The Adventures of Bubba Jones Time Traveling Through the Great Smoky Mountains Read online

  THE ADVENTURES

  of

  BUBBA JONES

  TIME-TRAVELING THROUGH THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS

  Copyright © 2015 by Jeff Alt

  FIRST EDITION

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced

  in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,

  including information storage and retrieval systems, without

  permission in writing from the publisher, except by a

  reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  The Adventures of Bubba Jones is a Trademark (TM) of Jeff Alt

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data On File

  For inquiries about volume orders, please contact:

  Beaufort Books

  27 West 20th Street, Suite 1102

  New York, NY 10011

  [email protected]

  Published in the United States by Beaufort Books

  www.beaufortbooks.com

  Distributed by Midpoint Trade Books

  www.midpointtrade.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Interior design by Jamie Kerry

  Cover Design by Hannah Tuohy

  A NATIONAL PARK SERIES

  THE ADVENTURES

  of

  BUBBA JONES

  TIME-TRAVELING THROUGH THE

  GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS

  BY JEFF ALT

  BEAUFORT BOOKS

  NEW YORK

  DISCLAIMER

  The Adventures of Bubba Jones is a piece of fiction. All the characters in this book are purely fictional, but the historical and scientific facts about the Great Smoky Mountain National Park are true and accurate. The maps are not true to scale. The author has spent a lifetime exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and used his wealth of park facts to create this book. Many additional sources were used to verify accuracy in the creation of this adventure, listed in the bibliography.

  Dedicated to Madison & William, two great adventurers.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to thank the entire Beaufort Books publishing team, especially Eric Kampmann, Megan Trank, and Felicia Minerva for assembling The Adventures of Bubba Jones into this book and getting it into the hands of those seeking an entertaining and informative adventure. I would also like to thank the following people who were instrumental in the publication of this book: Liz Osborn; Bill Dietzer; Steve Kemp, Interpretive Products & Services Director at the Great Smoky Mountains Association; and Dana Soehn, Management Assistant/ Public Affairs at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: The Secret Family Legend

  Chapter 2: The Adventure Begins!

  Chapter 3: The Fall of the Giants

  Chapter 4: The Legend Unfolds with Sparkles in the Night

  Chapter 5: The Original Great Smoky Mountain Inhabitants

  Chapter 6: One Big Mountain

  Chapter 7: Celebrity Sightings at Newfound Gap

  Chapter 8: The Other Side of the Mountain

  Chapter 9: A Big Surprise

  Chapter 10: As Real as it Gets

  Chapter 11: The Wild Goose Chase

  Chapter 12: Away From it All

  Chapter 13: The Smoky Mountain Biathlon!

  Chapter 14: Over the Hills and Through the Woods

  Chapter 15: You Can Hike But You Cannot Hide!

  Chapter 16: Totally Worth the Trip!

  CURRICULUM GUIDE

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  THE SECRET FAMILY LEGEND

  A familiar deep voice, with an edge of excitement, startled me from my slumber in the back seat of our Jeep Cherokee.

  “Hey, Bubba Jones!” (My real name is Tommy, but my nickname is Bubba Jones because of my sense of adventure.) “Wake up, we’re here.” It was my grandpa, Papa Lewis.

  I jolted upright just in time to see the trademark national park sign announcing “Great Smoky Mountains National Park” slip by my window as our four-wheel-drive Jeep Cherokee continued deeper into the woods, leaving the domestic world behind. Seconds later, my sister Jenny, affectionately known as Hug-a-Bug for her love and compassion of everything outdoors, shouted, “Look!! A bear!”

  On the opposite side of the two-lane road snaking into the park from Gatlinburg was a large black bear foraging in the trees just inches off the road, with no apparent fear of man or machinery, as if to show us who the king of the woods was. Wow! Talk about a grand entrance to our adventure, and this was only the beginning! A sense of fear and excitement gave me goose bumps all over, knowing we were going to leave the safety of our vehicle and sleep unprotected among the bears.

  “Papa, are you sure it’s safe to sleep outside in a tent with bears all around us?” Hug-a-Bug asked Papa Lewis.

  “Don’t you worry, Hug-a-Bug. Black bears are more interested in our food than us. They’d rather eat our snacks and sniff out our sweet-smelling sunscreen than eat us. We will secure those items safely away from the bears,” Papa Lewis assured us confidently. Hug-a-Bug loves the outdoors, but this would be our first time ever camping in bear country. Papa’s explanation seemed to put her at ease. I have to admit, I felt some relief as well!

  I had been so excited the night before our adventure, I hadn’t slept a wink! Instead, I lay awake imagining everything we were going to do. We had been driving since the wee hours of morning, and apparently I slept through the entire road trip. In the days leading up to our trip, time seemed to move so slowly, as if this adventure would never come. How could you not be excited about traveling to the most famous national park in the United States?! A destination with the word “great” in its name must be special! But, I was equally excited that we were accompanied by a famous adventurer; and he just so happened to be my grandpa, Papa Lewis.

  Papa Lewis is named after Meriwether Lewis, and Papa’s son, my dad, is named Clark after William Clark, of the famous Lewis & Clark Expedition, also known as the Corp of Discovery, commissioned under President Thomas Jefferson to explore the western United States in the early 1800’s. Papa Lewis taught us that the parks and wild lands are untamed remnants from the days of Lewis and Clark, and that they allow us to escape to an earlier time, to explore, gain wisdom, exercise good health, and experience joy. Together, Papa and my dad went on many grand expeditions, and they were known as Lewis and Clark, in the spirit of the original explorers. To his credit, Papa Lewis has explored nearly every U.S. national park and wilderness since his youth, and my dad has accompanied him on quite a few of those adventures. Exploring all the parks is quite an accomplishment, but that’s not quite what Papa is famous for. What I’m about to tell you is so amazing that I still can’t believe it myself!

  When Papa tells you about his adventures, it’s not just a story; it’s real! I’m not talking 3D movie real, I mean you are there in every sense of the word. You feel the fear, sweat, danger, excitement, hunger—whatever Papa Lewis experienced, you do, too. It’s not just that he’s a great storyteller; somehow, during his story you are transported into the adventure. When he told us about a bear charging at him, we felt the beast’s hot, humid breath in our faces, our noses wrinkled at the stench of dead fish emanating from the grizzly’s mouth, and our eyes widened in fear as we gazed upon the dagger-like incisors bared at us. Gathered around the dinner table one night, Papa described his encounter with a herd of buffalo in Yellowstone. Our dining table shook as if by an ear
thquake, rattling plates and splashing water out of our glasses, as the herd stampeded by with a deafening thunder. When Papa shared his horseback-riding adventure with the Oklahoma Cherokee Indians, we all swayed in the saddle and felt the leather of the reigns in our hands. Describing his night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the star-studded velvet blanket of sky overhead, we found ourselves with outstretched hands, seeking to touch a piece of the midnight sky. When Papa Lewis sat in our living room recalling his rafting adventure down the Colorado River, we were thrust up, down, back and forth, clenching paddles in our hands, and ducking sprays of bone-chilling water. Mom thought for sure the soaked carpet in our living room was ruined, but when Papa Lewis concluded his story, everyone and everything was bone-dry, the paddles were gone, and we were all sitting dumbfounded and disoriented in our living room chairs, wondering how we came to be on dry land.

  Papa Lewis looks like an outdoorsman from the 1940’s. It’s as if time has stood still for him. He’s always wearing a button-down long sleeve oxford shirt and a pair of vintage World War II khaki parachute military pants. The cargo pocket on the right thigh of his pants is always bulging with a small rectangular object. Whatever it is in Papa’s pocket, it must be pretty important and possibly classified. He never mentions it, and changes the topic if we ask him what he’s carrying.

  Grandma once told us, “Stop asking; one day you will know.”

  After each Papa Lewis story, Dad’s face always splits with a grin and he says, “Why go out on an adventure when we have Papa Lewis? We don’t even have to leave the house!” We love Papa’s stories, but they don’t keep us from our own adventures—the opposite, if anything.

  Papa Lewis ends each tale by insisting that we keep his “special” storytelling ability to ourselves. He practically makes us take an oath of secrecy. Mom, Dad, my sister Hug-a-Bug, and I always assure him not to worry; we would never tell anyone. Who would believe us anyway? You would have to experience one of Papa’s stories to understand and believe. Rumor has it that years ago, one of Papa’s stories got so out of control, he vowed never to share his adventures in public again, so now only close family are privy to his gift. Papa is very social and loves people, but he learned early on that his unique storytelling ability can cause problems.

  You see, Papa is actually able to go back in time by imagining what a place or thing was like at a given point in history. And not only does he go back in time, but he takes his listeners with him, too! Papa Lewis discovered the danger of his ability to conjure up the past as a young man on a tour with a group in Hell Creek, Montana. The interpreter leading the tour had just informed Papa’s group that the first Tyrannosaurus rex (T-Rex) skeletal remains were found in that area. As Papa walked along with Grandma and several other tourists, he exclaimed aloud, “Imagine if T-Rex were alive right now!”

  He had no sooner finished his sentence, than the ground split before their feet, dust and rocks spit up from the ground and a T-Rex broke free from the earth in its full terrifying size, towering over the terrorized tourists. They all shrieked and ran in panic. Thank goodness, no one was hurt. Papa and Grandma looked at each other, shocked and wide-eyed, then scattered with the rest of the group. When the local police arrived, accompanied by zookeepers with big-game hunting rifles, the ground was back to normal, as if nothing had happened. With the exception of purses, backpacks, and other personal effects strewn about by everyone who had fled in panic, nothing seemed unusual. This was before the era of closed-circuit cameras, smart phones, and video recorders, so the only proof of the incident came from personal account interviews. The FBI opened an investigation under the assumption that a theft ring might have been secretly panning for gold and created this panic as a diversion to deflect the tourists from their location. Everyone there that day who the authorities interviewed reported that they were chased out by an actual prehistoric T-Rex. After months of non-conclusive investigation, the case was closed and placed in the Unexplainable Bizarre Incidents file.

  From that day forward, Papa decided to keep his talent a secret to share only with close family, preventing mass panic from happening again. Papa learned the family lesson that had been passed down through the generations going all the way back to the time of Lewis and Clark.

  When Lewis and Clark returned from the Corp of Discovery Expedition in 1806 and shared stories of the wondrous wilderness they had found, our family elders had the foresight to realize that many others would soon head west, inspired by the successful Lewis and Clark Expedition. Expansion of our nation’s West was great for the growth of our young country, but my family elders feared that the American wilderness would soon become overrun and many natural wonders would vanish. My ancestors decided that the family’s time-traveling and storytelling abilities could serve a greater purpose. They could help preserve and protect these wild lands for future generations, so others could experience the true sense of adventure that the Corps of Discovery did. Perhaps they would not discover a new passageway to the west, but they could enjoy some of the same undeveloped wild lands that Lewis and Clark had experienced. My ancestors developed a family mission to focus their time-traveling talents to help preserve and protect America’s wilderness for future generations to enjoy, experience, and utilize as needed for survival. So it went: my family took their time-travel skills and dispersed, spreading out across America with a loose-knit ideology to enjoy and preserve the great outdoors. Little did our ancestors know how precious the great outdoors would become in just a few short centuries.

  After the T-Rex incident, Papa never again caused a scene or panic in public. He kept his expeditions to the confines of the US parks and wilderness, to explore and learn from the great outdoors. He learned from his grandfather that the time-travel powers he inherited were not only given to him for the purpose of exploring the great outdoors, but also to try and solve a family mystery dating back to the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Even bigger than that, solving this family mystery would uncover the greatest national discovery in modern times. Unfortunately, the mystery would not be solved on Papa’s watch. You see, the family mission came with a set of strict rules to hand off the time-travel skills at a given point in time based on the elder’s age. The rules stated to skip a generation to preserve the family legacy as long as possible. That time had come for Papa Lewis to turn over this unsolved mystery and pass his time-travel storytelling skills to the next in line. It was time for Bubba Jones and Hug-a-Bug to take over and try to crack the mystery. This is our story. Are you ready for an adventure?

  Bubba Jones, Papa Lewis, and Hug-a-Bug’s

  Backpacking Gear List

  Tent

  Sleeping bag

  Sleeping pad

  Backpack

  Cooking pot

  Spoon

  Mug for hot beverages

  Hydration hose system and/or BPA free bottles

  Water filter or treatment system

  Rope, 50 feet (to hang bear bag)

  First-aid kit

  Pack cover

  Duct tape (two feet for emergency repairs)

  Compass

  Map / Topography Map

  Magnifying lens or glasses to read map

  GPS

  Whistle

  Signal mirror

  Water

  Food (enough for three meals each day, plus snacks, and an extra day of food for emergency use)

  Tooth brush

  Toothpaste

  hand sanitizer

  Wet wipes

  Biodegradable soap

  Toilet paper

  Bandanna

  Vitamins

  Head lamp/flashlight

  Watch

  Sealable waterproof bags (to keep gear & clothes in)

  Sunscreen

  Sunglasses

  Bug repellent

  Plastic spade shovel (for digging your cat hole)

  Hiking poles

  Camera

  Paper/pen

  Book

 
Repair kits

  Batteries

  Cell phone & charger

  Park Emergency phone number

  Matches and lighter

  Swiss Army knife or multipurpose knife

  Survival / locking blade knife

  Stove (one burner backpack stove)

  First Aid Medicine

  Clothing

  (NON COTTON)

  Layers of synthetics, wool, fleece and waterproof breathable outer shell

  Dress for the weather conditions.

  Bring extra sets of clothes.

  Base Layer

  Underwear (2–3 pairs)

  T-shirts (2–3)

  Socks (2–3 pairs)

  Long underwear top and bottom (2 pairs)

  Insulating Layer

  Shorts

  Zip off long pants/ shorts

  Shirts (2–3)

  Fleece jacket or pullover

  Wool jacket or pull over

  Outer Layer

  Rain jacket or parka: waterproof, breathable

  Rain pants: waterproof, breathable

  Gaiters

  Hat with rim

  Hat Fleece or wool

  Gloves

  Boots or trail shoes (Make sure they fit!)

  Sandals or Crocs

  CHAPTER 2

  THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!

  Papa Lewis planned our family expedition to the Great Smoky Mountains down to every last detail. This park is where his life as an adventurer began with his grandfather decades ago, and he wanted to share a special family tradition with us. He told us he wanted to pass on a legacy, but he wouldn’t tell us exactly what that meant. Hug-a-Bug and I were excited and curious as to what Papa was going to share.

  One thing I knew for sure: everything about the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was big. I’m talking really big. There are over 800 miles of trails, including over 70 miles of the fabled Appalachian Trail. The park is located on the Tennessee and North Carolina border, and the Appalachian Trail in the park also serves as the Tennessee and North Carolina state line, traversing the ridge line and almost evenly dividing the park in half. More than nine million people come here each year, making it the most visited US national park. The Smokies are the highest mountains east of the Mississippi River. Hug-a-Bug and I were a bit nervous to hear that the park also has the largest population of black bears in the eastern U.S. All of this is big! Now I understood why “great” is included in the park name!