Oct 21 Injun Creek

 

Fairy Fingers

A quick hike up Injun Creek was a great way to conclude my trip to the Smokies. I wanted to find some stuff along the trail to talk about during an upcoming hike I will lead here. 

About a mile and a half up the trail, I encountered a wonderfully built rock wall along the old road. Nearby I could see other rock structures. This is the spot I have been looking for. Whomever lived here built these stone structures. I think these are piles of stones dug out of an agricultural field. Usually these piles are just haphazardly thrown together, but these built to last and be noticed. 

Faux chimney

Oct 21 Cades Cove Pearl Harbor tree

 

Having traveled around the Cades Cove loop about 30 times, I had never heard of this tree hidden in the nearby forest. 

From the experiencecadescove website is this story:

History of the Pearl Harbor Tree

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in 1934. People were still living in the area, and they were slowly making their way out. Many of them had farms where they grew crops and tended to livestock, and the Myers family was no different. Golman Myers owned a family farm in the Cades Cove area, and he started the process of moving his farm in the 1940s to Townsend since his land was in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Myers liked keeping up with current events, mostly through listening to their battery powered RCA radio. The Myers were sitting around their radio when President Franklin D. Roosevelt interrupted the program they were listening to by announcing Pearl Harbor had been attacked by Japan. Myers knew in that moment the United States was going to go to war with the rest of the world.

With the looming threat of war and his oldest sons old enough to be drafted into the war, Myers wanted a way to memorialize the soldiers who lost their lives in the Pearl Harbor attack. He went out behind his house and found a small sweet gum tree sapling, no bigger than a limb. Myers pulled up the tree from where it was growing and transplanted it out in front of his home. He then placed an old automobile rim around the sapling and said, “We will remember this forever.”

Remembering the Act

In the mid 1970s, Myers’ youngest son, Bernard, had a metal sign engraved with, “Golman Myers transplanted this tree December 7, 1941” on one side and “Pearl Harbor” on the other side. He wanted to commemorate the moment and help everyone who finds the Pearl Harbor tree in Cades Cove what it stands for. He attached the metal sign with a chain around the tree. Bernard said he just did it for his grandchildren so they could remember what their great grandfather did.

Oct 20 False Gap Prong

 

Cucumber root

Opting for a shorter hike today, I walked up False Gap Prong from the Ramsey Cascade intersection in Greenbrier. First a walk through the large cemetery here was in order, then an old road following the prong was our hike route. There was a substantial rock wall alongside bit there was only one home site in over a mile of road. So, I sent my time looking at the vegetation. 

Pretty big Hexastylis

Oct 19 Porters Creek and the Messer Barn

 

The recently renovated John Messer barn in Greenbrier

Porters Creek trail starts on an old road for about a mile, winding past old homesites, rock walls, cemetery and the remains of this vehicle. 

A nurse log tree interacts with another tree. 

The sapsuckers love this tree.

Once the old road gives way to a more narrow and traditional looking trail, you cross the creek. This bridge is one of my favorites. It utilizes 2 spans. 

This commentary is from nps.com : Set along the quiet slopes of Greenbrier, the John Messer Barn is one of the finest examples of a historic cantilever barn in the Smokies. Built sometime in 1869, the structure stretches roughly 54 by 34 feet and rises to about 26 feet high, its distinctive overhanging lofts balanced above the cribs below. 

The barn was built by Pinkney Whaley, who later sold it to his cousin's husband, John Messer. The Hiking Club Cabin, which stands just behind the barn, is where the family's house originally stood. The classic double-cantilever barn, a style unique to East Tennessee, is among the many structures in the park listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A central runway cuts through the middle, allowing wagons and livestock to move easily between the corn cribs. Above them, the frame hayloft projects outward for keeping hay dry and protected. 

The Messer Barn was rehabilitated in 2026, using traditional building techniques. Friends of the Smokies funded the construction through their Forever Places endowment, part of their ongoing investment in preserving the park's historic structures.

Today, the Messer Barn stands as both a historic landmark and a beloved waypoint for hikers. 

Oct 19 Albright Grove

 

Horace Albright served as the second director (interim) of the National Park Service, after Stephen Mather. He was interim director 1917-1919 and director 1929-1933.  This grove of old growth forest was named for him in the 1930s when the park was still being planned. 

My very first visits here predated the demise of the Eastern hemlocks. Now, many of the grove's Hemlocks have died and are toppling. The Hemlocks created a dark forest here. Now that they are gone, the grove has lost some of its magic. Huge holes in the canopy are creating dense undergrowth. Also, the loss the of the Hemlocks exposes other large trees to more wind. Walking around the .7 mile trail through the grove can be an obstacle course of downed trees. 

Having said all that about the demise of the place, it is still a top tier destination. The largest Tuliptrees in the park reside here along with maples, silverbells and magnolias. 

I took this photo so I could enlarge it and count the tree rings. Someday, I might even do that.

The foot log bridge over Indian Camp Creek is one of my favorites. 

Oct 18 Kuwohi formerly Clingmans Dome

 

Same place, different name. In 1859 the second highest point in the eastern US was named after Thomas Clingman, a US Senator from Tennessee. Clingman later became a Confederate General. In September 2024 the US Board on Geographic Names renamed the peak Kuwohi at the request of the Eastern band of Cherokee. The name means "mulberry place". It is in a Spruce/Fir forest now. Mulberry trees are found in the lower elevations, below 3500'. It is hypothesized that the Cherokee may have gathered berries nearby in an isolated grove of Red mulberry that survived near the top or maybe berries were gathered at lower elevations and brought to the top for a ceremony. A Cherokee legend says the bears have a dance house here too. Still, the mulberry connection is not clear.   

Rather than hike back to the parking area on a paved trail. we hiked on the AT southbound to the jct with Forney Ridge Trail.

A little icy today

Along a connector trail, just below the parking area is a series of boulders with these odd circles. I have seen these many times before. They are naturally occurring. 

This rock's circles are different. These appear to to be convex circles of rock.