Hiking in the Smokies in the Fifties

The Orangeburg (SC) Times and Democrat brings us Thomas Langford's "High Adventure" story on 24 March 2007. He recounts some of the mountain adventures of L.P. Thackston Jr., a retired radiologist from the area. Before he went west to climb in Alaska and the like, Thackston did some Appalachian Trail walking:

"Covering an 80-mile stretch across North Carolina and Tennessee, its [i.e. GSMNP's] magnificent forests had been bisected with the famous Appalachian Trail. An outdoorsman since boyhood, L.P. eagerly accepted their invitation to join the next excursion. Thus began five years of climb-hiking on this main trail and side trails of 4,000- to 6,000-foot mountains, cooking freeze-dried chicken or beef for supper, oatmeal for breakfast, and resting sore back and leg muscles overnight in the little lean-tos furnished by the National Park Service. They paused and drank in the magnificence at occasional vistas and got used to the sounds of grouse slapping their wings."