Welcome to The John Kemmis Family Home Page, April 20, 2002.
This home page is dedicated to help those few persons who may pursue Kemmis genealogy or share the interests of our family. It is provided by John, Irene, Carly, and Rafe Kemmis of Geneseo, Illinois, USA.
Visit my Links to Daily Devotionals page.
In September 2001, Irene and I vacationed in near Ellsworth Maine. And we visited Acadia National Park. Needless to say, the vacation was awesome. We traveled through Ontario Canada, New York, and Massachusetts pulling our new popup tent camper. While in Maine, we camped at Wispering Pines Campground. They have a campfire every evening. It was clean, well maintained and we felt wanted and important.
We hiked this trail on Septemer 10, 2002. After visiting the gift shop at the summit and enjoying the view of dense fog, we found the trail head of the South Ridge Trail and began our trek in a south westerly direction. The trail consisted of paint markings on the smooth rock face and carefully constructed markers of native stones. The dense fog made locating the trail ahead difficult. But after a few minutes, the fog began to lift. We reached the junction with Cadillac West and stopped for pictures and bearings. Up to this point the trail was relatively flat and lacked distinction from the rest of the landscape. After a few minutes on Cadillac West, the trail became very steep. It was treacherous, a stumble would have resulted in a tumble down the mountain for several yard and some injury. Many of the switchbacks consisted of following a crack in the shear rock face (for footing). One time, we missed a turn and wandered off the trail. Then we had to ascend back a few yards and locate the trail. The skies did clear up and we had spectacular views of Bubble Pond, Eagle Lake, Pemetic Mountain, Conner Nubble, The Triad, and a small section of the Carriage Road along the Bubble Pond shore. God has done his handiwork again. When we reached Bubble Pond, we ate lunch, rested our weary legs, and enjoyed the talking with hikers, bikers and visitors there. Needless to say, we hitch-hiked back to the summit parking lot where we left our van. We recommend that you take food, water, camera, first-aid kit, walking stick, raincoat, topographic map or trail map, and a good pair of walking or hiking shoes for this trail.
The next day we brought our bikes and road them a few miles on the Carriage Roads. We started at Bubble Pond parking lot, and traveled south along the shore of Bubble Pond. Then we peddled around Pemetic Mountain and The Triad to the Gatehouse. Then we headed back northwest to Jordan Pond where we stopped for a rest and pictures. We trekked uphill along Jordan Pond to a junction where we headed east back towards the Bubble Pond parking lot. Although quite strenuous, it was very nice ride. No cars or trucks. No stop signs. Just an occasional bike or carriage.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the southwestern part of Desert Island and visited Bass Harbor Headlight. Then we stopped in Manset for coffee and pie. There we learned of the tragedy in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
In July 1997, we visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We didn't want to leave. Our hiking was only the Chimneys, Laurel Falls, and the AT section from Clingmans Dome to Silers Bald. It was enough though for our first trip to GSMNP. We also drove through the Greenbrier area and the Newfound Gap Road(441).
We spent eight days in the Smoky's and missed visiting 95 percent of the park. We considered storing the camper there but it needed some work. It returned with us to Northwest Illinois.
Popular areas in the park and at nearby towns will test your patience because of the crowding. Fortunately, most of the park is not crowded, let alone, visited. Plan to include one or two of those areas in your itinerary.
We did take some photographs along the trails and highways..
We have visited in 1995 the Grand Canyon National Park. Words and pictures cannot describe our hike to Phantom Ranch on South Kaibab trail and back to the rim on Bright Angel trail.
We did take some photographs along the trail.
Your visit to the Grand Canyon National Park should include a trip to the bottom of the canyon. Be extremely careful in planning your hike. Any hike in the canyon is extremely dangerous due to the harsh desert environment within it.
The trails, the views, the cool soothing waters of Bright Angel Creek, the Black and Silver Bridges over the Colorado River, and the indian ruins are only available to those who hike/mule ride/raft to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. Twenty thousand people tour the park every day and only a handful experience hiking the Canyon! If you are considering a trip to the Grand Canyon National Park, email us and we will send you some suggestions to enhance your visit. The National Park Service has a lot of detailed information too.
Our family dates back to late 1700's in the Salem and Sushan, New York area during the Revolutionary War.
the tombstone of John Kimmis
His grave is in the Revolutionary War Cemetery at Salem, New York, USA. To date, we have been unable to trace his origins back to England or Ireland. The Family of Kimmis of Sushan, New York, USA.
The Family of Kemmis book is a little known collection of Kemmis family genealogy which dates back to around 1026 AD England. It has been maintained for generations. The late Colin Kemmis from NSW, Australia has done an excellent job keeping it up-to-date. Recently we transcribed it to word processor documents. Currently, several families are maintaining this record.
We recently (12/97) discovered the site of Izaak Walton Inn. Irene and I spent our honeymoon there. It is a wonderful place to stay, a turn of the century railroad hotel. We found the url through Paula Biever's Conglomeration.
Many of the images at this site were scanned by Creative Images, Geneseo, Illinois, phone: 309-944-4299
Courtesy of Linus De Paoli
This site abides by the 
.
Send your comments and suggestions to: kemmy@qconline.com
The John Kemmis Family Home Page, April 20, 2002
(c) Copyright 2000-2002 - John L. & Irene Kemmis
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