Georgia Wilderness Society
Adventures in the Smokey Mountain National Park
June 5 - 9, 2023
Nine adventurers camped in seven tents in the Elkmont Group campsite #3, Smoky Mountain National Park, on this Synchronous Firefly trip, Monday, June 5th, to Friday, June 9th. We were very lucky to have only a few sprinkles of rain, and even luckier to have no mosquitos. But luckiest of all was reserving the group campsite a year in advance and having it turn out to be the prime Synchronous Firefly viewing week. The Photinus carolinus were out in full force. It was like viewing a constellation, but one that pulsed five to eight times on/then stopping for six seconds, getting stronger and better coordinated each time. As it got later and darker, an additional movement of the blinking/ stopping could be seen moving from left to right, the first night, like a wave. Tuesday night was also good, but by Thursday, a bit of the magic was gone.
During the days, we entertained ourselves hiking Laurel Falls, Jake's Creek Trail, with some of us going to the Avent cabin, while others branched off onto Cucumber trail, returning to camp on Little River Trail. Our hike on Thursday was on Little River Trail to Husky Falls. After going about half way on Little River Trail, hikers coming from the opposite direction started telling us about a black bear with two cubs, on the trail. One person said that the bear had a yellow tag in its ear, meaning a trouble maker the rangers were trying to catch. Two of us turned around at that point; the others continued, but without any encounters of the Ursus americanus kind. Everyone saw plenty of turkeys, strutting about even in our campsite area.
Present were members Walt Bowman, Marcia Brelsford, Ann Shirra, Susan Bush, Gail Smith, Debbie Livingston, and Bernard and Genise (trip leader) Spenle, who brought two of our member's cars back to life, (one a dead battery and one a dead fob). Our guest was Jane Merkle).
