Page 36 - SMH 2017 2nd edition

Beyond the Trails in the Great Smoky Mountains—Mike Poppen

I’m excited to have recently completed my magazine, “Beyond the
Trails in the Great Smoky Mountains.” I’m often asked what’s my
favorite thing about the Smokies? For quite a few it’s the amazing
views. Some love waterfalls, a favorite park trail, Cades Cove, big
trees, or others. My favorite thing is to get away from the crowds
and explore off trail, going places where I wonder, “How many have
been here in the last year? The last ten years?” Most of the places I
go off trail are where the Greg Hoover’s, the Jenny Bennett’s, the
Ken Wise’s and other off-trailers have gone before me. However,
every once in a while I get to places that I doubt many others have
been to in the last fifty years. Those are the hikes that I treasure the
most, and I find it challenging and rewarding to venture off trail and
experience places few get to see. And every time I think there’s no
way the Smokies can possibly top the last off trail hike it does!

The magazine format was a decision I debated for a long time. I
kept coming back to by far the most common thing people tell me in
person or on my social media posts, and that is some version of, “I
love the Smokies and your posts. Thanks so much for sharing and
taking me places I’ll never be able to appreciate in person.” That’s
probably who this magazine will appeal to the most. It’s not a “How
to Off Trail” magazine for a few reasons. First, few people do these
hikes, so it wouldn’t appeal to very many. Second, there isn’t enough
space in a publication this size to cover that extensive topic. And
third, if I did a magazine on how to off trail I’d probably upset some
in the off trail community, which I’d rather not do. However, some
of them still might not be happy with me for doing this magazine the
way I did it.

My thoughts on that are this is “Our Smokies”, not mine, and I’ve
appreciated so much the people that have shared information that
helped fuel my passion for the Smokies and off trail exploring. In
particular, Jenny Bennett and Greg Hoover for their excellent blogs
and books. My hope is this magazine lets people that love the
Smokies see places that they’ll likely never get to. This truly was a
labor of love and I hope people enjoy it. For ordering information
you can email me at beyondthetrailsintheGSM@gmail.com or join
my Facebook group “Beyond the Trails in the GSM”, which I’ve
created to be a supplement to the magazine.

36 Smoky Mountain Hiker