4 October 2017
MANY years ago, Crag Knox and I would get a wild hair and decide to drive all night to the Smokies from Oxford, Mississippi for a hike. We actually did this on several occasions and often left Ole Miss around 10 pm. Crag had a Ford Bronco then and we always had camping gear packed. He was in pharmacy school and I was in graduate school in biology, so we could tweek the class schedule somewhat.
I remember one night with Crag driving along highway 64 (one lane road) in a very dense fog. You could barely see the road in front of you. Out of nowhere a man appeared on the road and we barely stopped in time. This was around midnight. He asked if we had seen his hunting dog. Crag, without missing a beat asked what color. The man said black. We told him no and promised to come back if we saw him. As we drove off, Crag said if the dog had had a strobe light on his head and a flare attached to his tail, we still wouldn’t have seen it.
Around 1 am we pitched a tent, crawled in and slept the sleep of the dead. Crag awoke the next morning, got out of the tent and said “Damn, where did that river come from?” I told him he had been driving beside it all night long with no guard rails and a fifty foot drop in dense fog.
On another trip, again along highway 64, in the daylight, we noticed power stations built into the sides of the mountain. The Ocoee is dammed in three paces and water is funneled underground to the tops of the mountain. When TVA needs extra power, water is released down shutters and over turbines to generate electricity.
The reason for the previous discussion was I asked the gps to route me away from interstates and toll roads and it took me back in time along highway 64. It really brought back memories and I saw the same power stations, still in operation and still managed by TVA. Most people have little knowledge of TVA and neither did I until I moved to Ole Miss for graduate school and started paying an electric bill. The TVA bill was approximately 1/3 of the cost of the regular Mississippi nonTVA company.
I started the trip with the idea of seeing fall foliage in the Appalachians. Truth be told, I am about a week early, two at the most, but the leaves are beginning to change and the drive through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park is still spectacular.
I really do believe it is one of the most scenic drives in America and I never tire of it.
I did the obligatory stop at Clingman’s Dome and hiked the 0.5 mile trip to the top. The observation tower was closed and under construction but that was OK since I’ve climbed it many times. It was nice, however, to be at the highest point in the Smokies.
On a rest break to the tower, I saw two hikers. I asked where they were heading and they said the AT which crosses near the top and then they were headed to Fontana.
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Crag and I tried that hike one winter and we began at Fontana. We had to have our packs inspected by the park rangers for winter camping. The hike from Fontana to Sassafras Gap is pretty strenuous and we both were lugging 55 lbs packs. We made the campsite and pitched a tent. The next morning we got up and our boots had frozen and Crag had the beginning of frostbite on his toes. I remember going to the creek for water for coffee and the pail of water froze before I got it back to the campsite. I had to threaten Crag within an inch of his life to get him back down the mountain so he could keep his toes. His boots didn’t thaw until we got the heater going in his Bronco.
The hikers I met today came from Davenport and were headed to Fontana opposite of what Crag and I had intended. I didn’t tell them but if they had to hike this segment, they were definitely on the downhill portion of the trail.
Next I stoped at Newfound Gap and snapped a few shots and straddled the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina.
I then headed to Gatlinburg and passed Chimney Tops, my favorite day hike in the Smokies. Crag and I, Charlie Cooper and I, and even some students from Itawamba Junior College and I have made the hike. The trail was closed because this was the start of the devastating fire that damaged so much of the park, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge. The chimneys stood out in stark relief since the trees were gone.
I checked into another Choice motel, this time a Quality Inn on the main drag. I then walked the strip, purchased my taffy quota for the year and then headed to Peddlers Steakhouse and had a great filet mignon with 2 martinis.
Tomorrow, I head to Boone, NC with a trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
