Author Archives: John

When there’s snow on the ground they will close the park. Which is why we set out to sneak into the old settlers Trail. Myers and Nick preceded us. Friday they had all the wood gathered. So Saturday it was … Continued

New year’s Eve was Jimmy the flying sausage Dean’s birthday. he had invited me up to join him in several others at Mount Collins shelter on Thursday. I followed the Appalachian Trail in 1600 ft of elevation and it was … Continued

Yep, you guessed it. I was diagnosed with COVID two days ago. It all began one week ago with a serious sore throat. That persisted for a couple of days. I went out to meet two friends, socially distant and … Continued

Stars dominate the night on a cold mountaintop evening.. A new friend, Jimmy Dean invited me up to join him. Jimmy hit me up a while back and wanted some beta about getting into mountaineering. He backpacks the Smokies almost weekly. … Continued

Becca stirs the flames in anticipation of nightly events. But we’ll start at the beginning. It was Greg Hawkins who asked me about doing the Eagle Creek trip this year. I ran into him several weeks ago over at Abrams … Continued

I’ve walked by this place so many times I couldn’t remember the last time I actually spent the night there. This one falls in the category of the Friday night quick hits. Oh ballerina britches and Mark joined us this … Continued

We planned to go toward the remote part of the world where the crowds would not ford. For some reason Flint Gap and this little low sideling campsite came to mind. Bugsy was in town. He drove up Friday afternoon … Continued

Wilson, Mikayla, Sarah and I went up to the greatest rock in the south. Sarah makes a descent from one of these beautiful sandstone Cliff faces. Mikayla was our lead though. She gets better every time we climb together. There’s … Continued

 (Seth Dortch makes this photographic magic happen) But Myers captured the one above. In fact, Jon, Seth and I only made it up to here before the sun set on us Friday. (Myers was on the rock and captured this … Continued

It is not often that we get to join forces again with the mighty Muir faction. The story about how we all came together is the stuff of Smoky’s legend. When Chuck,  Ledge and bunion told me they were coming … Continued