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March 10, 2006
Lakeshore Trail - Day 3
Eagle Creek inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Day three on the trail was a cold one - at least in the morning! As I walked along the old woods roads inside the park, past the rusting hulks of old cars and chimneys from homes long abandoned, I got to thinking about the many reasons why a road along the north shore of Fontana Lake would be a disaster.
Let's look at some of the many problems facing Great Smoky Mountains National Park today. The park is home to non-native wild boar, which are wreaking havoc on the park's ecosystems. With their tusks, the boar tear up the soil in their search for roots. Since the hogs are omnivorous, they also eat snakes, salamanders, young birds, and basically, anything they can find. The park has an ongoing effort to trap the hogs to remove them from the ecosystem. In addition, the park's air quality is in dire shape. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, Great Smoky is one of the most endangered parks in America. According to the NPCA website, "Named in 2002 as the most polluted national park in the country, poor air quality in the Smokies often rivals urban areas. Park visitors seeking pristine mountain air find that their health may be jeopardized in summer months." Why in the world would we want to add more vehicles to this type of environment?
Additional threats include invasive species such as the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, which is killing off the park's giant hemlock trees. The high elevation Balsam Fir trees have already been killed off by a similar pest - the Balsam Woolly Adelgid. The park's pine trees are also in bad shape from Pine Beetle damage. A road into the park will help facilitate the movement of additional non-native species into the park, AND add additional pollutants to an already stressed environment. That simply makes no sense.
There are two primary reasons why the road is being considered. The first is economic development. North Carolina would like to see a greater share of the tourism dollars from visitation. They don't have anything to rival Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg (thank goodness for that!) and would like a bigger piece of the economic pie. But does it make any sense to cook the goose that lays the golden eggs? The other reason is access to the cemeteries. When the land was taken in 1943 in preparation to dam the Little Tennessee River to create Fontana Lake, the government promised to build the road. Bear in mind that this was during WWII, and this was a national security issue at the time. 63 years later, the road has still not been built and the Commissioners from Swain County, North Carolina have voted to accept a $52 Million cash settlement from the US Government in order to let this issue die. That is the primary alternative to spending $590 Million to build the road.
Continuing to mosey along the trail, we came to the beautiful Eagle Creek (see photo above). What an incredible area! The creek was crossed on an old metal bridge, and wound through tunnels of Rhododendron. Wow!
Moving along, we finally left the Benton MacKaye Trail (BMT) as the Lakeshore Trail veered to head towards Fontana Dam, and the BMT continued along the Lost Cove Trail towards Shuckstack Mountain. Finally, we arrived at Fontana Dam and our 3-day, 36-mile hike was over. What an amazing trail!
Please take a moment to visit the final audio dispatch from the hike. I hope that you can make the time to visit this area to hike some or all of the Lakeshore Trail! Perhaps our paths will cross somewhere along the way. Until then.... Happy Trails!
Great Places to Hike | By Jeffrey Hunter | 11:39 AM
