2,000 LB. Beasts Destroy 50% of National Park Trails...

I've hiked most of the trails in our GSMNP multiple
times and since taking early retirement in 1997 I can be found recreating on one
of those trails more often than anywhere else. Yes, I've watched as the boundary
line developers approached/encroached. In case you missed it one of the most
severe encroachments was by Don Sundquist who, while still our "great governor"
(small case intentional), while building his retirement home on the park
boundary, complained that the Ace Gap Trail was too close to his residence.
Result: Ace Gap Trail was closed almost one year while the park service rerouted
it to be significantly removed from its approach to the Don Sundquist property.
Ironically someone has since cut a "private trail" from the Sundquist property
to the new location of the Ace Gap Trail (wonder who?...). Why was this allowed
to happen? Political favortism would be my bet.

An issue of even greater concern is the fact that herds
of 2,000 lb. four-legged beasts are found much closer to parts of the park I
hold near and dear than those private property owners who build around its
perimeter. Boundary? Heck, the horses are right in the middle of the most
beautiful sections of our national treasure. In case you've not hiked some of
the more fragile trails recently let me warn you about the ones I've hiked that
have been practically destroyed by horses:
1. The Appalachian Trail - especially the eastern
portion. 
2. Balsam Mountain Trail 
3. Big Creek Trail 
4. Bote Mtn Trail (again!) 
5. Caldwell Fork 
6. Cataloochee Divide Trail 
7. Deep Creek Trail (rendered nearly totally impassable between Indian Creek and
Pole Road Creek Trail) 
8. Low Gap Trail 
9. Lynn Camp Prong Trail (the 2nd worst condition in the Smokies) 
10. McKee Branch Trail (absolutely the worst condition in the Smokies) 
11. Middle Prong Trail 
12. Mount Sterling Ridge Trail - a mile-high horse-cut bog swamp that rivals the
bogs of Newfoundland 
13. Initial (lower) part of Newton Bald Trail 
14. Panther Creek Trail 
15. Polls Gap Trail (now closed due to horse damage) 
16. Pretty Hollow Gap Trail 
17. Rough Fork Trail 
18. Russell Field Trail 
19. Turkeypen Ridge Trail
Unless you enjoy slogging thru mud bogs, stumbling over
huge rock-strewn segments of trails and being forced completely off the trail by
convoys of riders atop horses then I suggest you avoid the above list of
trails--especially after a significant rain event and/or on weekends and
holidays.
Why are riders on horses allowed to destroy the park
trail system with impunity? Political favortism. I've seen the ruckus the horse
riding clubs raise whenever someone suggests restricting their access to the
park. They are quick to point out how much trail maintenance their members do
in the park. Perhaps they are the same ones that ignore washed-out footbridges
(horse riders ford the creeks), dig ditches and call them trails (Bote Mtn
Trail's reconstruction), build boardwalks beside their horse-dug mud bogs (Cataloochee
Divide Trail and some portions of Balsam Mtn Trail) and make liberal deposits of
horse dung that significantly increase the problems with nuisance insects. Way
to go horse riders of the Smokies. We need more of your kind of impact on our
wilderness wonderland.
If you want to make a difference in the future quality
of our park then make some noise and twist a few officials' arms while you talk
about your concern for the continued destruction of our trails by riders on
horses. 
Until we get the horses off of our fragile trail system
I'll let the boundary regions take care of themselves--after all those are the
limits of the National Park property. The real menace to our park comes in by
the trailer-loads and trample everything in their path while their riders shout
we were here first!
Down with horses in the park. Now
Posted By Al Smith on the Knox News Website