Great Dreary Day

Thursday April 21^st

Elkmont Campground Site A14

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I was up and out at 7:30

for an hour of yoga on the tent pad

right next to the stream. 

57 degrees is a little cool for good yoga.

Muscles stretch and relax much more

when it’s warmer.

But the atmosphere was

beyond compare. 

Birds singing,

dappled light through the forest trees,

babbling brook……………

Later we ran up the Little River Trail

along the rippling cascades,

around and down the Cucumber Trail

and on to Jake’s Creek Trail. 

 

It was a beautiful run 

We went a total of 5.8 miles. 

and began right behind the campground. 

Can't be more convenient than that. 

J

The end of Jakes Creek Trail

drops you off in the

old Appalachian Club

vacation community.

Along with the narrative,

I’ve interspersed pictures

of some of the houses

in better condition. 

You can click on any of these

pictures to enlarge them.

Elkmont was originally a logging town

located where the campground is today.

The club grew up around it

when, after they had logged,  

the Little River Lumber Company

sold land to individuals.

When Tennessee and North Carolina

were acquiring property in the 20’s & 30’s

to create the park,

they bought most of the homes

of the mountain people outright

but the wealthy club members

negotiated lifetime leases on the properties

in exchange for lower payments. 

Most of the leases ended in 1992.

At that point there was a real controversy

about removing all the structures

and letting the area return to its native state. 

While the structures sat, the committees met

and met and met.

The last two leases ended in 2001.

The committee was still meeting.

 In 1994 Elkmont was named

a National Historic District

which afforded it special status.

 After being ignored for nearly 20 years,

some of the buildings are now being “stabilized”.  

 

Many of them have become overgrown

and have deteriorated far too much over the years

to be stabilized much less restored.

and those that are being “stabilized”

are requiring much more

effort and money

to do so now than they would have

had they been kept up in the first place

nearly 20 years ago. 

As a taxpayer, and a serious environmentalist,

I found it irritating

that these perfectly darling cottages,

such a potential source of rental revenue

for the park, were ignored.

Especially since all our parks are

ALWAYS suffering from lack of

funding.

 

The cottages are immediately adjacent

to the campground

so little “environmental impact”

would have been required to simply maintain them.  

 

This final picture shows the

"main" road of the community

I wish they hadn’t paved the road

in front of the houses. 

I think dirt or even gravel

would have been more in keeping

with the time of the resort.

<speaker falls off soapbox>

We plan to come back another day

and just hike the trails themselves.

Pretty difficult to get good pictures of the water

and the abundance of wildflowers

while you are running. 

Water is up

and so are the flowers. 

This is a GREAT time of year to be here

in Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

So far, the predicted rain

has come only at night – Lucky David again??? 

Today was cool,

very cloudy,

and only got up to 66. 

Might have been a

“dreary day”

had we not been in such a

spectacular setting.

LUCKY LUCKY US!