A Walk in the Woods, Rufus Morgan and a Great Hurricane...

Mount Albert Panorama, Courtesy of Kurtis Kruse

Ever since I was a Boy Scout, starting in 1951, I have loved the outdoors and the activities that took me there, especially backpacking.  In 1979, the couple who had introduced me and Margo, Jim and Linda Schmitt, invited me to go on a five-day hike in the area surrounding the Standing Indian Campground in Western North Carolina.  For some reason, Margo could not or didn't care to join us, so it would just be the Schmitts, me, and my German Shepherd named Lady.

     We planned our hike in early September.  We would drive to North Carolina, planning to arrive at the Standing Indian area by nightfall of the 10th.  That night, we would stay in the Rock Gap shelter on the Appalachian Trail, a shelter quite close to a paved road with a parking area.  The next day, we'd hike to the next shelter traveling south on the trail, the Big Spring shelter.  Then on the 12th, we'd stay overnight at the Carter Gap shelter, followed on Thursday, the 13th, at the Standing Indian shelter.  On Friday, we'd hike into the Standing Indian campground and spend a night in the primitive camping area in our tents.  We were very excited about the hike.  Jim is an avid nature photographer and was equipped and prepared to return with lots of images.

A German Shepherd with
a saddle pack like Lady's

     I left on Sunday to drive part way with the idea of meeting the Schmitts on Monday at Rock Gap.  Lady had her red saddle pack with her own water and food.  She loved backpacking and was a terrific hiking companion.  I was prepared with a heavier-than-normal pack containing enough food to last five days.  The Schmitts met Lady and me around 3:00 in the afternoon of a gorgeous Fall day.  We stowed our gear at the nearby shelter, making certain we'd have sleeping space for the night, and hiked a mile or so to visit the John Wasilik Memorial Poplar, at that time believed to be the largest living poplar in the world with a girth of over 27 feet at its base and a height of about 140 feet!  (When I first visited the tree in the mid-1960s, it was believed to be the largest surviving tree east of the Mississippi River, and was so designated in 1969.  Subsequently, a slightly larger Poplar was discovered in Virginia.  In the late 1990s, the tree was killed by a lightning strike, became a hazard, and is, I believe, slated to be cut down.)  The tree was named for John Wasilik, a forester, a District Ranger, who worked in this area back in the 1930s.   In 1933, the tree now known as the Wasilik Poplar was one of two large Poplars which were approached by loggers.  They cut down the first tree and hauled it out with a team of oxen.  By the time they got the first tree up to the road, the oxen team was too exhausted to go back down for the other one.

The base of the Wasilik Poplar in its heyday

     After taking a few pictures around the giant tree, we hiked back uphill to the shelter, prepared dinner, ate, and relaxed around a campfire until we were too tired to do much else.  We crawled into our sleeping bags and settled in for the night.       Everyone awoke rested and ready for the first day of real hiking.  It was a spectacular Fall day.  Leaves were turning, it was cool enough for comfortable hiking, and our next shelter was only about 5 miles away.  We wanted to take our time hiking, since we were not in the greatest physical shape, and we wanted to Give Jim plenty of time for picture taking.
     After a fairly leisurely hike with lots of picture taking, we arrived at our next shelter.  One reason we took our time was that we were ascending a fairly steady slope up Hurricane Ridge to nearly the top of Albert Mountain.  I would soon learn the irony of that name, Hurricane Ridge.  We ascended during the day from 3,760' at Rock Gap to 5,047' at Big Spring.  We saw a few hikers during the day, but had no company that night in the shelter.  The weather was perfect for hiking in t-shirts during the day, but once we stopped moving, we quickly put on long sleeved shirts.  This was the perfect time for a good outing.  The weather was cool enough to prevent overheating but warm enough that one didn't have to bundle up against the elements.  We wasted little time in preparing a freeze-dried concoction for dinner, with Lady eating canned and dry food that she had carried herself.  In no time, the small campfire had become little more than embers and our little party of hikers had retired to the shelter floor.

     The next day would be a moderately short hiking day, with only six miles to the Carter Gap Shelter.   Shortly after we started our hiking, we spotted the Albert Mountain fire tower.  It was no longer in use, but was still in good enough condition that we were able to climb to the top and take lots of pictures.  We then descended a well-defined trail until we found ourselves in Bear Pen Gap (We knew because we saw the sign for the Bear Pen Gap Trail.) where we stopped to enjoy lunch and take even more pictures.  Then we headed further south, crossing several water sources, until we reached the Big Spring shelter late in the afternoon.  Again, we saw a few northbound hikers but had no company in our shelter that night.  We did notice that it was starting to get cloudy late in the afternoon and commented that we might need rain gear the next day.  We didn't let that possibility interfere with our sleep, from which we arose when daylight flooded our lean-to shelter.

The current Standing Indian shelter that replaced
the one in which we spent the night in 1979

     We cooked breakfast and got an early start on Thursday, September 13.  We had almost 8 miles to go to the Standing Indian Shelter.  The day was overcast and much cooler than the previous days.  The hike was uneventful and we arrived at the shelter around 3:00 PM.  This shelter is at an elevation of 4,760' and when we arrived, was in beautiful shape and very clean..  We thought we had the shelter to ourselves again, so we quickly laid out and hung up our gear.  It started drizzling soon after we arrived at the shelter and the wind began to pick up, so we ate a little bit early while we could still light our cook stoves.  I noticed that Lady was acting somewhat strangely, not settling down and prowling between the shelter and the area around it.  By the time darkness came, the wind was howling through the nearby trees and every once in a while, we'd hear a limb come crashing down.  Not long after dark, the lightning and thunder started and the rain became quite intense.  It became a spectacular fireworks show with lightning crackling through the woods every few seconds.  My brave German Shepherd took refuge in one back corner of the shelter and buried her nose.  I had never seen Lady behave this way before.  Then came the biggest surprise of the night.
     About 10:00 PM, Lady began to bark at the darkness outdoors, we thought we heard voices and almost instantly there were two new arrivals at our shelter!  Two extremely wet and very grateful hikers, both young men in their twenties, emerged from under a couple of ponchos that could never have kept them dry under the gale-like conditions that had continued to deteriorate over the last 2-3 hours.  The hikers were from Florida, were northbound on the AT, and had inadvertently wandered off the trail in the intense rain.  It had taken them a couple of hours to relocate the trail, which explained their late arrival.  What was left of their flashlights had become practically useless.  We were amazed they could even stay anywhere near a trail.  They were incredibly grateful to be under cover.  After the usual greetings and introductions, we made some hot cocoa to help warm them up.  The talk naturally focused on the weather, at which time one of the young men said, "This has to be the remnants of Frederic."
     When we had left civilization earlier in the week, there had been a tropical storm in the Gulf that had crossed over Cuba and just about dissipated.  What we had been unaware of was that the storm, named "Frederic," had strengthened in the Gulf, become a hurricane again with winds of over 130 miles per hour, and had come ashore along the Mississippi-Alabama line near Dauphin Island and Bayou La Batre, Alabama.  This was of great interest to me, since I owned a couple of rental house trailers in a trailer park near that area in a business partnership with my brother Bill.  I feared the worst for my trailers and prayed that their occupants were safe.
     The next morning, the storm had passed.  Everything was drenched from the effects of the near-horizontal rain of the storm, but the sun was bright and we hung most of our gear on nearby branches to dry out.  There was a moderate breeze to help out.  I informed Jim and Linda that I was going to "bushwack" down a nearby stream to get to civilization as quickly as possible in order to call my brother.  I would meet them later at the Standing Indian Campground.  I wanted to make sure Bill and his family, who lived in Pass Christian, Mississippi, were safe.  Then I wanted to learn if he had been over to the trailer park to check on our two trailers and our renters.  I also was concerned about my former residence, a house in Gautier, Mississippi, not far from the point of landfall, that I still owned and had been unable to sell since Margo and I had moved to Huntsville the year before.

The creek near Standing Indian shelter

     I surprised myself at how quickly Lady and I progressed down the steep stream bed, favoring whichever bank was most easily traversed.  Within an hour, we came to a dirt road and began hiking to our left, in the direction of the commercial campground.  I knew I'd find telephones there.  Remember, this was decades before the advent of cellular communications.  I was looking for a phone booth with a pay phone.
     Lady and I had probably walked less than a mile when I heard a chainsaw in the distance and then spotted a pickup truck on the side of the road.  As we approached it, I saw an older couple engaged in cutting firewood from dead trees.  They put down their tools and we exchanged introductions.  They were Donald and Frances McLean of Franklin, North Carolina, the nearest city of substantial size.

Rufus Morgan, whose daughter, Frances, and
son-in-law, Donald McLean, came to my rescue

     I explained my plight and they immediately offered to drive me to the Standing Indian Campground, where they assured me we would find pay phones.  We put Lady and my gear in the back of the truck along with their tools and some firewood, and the McLeans and I squeezed into their very used old pickup for the four or five-mile drive to the campground.  As we conversed, I learned that Mrs. McLean was the daughter of the famous naturalist and author, Rufus Morgan.  I was dumbfounded.  I had admired and respected her father for many years as a result of my interest in the Appalachian Trail.  The description of his life on the Find-A-Grave site summarizes him better than I could ever hope to:  "Naturalist, Author, explorer: Rufus Morgan was one of the early pioneers in the founding and development of the Appalachian Trail. Raised in the far western mountains of North Carolina he was well acquainted with the various peaks and valleys of the area. Following the proposal for a national trail to follow the spine of the Appalachian Trail he was a natural to develop the trail route from the Georgia Border to The Great Smokey Mountains National Park. He was the original author of the Appalachian Trail Guide for this part of the path. Over the years he introduced thousands of people to the Appalachian Trail, the Nantahala Gorge, and the National Park. He was blind for much of his later years of life. During this time he continued to lead trail hikes up to Wayah Bald or LeConte Lodge. Though blind he was so familiar with the trail he would stop and turn to a nearby tree and point out a blooming wild flower at the base of the tree. He was a founder of the Nantahala Hiking Club. Dr. Morgan was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, The General Theological Seminary in New York City and Columbia University. After serving a Church in New York City he returned to his native North Carolina where he took on a mission to the rural mountain areas. He would serve churches in North and South Carolina. While working Mitchell County in the 1920's he assisted his sister, Lucy Morgan, in the establishment of the Penland School of Crafts in the shadow of Mt. Mitchell. The original purpose of the school was to train local unemployed women in forgotten traditional crafts. Today the Penland School serves an international body of people in the training of traditional mountain crafts ranging from weaving and wood crafting to Blacksmithing and pottery. As a botanist he cataloged, discovered, recorded and named a number of wild flowers in the North Carolina Mountains. These have been restored in The Bishop's Garden at St. John's Cartoogechaye Episcopal Church in Macon County. In the early 1940s Dr. Morgan retired to his native Macon County. As a project he rebuilt the historic St. John's Episcopal Church in the Cartoogechaye Valley of Macon County. The foundation of this church was built using abandoned grave stones from the cemetery. For many years Dr. Morgan held the record for climbing Mt. LeConte in the Great Smokey' Mountains National Park. For both his 88th and 89th birthday's after hiking up Mt. LeConte he stayed at LeConte Lodge on the Top of the Mountain. He would climb the mountain more than 172 times. The Appalachian Trail foundation has recognized his contribution to the Trail by erecting "The Rufus Morgan Shelter" in the Nantahala Gorge. Along the Wayah Valley the Rufus Morgan Trail leads to the Rufus Morgan Falls on the Rough Fork creek. In 2014 he was inducted into the Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame."

This image shows the result of Frederic's passing in Gulf Shores,
Alabama, close to where my trailers had been located.

     Before long, we had arrived at the campground.  The McLeans had been most kind and generous but refused to accept any compensation.  We exchanged addresses and for several years thereafter exchanged Christmas cards, though I never saw them again in person.  I was able to call my brother.  I learned from Bill that our tenants had fled the scene in plenty of time to escape the storm.  His description of our trailers left little to the imagination.  "It's real easy to read the serial number on the frame when the trailer is on its roof and only about four feet tall!"  I also learned that my home in Gautier had sustained substantial damage and that a fallen tree had totaled a vintage car that I had recently moved to the back yard of the house.  Eventually, we collected insurance on the totaled trailers and liquidated our trailer business for good.  I repaired the house in Gautier and eventually sold it.  I also sold the remnants of the car to a friend to harvest some valuable parts that he needed.
     What had started out to be a walk in the woods had turned into one of those adventures of a lifetime that are so fascinating.  By the way, though only five were killed directly, the $1.77 billion in damage accrued by Frederic made it the Atlantic basin's costliest tropical cyclone on record at the time.