Welcoming Spring For Three Glorious Days In Great Smoky Mountains National Park
By Kurt Repanshek
Blooms of dogwoods brighten the hillsides of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in spring/Jim Bennett
Horace Kephart roamed the Smoky Mountains in all seasons, but he held springtime here in high esteem.
“I doubt if anywhere in the world there is a more luxuriant bloom of of laurel and rhododendron than where I live in the Great Smoky Mountains,” he noted in 1916 in Camping and Woodcraft, a backwoods primer that has gone through some 70 printings.
Kephart kept a tiny cabin for a time on the Little Fork of the Sugar Fork of Hazel Creek, deep in the southwestern corner of today’s national park. A quirky backwoodsman, who at one time had been a librarian in St. Louis, Kephart gained widespread acclaim for the lessons he learned in the Smokies. Today, amazon.com says his two-volume Camping and Woodcraft book “ranks sixth among the ten best-selling sporting books of all time.”
Would the book be so highly considered if Kephart had not learned his craft in the Smokies? Perhaps. But in the landscape of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was created three years after he died, the ruggedness of the landscape, the wildlife, the trout-filled streams, and the “hells” of laurel and rhododendron provided the wily Kephart with a sturdy backwoods education.
And it, of course, opened his eyes to the beauty of the Smokies. It’s a lasting beauty, one that surely changes through the four seasons, but which burns itself into your memory if you let it no matter the season of your visit.
Kephart spent three years, off and on, on Hazel Creek, during which he explored the mountains and embraced what John Muir would call their “good tidings.”
Though his cabin no longer exists, a mossy millstone stands near his last campsite in the Smokies as a memorial to the man, and you can head down to the Bryson City Cemetery to see his gravesite. You also can head up into the mountains to come to appreciate how he became enamored with the Smokies.
While it might be difficult, if not impossible, to spend three years replicating Kephart’s experience, you can easily sample the wonders of Great Smoky in three days.
Day 1: Explore the Cove
Curling tendrils of smoke wafting from the smokehouse. The clang of a smithy’s hammer on an anvil. Women trading the latest gossip over husking corn, while maple syrup boils down in a cast-iron kettle over an open fire.
Close your eyes while you’re surrounded by Cades Cove and you just might be able to pull these images into your imagination. Settled more than 200 years ago by a young couple hoping for a better life, the cove quickly attracted others. At one point, nearly 700 lived in this bucolic valley that is Great Smoky Mountain’s main attraction (and the crowds attest to that fact).
Cades Cove is a museum of the unique architecture its residents employed/NPS
While the crowds can be offsetting—it can take hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic to navigate the 11-mile loop road that circles the cove—the history here is mesmerizing and the beauty captivating.
Today you might conjure a picturesque setting of tranquility, one that would offer a relaxing escape from today’s wired and politicized world. But before the valley’s residents were ushered out in advance of the park’s establishment in 1934, Cades Cove demanded hard work during long days from the residents as they tended to fields, harvested fruit, ground flour, or repaired their cabins.
While you can drive through the cove in a few hours, savor your visit by lingering over the genius of the cabin construction, the talents needed to shoe horses, the skills for constructing a shake roof or a cane chair. Come early in the morning or stay late in the afternoon and you might spot some of the locals—turkeys, whitetailed deer, or even black bear searching for a tasty apple.
You’ll find a handful of historic structures in the cove, from the cabin of John Oliver, who along with his wife, Lurena, were the first whites to settle here, in 1818, to Baptist, Methodist, and Missionary Baptist churches. There is the John Cable Grist Mill that was built in 1868 and the Tipton Place, raised in the 1880s along with its striking double-cantilever barn.
To escape the traffic yet still enjoy the cove, hikers and cyclists only are given access to the cove until 10 a.m. every Saturday and Wednesday morning from early May until late September.
Day 2: Tranquility in Cataloochee
Across the park to the east from Cades Cove nestle two more communities that were essentially frozen in time when the national park was created.
Cataloochee and its sibling, Little Cataloochee, are similar in setting to Cades Cove, though they have fewer homesteads to explore. Of course, they also have fewer crowds of visitors.
Getting to Cataloochee, which is 39 miles from Cherokee, North Carolina, and 65 miles from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, requires some determination. The 11- mile Cove Creek Road (about 7 miles paved, 4 gravel) runs from U.S. 40 on the North Carolina side of Great Smoky into the valley. Those who don’t have a big rig, and don’t mind twisting, narrow dirt roads, can leave Cataloochee for Little Cataloochee and then on to Tennessee 32 near Cosby (or enter the valley by that route in reverse).
Cataloochee is the quieter side of Great Smoky, yet it offers historic architecture much like that found in Cades Cove. At one point, these two valleys were home to about 1,200 mostly related families.
The Palmer Chapel in Cataloochee dates to 1898 and remains in remarkable condition/Kurt Repanshek
You can spend the night in Cataloochee if you like to camp. A 27-site campground that operates from mid-March through October accepts tents and trailers that are no longer than 31 feet. There are no electrical or water hookups, though generator use is allowed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Each site has a tent pad, grill, and picnic table. There is a restroom with flush toilets and cold running water.
If you plan to stay the night, don’t forget your fishing pole, as Cataloochee Creek offers a modest trout fishery.
Make the journey into the past and you’ll find a 19th- and early-20th century societal flavor rimmed by 6,000-foot mountains, meadows that fill with elk in fall, and some of the park’s best examples of historic frame buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Still standing is the Palmer House, a vintage “dog trot” construction featuring two separate log cabins (that later were planked over) tied together by a covered porch where dogs loitered on long, hot summer days. While the house normally doubles as a museum of the valley, it currently is closed until 2018 while renovations are conducted.
Venture to Little Cataloochee and up to the ruins of the Cook Place and Messer Farm and you’ll be standing at the core of what once was the Smokies’ apple empire.
Day 3: Take a Hike
There is no finer place for backpacking and hiking in the East than Great Smoky. Within its 522,000 acres are some 800 miles of trails, enough for you to get lost for a weekend or longer.
You can walk into history by heading for a backwoods cabin, or walk along the roof of the park via the 70 miles of Appalachian National Scenic Trail that passes through Great Smoky. Waiting for your boots are trails that link backcountry campsites, waterfalls, creeks for fishing, and endless miles of gorgeous scenery.
Pay attention during your hike and watch the ground for daffodils that mark some of the many abandoned homesites across the park and help tell the story of mountain settlements. “There is also a remarkable daffodil marker of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Cades Cove that outlines the number of the regiment,” says Great Smoky spokeswoman Dana Soehn.
A week of hiking could be planned along the A.T., with nights spent in shelters or tents along the way. Just recognize that spring brings a tide of A.T. thru-hikers heading north from Georgia with hopes of reaching Maine sometime late in summer, and that could mean crowded conditions at shelter sites. Maybe better to leave this for fall.
A way to avoid that tide is to head elsewhere in the park, such as along the Smokemont Loop Trail. It’s only 6.2 miles in length, or day-hike size, but with some help from the park’s backcountry office you can quickly identify other longer, suitable, multi-day treks.
A 6.1-mile round-trip hike along the Little Cataloochee Trail leads to the restored Cook Cabin and the Little Cataloochee Baptist Church.
Now, there are black bears in the backcountry, so be sure to keep a clean camp and utilize bear cables at campsites where Friends of the Smokies has erected them.
Spring is a perfect season to hike the Spruce Flat Falls Trail near Tremont. In early May the mountain laurel bursts into bloom here, and as a bonus you get to enjoy the waterfall.
There also are many short and intermediate trails for casual hikers, such as the gorgeous Abrams Falls and Laurel Falls trails. “Quiet Walkways” are short, easy trails from tiny parking areas. Check with a visitors center for your nearest options.
And if a rainstorm interrupts your stay in the Smokies, grab a copy of Camping and Woodcraft and glean some of Kephart’s woodsman lore for a few hours.
Among the pioneer cabins still standing in Cades Cove is the one built by Carter Shields/NPS
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Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart
By Danny Bernstein
Horace Kephart has been called the John Muir of the East and the savior of the Smokies. Though schooled as a librarian, he became the consummate outdoorsman while spending years in the Smokies, which he promoted for a national park.
Those years in the woods taught Kephart much, and he, in turn, passed that education on in the form of a book, Camping and Woodcraft.
Several of Kephart's books have never been out of print since they were first published in the early 1900s. Fortunately, the Great Smoky Mountains Association has published a new edition of Camping and Woodcraft, a remarkable historic tome of useful information, lore, stories about surviving and enjoying the woods.
In addition -- and alone worth the price of the -- George Ellison and Janet McCue, two Kephart scholars, have written an 80-page introduction on Kephart's life. So who was Horace Kephart?
Horace Kephart arrived in western North Carolina in 1904 when he was 42. He was born in central Pennsylvania into a Swiss-German family with strong religious convictions and grew up within the United Brethren Church. His first library job was at Yale, and then he moved to St. Louis with his wife, Laura, and his first child to work at the St. Louis Mercantile Library, a subscription library.
As his professional responsibilities and his family grew - he had six children - he became obsessed by the outdoors and looked for a "back of beyond." He took trips into the Ozarks, tinkered with guns, and read Nessmuk's book on woodcraft, an early book on lightweight canoeing. His trips into the woods became more frequent and Kephart lost his job and his wife. He drank more, and finally had a nervous breakdown. Moving to the Southern Appalachians was his salvation and rebirth.
For the first few years, he lived in a cabin on Hazel Creek, near present-day Fontana Lake, where he studied the land and the people. In 1906, he published Camping and Woodcraft. Later, he wrote Our Southern Highlanders, about the mountain culture, much in the local vernacular.
Kephart advocated for the creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He wrote article after article trying to save the land from loggers. Kephart continued to live in Bryson City now a gateway town to the Smokies but he used the old Bryson Place as a summer camping spot. It has now become campsite #57 on Deep Creek Trail. A permanent marker, put up by a local Boy Scout troop, commemorates Kephart. See this past story on how to get to the marker.
Camping and Woodcraft is a veritable compendium of practical, amusing, and historical information on how to survive in the woods comfortably and safely. At the time that Kephart wrote, most recreational campers used professional guides if they wanted to explore the woods. Kephart explains how you could do it yourself.
Consider my favorite chapters on food. When I backpack, I personally do not consider anything more than boiling water and pouring it into a freeze-dried meal. But reading about how to butcher a deer is fascinating. Remember this was written before the Smokies became a national park.
Of course, you have a jack-knife, and either a pocket hatchet or a big bowie-knife - probably the latter, if this is your first trip.
And I'm thinking, "All I have is a Swiss Army knife and I use it to cut an apple." He continues for several pages, first describing how to save the buck's head for mounting.
Cleanse away any blood that may have been issued from the nose and mouth, and stuff some dry moss, or other absorbent, in the beast's mouth.<br<
On the subject of food, Kephart is a veritable Julia Childs. He tells you how to make risotto, bake biscuits, and thicken soups with a roux, all over a fire. He didn't have a butane stove.
Camping and Woodcraft are considered two separate books, each with their own page numbering system and indices. In the Woodcraft section, Kephart discusses "featherweight kits," used for lightweight cycling and backpacking, though he doesn't use the term "backpacking" very much. He enumerates several equipment lists that in total don't exceed 7 pounds. He recommends kits that you could order from Great Britain that included a tent (2 lbs. 8 ounces), a "comfy" sleeping bag (1 lbs., 4 ounces), and even a compact brush, comb, and mirror for just 2 ounces.
On top of that you add your clothing and food. Of course, camping practices have changed since Kephart's days. He assumed that you can drink water from any stream so he doesn't include any way to treat or carry water.
But so much makes sense today. You might want to keep your feet dry by dusting the inside of your boots with talcum powder. His advice on treating an earache and toothache can still be tried today. For earaches, pour alcohol into the ear or better, warm olive oil - something my mother always did for us at home. If you have a tooth cavity, clean it out with a toothpick and then fill the hole with iodine or ammonia.
And of course, always carry a compass. This book will connect with survivalist folks. There's great information about on emergency shelters and catching fish without a fishing pole. Is that even legal in the park? One woman said that this is "the book I would take on doomsday."
With the 70th printing of Camping and Woodcraft, the Great Smoky Mountains Association's version offers a great deal that is new. GSMA is the cooperating association that runs the bookstores in and around the park and publishes trail and field guides. The association has redigitized and retypeset the book, making it much more readable. There are hundreds of line drawings that were rescanned. Many of the original illustrations were obtained from Libby Kephart Hargrove, great-granddaughter of Horace Kephart, who has been very instrumental in keeping alive an accurate version of Kephart.
To this remastery, they've added over 40 historic photographs, taken by Kephart and George Masa, a photographer and fellow hiker. These photographs were recently discovered by Ms. Kephart Hargrove in a relative's attic and donated to the association.
The 888-page soft cover book is offered for $17.95. You can buy it in all the Smokies visitor centers, area bookstores and outdoor stores and on the GSMA website. All members get 15 percent off on anything they buy in visitor center stores and on the web. With a basic membership of $35, a membership quickly pays for itself. And of course, all proceeds help the park.
Comments
Sounds like you had a great visit down here, Kurt. Nice article.
Regarding Kephart, however, you won't get much warm fuzzy from true Smokies sons and daughters about him. He is seen as a carpetbagging degenerate who abandoned his large family to pursue and indulge his alcoholism in the hills aforementioned. Old Horace took advantage of Southern Hospitality on many occasions only to turn around and make fun of their "simplistic" lifestyle and capitalize in his books on their backs.
Kurt--I am a native of the Smokies and one of those Kephart described as "branch-water people." I am also someone who has done a great deal of study on and writing about Horace Kephart, I would like to add a few thoughts to your well-written piece on a part of the world I cherish and to the review of Camping and Woodcraft.
First, Kephart is by no means universally liked, much less revered, by folks with roots running deep in the Smokies. All you have to do is look at this list of descriptors he used to describe the "Southern Highlanders" to understand why:In a single chapter in that book, "The People of the Hills," he uses the following words to describe mountaineers: feral, primitive, crafty, strange, intgermarried, slab-sided, stoop-shouldered, sinister, vindictive, sulolen, hateful, suspicious, listless, shiftless, defective, inbred, half-wits, indifferent, unsanitary, gross, and touchy. I would simply suggest that anyone facing that assembly of pejoratives is likely to experience more than a mere touch ot tetchiness. Certainly I do.
In his book Random Thoughts and Musings of a Mountaineer, Judge Felix Alley, a widely respected, well-educated, and indeed beloved man of the mountains, wrote of Our Southern Highlanders: "If Mr. Kephart and Miss Morley (Margaret Morley, author of The Carolina Mountains) had closed their books when they finished what they had to say about the mountains and the mountain region,k and had said nothing about the people who dwell therein, their books would have been acclaimed masterpieces, and we should have owed them a debt of gratitude so great that it never could be repaid. Instead they extend the false impression created by other libelous writers, so that even today multitudes of people . . . look upon our mountaineers as freaks and curiosities." He was squarely on target.
As for the Bernstein review of Camping and Woodcraft, I would agree that appreciable portions of the book are of enduring value. So much is that the case that I successfully nominated him, many years ago, for the inaugural class of the American Camping Hall of Fame. However, there are portions of the book which are highly problematic. His coverage of what he styled "route sketching," for example, is so inaccurate as to in effect provide a tailor-made recipe for getting lost. Similarly, in this book there arises a problem with his inaccuracy when it came to the correct spelling of place names that was magnified many times over (and continues to be an issue to this day) in his work on the Nomenclature Committee which renamed many places in what would become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Finally, the statement that Libby Kephart Hargrave (not Hargrove, as Bernstein spells it) "has been very instrumental in keeping alive an accurate version of Kephart" is, to put matters bluntly, pure balderdash. Although one can readily understand the filial passion underlying Hargrave's endeavors, the cumulative result of them is often an extended exercise in hagiography.
Jim Casada