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Former ranger hikes the Parkway
Regular readers of this column may recall Tim Pegram, the former Blue Ridge Parkway ranger who walked from Raleigh almost to Cold Mountain this past spring. Hearing about Pegram’s planned trip inspired my first journey to the Haywood County mountain made famous by the book and movie of the same name.
Journeying by foot where typically only motorized vehicles venture apparently appeals to Pegram. He’ll be in Sylva on Friday to promote his recent book, “The Blue Ridge Parkway by Foot,” which chronicles his adventure as he walked the scenic motor road from the Shenandoahs to the Smokies.
The obvious question, of course, is why.
“There were so many reasons that I walked the Parkway,” Pegram said during a Monday telephone interview. “I had the idea of some kind of book in my head when I started at Milepost Zero, but I was thinking of a novel.”
Pegram, who retired from the government in 2002 and was a Parkway ranger from 1978 until 1990 – including a stint as district ranger at Balsam Gap from 1984 until 1990 – said he had an “epiphany” a few days into his trek.
“Why fictionalize when all of it really happened?” he thought.
By then his walk on the Parkway was turning into a “splendid story,” he said, with interesting things happening every day as rangers he’d worked with in just about every district. He even accidentally ran into then-Parkway Superintendent Dan Brown, who had originally hired him.
Pegram started his journey on Sept. 1, 2003, and completed his walk four years ago today (Thursday) in Cherokee on Oct. 11.
Though he made the trip in about six weeks, he said he really didn’t think about it in terms of how long he spent on the asphalt.
“I really took my time,” he said, adding that the Parkway’s 469 miles, with side trips added along the way, stretched to 500 miles before he was through.
One thing Pegram discovered was that Parkway wildlife, while very used to car traffic, reacts differently to someone on foot. Groundhogs will freeze when you drive by, he said, but if you’re on foot, you can’t get near them.
Pegram walked up on two bucks and on a turkey that had just taken roost but took off again when the former ranger approached.
What surprised him the most, though, was that the most memorable aspect of his walk turned out to be his contact with people he met along the way when he had expected it to be experiencing the natural world.
“I thought the neatest thing would be the sunrises, sunsets, wildlife, views,” he said. “All those occurred, in all their variety and in every weather condition – rime ice, the remnants of a hurricane, lots of rain. But the highlight of my walk was my interaction with people I met along the way.
Pegram tells of meeting the late Howard Inman of Bethel at Pounding Mill overlook. Related to “Cold Mountain” author Charles Frazier, Inman had helped build several Parkway tunnels including Devil’s Courthouse. He described construction methods to Pegram, who happened to ask about Frazier.
“It seems like a visit to the Parkway brings out the best in people – I’ve seen them forget all cultural differences as they shared directions and experiences,” Pegram said. “Those kindnesses were extended to me.”
People were understandably curious about the solitary foot traveler who was making his way south along a linear park built for cars.
“I chatted with them, and if they had any questions, I’d answer them,” Pegram said. “They’d offer food and rides.”
A ranger he’d worked with invited Pegram to his farmhouse for the evening, and the owner of a nearby store, insisted Pegram spend the night in his barn to get out of the pouring rain.
The Parkway seems steeper on foot, Pegram said.
“When you start at Cherokee and go up the grade to Soco, it’s a long pull, and it’s the same climb in either direction from Balsam Gap,” he said.
Experiencing the road surface at close range, Pegram found himself tallying animal casualties he passed along the way.
“I did a “roadkill” count,” he said. “It wasn’t intentional, but I noticed around Milepost 116 that I had been keeping it in my head – it was all snakes until then.
Most of the victims he saw were salamanders, and then snakes, he said. The majority of the snakes were little ringnecks, and most of the dead salamanders were red efts. Pegram discovered one “hefty” rattlesnake carcass and said the exact count of the roadkill he encountered along the way is in his book’s last chapter. None of the poisonous snakes he saw were still alive, he said. After the second dead copperhead he saw, though, he started putting his one-man tent up more often, he said.
Pegram was really looking forward to the high-elevation section of the Parkway that hugs the Jackson-Haywood county line – from Beech Gap over Richland Balsam and on to the Doubletop overlook – with its sweeping vistas of Canada and Caney Fork communities. The highlight of his trip came during that section, but it was not the anticipated scenery, he said.
After spending a night near the Mt. Hardy overlook, Pegram woke to rain, fog and 45-degree temperatures.
“I had been so looking forward to the views from Richland Balsam (the Parkway’s highest point), but the farther I walked, the heavier the rain and fog got,” Pegram said. “On the other side of Richland, I started noticing bear scat, and I was worried because I was downwind. I was walking through fog, and I didn’t want to surprise one with a cub.”
Along about 4 p.m. Pegram was starting down a long grade when a ranger he had hired, Marcia Bowers from Tuckasegee, stopped to ask if he was OK?
Bowers who initially didn’t recognize her old boss, said she would pick him up on her way back from Pisgah, and Pegram spent another night out of the rain in an extra ranger quarters at Balsam.
“Bumping into Marcia was a great highlight since I had hired her,” Pegram said. “It’s kind of nice to bump into old friends and be given shelter.
When he started back walking, the weather was OK until Waterrock Knob and then there was more rain.
“I didn’t drop out of the clouds until Bunches Bald tunnel, then I had a beautiful fall day,” he said.
Pegram, who lives in Oak Ridge near Greensboro, will be at City Lights Bookstore this Friday, Oct. 12, at 7:30 p.m. to read from his book “The Blue Ridge Parkway by Foot: A Park Ranger’s Memoir.”
In addition to his Parkway trek, the book covers the 12 years Pegram spent as a ranger on the Parkway and includes accounts from some of the Parkway’s earliest rangers.
Pegram’s bookstore program will be based on the book, and he will also take questions and sign copies.
For more information, call City Lights at 586-9499.
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