by Danny Bernstein, hike leader
It is customary to schedule the December FOTS Classic Hike near a Smokies Store. We usually have a short hike followed by a little Christmas celebration. Then hikers have the opportunity to shop for local products while also supporting the park.
So this year’s December hike was on the Old Sugarlands Trail, which starts on the opposite side of the road from Park Headquarters.
First, we had to get to the meeting point. Since I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge is undergoing major construction, those of us who came from the North Carolina side of the park had a long, long drive. We drove through the park, a beautiful two-hour drive.
Haley Stevenson, who just came on board as Outreach & Marketing Coordinator in the North Carolina office, attended her first Classic Hike. She works for Marielle DeJong, who just got promoted to FOTS Development Director. Congratulations, Marielle. Haley will now be the staff point of contact for the Classic Hikes.
Not every trail and hike needs to have a wow view, thirty species of flowers or a waterfall. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, sometimes a trail is just a trail — a place to walk, talk and look for artifacts.
The Old Sugarlands Trail is wide and smooth because it used to be a road (TN 71) before Newfound Gap Road was completed. It follows the West Prong of the Pigeon River on the right side and a rock quarry on the left.
Smokies Trivia Questions
Marielle kept us entertained by stopping every once in a while to throw out Smokies trivia questions.
* What fungus are the hemlock trees affected by? The Hemlock Wooly Adelgid
* When was the park officially open? 1934
* We’re walking on the Old Sugarlands Trail. Where is the Sugarlands Trail? Get a map out and look up that one.
* Who were the last six superintendents in the Smokies, starting with Cassius Cash and going backwards?
Cassius Cash, Clay Jordan, Cindy MacLeod, Pedro Ramos, Dale Ditmanson, Mike Tollefson
Actually that last question was mine. I didn’t realize that I didn’t have the complete answer and had to look it up when I got home.
Each time hikers got a right answer, they were rewarded with a FOTS buff. Marielle had brought plenty of buffs to give out.
Civilian Conservation Corps camp
We stop at the site of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp that operated between 1933 and 1942. The Smokies had more CCC camps than anyplace else in the country. This camp was close to Gatlinburg, and I’m sure the CCC boys (and they were all male) enjoyed their limited time off out on the town.
Soon we get to that all-important right turn to the cemetery. We turn right on an unmarked trail with lots of artifacts such as a rock structure and rock walls.
Somewhere here was a school set up by “home missionaries” or “do-gooders” as they were called locally. These were women who came from New England to set up schools in 19th Century Appalachia.
Sugarlands Cemetery
At the next T, we turn left and reach the Sugarlands Cemetery.
The cemetery is spacious with lots of places for new graves, if needed. One lone grave has a bouquet of fresh, plastic flowers.
Lots of Huskeys and some Partons on gravestones. This must have been a financially comfortable community since almost all the graves have gravestones and not just rocks. One hiker said that she had third cousins twice removed in this cemetery.
And then we returned the same way.
This hike ends our eleventh year of Classic Hikes of the Smokies.
We lead hikes once a month from March to December, on the second Tuesday of the month. So the next hike will be on Tuesday March 8, 2022. Soon information will be available on how to sign up.
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Thanks to FOTS volunteers
Danny Bernstein is the founder of the Classic Hikes of the Smokies and serves on the FOTS Hike Advisory Team. You can read more about her hiking on her blog — Hiker to Hiker.
Thanks to Linda Spangler for providing her photographs for this post and many other FOTS blog posts.
Classic Hike registration process
The Classic Hikes are the second Tuesday of the month, from March through December. Information about the 2022 Classic Hikes will be posted soon.
Trails Forever improves GSMNP trails
Proceeds from the Classic Hike series benefit Trails Forever.
Friends of the Smokies established the Trails Forever endowment in 2012, thanks to a matching gift from the Aslan Foundation in Knoxville.
Today, the endowment has grown to more than $6 million and funds a full-time trail crew in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to reconstruct and rehabilitate some of the park’s most impacted trails.
The FOTS Trails Forever crew restored Forney Ridge Trail, Chimney Tops Trail, Alum Cave Trail, Rainbow Falls Trail and Trillium Gap Trail.
This year, Trails Forever restored Abrams Falls Trail. Next year, the Trails Forever crew will restore Ramsey Cascades.
Learn more about contributing to the Trails Forever endowment.
Thanks to our Classic Hike Sponsors for 2021
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Interested in sponsoring the Classic Hikes for 2022? Click here.