves.

First we stopped at the signboard funded by locals which shows the bitterness that still persists. I don’t know how long this board will be up.

We entered the park and drove another six miles to the tunnel. See the picture at the top of this entry. On a combination of trails, we met backpackers going or coming back from campsite #74 on Forney Creek.

The highlight for me was the visit to Woody Cemetery off Lake Shore Trail – it was a good climb. We talked about what goes on at Decoration Days. Anyone can go and you’ll be treated with the utmost respect.

Toward the end of the hike, we took the Tunnel By-pass trail. The sign had been turned 90 deg. the wrong way and was confusing to the group. We tried to pull it out of the ground and turn it but we couldn’t.

I plan to let the Smokies maintenance people know about it.