Chimney Tops Trail (Great Smoky Mountains)

Fall Picture taken from Chimney Tops Trail Head

The Chimney Tops trail is probably one of the most popular trails in the Smokies, but don’t let that keep you from hiking it. Most of the cars you see in the parking lot are for people playing in the creeks around the trailhead. Once you cross the second bridge, and start the trail in earnest, the crowds drop off quite a bit.

The trail is pretty straight forward. Hike 2 miles up, up, up and be rewarded with a great view at the summit. I first did this trail in 1995. I had just turned 31 and this two mile little hike seemed like a piece of cake back then. Now, 12 years later I’m 43, have 3 kids, and I’m carrying an additional 25 pounds or so around with me. This time it was much more of a challenge, but that made reaching the summit all the sweeter.

We guessed it would take us two hours or so to hike the 2 miles up and back, so my wife and our two younger sons explored around the creeks, looking for wild flowers and other interesting things, while my oldest son accompanied me on the hike.

The trail is very pretty at the bottom, as you cross the boulder strewn creeks on well maintained bridges. After the 2^nd bridge though, the trail turns and with one look you know that things are about to get a lot more interesting.

From that point on, you hike up at something like a 40 degree or better incline, until you reach the summit. I hate to admit it, but I had to stop at several points on the way up to catch my breath. This is not something I had to do in 1995 and was a wake-up call for me. If I want to be doing hikes like this in another 12 years, I need to get in better shape. Hiking outdoors is my passion and I am in no way ready to start conceding that I just can’t do certain trails any longer. So, tune in around 2019 to see how I’m doing!!

Yes, this is part of the trail!

There isn’t a lot to see on the way up. The trail is steep and in some places it can be muddy and slippery. You do see plenty of Yellow Buckeye trees, the Eastern Hemlock ( a personal favorite of mine) and the ever present Rhododendron.

Once you reach the summit the trail levels out and after you scramble over some large tree roots and rock outcroppings you find yourself on a narrow trail overlooking the park. Behind you stands the bare metamorphic slate that comprises the Chimney Tops. The Appalachian Mountains are some of the oldest mountains in the world, so the slate you are touching is approximately 600 million years old. Kind of humbling. That’s a lot older than my oldest, holiest pair of socks!

View from the summit (Eastern Hemlock in the foreground)

After reaching the summit I was tired, but also exhilarated. I felt like I had really accomplished something. That is until I saw a teen-age boy making his way back down. He was wearing a Hollister T-shirt and a pair of Crocs (shoes I’m still not sure men should be wearing) and looked like he hadn’t even broken a sweat. He gave a lackadaisical yawn and started his way back down.

We scrambled up the rock face as much as we dared. This is a little risky, so be careful if you attempt it. The climb is steep and the rock is pretty sharp. It would be easy to fall and cut yourself badly. Also, stay away from the shafts. The main shaft is big enough to fall into.

After taking in the view for awhile and catching our breath, we took one last look and started our descent. We half jogged all the way down and made great time getting back to the trailhead.

At the very bottom of the trail I slipped and fell in front of another dad and his young son. All that time practicing Judo over the years paid off, as I did a pretty decent forward roll (Ukemi in Japanese) and came up into a standing position. Everyone was staring at me, so of course I had to say, “That’s how I roll.”

The elevation of the Chimney Tops is said to be 4800 feet. The elevation change for the hiker starting out at the trail head is approximately 1345 feet. This is a tough, but rewarding trail. So get out there. Take a hike!

A Dollar An Hour And All The Buttermilk You Can Drink

One of the biggest expenses when you’re on vacation has to be food. This is especially true if you have a large family and are on a tight budget. Welcome to my world!

When my wife and I started planning our family vacation to the Smokies this year we had to juggle a lot of different variables in order to come up with a way we could afford the trip. Feeding five people was high on the list.

Of course to do the Smokies on the super cheap we could have gone camping, but we both agreed that we just didn’t have enough space in our van for all the kids and our camping equipment, so the next best thing was a cheap hotel. I did a lot of shopping around on the internet and settled on a fairly inexpensive Ramada in Pigeon Forge. Now, I don’t really recommend staying in Pigeon Forge unless you’re a big fan of constant bumper-to-bumper traffic, inhaling tons of car exhaust, and like corny stage shows. But I got a good deal on the room and the biggest selling point was that each room came with a refrigerator and microwave oven. This allowed us to go shopping at a local grocery store and stock up on food.

Believe it or not, in all the madness that is Pigeon Forge, there is actually a grocery store, Food City. The store is located on the main strip in Pigeon Forge, just before the entrance to DollyWood. Getting food and other supplies at this little grocery store really, really helped our money go further. Of course, like everything else down there. It has its crazy, busy moments. We first went in there on a Sunday afternoon and it was a zoo. Campers, people with time shares, and even a few locals had the place hopping! Still, it is the best place around to buy basic food supplies at close to the same prices you would pay at home.

Eventually though, you get sick of PB&J and deli sandwiches. Plus, let’s face it, no matter how hard you try – you’re not going to fit a large pepperoni pizza in that small little hotel room microwave.

Every now and then you’ve got to bite the bullet and eat at a restaurant. Hopefully though, by eating in you have a few extra dollars so you can afford to go to a decent restaurant.

Whenever possible on a trip I try and avoid the big chain restaurants and pick something with some local flavor. I didn’t exactly succeed at that this time, but at least it was a restaurant chain that we don’t have in Indiana.

So, on the 3rd night of our trip we ate at the Great American Steak and Buffet Company. As it was a buffet, we figured everybody would be able to eat their fill.
It was a little pricey. Adults were $11, kids were half price, and kids 5 and under were free. But we had coupons and it ended up not being too out of control. I honestly can’t say whether the food was great or not. We’d been eating PB&J for several days after all – so as far as we were concerned this was the best food EVER.

The best part of the experience for us was Dennis, our waiter. He had a great way with the kids and had all of us cracking up. At one point he mentioned that maybe our two youngest boys might want to apply as dishwashers at the restaurant.

He said, “Here at Great American Steak and Buffet we pay pretty darn well. “A dollar and hour and all the buttermilk you can drink.”

We left the restaurant with full stomachs and some great stories about our visit.

On the last day of our trip we decided to go out for breakfast. I am a sucker for a good old-fashioned country breakfast. Eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy – the works! But I set the bar pretty high when it comes to judging the quality of that breakfast. I have yet to find anyplace that can match the kind of breakfast I used to have around my grandmother’s table in south-eastern Kentucky.

There are Pancake houses around every corner in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, but I remembered the Smoky Mountain Pancake House from our honeymoon 17 years ago. Our youngest son really liked the cartoon bears on the sign outside. He said they were “Smokey’s family”. Smokey was the little stuffed bear he bought the day before.

We arrived around 8:30 and the restaurant was mostly empty except for a few locals who were there for coffee and morning conversation.

We were seated quickly and our waitress was very friendly and professional. The food was very good, but I thought the portions were small considering the price. I could have fed the whole family at Cracker Barrel for almost half the cost and had more food. Having said that though, the restaurant had great local atmosphere and no one left hungry.

Now we’re “Back home again in Indiana” and I’m staring out my window at a lawn that really needs to be mowed. “Hey kids, who’s up for some buttermilk?”

Rafting the Nantahala River

Go with the flow. You really have no choice.

Going white water rafting has been a dream of mine for at least 20 years. So, to celebrate my 43^rd birthday, (Yikes, I’ll be middle age in another 10 years or so!), I finally realized that dream.

17 years ago, my blushing bride and I took our honeymoon in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. On our last day we drove over to Bryson City, North Carolina, and watched all the happy people rafting on the Nantahala River , I was really envious, but all the companies had sent out their last buses for the day, so all I could do was buy a T-shirt and keep it in mind as something to eventually do.

The Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC)

17 years later we decided to take a family vacation in the Smokies and you better believe that I remembered the Nantahala! As there are many, many rafting companies on the river I did a lot of research of the different ones and settled on the Carolina Outfitters. They seemed to offer the best overall “bang for the buck” in pricing and service.

Word to the wise: if you’re staying in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge allow at least 2 ½ hours to get to the Nantahala. It can be done in 2, but you’ll be pushing it.

The Nantahala is dam fed and as the water comes from the bottom of a 500 foot lake it is consistently between 45 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. On the day of my trip it was cold and rainy and was a brisk 65 degrees outside. To say we froze our butts off would be an understatement.

Accompanying me on my trip was my oldest son, born 2 years after we were married. As both of us are cool and tough guys we decided to pass on the big rafts that hold 10 people or more and rented a two person raft. He is a boy scout with a lot of experience canoing on flat water, and I’ve been in a boat or two myself over the years, so we thought we’d be good to go. Course all of our experience is in Indiana and that just doesn’t compare to the white water in North Carolina.

We were greeted by the super friendly staff at Carolina Outfitters and talked to the various guides while we waited for our bus to depart. I was a little surprised at one point as I heard Evelyn, one of the guides, (I think that was her name) talking loudly in a foreign language. One of the guys answered her and so I had to ask what language they were speaking. “Polish”, he said.

“I knew they talked funny in the south, but I didn’t know they talked THAT funny”, I jokingly said.

We rode the bus down to the put in and all was well until the moment we put our raft in the water. Then I realized that my son and I just could not properly coordinate our paddling in the raft and as we headed over the first rapid backwards, a class II+ called Patton’s run, I wondered if we had made the right decision to do this on our own.

I eventually realized though that our raft was quite sturdy and as long as we tucked our legs in under the raft and went with the flow, we did just fine going down the rapids backwards, sideways, and even a few facing forward. Not to be corny, but afterwards the whole thing really struck me as a metaphor for life. Going with the flow.That no matter how much you try to exert control over life, sometimes you just have to “go with the flow”.

Due to all the rain and cold it was very foggy on the river. We could barely see 10 feet in front of us. This was cool except that it made scouting the rapids very difficult as we could only see them just before we hit them. The section of the river that you raft on is approximately 8 miles long and takes between 2 and 3 hours to complete.

We eventually worked out most of the kinks in our paddling and enjoyed a great trip down the river. During the instruction we were given before we left the outfitters we were told that we didn’t want to miss our put out after the class III Nantahala Falls rapid, because after that was a class V rapid and they wouldn’t be able to get to us. Well, we went through the Nantahala Falls rapid pretty easily and started paddling towards the put out, but the draw of the next rapid was too strong and as I paddled with all my might, I realized that we were going over the class V…backwards. Luckily, we came through unscathed, but knew we had to get out of there. I saw a put out on the far side of the river and we made for it with all we had. We got out and carried our raft across a bridge to the waiting buses.

The trip and staff at Carolina Outfitters was great and I can’t think of any other way I would rather have spent my birthday. So, get out there and raft the Nantahala, but remember, rafting and banjo music don’t mix!

Tippecanoe Battlefield

The Tippecanoe Battlefield is located in Battleground, Indiana. The Battle of Tippecanoe is considered an important event that many of us in Indiana probably read about in elementary school.

The story goes that white folks in southern Indiana (around Vincennes) were getting nervous about all the Indians gathering in Prophetstown and wanted the territorial governor, William Harrison, to do something about it. If you’re not sure what Prophetstown was, read my earlier blog about Prophetstown State Park.

Harrison waited until Tecumseh, leader of Prophetstown, traveled south to recruit more tribes into his confederation before making his move. While Tecumseh was away his brother Tenskwatawa, “the prophet”, was in charge and Harrison felt he would be easier to deal with.

Harrison’s 1000 troops arrived at present day Battleground on a cold November day and prepared to meet with the Prophet the next day. Harrison had an uneasy feeling about what might happen, so he instructed his troops to sleep in their uniforms and have their guns at the ready. Sure enough, around 4 in the morning, the Prophet’s men attacked and a fierce battle waged for several hours. Before the battle began the Prophet stood on a large rock near where the soldiers slept and told his men that the bullets of the white soldiers would “fall off them like dust” and that they would win. Well, you can imagine how that turned out… Many men were killed on both sides, but Harrison’s troops eventually won the day.

The next day Harrison sent a small group of men to inspect Prophetstown, but everyone had fled during the night and the town was deserted. The Army burned down Prophetstown and returned home.

The park today consists primarily of a cemetery where the US soldiers killed during the battle are buried, a few small hiking trails and a museum. In 1911 a monument similar to the Washington monument was erected to commemorate the US soldiers. At some point a large outdoor swimming pool was built on the site. What a great marketing idea!! “Come swim with the dead at Battleground Indiana!”

This is really a small town/urban park, so the trails are small and none are much more than a mile in length. One of the trails leads to the rock that the Prophet stood on when he cast his spell, which is pretty cool.

There is also a small museum onsite with a lot of the usual museum “stuff”: Bones, deer skins, period costumes, old maps, and memorabilia from the 1976 republican convention. Yes, that’s right, someone has donated an entire ROOM full of schlock from the Gerald Ford/Bob Dole 1976 ticket to the museum. After visiting many insightful areas of the museum that really get you thinking about how our country was created, you step into a room filled with so much red, polyester and corny slogans that you’ll be trippin’ like one of the castaways on the island in LOST. “Ben made me wear this robin’s egg blue leisure suit. He said, ‘The Peanut farmer must never be president.’ The Peanut farmer must never be president’. “

I enjoyed the museum and found it to have quite a bit of useful information, even though, as a city/county supported facility, it probably doesn’t get a lot of funding. Having siad that, I think it does need to be “updated” a little. On more than one occasion in one of the exhibits I heard the narrator refer to “the savage Indian hordes”. I don’t think the former residents of Prophetstown would be referred to like that today.

The Tippecanoe Battlefield Park is a good place to visit and spend an hour or two learning about early Indiana history. Who knows, you might even see Bob Dole in the swimming pool. Ask him to leave the ink pen at home though.

Prophetstown State Park (Indiana DNR)

Prophetstown is Indiana’s newest state park and is located where the Tippecanoe River meets the Wabash, near Battleground Indiana. Prophetstown was founded by Tecumseh and his younger brother Tenskwatawa, also known as “the prophet”. Joining together with members from other native groups, they created a 14 nation confederation that was committed to stopping expansion of the United States into Native American lands. Guess how that turned out…

Complete with a living farm and re-created Indian village, the park promised a lot of history and fun, but I’ve got to tell you I was very disappointed. The biggest problem really was that I didn’t realize how new it was. I had in my head that this was a well established park with a lot to do and see. The “established 2004″ signage should have been a dead give away. My wife is always pointing out that I never read labels. I guess she was right…this time.

The campground has great facilities, but the trees are mere saplings and the entire park is mostly prairie land. This makes sense for where it is located, flat northern Indiana, but I’m more of a “woodlands” kind of guy. When I enter a state park I like to feel like I’m entering a land that time forgot. At Prophetstown I felt like I was in an empty soccer field. Overtime I’m sure the park and campground will have nice, tall shady trees. But for now it seems better suited for kite flying as it can get very blustery out there.

The Indian village cost a bit extra over the gate fee so we didn’t check it out. From what I could tell it is the only real attraction at the park.

The park does have nice paths for running and bike riding. Looking at the map it looks like there are plans for quite a bit of expansion in the future.

I’m sure we’ll visit Prophetstown again, but it might be in 10 years or so when it is a more mature state park.

Live Earth

In case you missed it, the Live Earth concerts took place yesterday. I don’t have Bravo so I could only catch the 3-hour wrap up show last night on NBC, but here are my thoughts from what I saw on TV.

As a left-leaning person you might expect that I would be jumping up and down with excitement about these concerts and telling you how we’re going to change the world because of them. Twenty years ago that probably would have been the case, but I’m older and more cynical now, so I really saw the event more as just “feel good” promotion.

Live Earth, as most of you probably know, was to act as a “wake up” call to all planetary citizens regarding the issues around Global Warming. The idea for having concerts simultaneously all over the globe was very similar to the One campaign. http://www.one.org/ Remember when we ended world poverty? Glad we’ve got that behind us! And just like the issue of poverty, the real issues that are creating Global Warming are not going away because of yesterdays event.

How many times were we told yesterday to simply use more energy efficient light bulbs and make sure that our car’s tires are properly inflated? Yes, these things help, and we have been doing them around our household, but it’s not enough to really effect change. By the way, one thing I didn’t hear anyone say yesterday is that those energy efficient light bulbs contain mercury. So folks, when it comes time to dispose of them they need to be taken to a recycling center that can process them.

Just like One, the war in Iraq, and now environmentalism, we are not really being asked to make the necessary sacrifices to resolve the issues. Until we really come to grips with the fact that our lifestyles need to change significantly, the problem will exist. Corporations and our elected officials will follow where we lead. Not the other way around.

Here’s one “Green” thing you can do that I didn’t hear anyone mention yesterday. Buy your food locally and in season. We have become accustomed to buying whatever kind of food we want no matter what time of year it is. How much fuel does it take to ship a tomato to your local Quick-E-Mart from China or wherever? Just so you can make a BLT in February. We actually pay our farmers not to grow food while we’re shipping in the exact same kinds of food from other countries. Does this make sense to anyone?

Despite all my criticism, I do encourage all of you to sign the pledge at Live Earth
http://liveearthpledge.org/answer_the_call.php and take the necessary steps to have a healthier environment.

Oh yeah, the music! I thought most of the performances were really good. It was great to see Genesis back together again and I thought Roger Water’s performance was great. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him smile so much. That was a real treat. Of course the act that I was really wanting to see was the Police performing “Message in a Bottle”. I was a little put off seeing John Mayer playing guitar, but I could deal with it, but then Kanye West came on stage. Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! What the Hell was that about!?!? He ruined the whole thing for me. There is Sting and the boys singing one of the classic songs of all time and then West comes out and starts going, “Ugh, Ugh. Yeah, Yeah. Miss-Eggs in a Bodt-dull.” Is it any wonder I’m cynical about our future?

Kurt Vonnegut lecture on 4-27

Here’s a reposting of an entry I made Shortly after the death of Kurt Vonnegut.

Thought I would quickly recap the lecture last night here at Clowes Hall on the Butler University campus. 

I’m also including a link from the Indy Star that covered the event.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VONNEGUT_HONORED?SITE=ININS&SECTION=ENTERTAINMENT 

Mark Vonnegut said he would be giving the hard copy of the speech to the Indianapolis Libraries, so hopefully a transcript of it will eventually end up online. The evening started out with a quick speech by Louis Mahern, the president of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Board of Trustees.  Instead of then introducing Kurt they played “Tock – Tick”, a musical piece that includes Kurt reading from “Slaughter House Five.”  I’m sure this can be found somewhere on the Internet.  I had never heard it before, it was very cool. Here’s a link from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Tock-Tick-Simon-Heselev-Vonnegut/dp/B00008PUMT/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-6243958-1642439?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1177756699&sr=8-1

Then Mark Vonnegut came out and, with some emotion, read Kurt’s prepared speech. He asked that we bear with him in case he broke down at any point. It was an amazing speech. Quintessential Vonnegut, 84 years old, and shortly before his death, the speech didn’t miss a beat. It was unbelievably funny and at other times, moving to the point of tears. He also still took a few jabs at the current administration. “What’s the only difference between Bush and Hitler? Hitler was elected.”

Mark choked up when reading about Booth Tarkington, another Hoosier writer,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booth_Tarkington and when reading what his dad had said about him (Mark). Mark stated that shortly after writing this speech Kurt wrote what he wanted said at his memorial service and presented both to him. Mark said that there was part of him that felt his dad knew he would never be there to present the speech.

After the speech Jill Krementz, Nanny Pryor (Vonnegut), and Lily Vonnegut all came out and were presented with numerous awards by the library system, a state representative and the Mayor of Indianapolis. One special highlight of the evening was the announcement that Indianapolis now has its own national award for literature and it is appropriately named the Kurt Vonnegut Award for Literature. The first one was presented to Mark last night on Kurt’s behalf. If that isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.

The evening ended with a short speech by Jill Krementz. In some ways, this was the most moving part of the evening. She spoke with some intimacy about Kurt Vonnegut the husband, father and friend. She also mentioned his support of her work over the years and his love of simple pleasures: walking on a nice day, visits to his local post office, doing the NY Times crossword puzzle in ink. (A weird synchronicity moment for me as I just watched “Word Play” last week.) He also enjoyed watching Law and Order and Judge Judy.

There are other events going on in the city today commemorating the “Year of Vonnegut” and I believe the Vonnegut family will be present for those as well. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for their sacrifice in coming out here and giving of their time while I’m sure they’re still grieving over their loss.
 

July 4th 2007

I can’t think of a better day to start my new Blog, A View from the Crossroads, than the 4^th of July.  I am a pretty liberal guy who has spent his entire life in a very conservative state.   This has forced me to see the middle ground in most situations.  So, my hope for this blog is to discuss the real issues we’re facing as Americans and get beyond the spin of the polemics.  Sorry Sean, Rush, Rosie, and Michael.  

Today is the 4^th of July and I’m sure that just like me the one thing that comes to mind for all of you is Bill Pullman as President of the United States giving one of the corniest, yet moving speeches in Hollywood history.

“We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: “We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!” We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!” 

You feel it right?  That lump in your throat.  Maybe even a little moisture around your eyes.  Damn fine speech.  We are Americans dammit and we are better than we have been acting for the past many years.  The time is coming that we must start paying attention to what is “really” going on or we WILL go into the night!  Quietly or not. 

For most of us the 4^th of July really has very little to do with battling Space Aliens and much more to do with a day off from work, cookouts with friends and family, and blowing things up.  I spent much of the day like I do other holidays – glued to the Food network and the History channel.  So, that’s how they came up with the idea for Lemon Drops?  Fascinating!  Two hours of the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest?  I’m there dude!!  

The highlight of my nerd-fest TV viewing today was a special the History Channel ran on Benjamin Franklin.  I had absolutely no idea that ol’ Ben was such a “playa” and that if it wasn’t for his way with the ladies that we would probably still be drinking gads of tea and eating crumpets.  Franklin, of course, had the unenviable task of trying to convince the French King to support our rag-tag efforts to over throw another king.  Thanks to Ben’s charisma and witty ways with the French bourgeois class (especially the ladies) he was able to get the French King to agree to help us fight England.  John Adams was in France as well, but he was much more the nerd of the American Revolution.  While Franklin said he learned French while “lounging on the pillows of his French mistresses.”  Adams was reading French funeral oratory.  What a geek. Thank God Franklin was there to make sure that this new country, The United States of America, didn’t receive a huge wedgie from the French or English. 

Here’s hoping that all of you had a great day and that you thought about, if even briefly, what our founding fathers where hoping to create in this new nation.