Acknowledgments

Great Smoky Mountains National Park as an ecosystem is the sum of many parts, each of which is vital to the whole. Similarly, as a national park, it exists because of the contributions from countless individuals, most of whom the average park visitor never encounters. The reason you are able to hike a trail in the Smokies without having to climb over fallen trees is because someone hiked the trail carrying a heavy saw and removed it for you. Despite operating on a shoestring budget, park employees and volunteers somehow are able to manage more than half a million acres for some ten million annual visitors.

In preparing this book I talked to dozens of these people—park rangers, interpretive volunteers, resource administrators, biologists, carpenters—even trash collectors. Each of them helped generously and with a smile. Just as they are vital to the Smokies, they were instrumental in helping me create this book. Thank you all. And thanks to everyone who works for the well-being of the Smokies.

I want to give a special thanks to my favorite trail companion: my lovely wife, Patricia. And to Titan, our crazy gray cat, for keeping my lap warm while I sat at the computer, even though he is a Fuzzy B.

White wake robin trillium (Trillium erectum).