Left Early, Nice Drive, A Little Caching, Driving Through the Smokies and a Bear 5/3/2008

Well quite a day!!!!!!!!!!!!! I woke up early to check the Weather Channel to see what to thunderstorms were going to be like and no Weather Channel, don't know why either. So I got the PC out and checked the local TV sites and it didn't really look all that good. No severe stuff but lots of thunder, lightening and rain so I mulled it over for awhile and decided to wake Mom and get on the road as discretion is the better part of valor and besides we were sitting in a wooded area and we didn't really want to drive in a torrential downpour. So I woke her at 5:30 and we had the car loaded and we were on our way by 6:00 am as we watched the lightening flash in the distance. As it turned out it was a good decision because by the time we got to Pigeon Forge at 8:30, we had out run the rain and by the time it reached us it had weakened and all we got was a few showers. We pulled into Lowe's parking lot and had breakfast and sat until 11:15 and then headed to Creekside which was only a few miles down the road. We checked in, took the car off and set up and were done by 12:30. So what to do now? By the way very nice campgrounds, clean bathrooms, roomy sites, nice and clean and friendly. Well we decided to take a few caches and do those and then they have a 6 mile drive up into the Smokies and back down into Gatlinburg. We loaded the caches into the GPS and set out. Well let us tell you Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg reminded us so so much of miniature Myrtle Beaches. Everything that you find in MB you can find here, restaurants (every kind you can think of), t-shirt shops, gift shops, Tanger outlets, miniature golf, go-kart tracks, NASCAR Cafe, tons of resorts, condos and motels, Ripley's, amusement parks, Dixie Stampede, and just about anything else you want.
We went to our first cache in a small park with the Roaring Forks Creek running through it, the next cache was also in a small park that had a wedding reception going on it it, and the third cache was on top of one of the mountains where there was a resort located.
Then we started up Mount Le Conte. We know more than got 100 yards up the road when all the cars in front of us stopped and we couldn't figure out why until we saw something ambling out of the woods almost next to the road and it was a black bear. WOW first one so far and he didn't seem afraid at all, so I took some pics and we continued on our way. The first mile of the drive was on a 2 way road but then turned into a 1 way road and very very narrow and windy. Along the way they had certain spots where you could stop and see some of Tennessee's history.
The first place we got to was Noah "Bud" Ogle's Place which was the family farm between 1883 and 1925. They called the area "Junglebrook" after the dense growths of rhododendron and magnolia that bordered the stream. Noah "Bud" Ogle didn't let a land assessor's comment get in the way of making a living. He and his wife, Cindy, started out on a 400 acre farm in 1879 in the White Oak Flats community (now Gatlinburg) despite the assessor's belief that the land was "not fit for farming." They lived temporarily in an older one-room cabin while they raised the lower half of the new house that now stands. As the family grew in number, a second section was added to create a traditional saddlebag configuration. Efficiency was the operative of the mountain farmer and no amount of space was wasted. Outside the Ogle house, the chimney alcoves were used for storage. The front one held meat, salt and cornmeal while the back one sheltered chickens from foxes and other predators. There was also a box tacked up near the window of the lower pen that served as a hen's nest and gave the Ogles ready access to eggs. Like many farms located on streams, the Ogles had a small grist mill for grinding corn into cornmeal. Neighbors sometimes used the mill in exchange for a one gallon per bushel toll. Widows and other "unfortunates" had their corn ground for free. The Ogle home also had the unusual addition of running water. A wooden flume ran all the way from the spring above the house to the back porch. Here, the water dumped into a double sink, hewn from a single large log. Very interesting to see and walk through and imagine a family living and farming the land.
As we drove higher we stopped at a couple of overlooks of the Smokies that were beautiful as you can see by the pictures. Also we stopped several times along the whole drive to take pictures of Roaring Forks Creek which runs down the mountain and through Gatlinburg. Roaring Forks is a classic mountain stream in every way. It is clear, cold, ever-flowing, shady, fast and noisy. If you listen it will talk to you all day, but never say the same thing twice. Our impression of this place is greenness, except in fall and winter. Green moss, green fern, green vines, trees and shadows. The water is the reason for that. During its cycle from sky to sea, water seldom displays itself so well as a sustainer of life and creator of beauty, as it does here.
The next historic stop was at Ephraim Bales Home. Just below the Jim Bales place is the farm of Ephraim and Minerva Bales who raised 9, that's right 9, children in this house. Ephraim, Jim Bales' older brother, farmed some 30 acres of his 70-acre plot. The other 40 acres were mostly wooded, which the Bales family used for construction material and firewood. The Bales cabin was a double cabin with a passageway known as a "dog trot" in between. Dog-trot cabins, which are fairly common throughout the southeastern U.S., typically involve two adjacent cabins with roughly 10 feet in between, but with one continuous roof. The space between the two halves was relatively cool in summer and warm in winter, making it attractive to dogs. Both halves of the cabin have their own chimney. With the exception of a back porch, the cabin remains largely as it was when the Bales family lived in here in the early 1900s. Along with the cabin, Bales' corn crib, hog pen, and barn are still standing today, just a few yards from the cabin. A rock wall and paling fence behind the cabin are representative of the two major barriers used in the Northern Smokies in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The house was never larger than it is now except for a missing back porch. Puncheon floors were drafty and allowed an occasional snake to crawl in. Small doors conserved heat, the large cabin was the living area, and the smaller one the kitchen. Additional beds stood in the once closed in dog trot area. The only window is the small "granny hole" which looks out on the family pantry....the corn crib. As one who knew him put it "old Eph kept his rifle hangin' right here over the window. In front of the hearth is the "tater " hole, yes just what you think it is, as they would take them out and throw them in the ashes of the fire. Quite an achievement raising a family of 9 children in this home believe us.
Just down the road was the Alfred Reagan Place. Alfred Reagan, a descendant of the area's first settlers, owned a small farm just below the Ephraim Bales Place. Reagan was a jack-of-all-trades, operating the Roaring Fork community's blacksmith shop, general store, and its most consistent grist mill. Reagan was also a part-time preacher at the Roaring Fork Church, for which he donated the land and helped build. Of all the buildings on Reagan's farm, only his cabin and mill remain today. Due to its sawboard paneling and coat of paint, which by the way was bought at Sears -Roebuck and the only 3 colors they had, Reagan's cabin stands out among historical structures in the Smokies today. The cabin's design is known as a "saddlebag" design, which involves two cabins constructed around a single chimney. A kitchen area was added later. The Reagan mill is a standard tub mill, with a flume redirecting water from Roaring Fork to power a tub-wheel turbine. The turbine turns a grindstone which breaks down corn and wheat into cornmeal and flour. Reagan's mill was well-designed and well-positioned. It is said that when other mills lacked sufficient water power due to low water levels, Reagan's mill would continue to operate. After their fifth or sixth child they raised the roof and added an attic. The house and mill are the only buildings left today but are original.
Our next stop was at some sheer rock cliffs that ascend about 100' up. These boulder fields were painfully obvious to the local farmers as the rocks off these sheer rock walls fell onto their fields.. Perhaps the farmers cursed them as the thousandth one was hurled from the field, yet praised them as the cabin's chimney neared completion. They were considered a nuisance to the road builder of long ago. How did they get there? The climate during the last Ice Age was much colder than it is now. These cold conditions caused rocks to split from high mountain peaks. With each freezing and thawing cycle, boulders would tumble down the mountains in roaring masses, or inch their way along over the years. These rock walls are the ones that the boulders have been falling from for hundreds of years.
Our last stop back down the mountain was a waterfall called "The Place of a Thousand Drips". The Place of a Thousand Drips is well named. The water falls 80 feet and several streamlets fall 10 to 20 feet at a time. It is slightly slanted at an approximate 15 degrees. These waterfalls are not spectacular they are a place of beauty and home to water-loving plants.....mosses liverworts and ferns. The air around these falls is moist and cool so we could sense nature's natural refrigeration. As you can see by the several pictures why it is named as there are a thousand little drips springing from the rocks all the way down the falls.
After driving out of the Nature Trail we got our las 2 caches one in a small shopping center and the last one again near Roaring Forks Creek. Then it was on back to the coach after stopping at Krogers and picking up milk. We got back and Mom did the logs and I started dinner. Oh by the way finally back on Eastern Daylight Time. As we were eating we noticed ducks waddling across the road as did Muffy and Raggs but they weren't quite sure what to make of them and as we watched here came Mama duck and her brood of probably 15-20 little balls of fur, so so cute following Mom. We ate and I am doing the blog and Mom is watching TV so seeing as I am done we will say until tomorrow and we love and miss you all.


Picture List:1,2,3-Our first black bear in the wild, 4,5,6-Smoky Mountains, 7,8,9-Roaring Forks Creek, 10,11,12-A Place of a Thousand Drips, 13,14,15-The sheer rock cliffs, 16,17,18,19,20-"Bud" Ogle Farm, 21,22,23,24,25,26-Ephraim & Minerva Bales Farm that's right 9 children in this 2 room farm house, 27-Alfred Reagan Place, 28-29-30-31-32-Alfred Reagan Place...the Mill on his farm.