Hike The Smokies

Many people have asked what I carry while on a weekend summer backpack trip...here is my list: Summer Backpacking Equipment (Base weight)  ...

There are four ponds in Cades Cove (Methodist Church Pond, Gum Swamp and two Gourley Ponds).  This is the largest...it is the first Gourley ...

Pulling a pulk on the AT in January of 2011.  Nelson Fields and I pulked on Roan Mountain (January) and Jeff Meyer and I went to Collins Gap...

I went snowshoeing up Clingmans Dome Road last Friday (Feb 19) with 30 inches of snow at Collins Gap.  That is as far as I made it.  I had a...

Isn't that cool!   Frozen Rainbow Falls on January 9, 2010

Park at the Methodist Church parking lot, cross the street and find the path leading downhill.  Its about 75 feet off the road.  Small pon...

Planted in 1864 by Mary Post.  Mary planted a Holly Tree about 75 feet off Forge Creek Road in a place called Laural Spings.  It was the ho...

From the Schoolhouse Gap Parking Trailhead, walk up the trail for about 200 yards.  In the creek bed to your left have you ever noticed th...

My sons standing in front of a rock about 50' above the Quliams chimney.  I have had people tell me it was a place to store food, a pla...

Just off NFG Road on Road Turn Branch is an interesting set of rocks at the head of ths creek.  I have heard it refered to Quilliams Rock, C...

I have been to LeConte about 60 times.  The majority of those trips have been up Alum Cave Bluff Trail.  Between Inspiration Point and Alum ...

When I was growing up I heard about a train that wrecked on Clingmans Dome and rolled down the mountain.  Of course that was a definate lege...

Matt, Brian, Aaron and me at Campsite 44 after our 10 hour 3.4 mile day. We hiked from 44 over Breakneck Ridge and down a drainage to Rave...

Bushwhacking down Gunter Fork Rhodo so thick its hard to see two people here. Most of the time we swam on top of it! Gunter Fork Falls...

I have seen this falls on my old maps for years. I visited once back in 1986 and did not have my camera so I went back last weekend. This i...

What is this? I have seen this rock on the right side of the trail on upper Bote Mountain Road for years. When I first saw it I immediate...

My buddy Dwight McCarter and I hiked with Bob Lochbaum and Ken Wise on an unmapped trail near Collins Gap to find this relic. The trail co...

Another "legend" I heard about growing up was the Eagle Creek Copper Mine. It supposedly had all the mining equipment still ther...

Fact or Fiction? When I was growing up I heard about a train car still on its tracks in the Abrams Creek section of the Smokies. I hiked i...

Here my friend Charlie Wimmer is at the crash site. This is close to Double Springs Gap shelter just off the AT a few yards. The plane cra...

You gotta wonder who built this house, who visited it, who slept in it, what was cooked, how deep the snow ever got, how many animals came ...