Category Archives: Appalachian Trail

Family, religious marker on the Appalachian Trail?

Appalachian Trail, Hiking,
Moye Family marker
Moye Family marker

Last week I went on a Carolina Mountain Club hike on the Appalachian Trail from Sams Gap to Devil’s Fork Gap, heading south.

About a half-mile from the parking area, we found this granite marker. It stands, maybe three feet or so off the trail on the left side. It’s not hidden, but proudly out here for all hikers to see.

We all wondered what a personal, family, religious marker was doing on the A.T. and on Pisgah National Forest land. I looked at the website http://www.moyerfoundation.org/, which said that it helped children of troubled family. The family ran a summer church camp. I emailed them at several different email addresses but got no reply.

As many hikers may or may not know, the Appalachian Trail goes through public land, such as forest and park land. And it’s the land manager, such as the Appalachian District of Pisgah National Forest in this case, who dictates the rules and regulations of their land. So that’s why A.T. hikers can’t walk with their dogs in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for example.

I queried the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail offices and got essentially the same answer.

As it turns out, its erection was a condition of the land exchange. The final location and design might be worth discussing, said Chief Ranger, Todd Remaley, of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail office in Harpers Ferry.

In other words, it’s not in violation of any rules. Pisgah National Forest must have approved this marker to buy or exchange the land from the family. Would this arrangement work in a national park? But wait, the Appalachian Trail is a national park.

It’s not only the religious nature of the marker that is in question. It’s also the personal family name, that the Moye family made sure was very obvious. I understand that Pisgah no longer names features like mountains or trails for people who’ve been an asset to the forest, but they didn’t seem to have problems with this.

In addition, when A.T. hikers from all over the world come to walk this section, they are not going to know the distinction between the A.T. and the land manager. Pisgah National Forest is not going to be on their radar; hikers will just know that they’re on the A.T.

In Elkmont
In Elkmont

A couple of days later, I took a Friends of the Smokies group to Elkmont in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We found the cemetery which dates back before the Elkmont community, back when settlers lived here year round.

In Elkmont
In Elkmont

Of course, the cemetery had religious symbols and personal names. It was a cemetery and a historical place, after all.

The Smokies preserves the cultural aspects of the park. This particular grave is of Alice Townsend, the last wife of Colonel Townsend who logged the Elkmont area.

No one, including me, questioned why personal religious symbols were here. This is historic.

But the Moye Family marker is just personal.

 

The Trail – A Book Review

Appalachian Trail, Book Review
The Trail
The Trail

In the late 1980s, Inspector Morse, a new British TV show, came on the scene. It was set in Oxford. And since we had spent several years living there, we lapped it up. It was a mystery and therefore had to have a suspicious death every week. So while Oxford had a murder maybe once every ten years, the show has about 25 deaths a year.

The Appalachian Trail may have a murder every few years but in Ray Anderson‘s The Trail, there seems to be a murder every few weeks. But that’s the way with fiction, you amp up the excitement and suspense, regardless of the reality.

Most A.T. books are memoirs about the author’s adventures. Some are best sellers, like A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson or Called Again by Jennifer Pharr Davis. But most books just record the author’s day by day walk. There are very few fictional stories set on the A.T., so reading The Trail was an unexpected pleasure.

The Trail is about the cat and mouse game between a serial killer, Moonwalker, and a Desert Storm veteran, Awol. Anderson knows the A.T. He hiked the A.T., the Pacific Crest Trail, and parts of other trails. He also seems to know the military protocol since he hints that he was in a war, just not Desert Storm. The fight scenes are well-described and suspenseful.

I usually don’t read violent books, but this one was well-written. If you’ve walked the A.T., you’ll note the many favorite places on the trail. If you have no idea about how people get from Georgia to Maine on foot, you’ll learn about this long walk and its  idiosyncratic rituals without being hit over the head with the details.

I really recommend this book. It’s a light but suspenseful novel, published by Turner Publishing-$16.95.

 

 

A Walk in the Woods – My two cents

Appalachian Trail
A.T. section
A.T. section

I know that I’m late to the party.

The movie, A Walk in the Woods (AWITW), came out two weeks ago, but I just saw it on Tuesday. While everyone, including me, is eagerly waiting for the Everest movie, I’m reflecting on AWITW starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.

You know the story, right? Robert Redford plays Bill Bryson, a successful American writer, who decides to walk the Appalachian Trail before it’s too late. Besides he needs a new book topic. The book, published in 1998, was an international best seller.

Bryson was in his mid-forties when he walked part of the trail. Redford is 79, so the script had to be changed to make him older with grandchildren, instead of children. Bryson’s wife insists that he not go alone, so he takes Katz, a fat alcoholic, played by Nick Nolte, age 74.

White TrilliumBeing in your seventies doesn’t make you too old to hike the A.T. But you have to be prepared, knowledgeable and keep your pack weight and your body weight down. Every hiker can tell you what was ludicrous about the movie.

  • They never used their hiking poles. Instead they carried them in their packs the whole time.
  • They get frightened by grizzly bears, bears not known to frequent the eastern part of the country. We have black bears, which could be frightening enough.
  • The Bryson character has packed a robe, slippers and, I assume, pajamas.
  • But their packs are so light that they can swing them over their shoulders, like a summer jacket.
  • The geography jumps around from Fontana Dam in North Carolina to Virginia back to Gatlinburg in Tennessee.

But at the end, the two old men quit somewhere in Virginia. At least they didn’t change the book so that they finish in Katahdin, Maine. The movie got lukewarm reviews. Some compared it to Grumpy Old Men. It was funny in parts, pathetic in others, boring as well. But Nick Nolte was very good and may get a supporting actor nominations.

I can’t wait for Everest, the movie.