Today was an outstanding fall day – sunny, crisp, the trees full of colors.

I led a Carolina Mountain Club hike to Ramsey Cascades. Seven of us started on Ramsey Cascades Trail in the Greenbrier section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One fellow had driven from Atlanta to do this hike.

Holly Demouth, Director of Friends of the Smokies on the North Carolina side, came as a CMC guest. Friends of the Smokies is a fund raising organization that supports the Park. At one break, she talked a little about the work that the Friends did, especially the Trails Forever program. She is so enthusiastic.

Trails Forever was the main fundraising initiative connected to Great
Smoky Mountains National Park’s 75th anniversary celebration. The Trails
Forever endowment will fund an additional permanent trail maintenance work crew
to support trail improvement projects along the 800+ miles of hiking trails
inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was particularly apt that we hiked Ramsey Cascade Trail since it had been rehabilitated recently using Trails Forever funds.

The volunteer crew had put in rock steps and built a large bridge.

Of course, all these improvements have attracted many more visitors on this trail. But that’s OK. It’s there for everyone to enjoy.

The cascades flowed copiously. We reached the top at about one o’clock and had half a lunch there since bees were circling our food. We enjoyed the trip down while meeting many hikers going up in the afternoon.

After I left the group, I drove through the park in a beautiful sea of color. See the photo above.