title: Cherokee National Forest Hiking Guide (Outdoor Tennessee Series)
author: William H. Skelton
description: <DIV>First published in 1992, Cherokee National Forest Hiking Guide has been a vitalcompanion to thousands who have explored the 640,000-acre Cherokee National Forest. This second edition has been substantially expanded to cover all hiking trails in the forest as of 2003.Stretching across the Tennessee?North Carolina state line, the Cherokee NationalForest includes much of the western slopes of the southern Appalachian Mountains,north and south of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The area encompasses atremendous diversity of wildlife, vegetation, and scenic vistas of high mountain peaks and beautiful creeks, waterfalls, and valleys.Almost two hundred described and mapped trails and footpaths wind throughout this wildlife haven, inviting everyone who loves the outdoors-- hikers, backpackers, hunters, anglers, and horseback riders-- to explore its natural beauty. The Cherokee National Forest Hiking Guide provides maps and specific directions along with a wealth of general information on the forest's present and past wildlife, vegetation, and geology, as well as a history of the forest's human inhabitants-- including the political battles that have been waged to protect the forest.Featuring a new foreword by Senator Lamar Alexander, this book remains the definitiveguide to this expansive and alluring landscape sure to thrill outdoorsmen for manygenerations to come.William H. Skelton, a Knoxville attorney who has served as chairman of the Harvey Broome Group and the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, vice-chairman of former Governor Lamar Alexander's Commission on Tennesseans Outdoors, and coordinator of the Cherokee National Forest Wilderness Coalition, is currently chairman of the Knoxville Greenways Commission and an active environmentalist.</DIV>
zlib_text: Dedication
  FOR MY CHEROKEE GRANDFATHER, ROY IVORY VANN, 1904–1991, WHO
  HUNTED EACH YEAR ON GOAT MOUNTAIN, AND ALL HIS ANCESTORS, INCLUDING
  CHIEFS DAVID VANN, JAMES VANN, AND JOSEPH VANN
  
  Contents
  Dedication
   
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3
  Chapter 4
  Chapter 5
  Chapter 6
  Chapter 7
  Chapter 8
  Chapter 9
  Chapter 10
  Chapter 11
  Chapter 12
  Chapter 13
  Chapter 14
  Chapter 15
  Chapter 16
  Chapter 17
  Chapter 18
  Chapter 19
  Chapter 20
  Chapter 21
  Chapter 22
  Chapter 23
  Chapter 24
  
   
  Acknowledgments
  About the Author
  Also by David Vann
  Credits
  Copyright
  About the Publisher
  
  1
  DUST LIKE POWDER BLANKETING THE AIR, MAKING A reddish apparition of the
  day. Smell of that dust and smell of pine, smell of doveweed. The pickup a
  segmented creature, head twisting opposite the body. A sharp bend and I
  nearly tumbled off the side.
  Kneeling on a mattress tied over the pickup bed, all the camping gear
  beneath. Northern California, 1978. Gripping through lurches and bends, the
  metal hot even in morning. Switchbacks up the 