Joyce Kilmer Memorial/Slickrock Creek Wilderness- part 1

"I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree...."

Background
Joyce Kilmer, a poet & WWI hero, was honored by Congress when a VFW post in New York lobbied to have a stand of forest set aside in his name. This all occurred during the early twentieth century when America was accelerating it’s development and many of our forests were being aggressively logged. (According to the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club’s website, almost all of the state of West Virginia was clear cut during this time in our history! article) As most of the stands of “virgin”, old growth forest in the eastern US were disappearing, the search for an appropriate stand of forest to honor Kilmer was underway.


In 1935, a small forest in southwestern North Carolina was identified as a possibility. This section of forest had for the most part had escaped the logger’s saws and axes. Access to the area was limited when a railway bridge was washed out during a flood. In addition, the economic crisis of 1929 significantly decreased the price of timber. Since this area contained one of the few remaining tracts of virgin hardwood in the Appalachians, Congress acted to protect the forest and the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest was established. The forest is part of a larger wilderness area that includes the Slickrock Wilderness in NC and the adjacent Citico Wilderness in TN. Total acreage for the combined wilderness is 33,620 acres.


The Trip
I had originally planned a backpacking trip into this area in 1999, but the plans were “washed out” due to weather. Finally, in late summer of 2007 the trip was back on! We planned the trip to start from the Joyce Kilmer Memorial parking lot and hike a combination of trails in a figure 8 loop that would allow us to minimize hiking any portion of the trail twice. Our plan was to cover about 20 miles over the 3 day Labor Day holiday. The trails were “Naked Ground”(red), “Slickrock Creek”(red), “Haoe Lead”(red) and “Stratton Bald”(blue) trails. The Jenkins Meadow trail was also an option if we found we needed an alternative route back to the car.

All in all, this was an extraordinary adventure. The forest and scenery are some of the best that I have experienced and I plan to explore more of the wilderness in the future. However, during the past few years as my backpacking experience has increased, I have realized that there always are factors that affect the trip that aren't expected during the planning stages. As with most things, experience leads to better preparation.

While we spent weeks planning & training for the trip, we didn’t anticipate some of what we encountered. Portions of the trail were significantly more steep and challenging than we expected. Water sources were minimal in some areas due to drought conditions. Each individual’s experience and preparation for the physical demands of the trail varied. As we hiked, our plans changed....