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.