I feel like I’ve just discovered something that everyone else has known for years. Tucked away in a corridor inSevierville, TN, there are wonderful pictures of our national parks by Stan Jorstad, a leader in panoramic photography.

Now notice that I didn’t say “hidden away” or that it’s a secret that I’ve just uncovered.

I don’t want to be like that joker who said that he just discovered the abandoned houses in Elkmont. And the mainstream media jumped on it.

No, anyone can admire these Jorstad photos for free, without being a national park insider. The exhibit is at the Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA) visitor center in Kodak, Tennessee on TN 66 (3099 Winfield Dunn Parkway, 1.25 miles from Interstate Exit 407). The GSMA visitor center and bookstore shares space with the Sevier County Visitor Center on one side of the building.

The twenty-four panoramic photographs are hung in the hallway between those two organizations. They were at the Sugarlands visitor center before that, but I didn’t pay attention, then.

Jorstad was friends with Ansel Adams and Elliot Porter. He was the first professional photographer to capture the breathtaking beauty of every one of our national parks. How lucky we are to have those, but I wonder how many people have seen them.

I love to discover something like this, tucked away and hiding in plain sight. I had been to all the GSMA visitor centers but I went to the one in Sevierville, years ago before I was on the board of directors and before I really paid attention to what was in these spaces.

So go to the GSMA visitor center. Buy a bear or a book and take the time to look at the Jorstad photographs. If you’ve seen the pictures, let me know.

I’m back from Ireland only four days and I’ve already been to Great Smoky Mountains National Park twice. There’s no better way to work on jet lag than to go hiking. I got up at 5:15 am today and it’s a great improvement from three o’clock.

Seventeen hikers came on the September Friends of the Smokies Hike today to walk the Boogerman Trail in Cataloochee. Even with four bridges out of commission on the Caldwell Fork Trail, we all were eager to hike on a perfect walking day. For many, it was the first time in Cataloochee. For a few new members, it was their first time in the national park.

“Please, plan to walk through the water with your boots on. With five water crossings, there’s no time to change out of boots and put on water shoes and then reverse the process,” I said.

“Besides wearing boots is the safest thing in a river. You don’t know what you’re going to find at the bottom.”

Four bridges are out but one water crossing is done twice. We had scheduled this hike in September, because we thought that the water level would be at its lowest. And it was quite low, not going more than above my knees.

But there’s much more to the Boogerman Trail than the water crossings. I hoped that the lack of bridges didn’t overwhelm the hike. We saw several classic fall flowers: bowman’s root, cucumber root with its blood red leaves, asters and pink turtleheads. The stone walls, built by the former residents, are very impressive.

And there’s the whole Cataloochee story, a community that lasted only a hundred years from 1834 to about 1935 when the park was established.

Having said that, most people did think about plunging into the water. You’d think that once you got your feet and boots wet, the next time wouldn’t be a big deal but it was. The crossings were slow and careful and no one fell into Caldwell Fork.

Holly Jones from the Tennessee office of Friends of the Smokies co-led the hike. I really appreciated her driving from Sevierville to help lead the hike. Thank you, Holly!

The Boogerman Trail is a classic hike. I hope the park sees this trail as a priority and replace the bridges. Though we had a good time and enjoyed the day, the water crossings is deterring most visitors from going on this trail.

The next Friends of the Smokies hike will be on Tuesday October 13. We’ll be going to Purchase Knob and the Cataloochee Divide Trail. No bridges, or lack thereof, will be involved.

To sign up, contact Anna Lee at [email protected] or 828-452-0720.

 

 We strode up in the mist undaunted
To capture a prize we all wanted
Despite portents of doom
We marched through the gloom
So now we can say we’ve “LeConted”.

By Rob Howard

I spent the past two days with sixty friends at LeConte Lodge in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I didn’t know I had that many friends, other than on Facebook. Friends of the Smokies had organized a trip to LeConte Lodge and we took over the whole place. Friends came from Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio and Asheville to be on this trip.

Remember that the Smokies is a national park.

LeConte Lodge is a full-service lodge at the top of Mt. Le Conte at 6,593 feet. Technically, that is the top of the mountain; the lodge is a little lower. The lodge offers cabins with sheets and blankets; so you don’t have to carry a sleeping bag. The stay includes dinner, breakfast and unlimited coffee. This is luxury. But, everyone, guests and staff, has to walk up and down. There’s no road. But the effort is worth it.

Anna Lee Z., the development and outreach associate at Friends of the Smokies, worked out all the details, with the help of Holly Demuth, the North Carolina director. It’s not easy to organize 60 people of varying hiking abilities.

Several Friends staff came on the trip. Dana Soehn, the press officer for the park, came as did Karen Chavez, the outdoor editor for the Asheville Citizen-Times.

We hiked up the Boulevard Trail from Newfound Gap. I led the “moderate/a little faster” group of 30 up with the help of Holly Jones and Beth Ransom as sweeps at various points in the line. It was hot and humid, but the rain held off. So, to me, the weather was perfect. My group arrived about 3:30 pm or so and settled in our assigned cabins-another detail that Anna Lee worked on.

The second group dribbled in later and by 5 pm, almost everyone was enjoying a social hour at the picnic tables. People brought boxed and bottled wine, cheeses, and dips. We could have made a meal out of the offerings. But at 6 pm, the LeConte Lodge crew struck a triangle, round and round, to call us for dinner – soup, stew, mashed potatoes, … It was a hardy meal, probably much more than we needed for the eight miles we walked.

By then, the last few folks made it and had a late dinner. We gathered at the office/library for fun and games – literally. Anna Lee (again) had organized a social planning committee, that worked on the evening program. We had to draw a pig to figure out our personality. I turned out to be a “optimist/realist, analytical and a good listener”. I thought I was just terrible at drawing. Rob read a few limericks, one which is shown at the top.

Dana, the voice of the mountains, spoke about what national parks, and especially, the Smokies means to her. Unlike most career national parks people who move around a lot, she came to the Smokies as a college intern in 1989 and stayed, working her way up. The Smokies continues to be a source of discovery for her and for many of us.

The leaders were concerned about the well-being of the hikers who had come up late and tired to the top. Were they going to be safe to go down at a reasonable speed? Who was going to shepherd them down the slippery Rainbow Falls trail?

Dana called Mark Eckert, a medic ranger, to help sweep the second group down. Mark showed up at 8:15 am, while we were having breakfast. He must have run up the trail, with a large backpack and whistle at the ready. I continue to be amazed at the care and thought that the park showers on its visitors.

Now don’t think that you’ll have Ranger Eckert at your side on your next hike; you have to take care of yourself. But in this case, it was the right call.

I led 15 hardy hikers down Rainbow Falls Trail back to the cars. By the time we got down around the falls, the trail was crowded with visitors wearing flip-flops, without a pack or water.

All sixty friends came down safely, on either Rainbow Falls or Trillium Gap.

Thank you all who came and contributed time and effort to the success of this trip. Our next hike will be on Tuesday August 11 on Big Creek, a much simpler and easier hike.

To sign up, contact Anna Lee Zanetti at [email protected] at Friends of the Smokies or on 828.452.0720.

LeConte lodge is so luxurious at 6,300 ft that you don’t need much beyond your day hiking stuff. But you do need some toiletries.

So I packed a toothbrush and tiny toothpaste that I’ve saved for such an occasion. I hope there’s enough for two brushings. I’m skipping the flossing and all the other incantations I go through to take care of my teeth. I hope my dentist isn’t reading this.

I’ve got a tiny hairbrush and some face cream. Whoops! Actually, it’s body cream but the tube is small. And off I go.

But another decision looms – shoes for the evening. I could skip that and just stay in my boots, but that is very uncomfortable. We’ll have a lot of activities around the cabins, some outside. I told folks – please no flip- flops. So I’m dithering between Teva sandals and Keene. Sandals are lighter but I’ll need to wear them with socks. No way am I exposing my toes to a chance of stubbing. So it’s Keenes for me.

That’s it. We meet at the trailhead tomorrow and I’ll tell you how it goes.

After six days at Family Nature Summits, we came home, did the laundry, and packed the car for three days of camping in Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We hiked, set up camp and got silly with wiffle ball nets. What could be so difficult and strange about that?

It rained on and off the whole weekend. Even though Cades Cove Campground was supposed to be full, several campsites were empty. I guess that $20 a site per night (less if you have a Senior Pass) wasn’t enough to convince everyone to show up.

On Sunday, we drove the Cades Cove loop and stopped to walk to the John Oliver cabin, shown at left, and Elijah Oliver’s home place. Elijah, son of John, had a more elaborate set up, with a home, barn, and several outbuildings. Since it was a half-mile walk to the second site, we only saw one family there.

We saw a bear in the woods on the loop, but the most exciting sighting was close to the campsite. Isa, shown here with grandpa, and I were going to play in the creek one afternoon. We walked through the campsite when Isa announced that there was a bear ahead. Whoah! The bear didn’t even lift its head. It kept sniffing the ground and we found another place to play.

When you get a campsite, you’re told in plain language to not leave any food, flavored water, or coolers unattended. We want to avoid attracting bears in the campground. Then you sign that you understood this.

Still campers are careless and forgetful. Our camping neighbors across the road left their coolers under their table while they went out for the day. They came back to this sign which also said that the rangers took away their cooler.

About 10 pm, I noted a park vehicle with two rangers, one talking to the couple. I stood and watched, curious to see what would happen. The campers got a $70 ticket (cheap at twice the price) and a good talking-to. Too bad!