Monuments, Forests, Parks...What's the difference? And a winter summit of Mount Leconte

**Pulling another one from the draft archives that was never published. This was from the winter of 2014. I wrote about half of it today in 2018.

Hey y'all, thanks for reading! Today I am writing about a recent hiking experience I had in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the system in place here in the United States that affords myself and others these great opportunities. I'm going to dive a little into law and policy today, but I'll make it interesting I promise!

Winter Backpacking in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

This blog was spurred by some thoughts and conversations I had while hiking in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park with my little brother during the Winter break from school in 2014. We chose to start at Newfound Gap, hike the Appalachian Trail to the Boulevard Trail that brought us to the summit of Leconte. We then took Alum Cave Trail down to highway 441 where my Aunt Kathy gave use a ride back to our car.

We were hoping to have an endearing winter summit, buried up to our knees in snow on the top of Leconte. The weather was frigid, and precipitation was in the forecast. My brother and I were in for an epic hike, or so we thought. We spent the night at Icewater Springs shelter along the Appalachian Trail. At the shelter we met a family from Alabama that was doing a short AT hike, and together we built a roaring fire to keep us warm as the snow approached. I was excited when we went to bed, because I knew I would wake up to a blanket of snow. I attributed the lack of cold in the shelter to our raging fire.

Turns out, it rained all night and was still raining when we woke up. My brother and I trucked a few brutal miles along boulevard trail in the rain until we reached the summit. Leconte was completed shrouded in fog, typical of the smoky mountains, and was being hammered by high winds. We could only stand a few moments at the top and elected to move back down to the cabins down the trail to have lunch behind some kind of barrier (the cabins are closed in the winter).

The thermometer on the side of the lodge read a comfortable 35 degrees, and it was still pouring rain. Here we met a teenager who had hitched a ride from Texas to come see the smokies. We loaned him our stove and fuel so he could heat some of his foot. The kid had been floating around the park, and sleeping in random outcroppings where he could shelter from the storms. I should note here that this is illegal, and also not advised. I'm still not sure anyone actually knew where he was, and if he went missing if anyone would know where to look. He followed us most of the way back, but ultimately disappeared into the woods once again about half way down the mountain.

These kinds of hikes may stink at the time, but I believe that they kindle a passion to get back out there in the long haul, at least for me. They leave me feeling alive.

Those of us that love the outdoors, undoubtedly love and appreciate our public lands. But, do we understand how they're different? Public lands can have various owners and funding sources, but today I'm going to break down the differences between the major federal public lands.

What's the difference between National Parks, Forests, Monuments, etc?

I'm always quite surprised by the number of my outdoorsy friends and acquaintances that are not familiar with the differences between federal lands that they commonly use. Then again, it can be a little confusing. I'll try my best to summarize.

National Parks are a very John Muir kind of conservation, where they seek to maintain the natural resources and sometimes cultural resources of an area "unimpaired". They do not allow hunting, nor do they harvest timber, but fishing is allowed in many cases. The idea in National Parks is that we have something here in this location that is so amazing or so important that it must be preserved in pristine condition.

National Forests are a very Gifford Pinchot/Teddy Roosevelt kind of conservation, focusing on multi-use management. National Forests allow hunting, biking, camping, fishing, and much more with regulations that vary across sites. National Forests are also managed for the production and harvest of timber resources (ie. logging).

Land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is also multi-use.

National Monuments are similar to parks but capture a broader range of reasons for their preservation encompassing multiple interests. They are also typically smaller. They may be preserved because of significant cultural or scientific values, but they are often managed by the NPS. Examples include the Statue of Liberty and Cedar Breaks National Monuments.

What powers this engine.

Money, Money, and You. Especially in this changing political climate we must be advocates for public land. Write your representatives and support public land advocacy groups. To loosely quote Edward Abbey, get out there and enjoy it while you still can.

The more who love it, the more who will fight to save it.

Sources:

www.nps.gov/aboutus/mission.htm

www.fs.fed.us

http://wilderness.org/article/how-we-designate-monuments

A community in the wilderness- A short journey on the Appalachian Trail

For whatever reason I never posted this blog from the spring of 2015.

For spring break this year I decided to forgo the beach and sunshine, and head somewhere much colder and with a lot more rain. Seemed like a good idea at the time... Marie, a good friend of mine, has decided to hike the entire Appalachian trail and she invited me to join her for the first 53 miles. We were joined by our friends Emerson and Ethan.

I hear a lot of people talk about going into the wild to "escape" people and be alone. They get tired of the hustle and bustle of everyday life, tired of people, and tired of stress. Wilderness can be seen by many as an escape back to a simpler way of life (even when fully supported by camping supplies and products that are produced by those in the aforementioned "complicated way of life"). If an "escape" is what you want to do, the Appalachian Trail (AT) is not for you. It's something totally different, something I had never experienced before, and I found it to be an amazing place. I have never been one of those folks that wanted to "escape" people, I like the species of which I am a part, and this is why I really, really enjoyed the AT.

We put in at Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. Here we met miss Janet, one of the most famous AT trail angels out there. She travels in her ole van, with her dog, up and down the length of the AT. Providing assistance to those in need on the trail is her calling. She offers a kind, and sometimes painfully blunt, word of advice or caution when needed and gear to those who need it. People like this are part of what make the AT what it is.

Hanging out at the summit of Springer Mountain.

On day one the weather was clear and cool, the sun hitting our backs and the breeze carrying us along the path to Hawk Mountain shelter. We hit camp at sundown thanks to our late start, and set up on the outskirts of the tent village. Remember how I said the AT is not an escape? There were about ten folks in the shelter and maybe 25 tents around it. The first few days on the trail the campsites will be packed. We managed to find a quiet little spot, make a quick dinner, and pass out. That night it poured down rain. Inside my tent it was a beautiful sound that brought me peace and quick slumber in the confines of my dry tent. Unfortunately, we knew it would not stop raining for the next three days.

About ten miles of hiking on day two, and we were substantially soaked. We decided we needed to dry our gear and stay at a the wolfpen hostel. We met some kids from New York, one of which was suffering from hypothermia. Before we knew it our group of four had grown to eight, so when we bummed our ride to the shelter we all rode in the back of a pick-up truck. That night, at the hostel, we met some truly inspiring people. We met a man with stage 4 pancreas cancer, who was given 2 to 5 years to live about 2.5 years ago, who had decided to hike the AT with his daughter. There was a man under the trail name "semi-colon", who lost half of his colon from stage 3 cancer. He was traveling to rural Appalachian towns to hand out cancer test kits to families that can't otherwise afford preventative tests for cancer. The two kids from New York had finished high school and decided to do the trail. We also found out about a man that was doing the whole trail at the age of 81. Our little second floor hostel (above the general store) was home to nearly 30 people that night.

Drying out our gear at the hostel. Marie says hello! The hostel also had a fresh litter of kittens.

We set out the next day in the rain and did about 10.5 miles to arrive at a shelter at the base of Blood Mountain. Blood mountain is a fairly strenuous climb and usually makes a lot of folks quit the trail and go home, so we camped at the base. Only one other person at the shelter that night, but the site was also known for high levels of bear activity. The fog grew so dense before bed that if you walked more than 15 yards from the shelter and turned back around you would not be able to see the shelter. Moments like this help you realize how people end up getting lost on the AT.

Day four was a big day, we hiked around 16 miles, with Blood Mountain right at the start. Fortunatley it was a sunny, clear day. We reached the summit in less than an hour, and it was not near as tough as expected. The summit provided a panoramic view all the way around of North Georgia and into North Carolina. After over two days of hiking in the mist, this spectacular view was needed.

At the summit of Blood Mountain, 4,458 feet. The prominence of the mountain is 1,480 feet, meaning it's that much higher than the saddle of the closest surround peak.

***Here I am, two years later, finishing this story. I don't recall the last few days of our journey near as well as I should. This is a testament to the importance of journaling and writing things down. Over the years nearly all of an experience can be lost to the mind, or the days blur together into a haze. I find that the sentiment and emotions of the hike and it's influence on you remain, but the specific details that caused that feeling are lost. Maybe that's all Deja vu is. You aren't remembering a specific experience, but a specific feeling that has been unlocked by that moment, the cause long forgotten.