6/29/05 Hike (7.5 miles)

Today I went with the larger Wed. group that goes on shorter hikes; I found this to be a mistake. We started at the Greenbrier Ranger Station. It was a bummer in that the first part of the trail is not a bona fide trail (i.e., it does not count towards the 900 miles). The latter took us to Grapeyard Ridge Trail, and then along a road back to the Ranger Station. I am not using this hike for its contribution to the 900 is negligible.

Two things were unique about this hike. A young buck crossed our trail 2-3 times; he sort of wondered what the heck we were doing there. The group that I was in wanted to take an early lunch; when two fellows came along at what was a faster pace I picked up my lunch and joined them. They were Dale Teague and Bill Lawhorn from St. John’s Lutheran Church; I had never met them previously but what are the odds that three Lutherans from a group of 20-30 get together?

Forney Creek 9.9, Whiteoak Branch 1.8, Lakeshore 1.9

I hiked with Mike Miller, Gary Neibert, Judy Collins, Shirley, Phyllis, Barbara Slover, Lowell Reid,and a few others. We started at Clingmans Dome(would you believe 6 women and 5 men--one of the women had run over 100 marathons) on the Forney Creek trail; we ended near Bryson City, NC, after going through a tunnel.

What was unique about it is that we carried shoes for wading (I just used old running shoes--the others had special wading ones). One woman was following me across one of the streams for she said that she thought I was a safe one to follow. I was giving advice thinking she was right behind me; when I about reached the other side I saw she was not following me. She said that when the water touched my shorts (she's 5' 2") she decided to follow someone else--guess I better think more prior to leading in the future.

On the East side of Bryson City a bus from Cherokee Indian Reservation picked us up and took us back to Clingmans Dome.

6/15/05 Hike (9.6 miles)

6/15/05
This was in essence my first bona fide hike in the GSMNP. Bill Woodrick, who retired from UT a few years before me, invited me to go along with him, Bob Hutchens, Tom Wainner, Bill Broome, and Cecil Rowe. (The prior week I had done trail work with the same group less Cecil.) We went in Bob’s 6-seater Ford PU on US 129, the “Dragon” part of 129, TN 28. I had never been on the latter before; it is just N. of Lake Cheoah and empties in to Fontana Lake that is bordered on the S. by Nantahala National Forest in NC.

We started off on Eagle Creek Trail just N. of Fontana Dam (the AT crosses the latter). After 5.2 miles on Eagle Creek we went 4.4 mi. on Lakeshore Trail. We arrived at the end of the latter a little early and were able to take an earlier pontoon boat back to the trailhead. (It was here that I learned how the hiking group coordinates these trips if the trailhead is not close to the terminus. Another group taking a longer hike was to ride in the same pontoon that was chartered; however, it did not matter to the driver if we paid our fare on the earlier one. When we got back to the boat ramp Bill Broome took someone’s Subaru from the other group so that Bob could get his car; the Subaru was then left at the boat dock for those in the longer hike group. The boat ride cost ~$10 but it was worth it for the scenery was beautiful.