Feature article
|
 |
|
 |
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest preserves forests of old
By Doug Janz
 |
A hike in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is not challenging. In fact, it’s not even a hike, it’s a stroll. The biggest danger comes from tripping over a rock or a root while you stare up at the gargantuan trees that seem to reach the sky.
Even though there’s not actually anything “to do” while you’re on the main trail except look at the forest, that’s exactly the point. The JKMF wasn’t designated for outdoor adventure. It was created more for meditation and serenity, and to enable us to appreciate how forests look when man leaves them alone. To that end, it’s a great visit.
The 3,800-acre wilderness contains a two-mile, two-trail, figure-eight loop that takes visitors through an old-growth sanctuary containing trees more than 20 feet around, well over 100 feet high and more than 400 years old. They are the Southeast’s answer to the sequoia or the redwoods of the West.
The ground is covered with moss, ferns, rhododendron, mountain laurel, azalea and much more. Like any forest, this one has a different personality for each season.
Joyce Kilmer MF has an interesting history. It’s a small corner of the Nantahala National Forest, located on the bottom side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is an area teeming with outdoor activity, particularly paddling, mountain biking, hiking, hunting and fishing. It contains some of the best trails and whitewater in the South, and that generates its own atmosphere and prevailing attitude.
The designated memorial forest is surrounded by land that was logged by timber companies in the early 1900s, but this nook was spared. The loggers themselves felt it was special, and it remained untouched even as logging took place nearby. Finally, with equipment on site to begin the job, the timber companies got word the land had been purchased by the federal government (at about eight times the normal rate) in order to be preserved.
Walking through the massive oaks, poplars, sycamores and beech, you can imagine how loggers must have felt — dollar signs in their eyes as they calculated how many board feet they could net from these giants, but sadness in their hearts at the thought of this quiet, almost distinguished place being cut down. There are trees formed before the 1600s, and the ones that have fallen show their age in the many growth rings on the inside.
Some of the trees are so large they require several people standing around the tree, arms extended and connected, to ring the circumference. It’s hard to hug these trees in the conventional sense. Humans seem incredibly small next in context.
The detail in the bark lines is deep and fascinating. There is more character to these trees than anything you’ll find just about anywhere.
The great limbs, which don’t begin until 80 feet up, are gnarled like old fingers, but they’re as big as most trees at the base. Set high against the sky, they make for a classic sight. When you walk through the forest, you have to stop to stare up at this stuff; otherwise, you’ll fall on your face if you keep moving. And these trees look good from different angles and various distances, making it worthwhile to study them before and after you reach them.
It is a wilderness area, meaning it’s not developed but is being preserved in as close to a natural state as possible. The loop trails at the main parking lot/trailhead are the exception. You’ll cross a wooden footbridge here and there, and after storms, any blowdown is cut away by hand since no power tools are used in the JKMF. At the trailhead, there’s a kiosk containing maps and short history lessons, as well as a memorial for Joyce Kilmer himself (that’s right, a man.)
Kilmer was a soldier, poet and nature lover. He was killed in combat in World War I, but not before he wrote one of the most famous American poems, “Trees,” containing the opening lines “I think that I shall never see / a poem lovely as a tree.”
The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is accessible to all ages, and because of that, it sometimes draws a crowd. On beautiful days, serenity may be fleeting, but it remains a quiet, special experience. Autumn is a great time to visit, but as I wandered the trails and put my hand on the great trees, I realized anytime is ideal to see this place.
It took us about three hours to get there from Johnson City. We went through Asheville, N.C., took Interstate 40 West and eventually went to Robbinsville. From there, follow the signs. It’s not exactly “on the way” to anywhere; you have to want to find the forest to get there, but that’s part of the beauty of it.
--------GoTriCities--------
Doug Janz writes about outdoor adventures in the Tri-Cities and beyond for GoTriCities. E-mail him at DouglasJanz@aol.com.
|
|
|
|
|
