Panther Valley Hike

Monday was beautiful day in North Carolina for a hike. The group consisted of Ralph and I and six other guys. The hike leader, Chan was very familiar with the area as he had hiked in the valley many times before with Carlton, an older man who had lived in the valley and made many of the trails. We parked at Carlton's house and took a few short cuts to start the hike. Panther Valley has a very primitive trail system, there are some logging roads in the area that you can follow, but we followed Carlton's trails. The trails looked more like deer paths to me. We followed them through Carlton's Field of Ferns to Devil's Elbow where we crossed a stream. Ralph and I had to go barefoot. Brrr!!!! We hiked back upstream and up hill to Camille's Falls where we had lunch. Each time we went down to the river we had to find a trail through the rhododendrons and mountain laurel bushes, no cut branches to make it easy for the tall guys. Chan took us to Green Creek Falls, Warren Falls and the most well known falls in the area, Schoolhouse Falls. You can walk behind Schoolhouse falls if you are careful. It was a great ending to the hike with a fairly short uphill climb back to the start of the hike.

Perfect Fall Weather

Today was a perfect fall day. Cool evening temperatures ( around 30 degrees ) followed by blue skies and temperatures reaching 68 degrees around 3:00pm. The photos do not capture the how vivid the colors are in the area. This is the peak week for colors and what surprises us is how long the leaves stay on the trees, compared to Minnesota or Wisconsin.

Tomorrow we are going on a long hike in western NC. We are going 40 miles west to a lake region where everyone tells us we will see around 15 waterfalls. We will publish another post later this week with some pictures of the hike.

With one week to go, we are looking forward to seeing family and friends, but will miss this area.

Happy Birthday, Justin !!

Happy 35th. Enjoy the day !!

Snow and Cold !!

This morning the weather was worst than Minnesota ! At 9:00am the temp was 34, the skies overcast and the wind gusting to 30+ mph. At 10:00am it starting snowing. The sun came out briefly this afternoon, but the weather has definitely changed. Camille went out at 8:30am and played nine holes. I decided to cancel: Too cold to play !

Buck Springs Trail

This morning we had brilliant blue skies, a brisk wind and a temperature of 38 degrees. The hike attracted thirteen (13) hikers due to having lunch at the end of the hike at the Pisgah Inn. The Pisgah Inn is on the Blue Ridge Parkway and is only open from May thru October. Here are some pictures from the Blue Ridge Parkway looking east.

After getting to the Pisgah Inn around 12:45pm the place was overcrowded with tourist's driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. There must have been over 35 people waiting in line for the restaurant. We put our name on the wait list, but after 45 minutes everyone wanted to eat, since we hiked over six miles up the mountain. The regulars from Champion Hills knew exactly where to go. We ended up in Brevard (10 minute drive) and ate at a great place called the Hobnob. The restaurant is a converted old house and the food was great. Since everyone was hungry, we would have liked anything they had. We got home at 4:00pm and had a good nap. Great way to start the week !!

Happy Birthday, David !!

Sending our birthday greetings to you on this great fall day.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Looking Glass Mountain Hike

Due to operator error, I have to post an additional posting to get the photos in the right sequence. (Maybe I should have started prior to having some wine!!)