Infamous Impromptu Overnight

Smoky Mountains Hiking Club History

by Charlie Klabunde

Born Oct. 28, 1931

Died Feb. 7, 2015

Rest in Peace my friend and thank you for all you did to further hiking

in the Smoky Mountains.

I became friends with Charlie through the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club. I had great admiration for him. He gained my ever lasting loyalty by saving me from something I did NOT want to do.

Back in about 2004 I went with some friends and a huge group of forty persons to hike with the SMHC. Terry Cox and Clyde "Ice Axe" Austin were the leaders. The plan was to hike from CS 19 up to Bear Pen Gap and from there out to Blanket Mountain, Marks Creek Manway and back down to Tremont. I learned last minute that Terry planned to have us ford Lynn Camp Prong to finish up.
It was February and the river was deep and fast flowing. I wasn't having it. I spoke up regarding my concerns and Charlie Klabunde.. who I had never met before until that moment... scooped me up and said "It's alright. You stick by me. I'm not doing that foolishness either. We're taking another exit plan and you stay by me. It will be alright." I have since forded Lynn Camp Prong to finish that same bushwhack, but under better conditions. Charlie had a good sense of humor and irony.

He was something else altogether. I drove him crazy as an editor trying to get me to comply with his meticulous standards. He whipped me into shape, but not without a lot of whining from me.

I spent time talking to him and always enjoyed our conversations. He and I talked one day about approaching Wilson Falls from Mt. Collins. He said "Oh no. I never did that. It can't be done."

A few days later he called me back to say he was sorry. My guess is that by then Charlie had his memory banks full to overflowing of hiking recall. He said "I told you I hadn't done that and it couldn't be done. That is not so. I remembered a day or so after speaking with you."

He went on to recount another Smoky Mountain Hiking Club trip he led. The plan was to hike to Wilson Falls. I don't recall right off what route they took. It approached from the bottom up.

That much I do remember. He told me that one of the men on the hike fell near the falls and impaled himself on a rock. They tended to him and stabilized him best they could then Charlie, who was a fast hiker, went for help. He summoned help and led them back to the others while the injured person and the remainder of the group stayed behind to tend to him.

Charlie said it was an awful ordeal to get there with the stretcher and rescue personnel. The rescue squad told him they weren't going to try to go back out the bottom. Couldn't they go out the top?

It would be closer to a paved road. He said yes, In theory it could be done, but had not been done.

They cut brush and toted the patient out that way with the entire group following the rescue squad out the top at Mt. Collins. They flagged the way for safety because of the dark. The man made it and all was well.

Charlie remembered later that the way was flagged and brush cut out so he went back solo and visited Wilson Falls from the top. He went down to the falls, turned around and doubled back afterwards. Doing the trip this way especially if the way was marked and the brush cut out would be far easier than at any other time or route.

Charlie had been a member of the SMHC since 1965. He was O.G. along with Jean Bangham, Ernie Dickerman, and several others. Ernie was from where I lived in Virginia though I never had the pleasure to meet him he was well known by my neighbor Polly Bundy.

The following story tells of a night in the woods on the slopes of Mt. LeConte totally unplanned and unprepared! It was that boisterous, high energy Ernie Dickerman that contributed to this debacle.

Infamous Impromptu Overnight

Saturday July 31, 1965

Charlie Klabunde

"The Falls of Cannon Creek" with head leader, Ernie Dickerman, planned as a rock-hopping trip up Cannon Creek to the top of the falls (elev. 4250 ft) for lunch, traversing across the ridge over to Lowes Creek and rock hopping down it. An 11 mile hike, including the connecting trails at the bottom. Quoting from the For The Record report: "The wisdom of scheduling difficult trips on a Saturday was demonstrated on this occasion when darkness and weariness overtook the main party while they were still coming down Lowes Creek. Since further travel was dangerous and inadvisable. The party of 17 spent the night in the woods (fortunately it was a warm, dry night) and came out early the next morning. Meanwhile, seven others who had shorted the trip by varying distances and returned to the cars probably got less sleep than the benighted ones!

What this report fails to mention is how the leader kept climbing farther up the intervening ridge instead of just sticking with the difficult enough task of crossing it. So while the goodly crowd was OK after lunch above the falls by the time they struggled up, up and over to the other creek it was later afternoon already and many were already tired and moving slowly. Rock-hopping down a steep creek is much more difficult when you are tired. The faster movers could have easily gotten out by daylight, but waiting for the slower ones meant that the group was still well up Lowes Creek when dusk arrived putting a stop to further rock-hopping.

The undaunted leader then tried another tack to lead the exhausted group through the much darker woods, with just a few flashlights, back over to Cannon Creek. Rebellion soon put a stop to that just a few hundred feet into the woods, as there were far too few flashlights, much too difficult footing to stumble about in the dark, and just plain tiredness of so many.

So the group bedded down for the night as best they could. A fire was started and maintained by those who felt that it helped. Some grouped together closely to share body warmth and cover, while others managed singly, using whatever they had, including empty packs for cover. It was just chilly enough that real sleep was impossible for most. With the arrival of dawn's early light the faster movers began to exit and found that the mouth of the creek was less than half hour away and a fair path led back over to the point where they had entered Cannon Creek the day before. Eventually car pools reassembled and retreated to Gatlinburg for food, and phone calls to families.

This version is by survivor Charlie Klabunde who had just joined the Club in March of that year and did this hike in tennis shoes. Other survivors still on the member roles include Jean Bangham, Ruth Young, Mildred Bradley-Sears, and Dick Ketelle.

Below: the only falls I have visited in this grouping are the lowest cascade on Cannon Creek.