Walking to the Smoky Mountains, Day 12-13, June 9-10

Zero Days at Tellico Plains

Tellico Plains is a small town with a big heart, and none are bigger than Lance and Cheryl’s, the proprietors of Trout Mountain Cafe and Inn.

After arriving I soon realized either I take some time to heal up, or I’d have to abandon the trail, so I added a day and have spent most the time slowly taking care of little details—resupply, laundry, eating pizza at the Tellico Grains Bakery, but mostly drinking lots of coffee with Lance, Cheryl, Ammon and Sydney. Particularly good conversations with Sydney who is finishing a PhD in folklore at Ohio State, studying Tennessee vernacular architecture (among other things), and Ammon who both dives and pilots semiautonomous submersibles in the Gulf of Mexico.

But what I will likely most remember is that Jackson Browne’s music is alive in well in Tellico Plains— I did not walk into a single establishment playing music without one of his songs soon queuing up. Felt like college years.

Here’s hoping the feet are tough enough to continue tomorrow.

T. Hugh Crawford