MERCHANT'S MILL POND, NOVEMBER 8TH, 1997 - We had an enlightening drive out past Roanoke Rapids through some of the littlest communities in NC. Every one seemed to be labeled "Bird Sanctuary". We arrived Saturday afternoon, just after Earl and the early contingent had finished a 4-mile hike. We brunched on cheese, crackers, wine and upon us mentioning that we would like to hike to the primitive camp sites, Earl wanted to go too. So off we went. Just down the road from the campsite, we entered the woods. Crossing bridges over drainage features with no water in them, we hiked through the mist, Earl, Deb, Margie, Ken, Leslie, Dave and Linda. Finally, we came to a long bridge across the pond with cypress trees draped in Spanish moss, tupelos, and plenty of cypress knees sticking up from the muddy water. Margie let Precious roam and she passed by us in a wild running fit, weaving this way, then that. She disappeared over the hill. Later, we had to back track to pick up an exhausted Precious. Beautiful hike which we found ended at the primitive campsites (marked by an outhouse). My pedometer read 3 and 2/3rd miles at that point. We snacked for a while and then set off back down the trail, soon passing a white pickup truck. This belonged to Ranger Jane, who we soon ran into along the trail. She assured us that ahead was the campgrounds, but she thought we meant the group sites. We really meant the family campsites...well, that's a lot further. It was getting dark and we were hustling to beat the setting sun. When we broke out of the woods, we had reached the 8-mile mark on the pedometer.

In the dark, we had a delightful meal that night. I built a fire with two of the logs from H-T, supplemented with some of the oak logs that we bought from Ranger Jane. I plunked our largest iron skillet on the fire and dumped in the pile of cubed potato chunks, the onion and green peppers that Linda chopped and sautéed them. Deb provided some great homemade humus (nice and chunky), Ken and Leslie provided a mix of chili and Italian noodle soup that was a perfect complement, Margie had the garlic bread, altogether a satisfying meal. It rained that night, but then we all knew that it would.

Next morning, I got up in the teaming rain and brewed a pot of coffee. Deb offered a nice, warm bowl of oatmeal...and we were off to see Ranger Jane give us a presentation on Howls and Awks at 10 AM. She really knew her owls and hawks and had some wonderful slides taken right on the pond. Yes, she assured us there really are alligators in the swamp but they weren't very big and she suspected that someone had dumped them in there. After the slide show, we went outside and lo and behold, it was sunny. We rented canoes and paddled around the pond for an hour or so.

On the way home, we found that the best barbecue around (recommendation of Ranger Jane) was closed. Moving along, we turned right into Murfreesboro and spying, in amazement, The Chinese Garden on our right whose parking lot was packed with cars from the churchgoers who had just got out of services. We joined them and had a happy Chinese meal accompanied with a half bottle of Wang Fu. This was one of the great trips of the year, as short as it was. We think that we could go to a new state park every month and never run out of discoveries.

RACCOON HOLLER, AUGUST 1ST, 1997 - I'm in the computer room where I spend a lot of my time with my "Blue Thunder" computer. I just bought a little video camera and I am going to edit my videos on the "Blue Thunder". The camera is the world's smallest and lightest. That way, I take it along with me on all of our hikes and everybody in the hiking group can do their act. Hiking has a lot of movement anyway and I don't even have to tell people to wave or jump up and down or anything.

We've done lots of hikes lately. About two weeks ago we camped at the Raccoon Holler Campgrounds which actually has its own side road just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. That was going to be our once a year Boone (NC) hike. We never got to Boone. The highlight of the trip was an eleven mile hike from Doughton Park up to a cabin just below the ridge. This cabin can only be reached from below the Blue Ridge Parkway. The trail wended back and forth across a little trout stream with inviting pools on either side, like the guidebook said. We toughed it out but near the top I really begged to jump into the water. But they insisted on going all the way to the top and I thought it would take forever. But soon we were screaming that we could see the cabin. We had out lunch up there and on the way back, they let me jump in.

Click here to return to Raccoon Holler.

OCCANEECHI MOUNTAIN, APRIL 21, 1997 - I'm writing this as seemingly golf-ball-sized rain drops are thudding on the roof and thunder is rumbling to the south. It is 10:41PM.

On Saturday, we gathered at the courthouse in Hillsborough for a hike up to OCCANEECHI Mountain. This time most of our hikers came prepared for more than town hiking. I wore the hiking boots that I plan to wear during our vacation to the Lakes region of England. John Cleaveland had driven to the slave cemetery to get a head start on the main contingent. For a few moments we mused over the plaque which lists the dates of birth and death of dozens of slaves who were interred there without stones to mark their passing. Then, we were off again clattering hiking sticks past Carter's mill and the small cluster of stores that stand near the railroad tracks, a pool hall, private club, grocery store, Laundromat, all of the essentials. Then we went under the trestle with Amtrak wailing at some crossing in the distance.

Crossing the bridge over the Eno River we took off through the woods past the lone fire plug which is one of the few remnants of the town which stood along the trail some years ago. We did not go down to the quarry floor this time but detoured to the left up the wooden steps which lead to the overlook at the lip of the quarry. Now came the hard part as we clambered up the steep rock steps flanked by low bush blueberries, I've picked them in the summer. The air was cool and the view was great! I thought we'd lose a few but even John made it up this time and he lead us down to the panther cave where we had a difficult climb down the rocks above the spring but no one slipped. There were sightings of wild azalea, Trillium and early May apple blossoms as we hiked down by the river.

Twenty of us relaxed at the Saratoga afterwards where most of us tried the cheddar and mesquite burger specials and Colleen (the owner) unobtrusively poured iced water for us. For those of you who missed this hike, hope to see you on the next one.

Click here to return to Occaneechi pictures.

MUSING ON THE NEW TOY, MARCH 10, 1997 - I've been busy videotaping our hikes with my new gadget. Yes, I've always loved gadgets. This one takes moving pictures. I've found that our hiking group has many undiscovered talents. A favorite way to get hikers to reveal their true selves is to stop in the middle of the trail and begin taking pix of oncoming hikers. Joe makes faces into the camera, Margie waves brightly, Mike comes along with a straight face and just as he gets in front of the camera sticks out his tongue like a lizard. My lovely contrivance of a partnership of RCA and JVC has a microphone on top which clearly got one of them saying, "I'll get ya' for this Dave." I'm afraid I've been missing a lot by just taking snapshots. Anyhow, If you weren't at Mary Mudd's on Sunday you missed the premier of the videotape. It documents our most recent hikes, the one which we did with the Dan River group along the Eno, the jogging trail at the Duke golf course, and then the one on Saturday in Hillsborough. Maybe later in the year you will get to see the tape as I add new hikes to it.

Last Thursday, I taped a well attended performance of Linda's son John, stage-name Robin, at Papagayo's in Chapel Hill. Linda was astounded to find that her son sings and plays guitar, very well. His fiancé, Anne-Marie Ljung, just got published in a heavy duty journal of literature and photography called DoubleTake. Her poem, Drafts of Long Milk, is a touching reminiscence of a meeting with an old farmer. The day after John's concert, they left for Seattle where Anne-Marie is researching her Swedish roots on a grant from the Durham Arts Council. What a wellspring of talent these young people are.

Anyhow, we got an invitation from one of our friends at The Forest at Duke (Linda works there) and was annoyed to find that "Costumes Required!" Yecch! What to do, I banged around the house complaining and cussin'. I don't like costume things, I guess. I'm relieved to have found a solution to this one. I'm going to wear my vest and the compass baseball hat that I go on hikes with and go as Steven Spielberg.

 BOONE, NC, July 26th, 1996 - On Friday we staked out campsite #49 at Morgan Mountain Retreat. This site was a double-sized site with two spigots, electrical outlets and lots of mossy spots to pitch tents. John Cleaveland is still setting up his sturdy 15-year-old North Face pup. That first night we had Dave Suwala's shrimp Creole, toasted buns, Deb Eveland's cucumber chicken and pasta salad. This wonderful repast was followed by a cruise down to Boone to take in the Olympic opening ceremony at Murphy's sports bar on their big-screen TV.

Saturday we toured the surrounding towns. Blowing Rock had their once-a-month (from June to October) Arts in the Park festival which featured some of the best quality artists and craftsmen that Linda Vanaman has seen. After sandwiches at the bagel shop we went on to Banner Elk (another art show was in progress there by the lake).

Blowing Rock's next Arts in the Park is on August 17th. We had dinner that night at Casa Rustica, one of the finer restaurants in Boone. For dessert we took in the coffee shop atmosphere of BeansTalk the local student hangout near Appalachian State. There we had cappuccino and shared a giant piece of chocolate temptation cake. Back to the campsite, we built a fire since the evening was cool (temperatures were a cool middle 70s, and surprisingly, no rain fell the whole weekend) and enjoyed flamen Earl recap some "Tales from the Crypt".

Next morning, we went down to have a big country breakfast at the Mountain Cafe and made plans for our hike at Moses Cone. We took off into the mist, an easy uphill grade (steady 5% the cute park ranger assured us) through rhododendron copses still in bloom. Lots of wild flowers but look out for the horse droppings. The goal was the observation tower which has a 360 degree view of the mountains. John rested his back on the platform up there for the downhill trek. We felt so good that crossing the meadows up there we were singing songs from The Sound of Music. "Do, a deer, a female deer, Re, a drop of golden sun..."

Sunday afternoon, Jill Shires arranged for us to visit her music teacher friends back along Aho Road (a place we would never have thought to go). They have built a lovely fantasy park through the hemlocks and rhodos in the bottomlands by the creek there. They have labored for 15 years or so to build ponds, gardens, fountains. Thanks to Jill for being our tour guide while we were in the Boone area and for arranging for us to see this unknown bit of off-the-roadside America.

Click here if you want to send me your comments or add your own experiences. I'd love to hear from you. Criticism and encouragement are both cheerfully expected and accepted.