Tennessee Part II
Muir next walked southward “across small parallel valleys that flute the surface of the one wide valley” (this being in the Ridge and Valley landscape of the Southern Appalachians) and complained, “The roads never seem to proceed with any fixed purpose, but wander as if lost.” Finally with advice from a Tennessee “gal” to cross over the hill ridges to reach his intended destination of Philadelphia in Loudon County, Tennessee, he “started over the flint-ridges, but soon reached a set of enchanted little valleys.” Muir, upon reaching little Philadelphia, pronounced it to be “a very filthy village in a beautiful location” with forests principally composed of pine, but with abundant black oak and a wide variety of ferns.
My chosen route along Muir’s path was to follow TN Route 72 parallel to the Tennessee River, which is entrenched across the mountain ridges (with names like Hurricane and Paint Rock Ridges) and small intervening valleys. Meandering a bit like Muir, one can cut south from Route 72 toward little Philadelphia under modern Interstate 75 by a set of county roads named Stockton Valley and Pond Creek Roads. From Tennessee’s version of Philadelphia I headed on US Hwy 11 (again, as typical with the evolution of America’s transportation system, parallel and near to Interstate 75 and the Norfolk Southern Railroad). Then, from the town of Sweetwater, I followed Muir to Madisonville on the combination of Frontier Road/TN Hwy 68. Near the summit of a mountain ridge called The Knobs, one can stop to tour the Craighead Caverns and its subterranean Lost Sea, a privately-owned commercial attraction.
Along with Muir’s admiration of the variety of ferns he encountered, he described walking “through many a leafy valley, shady grove, and cool brooklet” on his route to the “brisk village” of Madisonville. There he “(c)ame in full view of the Unaka Mountains, a magnificent sight.” The next day Muir “(m)ade many a halt at open places to take breath and to admire” along the steep climb in the high-elevation mountain range and its “(m)ost glorious billowy mountain scenery.” Muir recounted that “The road, in many places cut into the rock, goes winding about among the knobs and gorges. Dense growth of asters, liatris, and grapevines.” On suggestion by an old mountaineer, who had offered him guest lodging and meals, Muir lingered to visit several local gold and copper mines and quartz mills, doing some botanizing and blacksmithing, and examined a grist mill. From his pause and observations in this area, Muir pronounced “This is the most primitive country I have seen, primitive in everything” even in his comparison with remote areas of his Wisconsin home state. He climbed over the Unicoi Mountain range (with mountain summit elevations as high as 5,560 feet) on the Tennessee/North Carolina state line to witness “scenery far grander than any I ever before beheld,” with vistas over many mountain ranges of the Southern Appalachians. Beyond this Muir used the “Track Gap” (locally named for the volume of tracks left by wildlife, horses, and human travelers) on his way to the “most dangerous” Hiwasee River, which he found to be an impressive mountain river punctuated by rough cascades and upturned rock strata. The Hiawassee River stimulated Muir to proclaim that such mountain streams are “interestingly sculptured, far more than the grandest architectural works of man. The finest of the forests are usually found along their banks, and in the multitude of falls and rapids the wilderness finds a voice. Such a river is the Hiwassee, with its surface broken to a thousand sparkling gems, and its forest walls vine-draped and flowery as Eden. And how fine the song it sings!"
I followed TN Route 68 nearly due south from Madisonville, crossing over numerous small ridges and valleys, and over the Tellico Plains, which serve as the western portal into the Cherokee National Forest . The 640,000 acres comprising this national forest make it the largest tract of public land in the state of Tennessee. The Unicoi Mountains are covered primarily by second-growth mixed hardwood and pine forests. Cove hardwood forests are typically found at the lower elevations along rivers and streams, and chiefly consist of yellow poplar, white oak, red oak, hemlock, and multiple other species. A mixed hardwood-pine forest covers the mountain slopes, and chiefly consists of white oak, red oak, hickory, table mountain pine, pitch pine, and shortleaf pine.
A modern-day traveler, while in this area, may not want to resist temptation to detour significantly east from Muir’s route for the diversions of driving the scenic Foothills Parkway on Chilhowee Mountain and on to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park , where some 800 miles of trails give access to the most biologically diverse unit of our national park system. Or a “higher adventure” wanderer can detour via TN Route 165 from Tellico Plains, TN, to visit the Bald River Gorge Wilderness Area in Cherokee National Forest, and possibly go on into the Nantahala National Forest (in North Carolina) to see the virgin forest remnants in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, or indulge in more off-road hiking experiences in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock National Wilderness Area.
I believe Muir likely climbed up rough mountain roads through what is now Cherokee National Forest to the Unicoi Mountains, the ridgeline of which forms the Tennessee-North Carolina state line. Here a modern-day re-creator may decide not to duplicate Muir’s more likely direct route up and over the high Unicoi mountains, and instead “circumnavigate” around the highest elevations and the TVA impounded Hiwassee River reservoir. The Hiwassee is no longer a wild river. But to be closer to the “true” Muir route, one can depart TN Hwy 68 for the Joe Brown Highway and cross over the Unicois by some very severe and adventuresome, mountainous tertiary roads all the way to the Hiwassee Reservoir dam. I think this is most likely closer to Muir’s actual walking route because it would more directly have taken him to Murphy, NC. From Hiwassee Village continue slightly southwest to connect with NC route 294 in Cherokee County and connect further south with major US Hwy 64/74.
However, another justifiable alternative route for the modern re-creator of Muir’s walk is to depart TN Route 68 north of Tellico Plains and take TN Route 315 (named the Tellico-Reliance Road), trending slightly southwest through the Cherokee National Forest. Near the bridge crossing of Route 315 over the Hiwasee River at the hamlet of Reliance (and below the set of TVA-impounded reservoirs on that river), the U.S. Forest Service has established the John Muir National Recreation Trail (see the Wikipedia description of that trail). This trail is NOT actually on Muir’s walking route, but its location near the Hiwassee River and several other mountain creeks, and its Coker Creek Scenic Area and 40-foot high Coker Creek waterfalls, do provide a sense of the landscape terrain and forest communities that Muir would have witnessed higher in the Unicoi Mountains and further upstream on the now-impounded river. The Forest Service likely elected to establish its John Muir memorial trail here, instead of at his actual crossing point over the Hiwassee, where it is now under a TVA lake.
After a break to hike a part of that 21-mile Muir memorial trail, one can continue on TN Route 30 from Reliance to Parksville Lake (the impounded reservoir of the Ocoee River) and from there follow US Hwy 64/74 upstream (eastward) along the Ocoee on the superior highway all the way to Murphy, NC. If you choose to circumnavigate the highest elevations of the Unicoi Mountains, taking a less direct route than Muir by following US Hwy 64/74, you will pass through the center of the copper mining region of eastern Tennessee—Copperhill and Ducktown—which, after Muir’s time, became notorious for terrible water, air pollution, and widespread annihilation of forest cover due to the mining and refining industry of the later 19th and 20th centuries, from which the region’s forests and waters are only now recovering.
In Tennessee a number of private, citizen-supported organizations have focused on protecting critically important natural areas, enlarging and connecting public parks, establishing and safeguarding the Cumberland Mountains and the Cumberland Trail, and arranging voluntary conservation management agreements with hundreds of private landowners in the eastern part of the Volunteer State. Principal among land conservation groups active in the part of the state where Muir once walked are the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Trust, the Foothills Land Conservancy of east Tennessee, the Land Trust of Tennessee, the national Conservation Fund, and the state chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Also, the Wilderness Society is the major advocate for national wilderness areas designated on federal lands in the Southern Appalachian region.
>>>CONTINUE ON to North Carolina . . .
My chosen route along Muir’s path was to follow TN Route 72 parallel to the Tennessee River, which is entrenched across the mountain ridges (with names like Hurricane and Paint Rock Ridges) and small intervening valleys. Meandering a bit like Muir, one can cut south from Route 72 toward little Philadelphia under modern Interstate 75 by a set of county roads named Stockton Valley and Pond Creek Roads. From Tennessee’s version of Philadelphia I headed on US Hwy 11 (again, as typical with the evolution of America’s transportation system, parallel and near to Interstate 75 and the Norfolk Southern Railroad). Then, from the town of Sweetwater, I followed Muir to Madisonville on the combination of Frontier Road/TN Hwy 68. Near the summit of a mountain ridge called The Knobs, one can stop to tour the Craighead Caverns and its subterranean Lost Sea, a privately-owned commercial attraction.
Along with Muir’s admiration of the variety of ferns he encountered, he described walking “through many a leafy valley, shady grove, and cool brooklet” on his route to the “brisk village” of Madisonville. There he “(c)ame in full view of the Unaka Mountains, a magnificent sight.” The next day Muir “(m)ade many a halt at open places to take breath and to admire” along the steep climb in the high-elevation mountain range and its “(m)ost glorious billowy mountain scenery.” Muir recounted that “The road, in many places cut into the rock, goes winding about among the knobs and gorges. Dense growth of asters, liatris, and grapevines.” On suggestion by an old mountaineer, who had offered him guest lodging and meals, Muir lingered to visit several local gold and copper mines and quartz mills, doing some botanizing and blacksmithing, and examined a grist mill. From his pause and observations in this area, Muir pronounced “This is the most primitive country I have seen, primitive in everything” even in his comparison with remote areas of his Wisconsin home state. He climbed over the Unicoi Mountain range (with mountain summit elevations as high as 5,560 feet) on the Tennessee/North Carolina state line to witness “scenery far grander than any I ever before beheld,” with vistas over many mountain ranges of the Southern Appalachians. Beyond this Muir used the “Track Gap” (locally named for the volume of tracks left by wildlife, horses, and human travelers) on his way to the “most dangerous” Hiwasee River, which he found to be an impressive mountain river punctuated by rough cascades and upturned rock strata. The Hiawassee River stimulated Muir to proclaim that such mountain streams are “interestingly sculptured, far more than the grandest architectural works of man. The finest of the forests are usually found along their banks, and in the multitude of falls and rapids the wilderness finds a voice. Such a river is the Hiwassee, with its surface broken to a thousand sparkling gems, and its forest walls vine-draped and flowery as Eden. And how fine the song it sings!"
I followed TN Route 68 nearly due south from Madisonville, crossing over numerous small ridges and valleys, and over the Tellico Plains, which serve as the western portal into the Cherokee National Forest . The 640,000 acres comprising this national forest make it the largest tract of public land in the state of Tennessee. The Unicoi Mountains are covered primarily by second-growth mixed hardwood and pine forests. Cove hardwood forests are typically found at the lower elevations along rivers and streams, and chiefly consist of yellow poplar, white oak, red oak, hemlock, and multiple other species. A mixed hardwood-pine forest covers the mountain slopes, and chiefly consists of white oak, red oak, hickory, table mountain pine, pitch pine, and shortleaf pine.
A modern-day traveler, while in this area, may not want to resist temptation to detour significantly east from Muir’s route for the diversions of driving the scenic Foothills Parkway on Chilhowee Mountain and on to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park , where some 800 miles of trails give access to the most biologically diverse unit of our national park system. Or a “higher adventure” wanderer can detour via TN Route 165 from Tellico Plains, TN, to visit the Bald River Gorge Wilderness Area in Cherokee National Forest, and possibly go on into the Nantahala National Forest (in North Carolina) to see the virgin forest remnants in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, or indulge in more off-road hiking experiences in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock National Wilderness Area.
I believe Muir likely climbed up rough mountain roads through what is now Cherokee National Forest to the Unicoi Mountains, the ridgeline of which forms the Tennessee-North Carolina state line. Here a modern-day re-creator may decide not to duplicate Muir’s more likely direct route up and over the high Unicoi mountains, and instead “circumnavigate” around the highest elevations and the TVA impounded Hiwassee River reservoir. The Hiwassee is no longer a wild river. But to be closer to the “true” Muir route, one can depart TN Hwy 68 for the Joe Brown Highway and cross over the Unicois by some very severe and adventuresome, mountainous tertiary roads all the way to the Hiwassee Reservoir dam. I think this is most likely closer to Muir’s actual walking route because it would more directly have taken him to Murphy, NC. From Hiwassee Village continue slightly southwest to connect with NC route 294 in Cherokee County and connect further south with major US Hwy 64/74.
However, another justifiable alternative route for the modern re-creator of Muir’s walk is to depart TN Route 68 north of Tellico Plains and take TN Route 315 (named the Tellico-Reliance Road), trending slightly southwest through the Cherokee National Forest. Near the bridge crossing of Route 315 over the Hiwasee River at the hamlet of Reliance (and below the set of TVA-impounded reservoirs on that river), the U.S. Forest Service has established the John Muir National Recreation Trail (see the Wikipedia description of that trail). This trail is NOT actually on Muir’s walking route, but its location near the Hiwassee River and several other mountain creeks, and its Coker Creek Scenic Area and 40-foot high Coker Creek waterfalls, do provide a sense of the landscape terrain and forest communities that Muir would have witnessed higher in the Unicoi Mountains and further upstream on the now-impounded river. The Forest Service likely elected to establish its John Muir memorial trail here, instead of at his actual crossing point over the Hiwassee, where it is now under a TVA lake.
After a break to hike a part of that 21-mile Muir memorial trail, one can continue on TN Route 30 from Reliance to Parksville Lake (the impounded reservoir of the Ocoee River) and from there follow US Hwy 64/74 upstream (eastward) along the Ocoee on the superior highway all the way to Murphy, NC. If you choose to circumnavigate the highest elevations of the Unicoi Mountains, taking a less direct route than Muir by following US Hwy 64/74, you will pass through the center of the copper mining region of eastern Tennessee—Copperhill and Ducktown—which, after Muir’s time, became notorious for terrible water, air pollution, and widespread annihilation of forest cover due to the mining and refining industry of the later 19th and 20th centuries, from which the region’s forests and waters are only now recovering.
In Tennessee a number of private, citizen-supported organizations have focused on protecting critically important natural areas, enlarging and connecting public parks, establishing and safeguarding the Cumberland Mountains and the Cumberland Trail, and arranging voluntary conservation management agreements with hundreds of private landowners in the eastern part of the Volunteer State. Principal among land conservation groups active in the part of the state where Muir once walked are the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Trust, the Foothills Land Conservancy of east Tennessee, the Land Trust of Tennessee, the national Conservation Fund, and the state chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Also, the Wilderness Society is the major advocate for national wilderness areas designated on federal lands in the Southern Appalachian region.
>>>CONTINUE ON to North Carolina . . .
