In which our heroes travel to a trailhead; A ranger is met; A warning given.
In the early morning hours, just after sun rise, a yellow jeep raced through the mist along the winding roads of the mountains of North Carolina. The roads were damp from last nights rain, and glistened in the few areas where the morning sunlight reached the ground. The jeeps tires kicked up dead leaves and excess water off the road, leaving behind a misty cloud, which added to the fog effect.
The mist was no surprise. The vegetation in the Smoky Mountains exhale a fog of organic compounds that form vapors at normal temperatures. As a result, the ridges and valleys often look like they are covered in a dense fog. This fog can look like smoke from a distance, and that has given these mountains their name: The Smokies.
The mist was no surprise. The vegetation in the Smoky Mountains exhale a fog of organic compounds that form vapors at normal temperatures. As a result, the ridges and valleys often look like they are covered in a dense fog. This fog can look like smoke from a distance, and that has given these mountains their name: The Smokies.
The fog also gives the mountains a sense of heaviness and foreboding. The perfect backdrop in which to solve a mystery.
“Take it easy, bro. It’s hard to see with all this mist.” Billy admonished his brother from the passenger seat. “I’d hate to run into wildlife on this road, or slide off it completely.”
“Relax, man, I got this, OK?” Ted replied. “What’s the worst than can happen?”
Just as he spoke those words they drove around a blind corner to find several deer standing in the middle of the road.
“Watch out!” Billy yelled, ducking. One of the deer jumped over the jeep, barely clearing it. Ted swerved into the far lane to avoid the remaining deer. Once passed the danger, he swerved back into the proper lane.
Billy glared at his brother.
“Oh… THAT is the worst that could happen!” Ted smiled sheepishly at his brother, as he pressed on the brakes to slow down.
“Geez, that was a close one.” He muttered to himself.
“That was intense, bro”, Billy said. “These mountains can be treacherous if you are not careful. Take it easy, OK?”
“Yeah, yeah” Ted replied, “I get your point.”
The differences in personalities between the two brothers sometimes got on each others nerves, but they both admitted that it made them a great team. Billy was the older brother, and tended to act more responsibly. Ted liked to joke around and often took things a little more cavalier.
They had lived in the same house in the western North Carolina town of Brysonville their entire lives.
Despite still living in the family home with their parents, the boys were often left alone. Their father worked in the petroleum industry, and recently was spending a lot of time in the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. Their mother, an accomplished fiction author, was in the middle of a multi-month trip to Europe to do background research for her next book, which was based on a band of rogue knights in medieval England.
Both brothers were enrolled in Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Billy was in third year Engineering, and Ted was first year Computer Science. Billy hoped one day to build bridges. Ted has his eyes set on being a Site Reliability Engineer at Google.
As far as they could remember the brothers had been inseparable. They both fostered a huge sense of adventure, and a penchant for getting themselves into trouble. Neither boy was overly athletic, but they had always loved spending time outdoors, often spending hours hiking the trails that ran thru the hills around their hometown during their childhood.
Both boys discovered geocaching just over three years ago while exploring some hiking forums on the Internet. They found the idea that there was a semi-secretive global community of people that were hiding containers in various places in the world and posting the GPS coordinates online for others to find absolutely fascinating. They knew they had to give this geocaching thing a try.
That evening they loaded up their smart phones with a geocaching app and discovered there were dozens of caches in their small town. Better yet, there were many caches along the very trails that they have been exploring since they were barely old enough to walk.
By breakfast the next day they had found their first geocache, which turned out to be an ammo can hidden in a grove of trees in a small park beside City Hall. They were hooked instantly, and never looked back.
Some geocaches are easy to get to, and easy to find, others are a lot harder. They are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for both difficulty i.e. how hard it is to find the container once you are at the GPS coordinates, and terrain i.e. how hard it is to get to the coordinates, also known as ground zero. Some geocaches are simple containers hidden at the coordinates, others involve solving complex puzzles to get the coordinates for a container hidden nearby. The geocache the boys were attempting is the most complex and difficult puzzle cache the boys had ever attempted - definitely deserving of its difficulty 5, terrain 5 rating.
Some geocaches are easy to get to, and easy to find, others are a lot harder. They are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for both difficulty i.e. how hard it is to find the container once you are at the GPS coordinates, and terrain i.e. how hard it is to get to the coordinates, also known as ground zero. Some geocaches are simple containers hidden at the coordinates, others involve solving complex puzzles to get the coordinates for a container hidden nearby. The geocache the boys were attempting is the most complex and difficult puzzle cache the boys had ever attempted - definitely deserving of its difficulty 5, terrain 5 rating.
They had been working on The Legend Of Dawson’s Mine ever since the cache was published online this past Labour Day. Each cache in the series has a high difficulty and terrain rating, many of them requiring the boys to think outside the box, and/or exerting large physical efforts. Most of them required the better part of the day to complete, so it had taken the boys over six weeks to get this far. Now, with the solved coordinates in hand, they are finally ready to find the final cache in the series.
About 30 minutes after the run-in with the deer, the boys pulled into a parking area along the side of the road. Many of the mountain roads had pull-offs with parking so tourists could stop and take in the magnificent views that the Smoky Mountains provided. They also served as parking for the many trailheads in the area. The boys were here for the latter.
The boys piled out of the jeep, and started getting their gear together. They had a 14 mile round trip hike ahead of them, and they needed to be prepared. Both boys were experienced hikers, and armed themselves with day packs containing food, water, first aid kits, trail maps, compasses, extra batteries, flashlights, lighters, and various other bits useful for surviving a day deep in the woods. They also brought along their GPS’s - an essential tool of the geocacher. Each boy also had custom made hiking sticks, crafted out of hickory, to provide stability on the rough trails and to fend off any wild animals they may encounter.
Just as the boys were ready to hit the trail a pickup truck pulled in beside them. A forest ranger popped out of the drivers side door.
“Heya, boys!” the ranger greeted them in a friendly manner. “Planning on going for a hike today?”
“Heya, boys!” the ranger greeted them in a friendly manner. “Planning on going for a hike today?”
“Yes Sir!” Billy replied.
“Where y’all headed?” he asked politely.
“We are headed up to Burkes Peak. We should be back by nightfall.”
Park rangers spend a lot of time rescuing people. Often city folk who wake up one day and think a long walk thru the mountains would be just the thing to pick up their spirits and break up the monotony that is their bleak suburban lives. On a whim they head off into the wild for a “quick 10 mile walk”, while being no more prepared than they would be for the 200 foot walk from their cars into the local shopping mall. It is only when they are 5 miles down the trail, and night has fallen, that they realize the closest Starbucks is 30 miles away, and they are, in essence, royally screwed. It is only then that they consider the implications of their actions, and frantically call the park rangers to demand a rescue operation be launched ASAP.
“We are headed up to Burkes Peak. We should be back by nightfall.”
Park rangers spend a lot of time rescuing people. Often city folk who wake up one day and think a long walk thru the mountains would be just the thing to pick up their spirits and break up the monotony that is their bleak suburban lives. On a whim they head off into the wild for a “quick 10 mile walk”, while being no more prepared than they would be for the 200 foot walk from their cars into the local shopping mall. It is only when they are 5 miles down the trail, and night has fallen, that they realize the closest Starbucks is 30 miles away, and they are, in essence, royally screwed. It is only then that they consider the implications of their actions, and frantically call the park rangers to demand a rescue operation be launched ASAP.
This ranger, seeking to avoid these late night manhunts, was concerned for the boys safety and questioned them about their plans. After a few minutes back and forth, the boys had convinced him that they knew what they were doing and were properly prepared for the journey.
“The trails are in pretty good shape,“ the ranger said in response to Ted's question about the conditions they may face. “It rained a little last night, so it may be a little muddy in spots, but nothing that should cause you fellas too much difficulty. We just fixed some issues by the covered bridge on Brysons Bridge Trail caused by all the rains we got in July, so you shouldn’t have any issues there either. Otherwise you’d have had to ford the creek.”
“Good to know!“ Billy said, “Looks like we timed this perfectly.”
The ranger gave the boys his cell phone number, and asked them to report back if they noticed any issues on the trail. Then the ranger returned to his truck and started to drive off. The boys shouldered their packs and headed towards the trail.
The ranger gave the boys his cell phone number, and asked them to report back if they noticed any issues on the trail. Then the ranger returned to his truck and started to drive off. The boys shouldered their packs and headed towards the trail.
“Oh, one more thing boys!” The boys turned to see that the the ranger had stopped the truck, rolled down the truck window and was calling after them. “We’ve gotten some reports of an old man up on those trails. No one knows quite who he is, but some folks reported seeing him acting a tad bit strange. If you happen to run across him, you be sure to give him a wide berth, and let me know as well. I’d hate to see anything happen to you fellas.”
The ranger then rolled up his window and drove off.
The boys gave each other quizzical looks as if to say “what the heck was that all about?” then they checked their GPSs, turned towards the trailhead, and started to walk.
The boys gave each other quizzical looks as if to say “what the heck was that all about?” then they checked their GPSs, turned towards the trailhead, and started to walk.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Copyright 2015 by Dave DeBaeremaeker. All Rights Reserved.
