Springtime hiking in the Smokies
By Scott Brooks
With over 800 miles of hiking trails, one of the best ways to enjoy the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is on foot.
“Every season offers something new,” said Vesna Plakanis. “It’s incredible.”She should know. For the last 11 years, Plakanis and her husband have been leading guided hikes in the Smokies for their company, A Walk in the Woods.
She said spring is especially beautiful because of all the wildflowers.
“Every week there is a new show. The greenery is like what you would find in Scotland or Ireland.”
There are over 1,500 types of flowers growing in the Park, along with some of the oldest forests in the eastern United States.
Plakanis is a trained naturalist who loves showing even experienced hikers new ways to experience what the Smokies can offer.
“We try to get people to use all their senses,” she said.
Even people who visit the Smokies regularly may not know all the trails that are available.
National Park Service spokesperson Nancy Gray said a majority of visitors stay on the most popular trails.
Those make up only ten percent of the trails available.
“There are a lot of trails that are underused,” she said.
“Many of them are hard to reach and may be accessible only by other trails or by boat.”
But that doesn’t mean they’re not worth the effort.
“Our trails lead into the most pristine areas of the park. A lot of them follow historic routes and share glimpses of what life was like for people who settled in the Smokies,” Gray said.
But it can be a challenge to maintain all 800 miles of trails.
A campaign is under way to raise $2 million to support trail maintenance. The “Trails Forever” effort is being led by the nonprofit Friends of the Smokies.
The Park Service employs two crews that keep up the trails currently. The campaign would essentially fund a third crew to take on some of the major projects.
Those projects can be important especially in the spring when hikers take to the trails and find obstacles like downed trees from the winter months.
The popularity of hiking in the Smokies has also spawned more than a few Web sites.
One of the newest and fastest growing sites is hikingthesmokys.com.
The site features more than 70 trails in the park, including descriptions, features, videos and maps.
It was started in 2008 by Jeff Doran, a corporate marketing specialist in Louisville, KY.
He has been visiting the Smokies for 20 years but admits he hasn’t hiked nearly as much as he would like.
“I always had a hard time finding information on all of the trails,” Doran said.
“I’m a victim of hiking only the most popular trails, but some of the lesser-known trails offer some great surprises,” he said.
The site has been featured as one of the best for trails on federal lands by American Trails, a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of hiking interests.
The Park Service also offers
books and information on hiking the Smokies both at various visitor centers and on the Web at www.nps.gov/grsm.
More information is also available from the Great Smoky Mountain Association. Their Web address is www.smokiesinformation.org.
