Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Day 2 [Hazel Creek Trail, Bone Valley Trail, Proctor]


We awoke to find a dampness permeating the air, our gear, and well...basically everything. We were fairly certain in hadn't rained the prior evening, but it felt as though it had. The famed humidity of the Smokies was living up to its reputation. We made some coffee and began to break down our camp. After a brief chat with our only neighbors from the previous evening, a couple of fisherman, we set out to make the required mileage for the day.

We started out along the creek and continued a little over a mile, until we reached Campsite 83 (Bone Valley). We conversed with a couple more fisherman, who would be spending the night there. Leaving our packs on the bear cables, we side-tripped down the Bone Valley Trail (a 3.6-mile round trip). There were several water crossings, with a couple of them being pretty deep. It being May, the water was moving pretty quickly, but after our initial stint on the Hazel Creek Trail, we were already somewhat acclimated to it.


 

At the end of the Bone Valley Trail is the Hall Cabin. For a structure presumed to have been built around 1880, I would actually say it's in remarkable shape. We had a snack on the front steps before doing a little more exploring around the homestead. A final stop at the nearby cemetery, and it was back to Campsite 83 to retrieve our packs. One of the local fisherman had told us that the National Parks Service maintains the graves in the numerous cemeteries within the park and still brings in the families to decorate the graves on an annual basis. After acquiring this knowledge, we made it a point to visit subsequent cemeteries that weren't too far off of our intended path.


 


After gathering our packs, it was off towards Proctor. By this stage, we had completed our water crossings for the day. Unlike the upper portion, the lower portion of the Hazel Creek Trail offered sturdy bridges where the trail crossed the creek. We were told this was to facilitate transportation to the aforementioned cemeteries in this portion of the park. Whatever the reason, we were thankful for the reprieve from consistently wet feet. 


 

We stopped to explore a few of the old buildings around the Proctor area and briefly visited the Calhoun House before crossing the creek for the final time on Day 2 and making the short walk to Campsite 86. For those of you unfamiliar with the history, Proctor was flooded by the creation of the Fontana Dam, during World War II. The dam was constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority, in partnership with Alcoa, to meet the nation's wartime needs for alumninum. Thousands of families and grave sites, as well as more than 60 miles of road, needed to be relocated due to the project. It is fascinating to see the juxtaposition of civilization and nature in this type of setting.

We again shared our campsite with some friendly local fisherman. After being directed to the spring and collecting our water for the evening, we made dinner (see the separate blog post for our beef stroganoff reviews), enjoyed a campfire, and retired listening to the sounds of rushing water for the second evening in a row. 

Check out the YouTube video!


 

 

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