A Walk With Friends, May 25th

So I'm in Crossville meeting w/ some friends and Beth walks in the room. After she greets some folks I say hello to which she replies, "I'm going hiking tomorrow on Alum cave Trail, wanna go?". "Sure", I say. Who, when, and where, is worked out and we meet the next morning, pick up her nephew, Allen, and headed to the mountains for a glorious day in the woods. Of course this being a holiday wknd., the GSMNP would be packed so we got started relatively early. This was Allens first time on the Alum Cave Trail and it had been several years since Beth had been here. They both enjoyed the natural beauty of the streams and rock formations especially Arch Rock. As well as the bright greens of the new plant life. We hiked up to the cave and sat for a few minutes and enjoyed the view. After which we picked up and continued to 'Gracies Pulpit', (see 'Hiking Trails of The Smokies'), ate some PB&J sandwiches which Beth had brought along and took some pictures. We really enjoyed the awesome views across the valley looking off the "pulpit" towards the Lower Ledges, which is part of the 4 peaks which make up LeConte. As more folks stopped we gave up our seats on the pulpit and began our descent back to the trailhead. As we did so we let pass 2 very large groups of hikers. The first, we learned were mostly of Korean ancestry and were part of a group of over 100, and the next about a 1/2 mile behind them were from colleges all over the country and belonged to some interdenominational group.
Rock on! Let's hope they all take some appreciation and urgency back to wherever they traveled from, be it Kansas or Korea, for the need to write, call, or e-mail, Washington and local officials, and participate in stopping the wasteful destruction of public and private habitat across the globe. Peace