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Tag: Trailside Talk
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Trailside Talk: Summer Days
By Mike Hembree
The calendar will claim that summer starts June 20.
School children everywhere will claim that is wrong. And there is evidence—however anecdotal—to support their claim. Summer starts the day—no, the very hour—that the school session is over.
Summer comes early to the Smokies, too, and that might be
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Trailside Talk: The Waters of the Oconaluftee
By Mike Hembree
Attempting to rank rivers in one of the country’s most beloved national parks is a dangerous business.
Even listing a few wonderful streams and rivers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is like shooting a family photograph and leaving out one of the children. A quick, off-the-top-of-the-head list might include Little
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Trailside Talk: Mission 66
By Mike Hembree
A happy coincidence in the 1950s led to change for the national park system.
The Baby Boom of the post-World War II period increased the population of children in the United States dramatically. At the same time, the country was becoming increasingly mobile. Many veterans returning from the military had the money to buy their
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Trailside Talk: Ode to Winter
By Mike Hembree; photo by Ann Froschauer
It’s no surprise that most of the approximately 12 million people who visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park in a normal year do so in four months: June, July, August, and October.
The summer months, of course, mean vacations for families, and they offer the Smokies at their greenest. October
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