People of Big Creek - Ranger Heath Soehn

As an introduction of sorts, I'm posting pictures I have taken over the years of people we met in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These are the "characters" in my book, Big Creek - A Closer Look at a National Park, in order of appearance.

Actually, we met his wife Dana first.  She and their son Garrett had been swimming at the Midnight Hole when a park visitor got hurt. She came down the trail to call for help. I had met her by phone even before we got to Big Creek.  Dana was the park's volunteer coordinator and recommended Big Creek when I called.  Later, she moved to the Public Information Officer position and was named the park's 2014 Employee of the Year.

Heath brought us the car battery jumper/compressor to use with park visitors with car problems.  He and Andy opened the package and studied the instructions intently.

He studied every page of the manual before playing with the machine.

I did convince him to look up and smile for the camera.

We had a cookout at the end of our stay in 2011 so our daughter Jennifer and her husband George could meet Ranger Tim and his wife Kendra.  Ranger Heath came in and crashed the party with his ranger truck lights flashing.  If the picture is not clear enough for you to see, here Heath has two marshmallows on the skewer stuck into his holster with the gun.

Heath and Tim transformed into eight-year-olds toasting marshmallows and eating S'mores.

Always thoughtful, Heath never forgot Andy's monthly birthday cake.  His favorite was Key Lime Cake, but as you can see, he also enjoyed Fudgey Chocolate Cake.

He almost always stopped in to say hello when he was in Big Creek and let us know how much he appreciated us as volunteers.  When I say park rangers are the Park Service version of Boy Scouts, this is what I'm talking about:

The values and virtues we all admire and strive for, are wrapped up in a great big National Park Ranger package.  You are not likely to meet many people who love their job as much as Heath does. Nearing 50 now, he still approaches his job with the enthusiasm of a kid.

One day, on his day off, Heath brought his son Garrett to swim in the Midnight Hole. They posed for a picture before heading up the trail. Note that Heath is wearing a Boy Scout t-shirt.

One day, after responding to a missing hiker incident on Big Creek Trail, Heath leaned against the trailhead sign while chatting with us.

I told him that we call him Rescue Ranger Heath because we heard him on the radio so often participating in rescue missions.  I also told him that my other name for him is Dudley Do-Right. Here is a picture of Dudley in case you missed the Rocky and Bullwinkle show in the 1960s.

So Heath struck his Dudley Do-Right pose for us.

Heath had to go up to one of the backcountry campsites on Mt. Cammerer to close the campsite due to bear activity. I heard him asking some other rangers for a ride back to his truck in Cosby when he was done.  I got on the radio and volunteered to take Heath back, rather than have two rangers waiting around for him to come off the trail.  He accepted that offer and the other two rangers headed back to their area of the park.

Of course, there was a monsoon rain falling that night. I had a pot of coffee ready. Heath arrived about 11:00 p.m. soaking wet. I put a towel on the sofa and there was still a river of water flowing across the floor.  His boots were full. Here he is with Walt, one of the campers he had evicted from the backcountry site. We put him in the group site for the night with the gracious campers already there. It was a rainy, foggy drive back to Cosby where we dropped Heath off at the trailhead. Then, it was 1:00 a.m. before we got back to Big Creek.

Heath lives in Gatlinburg and very close to the Mellow Mushroom pizza restaurant we love. One evening, shortly before we left the park for the year, Andy and I drove to his house for pizza. His son Garrett had made a cherry pie with the cherries from a tree in their yard. Heath's mother lives next door and came over to supervise the crust making. Heath made sure to let us know that he was the one who pitted all the cherries.

 This was the first time we got the opportunity to talk with Dana at length.  She is the go-to person if you want to know something about the park. We had a wonderful evening with the delightful family. Looking at the photo now, I think Garrett got his father's smile and his mother's hair.

I don't remember when this picture was taken, but it is representative.  It's Grandma Dorothy's blueberry cobbler recipe.  Heath told me to thank her for giving me the recipe, which I passed on to him.  When I told him that Grandma Dorothy had been dead for years, he responded with, "Then I'll thank her myself when I get to heaven". He does love her cobbler.

 And, if you can't tell by now, I love Heath. From my sampling of park rangers, it is safe to say that there are probably dozens more rangers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park who are just as lovable if I met them.  And there are hundreds more in the rest of the park system just as competent, charming, and lovable as he is.  But Heath is the one we know and love the best.

People of Big Creek - Ranger Tabby Cavendish

As an introduction of sorts, I'm posting pictures of people we met in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park I  have taken over the years. These are the "characters" in my book, Big Creek - A Closer Look at a National Park, in order of appearance.

Ranger Tabby Cavendish is a petite redhead. She was very professional and business-like.  Not as outgoing with us as some other rangers but, still friendly.  She did not come to Big Creek often, so we did not get to know her as well as some others. I found only two pictures of her in my files but, found a few more on the internet.

The two pictures I have were taken on the same day at the farewell picnic for Ranger Taylor at the Cosby Ranger station. When we first arrived, Ranger Tabby and Ranger Jared were just finishing up a report.

Later, she had a smile on her face when admiring Richard's newborn baby.

I found this photo of Tabby taken during a search and rescue mission in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Citizen-Times file photo

What I didn't know about her then, was all this I found on the internet. When Tabby left the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she moved to Mount Rainier National Park. She has been exploring and researching ice caves. It's not just ice caves; I saw photos of her in caves all over the U.S.

She is also a mountain climber.  

And, a static trapeze artist.  I didn't even know there was such a thing.

People of Big Creek - Ranger Taylor Kasabian

As an introduction of sorts, I'm posting pictures of people we met in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park I  have taken over the years. These are the "characters" in my book, Big Creek - A Closer Look at a National Park, in order of appearance.

I don't really know much about Ranger Taylor, so I'll have to make some guesses and assumptions. I'm pretty sure he was an intern and maybe a seasonal employee. He was a real park ranger though; he wore a gun on his hip.

I had requested some more trail maps for the kiosk and Tim sent them with Taylor, who showed up in shorts and flip-flops.  Oh, and a big smile for the camera.

This is the day Ranger Tim left his lights flashing when he went up Big Creek Trail for a rescue.  When he got back, Taylor gave him jump start.

Taylor left Big Creek. I found him on Facebook, but have not made contact with him yet.  I'll update this post when I hear from him.

People of Big Creek - Robert Spence

As an introduction of sorts, I'm posting pictures of people we met in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park I  have taken over the years. These are the "characters" in my book, Big Creek - A Closer Look at a National Park, in order of appearance.

I would guess that Spence, as he is called, is the main character in the book, after the Great Smoky Mountains National Park itself. He is definitely a "character". Spence is the maintenance man for the Big Creek campground.  He mows the grass, whacks the weeds, cleans the toilet buildings, repairs the  split-rail fence, cleans the ashes from the campsites, cleans out the horse stalls, blows the forest debris off the sidewalks, washes the sidewalks, checks the water quality, and picks up trash dropped by park visitors. I'm sure I've missed a few things. He keeps Big Creek in tip-top shape.

In addition to his maintenance chores, Spence interacts with part visitors.  They see his uniform and ask him questions about camping, hiking, picnicking, and bears. Many visitors refer to him as a park ranger. They all love him.

Here he is the first day we met him in 2010.  He stopped by the host site to introduce himself and to check us out, no doubt.

Spence always stopped in to refill his store-bought coffee cup when he first arrived in the morning. We bought a folding chair at Walmart for him to sit in when he came by in the afternoon for a cold drink. He said he couldn't sit in it too long; he had to get to work.

He carried his tools and cleaning supplies on a Gator.

He tested the water every day from the faucets in the campgrounds and kept records of such in a small building.

Spence is a grass mowing

ditch digging,

weed whacking

leaf blowing,

pressure washing,

sidewalk sweeping,

man with an attitude.

He told us he had worked on trail crews for a number of years before and they never had ice.  They drank their sodas hot.  For a long time, he would accept a soda without ice. On one particularly hot and humid day, he decided he would take it with plenty of ice.

He had a great sweaty hairdo when he took his cap off.

He would often stop and eat his lunch at the motorhome.

 If I took a picture of him working, he would say, "I TOLD you not to take a picture of me working!" Then, if I took a picture of him taking a break, he would complain, "I TOLD you not to take a picture of me when I'm not working!"

 Spence was just telling us about a woman in the picnic area who had said to him:

"Thank you very much, you disgusting, despicable, ugly, little man for ruining my picnic!"

He was regularly picking up the split-rail fence after park visitors knocked it down to make room to park. He never said bad things about park visitors like I would have.




Here he is picking up the No Parking sign that had been knocked down by a young drunk camper.

A few times, we saw him let down his long hair at the end of the work day.  

Andy composed a song about Spence, you can guess the tune.

Smoky Mountain Maintenance Man

Lyrics by Andy and Dinata Misovec

He’ll be comin’ round the mountain when he comes.

He’ll be comin’ round the mountain when he comes.

He’ll be comin’ round the mountain. He’ll be cussin’ and a shoutin’

He’ll be comin’ round the mountain when he comes.

He will bring his big weed eater when he comes.

He will bring his big weed eater when he comes.

He will bring his big weed eater and the campground will be neater.

He will bring his big weed eater when he comes.

He will clean the campers’ ashes when he comes.

He will clean the campers’ ashes when he comes.

He will clean the campers’ashes and where they wipe their asses.

He will clean the campers’ ashes when he comes.

He’ll be ridin’ on his mower when he comes.

He’ll be ridin’ on his mower when he comes.

He’ll be ridin’ on his mower and the grass is getting’ lower.

He’ll be ridin’ on his mower when he comes.

He will fire up his blower when he comes.

He will fire up his blower when he comes.

He will fire up his blower, but with age he’s get’n slower.

He will fire up his blower when he comes.

He’ll be drive’n on his Gator when he goes.

He’ll be drive’n on his Gator when he goes.

He’ll be drive’n on his Gator sayin’ “see y’uns later”.

He’ll be drive’n on his Gator when he goes.

He’ll be golfing on the golf course when he’s gone.

He’ll be golfing on the golf course when he’s gone.

With his woods he will be smackin’. With his irons he’s weed whackin’.

He’ll be cussin’ on the golf course when he’s gone.

People of Big Creek - Ranger Tim Rand

As an introduction of sorts, I'm posting pictures of people we met in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park I  have taken over the years. These are the "characters" in my book, Big Creek - A Closer Look at a National Park, in order of appearance.

Here is Ranger Tim the first day we met him.  He was our point of contact with the park.  That day, he spent about half the day with us, showing us around and going over the rules and our responsibilities.  I still remember that he said our top responsibility was to have fun and our second job was to make sure all the park visitors had fun and stayed safe. 

He was at least six foot four.  That smile was always on his face. Here he is a few weeks later.

When he went up the trail for a rescue, Tim took off his bullet-proof vest and donned a rescue backpack.

One day, on his day off, Tim dropped in so we could meet his family. Little Becky was still half asleep when they took her out of her car seat, so she was not ready to smile for the strange lady with a camera. Like her Daddy, she smiled most of the time too.  

Here is Ranger Tim with Becky at a lunch picnic at the ranger station in Cosby.

Here is my favorite picture of Ranger Tim (and Ranger Heath). We were having a cookout on our last night in Big Creek to introduce my daughter Jennifer and her husband George to Ranger Tim and his wife Kendra. We had also invited camper friends Steve and Ginger from Cincinnati. After dinner, we built a campfire and made S'mores. It was just about dark when Ranger Heath came in with his ranger truck lights flashing to crash the party. Those two large law enforcement rangers transformed into a couple of eight-year-olds around the campfire with marshmallows. The rest of us are laughing to this day.

Ranger Tim left the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and moved on to the Delaware Watergap. Later, he moved again to Acadia National Park, which, I believe was his career goal. Aside from career goals, the move would put them closer to family.

People Seen in Big Creek - Ranger Dennis Milligan

As an introduction of sorts, I'm posting pictures of Great Smoky Mountains National Park employees I  have taken over the years. These are the "characters" in my book, Big Creek - A Closer Look at a National Park, in order of appearance.

Park Ranger Dennis Milligan was there to greet us when we first arrived in the park in July of 2010. He led us to our  camp host site in Big Creek.

I thought he looked so young but, that is probably because I am getting so old.

One day, Dennis came to Big Creek on his day off to run up the Big Creek trail.  We dog sat his two dogs Kelly and Cody. They waited patiently for Dennis to return.

Dennis responded to a broken-leg incident at the Midnight Hole.  Then, the boy in the background had fallen off the trail and rolled down the mountain.  Dennis had heard him calling for help and told him to follow the creek down to the picnic area.

Ranger Dennis transferred to Joshua Tree National Park to be closer to his girlfriend. Now I am determined to visit Joshua Tree to see him again.

People Seen in Big Creek - Ranger Dennis Milligan

As an introduction of sorts, I'm posting pictures of Great Smoky Mountains National Park employees I  have taken over the years. These are the "characters" in my book, Big Creek - A Closer Look at a National Park, in order of appearance.

Park Ranger Dennis Milligan was there to greet us when we first arrived in the park in July of 2010. He led us to our  camp host site in Big Creek.

I thought he looked so young but, that is probably because I am getting so old.

One day, Dennis came to Big Creek on his day off to run up the Big Creek trail.  We dog sat his two dogs Kelly and Cody. They waited patiently for Dennis to return.

Dennis responded to a broken-leg incident at the Midnight Hole.  Then, the boy in the background had fallen off the trail and rolled down the mountain.  Dennis had heard him calling for help and told him to follow the creek down to the picnic area.

Ranger Dennis transferred to Joshua Tree National Park to be closer to his girlfriend. Now I am determined to visit Joshua Tree to see him again.