Townsend (Sunday 11th March)

Not as cold as last night (when there had been a slight frost).  Start of daylight savings time in USA, so we lost an hour again in the night!


Buffet breakfast at AJ's Diner, using 30% discount card that they gave us when we had called in for coffee the previous day.  Anna tried out 'biscuit and gravy' – a scone, more-or-less, with a white sauce flavoured with bacon or pork.  AJ said we must try one of the doughnuts – 'cause you can’t get them anywhere else!'  It was a very greasy, fried doughnut, covered in sugar – Anna had a small nibble and Paul ate the rest.


Parked near the river, not far from the Townsend Y, so we didn't have to drive far along the winding scenic route 73, towards Cades Cove again and took the  Chestnut Top trail, recommended by Don and Carolyn.  A beautiful sunny day, clear skies, wild flowers beginning to bloom in the forest, buds on the trees. Saw a turkey vulture, dragonflies and butterflies.  Saw evidence of bears – for example, bark clawed off trees, scrabblings in the leaf mould – but no bears.  They will be out in great number soon no doubt, as the days get warmer – there are about 1500 black bears in the Smoky Mountains National Park.


There weren't many people out on the Chestnut trail, though we did meet a few more going up when we were on our way down.


We met a man who was employed in public works in Maryville – he passed us on the way up and, later on, on the wsay down (we were going at a slow pace). We told him how much we liked Townsend, that it reminded us of home and he said thst's why Europeans settled all along the Appalachians – obvious really!  Paul asked if he though Townsend would go the way of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinberg.  He said it was holding out so far, but that the main block to development was that it isn't on the main sewerage system and once that happens …  Of Pigeon Forge he said that there were 2800 registered inhabitants but 70,000 bedspaces.  All those visitors have to be provided for in terms of emergency services and so on, so the services are out of all proportion to the inhabitants. 


Also on the way back down the trail we met a man and a woman.  The man asked where we were from, we told him and then asked if they were from the area.  The man answered that he was Cherokee, so it was home.  We got into conversation and Paul asked where thee Cherokee homelands where; 'you're standing on them,' he answered and told us how far they had extended.  We spoke of the Trail of Tears.  He said he had been lucky in that his family ended up in Ohio and he grew up in a small, supportive Cherokee community.  He had moved back to the Smoky Mountains as an adult.  He asked if we had been to Cherokee – we had thought of it, but it would have taken us into North Carolina and in the wrong direction.  His name was Randy McGiness, he said he was an eight Irish ('from my knee to my ankle') and he played Native American flute and had produced several CDs. Paul asked if he had a website he said to look for DeerStarProductions.com  Paul talked about playing English folk music and then mentioned playing the Appalachian dulcimer – upon which Randy said that the woman with him owned a very rare dulcimer – the 'bandjammer'.  'From Wood'N'Strings!' Paul exclaimed, 'We were there yesterday and I played one and met Mike Clemmer.'  Randy said they stocked his CDS, as does the Heritage Center in Townsend.


Had a close encounter with a friendly squirrel, obviously used to being fed by campers: 'a fed squirrel is a dead squirrel,' I told it, paraphrasing what I'd read in thee 'Bear Safe; pamphlet earlier in the day.  Unimpressed, it made its way along the fence to our neighbour's table, where they obligingly gave it some food. 


We decided to eat out for a change and walked about half a mile along the road to the Carriage House restaurant for dinner.  Paul had ribeye steak. Anna had grilled lemon pepper chicken, which tasted as though it had been seasoned in something lemon-flavoured, from a packet (we won't be going there again!)