Course Instructor - George Owen

Course Fee - $25.00

This is a new course by a frequent ICL outdoor guide George Owen, for years both an official part-time guide in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and a frequent guide there for over fifty years for three trail clubs. This six-weeks course starting September 15, two hours each time, will emphasize both day hikes and auto touring opportunities all over the park, one or multi-days, and even some overnight camping opportunities. Various Smokies opportunities and lots of park background and general knowledge of this America's most visited regular large park will be offered. Everything from A to Z - Appalachian Trail to Weather & Zoology - in the park we'll seek to cover in class. This course is a definite plus for hikers, from short, easy treks to longer ones, but also trips for those who wish to do some Smokies auto exploring to key points all over the park with short walks to vistas, falls, etc. Your course leader also plans to include auto-touring the Foothills Parkway outside the northwest side of the park, and opportunities in several outdoor areas near the park, such as the lower-most sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Nantahala Outdoor Center, etc. Housing opportunities for park visitors will also be discussed. Tied to the course will be lunchtime after each class in the lobby outside the classroom with tables and chairs for a time of discussion and sharing. Our instructor will provide each class member a map of the Smokies showing all trails, roads, and key scenic locations. So, you all, c'mon and join us for classroom venture time in one of America's favorite national parks, with large screen audio-visual projection of pictures and outdoor cartoons for your enjoyment!

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Instructor George Owen has over decades served as president of three Southern Appalachian area trail clubs. He is the co-founder and former president of the Benton MacKaye Trail Association, former maintenance and construction director for the GA Appalachian Trail Club, and two years ago just retired from the presidency of the Mountain High Hikers club. He grew up spending much time in the wilds of his native state Florida, and while in college ran the nature lore program for one of Florida's largest youth camps several summers. He married and moved to Georgia with his wife Sandy where they became parents of two sons and now have four grandchildren. In Georgia, beyond his two careers, he became noted over decades for laying out and supervising the construction of over 125 miles of hiking trails on the Chattahoochee National Forest, including all the GA portion of the Benton MacKaye Trail (82 miles), several side trails of the Appalachian Trail (AT), and four miles of the 8.3-mile AT Approach Trail. After career retirement he was a hiking guide for an American company for ten summers in the Swiss Alps.