#10 Livin’ in the woods

No sailing this time, the boat hasn’t moved since our last post. We’ve been cleaning and tinkering with it but haven’t taken her out yet. We did go camping in Cheryl’s new trailer, and since I don’t post much on FB or any of the other SM places, here we go. We went to Elkmont campground, one of the most popular in the Smokies and for good reason. The Little River runs through it, you can camp so close you can listen to the river all night long and the cool water air-conditions the bottoms so even in August it’s a great place to camp. There’s Daisy Town, an abandoned mining town, to explore, a few lost cabins still standing in the woods you can hike to, a gorgeous walkway beside the river, waterfalls, and of course the synchronous fireflies in May/June. Elkmont has a fascinating history. Back in the early 1900’s it was a thriving logging town with a hospital, post office, general store, a runway, blacksmith shop and many homes. The homes were often “setoff homes”, which was a small house the logging company could pick up and set off anywhere they needed a work crew to live. Some of those setoff homes make up Daisy Town today. One of the more flamboyant characters of the day hauled a WWI Jenny airplane up there and assembled it, then talked a buddy into trying to take off. He hit a big rock, which is still there, spun out and that was the end of that. A small boy picked up a piece of the broken propeller and someone took his photo which I found in a history book. In another one of the history books I read there is a photo him in his 80’s, standing by the rock, holding that same piece of propeller. When the logging dried up in about 1930 the railroad pulled up the rails as they left and the town died. Later the government made it into the Smoky Mountains National Park and bought out the few remaining households. Today there a few buildings restored and used for weddings, etc. There are still remains of old bridges in the river and in the woods as you hike you can spot old homesteads. Cool place to explore. No electricity or water though, so it’s really camping, not glamping. Cheryl’s trailer has all the amenities including a fridge so we were doing fine. We had a great visit with Cheryl’s friends Norma and Ira who were in Gatlinburg on vacation, was nice to have an afternoon deep in conversation. Spent most of the time sitting in a chair by the river reading a cheesy thriller about the Yellowstone Park supervolcano going off; the book had mass destruction, falling buildings, planes crashing, tidal waves, people in frantic situations, lava flowing, tons of ash in the sky, government collapse, and, well you know, it was a cheesy thriller. Loved it. I did have this thought: How many of my readers here have spent 3 or 4 days without electricity, internet, a cell phone, and TV lately? A few of them I know, but on average, not too many Americans spend any time at all without all that paraphernalia close at hand, much less days at a time. It does reset your mind a bit, not just the relaxation, but the enforced time spent with your own thoughts and the beauty of nature. You come back with, if nothing else, a fresh appreciation for how stupid the media is. A TV commercial of any kind looks pretty ridiculous after a few days without. So without further ado here’s a few photos, in no particular order, of our weekend.

The rig. It’s a hybrid, meaning the beds fold out from the ends so that the inside is all living space.

This was where we spent most of our time:

The slingshot tree. If only I had a big enough rubber band:

Looking up one of the side creeks:

Back when Elkmont was a town, they had a cemetery. Colonel Townsend’s wife is here but surprisingly he’s not. As with any old cemetery, there are a lot of infant headstones.

That’s a front porch on the left, some foundation on the right. This used to be a three-story house, Reese and I used to climb up in there and explore. This is why they took down all these old houses, because people like us kept going in them and someone was going to fall through a floor sooner or later.

That’s our rig at the end of the path to the restrooms.

Our view for most of the weekend:

The oldest cabin left, built in 1830. Still solid as a rock:

Up this path in late May is where you find those synchronous fireflies.

A mysterious tiny cabin. One day I’ll have to ask a Ranger what it was, but for now, I like to think this is where they locked up the kids who misbehaved:

Cooling down after a hike:

One of the old places in Daisy Town. Just a few years ago these were on the verge of collapse before the park restored and repainted and reroofed in order to save them.

I figure if I ever go broke and am homeless I’ll just move into one of these. I can pretend to be a ranger and maybe get away with it for a while.

Our camp from the other side of the river:

Did not see any bears this trip, but if you look closely you can see a couple of fishermen:

It is a gorgeous place:

Ok, one boat photo. Turns out we lost a house battery, (look at the bottom of the right hand battery) so I’ve got all this mess pulled out, cleaned up, and this week three new golfcart batteries go in with new battery trays and holddowns. A bit of work and a bit of a mess!

“Cynicism is a dead end. Skepticism is always justified.”