Behind me is where Elisha Mitchell is buried. He dedicated his life to this mountain; and sadly, he died while trying to cross a waterfall near the mountain. He is also the person, who bushwhacked the Old Mt. Mitchell trail. Mt. Mitchell is one of those places that stands apart from the ordinary. It's dramatic [...]
Earlier in the summer, I almost hiked Black Balsam Bald, but stopped before I reached the summit because I had not hiked that far in well over a year! For almost eight months, I dealt with Chemo treatments, and I walked very little. Once I healed from the initial surgery, we would all pile into [...]
This is a longer than normal post, but I wrote it so I would remember this adventure with friends and fellow bear trackers! We always sit on this porch in Balsam, North Carolina, and look out to the mountains in front of us and wonder about their location. We knew the Blue Ridge Parkway runs [...]
During my trip to Balsam in July, I got this really wild and crazy idea—hike at least six of the over 6,000 peaks in North Carolina and Tennessee. There are supposed to be 40 of these. We've made a commitment to hiking six before the first of the year! So, far we have hiked four [...]
Recovery from Chemo is my primary goal—not really hiking the longest trail right now. Though most of you know I want to hike longer until I can go back to the Len Foote Hike Inn in the fall. At five miles in and five miles out, that feels like a stretch, but I'm going to [...]
For years, my friend Beth (in the background) has been telling me about Max Patch. She has hiked it with her family, and I finally told her, "Let's do it." I'm still in recovery from Chemo, but that isn't stopping me, especially on good days. And last Thursday was a very good day! We [...]
Beth mentioned we could see Elk at Cataloochee in the Great Smoky National Park, and I immediately said, "Let's go." I love Native American names and places so I thought this would be fun. According to the National Park website, Elk once roamed the southern Appalachian mountains as freely has they did anywhere else in [...]
I learned a lot about the Balds along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Most were man-made when they stripped the lumber off the areas and the "locomotives" removing the lumber sent sparks flying in the nearby forests. The result was complete devastation. On one side the rocky view of the Devil's Courthouse. On the other side [...]
