Tombstone reaches 100

 

Tombstone reaches 100

 As many of you know for a little over a year now I have been “photo” documenting the National Park cemeteries. Park records indicate 151 cemeteries – so I hear. I am hoping to find out more about that soon as I plan to speak with some park personnel about the subject. I have found no published list of the 151 known cemeteries and would like to get it. My list includes 146 so I am missing a few. Most of what I have left lies on the North Carolina side of the park with much of it being across Fontana Lake.

A few weeks back I crossed the 100 plateau and am now at 107 cemeteries visited. Having read about the controversial “Jennifer” stone, I had to hike up Gabes Mt. trail and see it for myself.

I went beyond the stone and did see some home site remains. I know that Mike Maples has found no record of a Jennifer living in that area and many GoSmokies readers think it is bogus or stolen. However, the website I have found many of the cemeteries on states that they obtained the data from the Park Records and this “Jennifer” grave is listed among them. Another mystery I hope to unravel soon. I again visited the Sally Sutton grave that same day.

I have made a couple trips to Cataloochee recently and now only need to visit 2 cemeteries there.

My first trip was July 4^th weekend with my wife. We camped in Cataloochee and went to the Maggie Valley “Red White and Boom” Festival on the 3^rd. This was a really fun time with live music all afternoon right up to a pretty good fireworks display following. The festival is free (unless you want to ride the rides).

On the third I went to the Palmer Family Cemetery and the Hannah Hoglan Cemetery. The first is up the hill behind the Palmer Place. The second is off the dirt road (Highway 284) that goes to Big Creek. There is actually a sign for this one! There are 12 graves but only 3 inscribed. It is a half mile roundtrip from the road.

On the 4^th I went to the Palmer Chapel cemetery across the road from the Palmer Chapel. I decided to take the dirt road to Big Creek and along the way found the Lawson Jenkins Cemetery. It is about a half mile round trip and there are two stones with one simply reading “Jenkins 1902.”

I heard rustling a couple hundred yards off the cemetery and it turned out to be a bear. Unfortunately, he was to far away and pretty well hidden so I did not bother for any blurry bear pictures.

I somehow passed the Negro Graveyard trail and by the time I got to Mt. Sterling trailhead a storm was brewing so we headed on home.

I returned to the area on July 10 via Big Creek and started my day at the Mt. Sterling trailhead. This was my quest to find the McMahan Grave that they could not locate in the Lott study. A half mile up you turn on the Long Bunk trail and head down about a quarter mile.

I found it interesting that on my Garmin map the Long Bunk trail is in a different location. Either Garmin is wrong or perhaps there is a manway there that once was the Long Bunk trail. Another mystery.

Around the quarter mile mark you see a clear trail on the left.

The path quickly ends in an area that does look like a cemetery. To the right in my picture below are two stones that I am thinking is the McMahan Grave.

By the way, I take no credit for this discovery. I thank Kevin U. for telling me where this was located. It also looks like a great area to look around in the winter.

I returned the same way and drove down past the Little Cataloochee trailhead and found the Negro Graveyard trail. It is actually signed for the Asbury trail with a set of steps leading up.

It is a steep but fairly short climb up to where the Asbury trail goes left and the Negro Graveyard is on the right. There are 4 uninscribed stones and it is said that one of them belongs to a white man named Taylor.

I returned back to the Little Cataloochee trail and headed down a mile to the other end of the Long Bunk trail. 2/10 of a mile up it is the Hannah Cemetery.

Over 50 graves and all but 3 are inscribed.

As I was finishing my photographing, the skies were darkening and the feel of impending rain filled the air. My plan had been a much longer hike to the Little Cataloochee Cemetery, some home sites and the Burris Child grave. This would have completed all the cemeteries in Cataloochee for me. But it wasn’t just the rain that had me headed back up a mile to my car. A bit earlier I had slipped on some wood and took a nasty downward fall on the trail. I am no stranger to taking a fall and I usually walk away unscathed other than a scratch or two. But this time I jammed my big toe as I fell and it got worse as the day progressed. In fact, it got a lot worse. So I decided I had best make my way up to the car and of course it DID rain all the way back. Five minutes down the road and the sun was back out!

I decided to go the scenic route back and continued past Big Creek and the state line where it becomes Highway 32 to Cosby.

I happen to remember Dr. Joey Phillips blog about “Tobe” being buried across the street from the Jonas Phillips Family Cemetery.

Being a glutton for punishment, I parked and found the trail right across the street as Dr. JP said.

I limped my way up what was only 500 feet of trail to the two graves.

Jonas Tobias Phillips and his wife Sarah.

Thank you Dr. JP for your blog and sharing another mystery of the mountains. It looked to me like a very unmaintained trail continued past the cemetery. Possible winter exploration. Today, it was limp back down and head home. I left my boots on to give my foot more support as of course it was my right foot. It was shear pain removing that boot when I returned home to Maryville. In fact, I decided I best make a trip for x-rays to see if it was broke. Thankfully it was not and I should return to my normal hiking self in 2-3 weeks. So for the moment ol’ Tombstone is out of commission!

 

Tasmanian Maples: A Devil of a Time - Barnes Cemetery

Originally posted on GoSmokies April 7, 2011

Oh are we going to have fun today! It’s a beautiful sun shiny day in Greenbrier. And it’s a good thing because we are going to need all the sunshine energy for a hike on the Ramsey Cascades Trail. Oh, but today we will need our alter egos to help us. So first let’s introduce the players. Introducing our fearless leader: a Jedi for all seasons, the master of the bushwhack, the terror of the gully and all around fun guy – Tasmanian Maples

Next up we have the rhododendron thrasher, master of the Laurel thickets, king of the rock cairns and also all around fun guy – Yosemite Ben

And finally, yours truly: the master of the creek crossing, the doctor of the dirt, the prince of the dog hobble and all around lunatic – Mike the Cat stairs Cat

You will soon see why we need the kitty power with us on this hike. For as I stated, we set off on the Ramsey Cascades trail – for about 5 minutes. Faster than the speed of sound the Tasman took a sharp left and up we went. Check it out:

After following an old roadbed for a short bit, we took a right and followed the spine of the ridge up toward Devils Den. After a bit of climbing we had some beautiful views.

And also saw some interesting rock formations

As Tasmanian Maples spun up the ridge, Yosemite Ben was shooting up the hillside through the rhodo.

Eventually we made it up to the top of Devils Den. Hey cool cat how you liking the hike so far?

We went right from Devils Den on a flat bench to check out some rock formations and the original plan was to go back the other way up and over some ridges to the Barnes place. But being the crazy guys we are we decided to go up to the Lookout tower instead. Look closely to the right on the map and you will see the Jeep trail that goes up to the tower. But we decided to make our own trail – straight up!

But it was just a walk in the park for the master of the laurel thickets!

And here’s our version of “Where’s Waldo” – it’s called “can you spot the Maples in this picture?”

We did reach the Jeep trail and soon found ourselves soaring to the tower.

Of course the tower has been torn down and here’s the Jedi inspecting the remnants

A few more items for your viewing pleasure.

As we made our way back down the Jeep trail we paused for a moment of ceremony and celebration. Let’s have a big gosmokies round of hoot n hollers for the newly appointed Mountain Jedi – Ben Bacot.

And to celebrate the new title, Ben had the honor of leading us down the Cat stairs! (Told you the kitty power was going to be needed)

And did we mention the views?

And away we go (down)!!!

Our leader was cool, calm and collected as he led us down.

Are we having fun yet?

For those who think going down is always easy – try the Cat stairs!

We made our way down the ridge and overshot the Barnes place a little so we backtracked and did a bit of the ol’ bushwhack and soon came out at the Barnes place.

And soon followed by the Barnes Cemetery

A small cemetery with only three graves – sadly all children.

As we made our way back toward the road we came across a couple more home sites. The Harriett Whaley place had a lot of cool stuff. Check it out!

As we walked the road back to the cat mobile we returned our alter egos to their rightful places to await another day and another Jedi hike.

Mike's Peakery page

Mike's Peakbagger page

Mike's GoSmokies blog index

Mike's Google Blogger Index

The Brothers Mike

Originally posted on GoSmokies July 2013

It was a dark and stormy night… Nevertheless, it was a beautiful Monday morning! It had been awhile since I had the opportunity to hike with Mike Maples so I was looking forward to whatever the Jedi had in store for us today. We would be joined by another Mike just to add confusion to our viewing audience! MM, MG and MP would hit the trail with a vengeance or should I say the “off trail?”

Early morning heading into Townsend through the foothills was a gorgeous drive. The famous blue haze mixed with a few remaining dark clouds made for an interesting sky above the mountains. As I drove, the sun peeked through over a mountain adding some yellow to the fog. It was a great way to start the day.

I met up with the Mike’s in G’burg at their Penthouse. We stopped at the Coke machine in the lobby as MM wanted to get a coke. It was a coke machine shake down as no Coke found its way down the chute and into Maples waiting hands. As he shook the machine, we received a phone call from Coach Denton. Maples continued brutalizing the Coke Machine. “Machine took my flipping quarter!” (Censored for viewing audience) We pulled Maples from the lobby and listened to the Coaches instructions. Here are some before and after hike pictures of the three Mike’s.

The Coach told us that today’s hike was going to be Old Time Hiking. “Old Time Hiking?” Mike Poppen said quizzically. “Yeah, Old Time Hiking,” Coach Denton continued, “You know, like Herb Clabo, Carols Campbell, Dutch Roth…you know, Old Time Hiking.” “OK Coach, Old Time Hiking,” the three Mike’s replied back. They knew better than to mess with Coach Denton. Now all that was left was to put on the foil!

The plan was to head up an old trail along Watercrease Branch and seek out home places and anything else we might find. So we proceeded to drive up Cherokee Orchard into the park. Leaving the Gourley mobile, we walked a short distance down the road and exited up Watercrease Branch on an old trail. MP noted that Maples hikes seemed to be 70% upward and that was true for the first part of the hike.

Finally, we came to a home place. Sorry, Curtis no big chimneys today. But you would have been proud to see Mike Poppen tearing through the rhododendron. He showed no mercy as we checked out a side holler in search of another home place. We did not find it but watching Poppen rip through the rhododendron was pure magic! Now we just call him Killer as the rhododendron leaves just shrivel up in fear of his ominous presence!

Poppen earned himself a few of the coveted Jedi points on today’s hike as he found the next home place with its chimney remains hidden under a couple fallen trees. It was the first of two home places where wood remains of the house were still present. Since most wood remains of houses are long gone, rotted and returned to the dirt of the earth this brought MP special notice from the Jedi Master. MP shoots – he scores!

After a couple more home places the old trail diminished and we found ourselves fighting the ridge and some of the ol’ ugly. This hike was certainly not for the faint of heart or those not familiar with the ways of the unbeaten path. Some folks might have found themselves misplaced amidst the many ridges and green shrub filled hollers, but MM knew no fear. Down he plunged into the depths of the unknown and soon we found ourselves on a path just above Baskins Creek Falls. It was time for a snack and to play with our cars! Maples tried to engage some other hikers in a car race but they turned away from him. “They brought their frickin’ toys!” one man exclaimed. However, Maples was not dismayed and the race would go on… but first we had to listen to the National Anthem. As the three Mike’s listened, a Park Ranger appeared. “I got my eye on the three of you. You pull one thing, you’re out of this park. I run a clean park here. I have any trouble, I’ll fine ya.” Poppen simply looked the Ranger in the eye and said, “I’m listening to the flippin’ song!” Not knowing how to reply to Poppen’s vulgarities, he simply vanished back to the official park trail.

Soon it was time for some more Old Time Hiking. After a short side trip to the Cemetery, we found ourselves once again hiking up and now we were on an official park trail!

After ribbing Maples a little, we headed up Baskins Creek trail, which actually follows Falls Branch. The trail soon heads up the ridge and Falls Branch heads up a holler toward Roaring Fork road. We were looking for a couple home places and we found the first one with little chimney remains but part of the foundation still intact. We attempted to continue up Falls Branch but it soon got very ugly and even Killer Poppen agreed we should head up and return to the park trail. After more climbing, we found an old road that would take us back down toward the creek and to another home place. Old Time Hiking!

This old trail was pretty ugly in spots but no match for Killer Poppen and the Brothers Mike. We could hear the colorful euphemisms of Coach Denton shouting above us as we crawled under blow downs and ripped our way through the rhododendron. What we found below was amazing but we swore each other to secrecy and promised we would not reveal the hidden mystery to Curtis Travis for at least 1298 minutes. In addition, the name of the home site could not be revealed for an additional 9998 minutes. We only mess with people we like and if we really like you – your !@#$ed. LOL!

We bushwhacked back to the park trail and returned past the manway to the falls. Instead, Maples took us up one more time and dropped off the trail along Baskins Creek. We saw several field stone piles and a small waterfall on Baskins Creek. I guess it was the REAL Baskins Creek falls as the other one bearing this name is actually on Falls Branch!

There are several home sites along Baskins Creek but very little remains of the chimneys. Nevertheless, it is a decent trail and takes you out to the road in Gatlinburg. We still had a short walk down the road back to the Maples Penthouse. I had to wonder if some kid got Maples flippin’ quarter? My GPS logged it as 10.5 miles of hiking. With the last walk uphill to the Penthouse, we crossed the 70% uphill threshold. We were soaking wet, dirty, scratched up and tired. Yep, it was a good day of Old Time Hiking!

Mike's Peakery page

Mike's Peakbagger page

Mike's GoSmokies blog index

Mike's Google Blogger Index

GoSmokies Spring 2014

Oh Man do we have a series of fabulous blogs originally posted on GoSmokies between April 30 and May 4, 2014

What me Obsessed?

OK now that all the good pictures and great blogs have been shared about this past Sunday’s GoSmokies hikes, let me chime in with my dull and boring pictures and dialogue about the day’s event.

It takes me a little longer to post stuff because…well…let’s just say I am not a NORMAL hiker. Depending on the particulars of the hike there may be hours of planning and even more hours of work after a hike. Like Mike Maples, I am a map junkie. In fact, take the “le” out of Maples and what have you got. Now wait a minute my fellow GoSmokians, are y’all thinking we are obsessed? Well, to give you an idea and let you make up your mind on this, let’s take a look at the typical “process.” I am sure Mike Maples has his own process. And maybe there are a few other closet junkies out therewith their own process.  

Since, much of my hiking is off trail, I have found (from hard life lessons) to KNOW where I am going first. I like to know what creeks, ridges and other useful information about the area I plan to enter. And while it is fun to find the unexpected, I like to have some idea of what I am looking for. Nothing is more frustrating than looking at a map later only to find you just missed a home place. It is especially bad when said home place is several miles into the hike.

Now it is time to plot some waypoints to at least get me in the vicinity of what I am looking for. If you have gone looking for a home place you plotted on a GPS, you already know this is not always as easy as it sounds. An area that looks open on a map may be filled with our favorite shrub – rhododendron. Creeks are not always as easy to follow as they may appear on a map either.

So now we have done our homework and have maps and waypoints on a GPS. Let’s go hiking!

And don’t forget to bring the Maples!

Last Sunday, I had Mike take me on some short hikes while the rest of youse was getting ready for the big event. First, we went to the Mark Ogle Cemetery mentioned in Pete Prince’s research. Above you see Maples caught in the act of dowsing. Later, we took the rest of the gang to visit the cemetery. Both, myself and Maples have done some homework on this one and it is possible that there are five graves here. However, it’s nothing that could be proven without digging them up – which of course we have no intention of doing.

So, we have done our hike and now the real work comes in. Hundreds of pictures downloaded onto my computer. First round through, I delete some of poor quality photographs. At this point, most folk are done. But not for the obsessed! Not only do I want a file with pictures of the day’s events… I now make files for home places, waterfalls, cemeteries and anything else I can think of. GPS waypoints will be assigned numbers as will the files to correlate with them. And don’t forget a file for the blog! 

Depending on how much I knew going into the hike, I may have to research to find names for some or all of the home places found. So making that map y’all enjoy so much could take a half hour or might take a couple hours. Here is the overall map of last Sunday’s hikes.

Now to create files, go through the pictures and get stuff organized. After going through Pete Prince’s files, I decided that I needed to add “Field Notes” to my files. Some of the Prince files indicated his sources while others provided little information; which left me wondering where he got his cemetery information from. How did he get the name and who (if anyone) told him about them. The Smokies are far too vast to be wandering around dowsing at random. I know that I have a lot of files that will leave people wondering where I got the name from. Hopefully, I will get to all of them in the future. For now, I include a word doc with my sources and any other information in the file. I also include my maps and any other maps for further documentation. If I have any historical photos, a file is inserted with those too. Whew, anyone need a break?

Sometimes it is fun, but there are those tedious moments that make you wonder why you do it. I appreciate that someone talked Pete Prince’s heirs into donating his work to the UT Library. Pete died before he could get any of his work published. Had his files not been donated to the library then his work would have been lost forever. To get his work though, you will have to spend hours scanning documents. Mine is all on a computer and can therefore be downloaded. Anyone want to venture a guess at how many Gigs you will need to download everything?

So here I sit mid-week and I am still going through pictures and making files. However, what a great day it was spending time with my GoSmokies family.

It was a little different in that the second hike was not much longer than the first. My GPS logged the first hike at 2.7 miles and 3.0 for the second. Keep in mind that I tend to wander around a bit so my mileage was probably a little longer. Still, there was not a lot of difference in length between the two hikes.

Once I get all of my stuff together I will post a couple more blogs and probably a photo album of pictures. It has been slow this week as I have also been recovering from my Penguin attack by Richard Owens highly trained Ninja Penguin squad.

GoSmokies Hike One: Curtis Shakes a Leg

We dedicate to the first GoSmokies hike to our good brother Curtis Travis. You may have already seen the cute pictures of his wife putting her hand on Curtis’ back. Awwwwww! They really are a cute couple! Curtis has had some health issues this past year and he has bounced back with a vengeance. I have watched him struggle and I have seen him call it “good” for the day. But he gets out there and gives it his best. I respect a man who gives it his best and I respect him when he knows his limits and says he’s has had enough. Sorry that we did not find you any 30 foot chimneys today Curtis, but it was and always is a great day in the Smokies. Love ya man, and proud to consider you a brother.

OK, enough mushy stuff…

Curtis I know you want to know where we went so here’s the map for hike one:

And I know that you want to know what all those numbers mean so here is a list which includes everything for the day:

And Curtis, just in case you ever need a hug be rest assured that you’re other Mike brother with the last name of Maples is there for you.

We left the Twin Creeks Pavilion for a short hike to the first home of Louis E Voorheis according to Mike Maples Map. Voorheis owned a nice piece of land and later built a home which became known as a mansion and is still in use today by the Park Service.

After checking out one of the many Mill remains and the Voorheis Mansion we went up the road to find home places along the Twin Creeks trail. There are several that we visited but many more that folks could visit on a longer hike.

The highlight of the hike was a lesson in stream crossing with Master Stream Crosser Richard Owen. Duane Pierce follows Richard awestruck by his masterful strides.

We did take everyone to the Mark Ogle Cemetery which I mentioned in the first blog. I handed my rods to Mike Maples for a demonstration in the art of dowsing. Mike did a blog about this site that you can reference. 

Mark Ogle lived nearby and the Bud Ogle Place is just up the trail from his residence. Ogle’s dominated this area however; you can find some other mountain families such as Huskey and Ramsey in the area.

Others have pointed out the wildflowers that stopped hikers dead in their tracks. We decided that we better turn back for lunch – especially if we wanted to do a second hike. I believe the head count was 23 for the first hike. I think we came back with 22 or maybe it was 24. We did pass a few other hikers who were stopped and interrogated by Mike Maples. I think he was telling one young lady about the Moose that were released up the road in Cherokee Orchard. I was going to tell her about my Penguin sightings but she had already started running up the trail. Whether she was running to see the Moose or to get away from Maples we will never know! Either way it was time to return for some good ol’ GoSmokies fellowship and good eats.

GoSmokies Halftime - Louis E Voorheis Grave

It’s Halftime at the GoSmokies Spring Event. Time to rest, socialize and most importantly – EAT!

You have probably seen some pictures of the healthy food we enjoyed. I myself held back and only had three pieces of cake! Along with Lays potato chips and a half of peanut butter pita sandwich, I was fueled up and ready to go.

While the others enjoyed lunch, I grabbed Mike Maples for a short walk back over to the Voorheis Mansion.

I wanted to see if we could locate the grave of Louis Voorheis which was supposed to be next to a large rock behind the house. There is a nice picnic area complete with table and fire pit behind the house.

Next to the picnic table is a large rock where we believe he was buried.

Rather than tell you where we got our information from, I will just show you the document from an email Pete Prince sent to a friend.

We are pretty sure we found the spot behind the rock where the remains were buried. Both of us dowsed around the rock and did get a crossing of the rods in one particular spot. It appeared to be where Prince had it marked on his map. There were other rocks and the map was pretty crude so we are not 100% we got the exact spot but it is known that his remains were buried in this area.

OK, are we all rested up and ready for another hike?

GoSmokies Hike Two - And then there were Eight

After a rest and some socializing, Mike Maples instructed us that it was time for hike number two. Some folks decided they had enough of the Mike’s for one day and opted for calmer adventures. Marlene came along only because she had not made enough stream crossings for the day. A hike without a dozen stream crossings for Marlene is like a hike without rhododendron ugly for Maples. Jack Lail was abducted for hike number two by the wiley Maples who said that Jack was going to be a Mountain Jedi whether he wanted to be or not. But before we could embark on our journey, Maples told us about the trout he caught one summer day in the cold icy waters of LeConte Creek.

Maples never exaggerates – lol.

As previously stated, the hike was not much longer than the first days hike.

We left out from the Bud Ogle Place and stopped just off the road at the Robert Ogle place (1311). Very little left of the chimney but a nice springhouse remains are nearby. You can see an old rock wall lined road behind the place heading over to the other side of Cherokee Orchard road.

Next we visited the Birdwell Huskey place (1148) where a large chimney fall indicates that this was once a large house. There is a picture of this chimney in my picture album.

In case you are wondering why the GPS numbers jump all over, it is because I have found some of these places on earlier hikes.

We crossed LeConte Creek at a small waterfall and headed up toward the Old Sugarlands trail. Just before reaching the trail we came to Oscar Ogles Place (1313).

We came out on the road and followed along it until we reach the old barn foundation near Rocky Steve Huskey’s place (1314).

We found lots of stuff in the area as we continued along over to the Bill Ramsey Place (1315).

All that remains at the Ramsey place is a large indentation where a barn or cellar was. There are several boxwoods in the area as you continue downhill toward Rev. Sam Oakley’s land (1316). You come to several rock was remains and I believe I found the chimney remains near the creek with another rock wall behind where the house once stood. At this point the group was heading left back toward the road so I rejoined them as we hit the road.

We returned with all 8 brave souls, although Marlene observed that we had never reached the 12 stream crossing minimum. Oh well, maybe another day. 

GoSmokies - After the Ordeal

The GoSmokies Events are always fun and it is great to see old friends and meet new ones. I had started the day out with Mike Maples scoping out some home sites and a cemetery. During our second hike, Mike had mentioned a springhouse remains about a quarter mile off the road that he wanted to take me too. So we headed back up Cherokee Orchard road and parked near the Huskey Barn remains. We headed of trail near a wet branch and came out on Trillium Gap trail between Rainbow Falls and Grotto Falls parking areas.

We talked about the 1931 map and how we both had looked for a home site above the trail. We both had found rock walls and several flat spots that would be good for a home place, but neither of us had ever found the home place. Mike was looking for where we needed to head down to the springhouse remains when I stopped him. I spotted a metal box off the trail. As I went over to get pictures of it, Mike went on above the box. We both were finding stuff as we walked and in a moment Mike yelled out that he found the chimney remains.

Not much left of the chimney but there was some foundation remaining in front of it. A moment later I saw Mike stooping over to take a picture of something else he had found.

Turned out to be part of a Westinghouse Washer. On Mike’s map he shows this as Robert Ogle’s place, however, he said that it was a different Robert Ogle than the one we had visited earlier.

We started over to a creek where Mike thought the springhouse was. Finding no remains we headed back across below the Ogle place. Just below it we found the Springhouse remains.

It was a short hike that exceeded both our expectations. We found the home place we had looked for below the trail instead of below it, but both of us commented that the old road on the 1931 map may not have been today’s trail. Could be that this was a different home site, but no matter we had found it and headed back to the car more than satisfied.

The day had come to a close and now it was time for the after hike obsession to kick in and sort through the many pictures of places we had visited. For those who have never made it to a GoSmokies event do not fear for I am sure there will be more to come. The pace is much slower due to the numbers of people, which is great for those who are not accustomed to off trail hiking. We generally do not pick strenuous hikes so they are great for folks new to this sort of thing. And those who have attended will tell you that we have fun. There is a lot of joking around and great stories. You can count on Professor Maples for some good history lessons and of course you can watch me zig zagging around looking for anything I can find. What really makes this special is the knowledge shared by others. There really are no stars and I have had several people share things with me on these hikes. For some folks it is just great to put faces with the names. For those who attended you have my sincere thanks and I appreciate the kind words for the blogs and am grateful for your friendship. For those who have not made it, I hope to see you at a future GoSmokies event. As always, I give a big hug and lots of love to Eleanor and Bonnie who do a lot of the behind the scenes work in making these events happen. Me and Maples get a lot of the glory for doing the hikes but it is these two lovely people who really make it happen.   

GOSMOKIES PICTURES

Mike's Peakery page

Mike's Peakbagger page

Mike's GoSmokies blog index

Mike's Google Blogger Index