This is an article about Hazel Creek located in the GSMNP. The article was written by Al Smith. I cut out some info. but here is the site of the article.
http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/11_06/11_08_06/op_backpacking.html
I found the article in the Smoky Mountain News 11/8/06. I know it is long.
I’ve just come back from my an extended backpacking trip to the Hazel Creek area and feel more like I’ve visited a KOA Campground than a backcountry camping area. There are only five backcountry sites along Hazel Creek Trail, and all but one looked like car-camping central. I was dismayed by the presence of all of the blue tarpaulins — each looking nearly large enough to cover a quarter acre lot.
Beneath most could be found an array of 8-person tents, pot racks, ice chests, deep fat fryers, lawn chairs, food prep tables, propane cylinders, gas-fired lanterns and battery-powered radios. One set-up in the campsite where I’d made my reservation looked so extensive that I just had to inquire of its occupants how they lugged all that stuff into the backcountry, since the nearest mechanized transport system (boats) was some 6.5 miles down the trail.
They didn’t. The horses did it. This outfit had hired the services of a string of cart horses from Fontana to be led more than 11 miles to the boat docking area near the start of Hazel Creek Trail. This string of horses came in from Fontana via the Lakeshore Hiking Trail — further trampling an already overused hiking trail into a worse series of mud bogs and eroded slopes.
I watched one group fry more than three dozen lovely trout fresh just that day from the surrounding waters. That was just the first batch. More fish were in the cooler waiting for their turn in the fry pans. You might think I was just jealous because I had to subsist on freeze-dried fare reconstituted with water boiled in a 6-ounce titanium pot atop my tiny one-burner backcountry stove. I sat on a nearby rock while waiting for the water to boil. The meal was washed-down with filtered water from the creek and dessert was yet another granola bar as I listened to my camping neighbors living it up on humor enhanced by several six-packs of beer and multiple bottles of tequila while their radio competed with the roar of the adjacent creek.
I then got to spend my nights in a one-person tent that was periodically engulfed by drifting smoke from my camping neighbors’ simulated forest fires. My morning meal was a couple of packs of instant oatmeal consumed while smelling the wafting aromas of frying bacon and eggs with hash brown potatoes washed down with fresh-brewed coffee and orange juice.
I believe the time has come for the National Park Service to re-look and re-define what constitutes an acceptable method of getting camping gear into the backcountry. In my view it should not be via horse-drawn trailers. I think that any type of mechanical conveyance should be prohibited. If they want to car camp then let them go someplace other than the backcountry. Those of us who hike into the backcountry have a reasonable expectation of a backcountry-esque experience — not something akin to Fifth Avenue in New York City during lunch hour.
(Al Smith is a retired environmental engineer who has become an avid hiker and amateur wildflower photographer. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park is one of his favorite areas to visit and since 1996 he has logged more than 2,200 miles along hiking trails in the Smokies. He lives in Maryville, Tenn., and can be reached at tnhiker@earthlink.net.)
Bilko