Carefully mapping out new hiking routes, packing supplies and backtracking to make sure every square inch of trail is covered may seem like an arduous process for novices, but for Tellico Villager Bev Hawkins, who has now completed her second 900-plus mile romp through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park trail network, that’s just another day in Tennessee and western North Carolina.
Hawkins completed her first “map,” as they are known to enthusiasts, in the summer of 2012 and liked the experience so much she immediately got to work on leg No. 2.
“It was just as much fun,” Hawkins said about her second pass through the system. “It’s really the people that you hike with, I think, and just being outside and the beauty of the area. It’s as fun. I don’t know that I enjoyed it more, but I certainly didn’t enjoy it less. I love hiking.”
After completing the initial 970 miles four years ago, she got her hands on another map and began marking routes for new adventures in the mountains. She said hikers typically get the urge to complete the whole system once they get started on a new map.
“When you get a lot of them done, I’d say you get the fever and you want to do them all,” Hawkins said, noting that the 970 miles actually amounts to about 1,500 in total factoring in backtracking and rerouting.
“You have to hike a lot more to get in all the trails because you have to repeat some,” she said. “A lot of them to get in the middle of the park to hike all those trails that are in there, you start and you’re just hiking the outside trails.”
Despite being a member of the Tellico Village Hikers, the Thursday Hikers and other groups, she doesn’t always have a lot of fellow travelers willing to tackle some of the more lengthy routes. Weather conditions can also be a hindrance, which is why hiking the whole system can take years to complete.
“It’s difficult to find someone even in your group that wants to hike those long ones to be honest,” Hawkins said, noting that one path, from Newfound Gap to Cosby spans more than 25 miles.
That trip takes from “sun up to sun down,” she said.
Dolly Garnett, who has been with the Tellico Village Hikers for 11 years, said becoming a member of the “900 club,” as the elite group of hikers are often called, takes “a lot of dedication,” and plenty of hiking and driving.
“Not just the hiking but driving to get to the hikes” is challenging, Garnett said. Hikers have to “create logistics to get to the hikes because you do shuttles and key swaps and things like that in order to make it all work. (The project takes) a lot of mountain climbing (and) rocky trails.”
Garnett said completing the trail system doesn’t come with much fanfare, and most hikers just do it for “personal satisfaction.”
“It’s a lot of backtracking to do,” she said. “Of course, you can only count a trail one way.”
Hawkins said highlights on the most recent trip included the trek up to Mount Le Conte, along with the Cataloochee and Newfound Gap Road areas. While on the trails, she has seen or had close encounters with numerous wild animals including deer, turkeys, elk and bears.
“The exciting ones are the elk and bear,” she said, noting that the last time she walked up to Gregory Bald in mid-June, she had a close-up experience with a friendlier-than-usual bear.
“A bear crossed the trail I’d say 30 feet right in front of me,” Hawkins said. “He was just kind of looking around. He wasn’t in a big hurry. Usually they are in a big hurry. They see humans, and they’re off into the woods, but this one was not in such a big hurry.”
Although Hawkins has wrapped up her latest long-term hiking project, she quickly got back on the trail, venturing to Rocky Top last week with plans to walk Lumber Ridge Trail and Spruce Flats Falls this week.
“I’m not planning on it, but we’ll see what happens,” she said when asked if she intends to do another 900-mile map. “I certainly do plan on hiking. I will be hiking whether I mark a map or not.”
