Ingrid's brother Ron is visiting for a few days, up from Acworth, GA. He's been everywhere, it seems, including thoroughly visiting this area of western NC. On his recommendation, we traveled to a lightly visited corner of the Great Smoky Mountains NP known as Cataloochee. It was a successful and remote settlement for about a century (roughly 1830 to 1930) before becoming part of the new national park. There are a few remaining buildings from that era, well preserved. The highlight of the day was a long loop hike around the Boogerman Trail and the Caldwell Fork Trail. The forest was in full early-summer green. The Boogerman Trail rose up from the valley floor in a long gradual ascent on a duff-lined path that made for easy hiking. The Caldwell Fork Trail was buggy (but not too bad on that count) and included six knee-high fordings of the river (plus several more across log bridges). Although Ron and I dutifully took off shoes and socks to cross barefoot for the first several crossings, by the end, we were all resigned to walking in wet shoes.
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