Need to know something about a trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Ask Beth Jones of LaFayette, Georgia.
The park has 850 miles of maintained trails, and she has hiked all of them three times.
"During hiking season I am usually up there every two weeks, if not every week," the retired accountant said recently. "I also have paid it forward and help people complete their maps when they need help."
Those who hike the trails usually keep track of their progress by marking a trail map or book that lists and describes the paths.
Jones' hardest single day of hiking, she said, was 24 miles in tough weather conditions with 20 other people on the Lakeshore trail that follows the north shore of Fontana Lake. That trail runs from the Appalachian Trail near Fontana Dam to the edge of Bryson City, North Carolina, at the "Road to Nowhere" tunnel.
Another hike is consistently more difficult for Jones, however.
"The toughest stretch for me every time is the AT from Sugartree Gap to the top of Thunderhead Mountain," she said. "Most times I have done it going uphill. It is only about 3.5 miles, but it is a doozy."
Her favorite day hike is the AT segment from Newfound Gap to Cosby.
It's "long," Jones conceded, "but the views are spectacular, which takes your mind totally off distance."
Jones is a member of the 900 miler club, which maintains a record of those who have hiked all of the trails in the Smokies. The 50 miles added to the 850 recognizes the added walking needed to access some of the park's trails.
As of Nov. 19, there were 587 members of the 900 miler club.
One of those is Chattanooga resident Elizabeth O'Conner, who is closing in on having hiked all the Smokies trails twice.
Her first hike was to Laurel Falls and Cove Mountain in 1996 - with snow falling. She finished her first round on October 20, 2007, when she hiked 19 miles in one day.
"Looking at my summary from that first map, I did 88 day hikes and 29 nights of backpacking to get it done," O'Conner said.
She has three trails to hike before completing her second round.
Not only does the hiking itself take time, but getting to the Smokies does as well. O'Conner estimates she has traveled 12,000 miles in a car getting to and from the national park. Jones said the closest Smokies trail to her is about 166 miles away and the farthest is about 250 miles.
She said she doesn't have an exact figure for her car travels, but "it is definitely six digits."
Barbara McCollum of Rome, Georgia, completed her last trail in the nation's most visited national park on Nov. 4. It took her six years to get them all in.
"I was first exposed to the hiking trails of the GSMNP in 2012 during Wilderness Wildlife Week," she said. "When I joined the Chattanooga Hiking Club in 2013 and started hiking in the Smokies, I learned about others who were hiking all the trails and decided I wanted to do the same."
McCollum's first hike was the Ramsey Cascades trail.
Getting to some of the trails requires more than just a car shuttle.
Using a pontoon boat, McCollum and 11 other members of the CHC traveled across Fontana Lake to make one of the hiking loops that involved backpacking up Eagle Creek, staying at the Spence Field shelter, crossing Jenkins Ridge and going back down Hazel Creek.
The Eagle Creek trail includes 15 stream crossings, and most of them require wading.
To complete all the trails McCollum had to learn to backpack - after having logged hundreds of miles of day hikes.
"The Chattanooga Hiking Club members introduced me to backpacking, and I will always be grateful to them for helping me extend my comfort zone," she said. "I knew that I would have to do some backpacking to complete all the GSMNP trails, which was certainly the case.
"My most memorable backpack is the last one when we started at Newfound Gap in snow and ice and ended at Davenport Gap wearing short sleeves and shorts."
McCollum gives a lot of credit for her success in completing the trails to many members of the CHC.
"Upon reflection, I can truthfully say it was more about the journey than the destination," she said. "All the wonderful friends, beautiful trails, stunning views, complicated car shuttles and, yes, some very special backpacks."
Owen Holbrook, is another 900 miler from Chattanooga.
Then a member of the Eastman Hiking and Canoe Club in Kingsport, Tennessee, Holbrook started his path toward 900-miler status in 1983 and finished in 1993.
"What I did first was the Appalachian Trail across the Smokies. Then we just scattered about," he said. "We did the stuff that was the easiest to get to down on each end and then did the part where you had to cross over Fontana and did that last."
Asked if he ever had a desire to start working on his second 900, he quickly said no.
"That is some pretty hard hiking. There are a few trails that I have gone back on, but I have no desire to do the whole thing again," said the retired electrical engineer.
He also has hiked all of the Appalachian Trail - section by section, likewise over a 10-year period.
According to the GSMNP website, more than 400,000 hikers walk some of its trails annually.
The tiny percentage who complete all the trails can register with the 900 miler club and receive a patch, a certificate and a bumper sticker - after paying $15. No membership dues are required thereafter.
Contact Gary W. Petty at sports@timesfreepress.com.