Live in accordance with the nature of things. In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching We often string together different trails in the Big Ivy/Coleman Boundary area for a longer, Read more…
3-29-19 The Fork Ridge trail leads from the Shelton Laurel backcountry to the Appalachian Trail, near the Jerry Cabin Shelter. If you want a good workout, this is your hike. Along the way, there is a side trail to Baxter Cliffs- well, sort of. It’s not much of a trail, Read more…
bearna gbaoithe- Irish for “wind gap in the mountains” Robert Macfarlane- Landmarks This hike includes sections through the Blue Wall Preserve within Nature Conservancy land (575 acres), as well as the Palmetto Trail. The Blue Wall Preserve is adjacent to 22,000 acres of protected watershed lands in South Carolina, perched Read more…
Faoilleach: a Gaelic term used to describe the last three weeks of winter and first three weeks of spring 3-10-19 Wildflower season arrives earlier in the Blue Ridge Escarpment, prompting us to travel to the Foothills Trail in the upstate of South Carolina. We arrived at the trail around 10, Read more…
A theme seems to be evolving around winter hiking over the past few weeks: bone chilling mist. The weather forecast was sixty degrees and sunny for Saturday March 2, so we set off to combine views and sunshine. That was optiMISTic. In reality, the temperature began with damp, fog and Read more…
2-16-19. We were greeting by a cold, rolling fog as we set out on the Jerry Miller Trail around 9:15. The Shelton Laurel backcountry is a gorgeous setting in any season. The green of the rhododendron leaves and mosses were a contrast to the grey mist enveloping the cove. Intersecting Read more…
February debuted quite mildly here in Western North Carolina, with many of us seeing temperatures around 60 degrees. So we headed up to the Big Butt trail (one of the many trails with the not-so-descriptive term “Butt”), that stretches between Route 197 at the Buncombe/Yancey county line and the Walker Read more…
Joining the blogging world feels like a leap of faith, for many reasons. The thought of writing a blog is intimidating for someone who is private, and typically chooses the quiet solitude and beauty of nature over large gatherings of people. There is also the technological side of blogging, which Read more…
