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Hiking Memoirs of James E. Byler
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 Hiking Memoirs of James E. BylerFirst Backpacking Experience Thirteen years ago in the fall of 1985, Jennie's son, Jeremy, and I set out on our first hiking / backpacking trip. This was soon after I lost exactly half my body weight--one hundred and fifty-seven and a half pounds. I had gained back some of the weight lost, but I was still in great shape. I had always wanted to go backpacking, but my weight kept me from doing so prior to this time. Jeremy and I had no hiking skills whatsoever at this point. We attempted the Lower Cane Loop trail at Fall Creek Falls. It was a twelve mile trek that covered moderate to strenuous terrain. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being easy and 5 being difficult, I would rate this trail as a 4. We obtained our hiking permit at the nature center, which I have kept all these years, parked my truck at the head of the park's two overnight trails, and began our first backpacking experience. We made it to the first backcountry camping site without a hitch and joined several other backpackers who were also undertaking the trail. Somewhat tired from our first jaunt, we slept late into the next day, and we were the last party to leave the campsite. Just before descending into the gorge and about a mile or so from the campsite area, we came upon some trees that were naturally marked with white splotches similar to the trail blazes that we had been following. Because we were backpacking late in the fall, the foot path of the trail was completely covered over with leaves. We separated from one another just long enough to attempt the retracing of our steps. After an hour or so, we discovered some red blazes and started following them. These blazes took us away from the gorge, and brought us into rougher and rougher terrain. Nonetheless, we followed them relentlessly until we reached a point where the trail made a seemingly impossible drop almost straight down. While surveying the situation, I slipped and fell onto a small ledge about five feet off the top of the ridge. A couple of feet further, I would have fallen an additional forty to fifty feet, probably to my death. In a panic I took my pack off and hoisted it up to Jeremy. With my partner's assistance I somehow managed to climb up away from the ledge. At this point we determined that we had been following the boundary of the park instead of the trail. Nightfall was setting in, and we had to find a place to set up camp. Before we could manage to get our campsite secured, however, an unexpected rain came upon us and the temperature dropped considerably. We shared a small, inexpensive tent, and it leaked somewhat. Moreover, being the novice that I was, I had not even packed a spare set of clothing. We rationed our food and water as best as we could, and retired for the night. Wet, near exhaustion, and scared, we did not get much sleep that night. The next morning we broke camp in the cold rain. We retraced our path to the best of our ability following the red blazes back down the steep terrain The ground was saturated and muddy. Some of the slopes that we had backpacked the day before were now treacherously slick. In some places we even had to wrap cord around the trees and walk backwards down to the bottom of the slopes. To make the situation even worse, between the cold and the dampness, our exhaustion and our nerves, we both became abruptly sick and near dehydration, Jeremy vomiting and I with diarrhea. Finally, we came to an old access road, and we followed it away from the gorge. Within a few hours of hiking down the old dirt road, we met the rangers who had been frantically searching for us. Relieved but fatigued we removed our packs, placed them in the back of the jeep and crawled aboard finally headed for civilization. The road was so narrow that we had to ride in reverse the majority of the drive out. We were such "green horns" that we refused to drink from a partially consumed coke despite the fact that we were somewhat starved and thirsty. Upon making it back to the ranger station, we called our panic stricken family, rested up, and headed back to "home sweat home." Amazingly enough, Jeremy's mother allowed me to take him out for another backpacking trip to Fall Creek Falls. In the following spring of 1986, we spent a week there backpacking, camping and day hiking. We backpacked both overnight trails for a total of 25 miles. We also hiked every day hiking trail for a total of over 36 miles all told. We rode down the bicycle trails, went paddle boating, and did everything else we could find to do in the park with the exception of horse back riding. And thus my love for hiking / backpacking was launched. Most Humorous I reflect back on this instance often as it is a belly buster now but wasn't so funny at the time. A few years ago, Jennie and I and our two dogs, Brandy and Mattie, were hiking on a snow covered trail at Big South Fork during a very frigid winter day. I would rate this as a 2. Neither of us has ever been able to afford specialty outdoor clothing as it is so expensive. To survive we use the "layers" approach. This was before the days of my taking Coumadin, which is a blood anti-coagulant that most people equate to a blood thinner. The Coumadin made me feel much colder than usual for a quite some time after I started taking it. At any rate, I was very hot natured at this time. Nonetheless, the temperature was so cold that I used long johns as a second layer for my bottom half. I'm pretty sure that we were hiking at Big South Fork in Tennessee on a trail paralleling one side of the river. Anyway, we were about two or three miles into the trail when I told Jennie that I was getting so hot I could no longer stand the extreme warmth and, consequently, the excessive sweating. We were near some boulders adjacent to the trail so I walked behind a one to remove the long johns. I was standing on my hiking boots to keep from standing in the snow butt naked from the waist down in the freezing cold when Mattie rounded the comer to check up on me. At first glance she commenced to growling ferociously as she obviously did not recognize me. I guess she thought that I had done something to her master or at least was a threat to him. My first thought was, "oh heck, I'm about to be attacked and mauled by my own dog!" Of course, I was somewhat defenseless standing there naked in the snow. I frantically hollered at Mattie several times until she finally recognized that I was, in fact, her master. She looked at me as to say, "you fool, what are you doing standing back here in the cold with your clothes off'? Needless to say I finished redressing as soon as I could and resumed my trek on down the trail. Most Enjoyable In February 1993 Jennie, myself and our two dogs made an overnight visit to the Charitt Creek Hostel within the Tennessee side of Big South Fork. The access trail leading to the Hostel consisted of a straight up and down trek. I would rate the trail as a 4. We had inquisitively visited the area prior to this experience once before and loved it. The hostel is a lodge in the middle of the woods that has no running water or electricity. Jennie and I saved our money to make the lesser expensive stay in which we provided our own bed linens and meals. We took the shortest route to the hostel which is about nine tenths of a mile straight down. The access trail consisted of several switchbacks in order to ensure the safest possible journey. At the bottom of the trail, a stream with water rushing over rocks had to be crossed. Despite my best efforts, I, being Mr. Uncoordinated, always managed to slip off into the cold water. Jennie, on the other hand, skipped across with poise and grace. I had loaded Mattie down with a backpack of her own, and we had to carry her pack across by hand in order to coerce her into crossing over. Each room would hold six to eight people. But because we had the dogs, we were given a room to ourselves. The room was complete with bunks and a wood burning stove including plenty of wood to spare. The lodge provided a kitchen in which to prepare our food (after the higher paying customers finished with their meals). We were also provided with cozy self-contained bathrooms. The ambience of the lodge was that of tranquility and solitude. It was a most pleasurable experience, a paradise of sorts. The only thing missing was a romantic interlude of intimacy. But Jennie was quick to remind me that we did not have our partners. And that was that. The evening brought about a chill in the air. Being the novice that I was in operating a wood stove, we must have gone through a forth of a large stack of wood trying to keep the room warm. I later learned that by keeping the door to the stove closed, we were losing all of our heat up the stove pipe. But we had our sleeping bags, and aside from being a little chilly, we were quite comfy. We let the wind whisking through the trees lull us to sleep. Indeed, we had spent a night in ecstasy. The next morning we rose, ate a good breakfast, and enjoyed the serenity of the surroundings. After absorbing as much of the enchanting experience as we could stand, we packed up our gear and headed out. Going down the access trail to the hostel was rough enough, but going back up was exhausting at best. And of course, in an attempt to avoid the slippery rocks that provided a bridge to the other side of the stream, I dropped off in a hole of ice cold water about three feet deep. Consequently, I wore saturated clothing all the way back up the ascent. But all in all, this was undoubtedly the best hiking adventure we had ever experienced. We left the hostel with a new sense of peacefulness. |
