life's rough places

Courage and cheerfulness will not only carry you over the rough places in life, but will enable you to bring comfort and help to the weak-hearted and will console you in the sad hours. 
--William Osler (1849-1919) Canadian Physician.

On the Appalachian Trail near Laurel Falls you'll discover numerous cut-throughs made for the old Laurel Fork Railway. Standard gauged rails were used to haul timber out of this remote area to a Hampton, TN sawmill from 1912-27. This area was dedicated the Pond Mountain Wilderness in 1986. The term 'wilderness' is defined by the Wilderness Act of 1964 as “an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" and "an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions."