Travel Experiences with Jeff Barganier
Only God Can Make a Tree Hiking the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
Ever since I read naturalist William Bartram’s book describing his travels in the American South 1773 1777, I have longed to experience a Southern old-growth forest like Joyce Kilmer Memorial Plaque those he wrote about. There’s a ginormous tree in the Sipsey Wilderness of Northwest Alabama that I’ve never been able to find. But Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest near Robbinsville in Western North Carolina, offers easy access to some giant trees. Joyce Kilmer wrote the poem “Trees” before being killed in action during World War I. He was 32. I had to see his memorial and the trees in his forest. This is how it happened: I always take the scenic route, so Cindy and I are cruising the backroads through Rockford, Sylacauga, Oxford, Jacksonville, Piedmont and Centre—inching our way toward North Georgia and, eventually, Western North Carolina. I’m negotiating curves behind the wheel of my new Accord Sport Limited Edition. Cindy whines and clutches her seat. If only in my imagination—and I have an active imagination—this car performs like an authentic sports car. The driver’s side window of my former ‘01 Accord malfunctioned on a recent writing assignment to Guntersville. I had to Gorilla-tape it shut and crawl in and out of the back door. Embarrassing. So, I bit
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the bullet and bought another, sportier Accord. FYI, it’s not red. Details. Cindy wants to know where we’re staying. She laughs when I tell her I booked a great deal—$45 at the Gremlin Inn. “When you see an old man with tobacco juice dripping down his chin, you’ll know we’re getting close,” I say. I told her something like that on a previous writing assignment to Black Berry Farm in Eastern
Sports where owner Tyler Daniel tells us about the nearby lost village of Congo, named in remembrance of famous Christian missionary and abolitionist, Dr. David Livingstone. Daniel says there may even be a movement afoot by locals to bring Congo back.
Between Rome and Ellijay, Georgia, there aren’t many opportunities for food or gas; but GPS soon zips us through Murphy and Robbinsville, NC to the trailhead of the Joyce Kilmer Forest. Once there, we head straight for the latrine and get in line behind fellow tree enthusiasts Ken and Beth of Knoxville. Discovering we have much in common, Ken, Beth, Cindy and I set out together absorbed in conversation, searching for tall timber. Not far up the trail, we make a mistake and fork right. Despite a sign on a tree warning us we’re not on the right trail, we continue for a mile or so, meeting people who tell us, “There aren’t any big trees along this trail.” The girls Jeff Between 2 Old-Growth Trees decide to turn Tennessee. If you wish to read that back but Ken story, visit www.cindybarganier.com and I stubbornly and scroll down to the picture of the press on. After a guy swinging a tennis racket. It’s one long slog along a of my better stories. fern-covered path through briars We stop in Anniston for lunch and poison ivy, at Classic on Noble—crystal Ken and I turn chandeliers, white tablecloths, back, too. On antique buffets filled with heirloom the way back, silver—old-fashioned Southern we encounter charm, excellent shrimp and grits. hikers who tell Jeff at Little River Canyon us the trail goes Cindy’s never seen Little River Canyon. six miles to an overlook. We’re beat and So, after lunch, we take a detour farther still haven’t seen an old-growth tree. north and test my new wheels on the But Ken and I are determined to return twisting perimeter of “Alabama’s Grand in the morning and take the right trail. Canyon” near Fort Payne. Departing Meanwhile, turns out, we’re all staying the canyon, we stop by True Adventure at the Historic Tapoco Lodge not far from
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