Park Service on Smoky Issues

The Maryville Daily Times from Maryville, TN carries "Park spokesman responds to hikers' questions, concerns about backcountry management" based on Buzz Trexler's conversations with Bob Miller, management assistant and spokesman for Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The questions posed are:

1. Why can through-hikers camp outside when the shelters are full, but not section-hikers? Does it really matter who is being put out to tent?
2. Why are horses allowed, but not someone’s Brittany spaniel? If it’s because horses are a means of transport, then how can you stop off-road vehicles?
3. If you can not enforce what shelter policies you currently employ, how will you be able to enforce the pending pay-for-use shelter policy? It seems there are too few rangers.
4. Some even suggested that perhaps the Park is actually trying to deter backcountry and through-hikers. How do you respond?

See related articles in the paper about a weeklong hike that Trexler and two buddies took toward the end of April aimed at finding out what Bill Bryson and Katz missed when they skipped some of the Smokies.

Buzz Trexler's Hike in the Smokies

Buzz Trexler, the managing editor at The Maryville (TN) Daily Times puts together a hike on the AT in the Smokies with a couple friends. The results inclue a series of articles in the paper, beginning with: "There was something cosmic about deciding to take ‘A Walk in the Smokies’." That article introduces Bill Bryson's book to the paper's readers and then lays out his idea.

The plan: Put in at Clingmans Dome and take out at Max Patch, just outside of the Park boundaries – the very place where I first set foot on the Appalachian Trail in the late 1980s when my Sunday School class was staying at Sterchi Lodge.

He hopes to be able to update readers from his iPad. This story was Originally published: 2012-04-19 14:14:32 and Last modified: 2012-04-25 16:19:34

Bear Cables in Smokies

On 1 February 2012, the National Parks Traveler published a release titled "Appalachian Trail Conservancy Gives Friends of The Smokies $2,000 For Bear Cables In Great Smoky Mountains National Park" ... which tells you about all there is to tell except that in one sentence it says "will be able to install more cables" and in another place it says "The work has taken place at two popular shelters on the Appalachian Trail in the Smokies, Spence Field and Peck’s Corner."

So maybe some cable installation took place, and more is yet to come. Which will be good until those sneaky bears figure out how to work the cable systems.

Hiker Food Is Not Bear Food

"Getting bears out of backpacker food fare" is the title of a story in the 25 January Smoky Mountain News. It highlights ATC grant of

$2,000 from its specialty license plate funds to the Friends of the Smokies group for the installation of poles and cables that backpackers can use to store food out of the reach of black bears.

This was done at the Spence Field and Peck’s Corner Shelters.

Cooperation Renovating Shelters in Smokies

The Mountain Xpress of Asheville North Carolina carries the story about the reconstruction of the trail shelters in the Smokies under the title "Partners work to protect backpackers and bears in the Smokies" on 17 January 2012.

Call to Re-Open Smokies Shelters

The Mountain Press has published a letter to the editor from Morgan Briggs of Pigeon Forge questioning the Park Service's logic in closing -- and then refusing ever to re-open -- backwoods shelters in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

Under the title "Park service uses poor logic with regard to closed shelters" Briggs focuses particularly on the recent work done at the oft-crowded Icewater Spring shelter. He says some of the crowding could be alleviated were to Park Service to re-open a nearby shelter.

False Gap is a nice, stone shelter, with a fireplace, spring and an excellent location. In the mid-’60s, the park service, in their infinite wisdom, decided to close False Gap. If this shelter was reopened it would be a tremendous asset for the park. It would take a lot of pressure off Icewater.

I guess maybe the NPS logic is that more available shelters will increase the total number of users, rather than spread out the current number, and that would be a bad thing.