Today was the first time back to work when I haven't been horribly limping or sick from the tetanus shot.Carole and I have solidified our October vacation plans. Definitely the area around Helvetia, WV. It'll be good to get back there. I hope to hike up a few mountains while we're there.Too busy writing to post much here. But I will include this stitched photo taken of me in 2006 by Jack Thyen at a waterfall in the Citico Creek Wilderness in western Tennessee. I was even able to get Carole to hike down to see this one. It was a fairly steep hike, too.
I was about 25 pounds lighter in 2006 than I am now. Hope to get back down to that weight again, which is one of the reasons I've been on such a strict vegetarian diet for the past couple of months.
Ever since I was about eight years old I've wanted to travel out west. When I was a kid I would beg my parents to take me to Yellowstone and, later, to Yosemite. A lot of the kids I went to school with would bring their summer vacation photos to class and I'd see them--Old Faithful, Grand Teton, Yellowstone Falls, El Capitain, Half Dome, Tuolumne Meadows, grizzly bears, bison, elk...the list goes on.My parents never were able to take me to Yellowstone, or anywhere else out west. In my thirties I was able to travel to California, but only on business, and the only time I got to hike out there was in the state park on Mount Palomar and at Cabrillo National Monument. Nice hikes, but hardly the kind of thing I wanted to see in the west.When I was in high school, the brothers I hiked the Appalachians with spent one summer vacation hitting the western parks with their parents. They hiked all over the big peaks and got to visit the places I'd dreamed of. "Once you see the Rockies, you'll throw pebbles at the Appalachians," one of my pals told me. I couldn't imagine doing that, but it let me know how truly spectacular the western high country is.In honor of my upcoming 2010 trip to the western mountains, I've decided to post a few photos of some of my favorite hiking spots in the eastern high country. Just so I'll be reminded not to throw pebbles at them when I return from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.
Big Creek, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 
Midnight Hole, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 
Bald River Gorge Wilderness, Tennessee. 
Citico Creek Wilderness, Tennessee. 
Rowland Creek Falls, Virginia. 
Hickory Nut Gorge, North Carolina. 
Blackwater River Gorge, West Virginia. 
Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia. 
Seneca Rocks, West Virginia. 
Tuckerman Ravine, Mount Washington, New Hampshire. 
The Lion Head, Mount Washington, New Hampshire. 
Friction climbing in the James River Face Wilderness, Virginia. 
Harkening Hill, Virginia.
Whitetop Mountain, Virginia. 
Whiteside Mountain, North Carolina. 
Granny Burrell Falls, Panthertown Valley, North Carolina. 
In the Albright Grove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 
On my favorite hiking trail, the Black Mountain Crest Trail, North Carolina. My favorite because every few feet you're gasping. Either because of the rugged terrain, or because of the amazing views.
Although I tend to be a loner when I go hiking, some of my favorite walking trips have been with friends. In August of 2006 our 
friends Amy 
and Jack joined us at Indian Boundary Recreation Area in Tennessee to go searching for waterfalls.The weather was generally misty and rainy and overcast, which sucks for peak-bagging, but is great for viewing waterfalls. So I ended up driving and hiking to some premiere waterfalls, and avoiding the high country.
Peak bagging is mainly a high ceiling kind of thing when it 
comes to cloud cover. You can generally view waterfalls just fine, no matter what the weather. And waterfalls photograph better when its overcast.
The prettiest waterfall on this trip was the Falls of Fall Creek, located in the Citico Wilderness Area and accessible only after a long and very steep hike. Despite the fact that we got soaking wet, the hike down was well worth the effort, as this turned out to be yet another particularly striking waterfall. Many of the best waterfalls are in isolated spots, which serves to add to the atmosphere.
T
he area around the Falls of Fall Creek is covered in virgin timber. The reason for 
this is that before the timber company could harvest the trees, a wildfire swept through the cut areas around the virgin stands, consuming the railroad ties that had been left there for the narrow gauge rails needed to bring the lumber out. Before the timber company could bring in more ties, the contract ran out on this plot of public land, thus saving these amazing trees, which had never been cut.
Fast forward to modern times, and the introduced insect pest we know as Hemlock wooly adelgid accomplished what a timber harvesting company could not. When we hiked in, the virgin hemlock trees were weakening from the ravages of this Asian pest, but were still standing. From what I've been told by online friends who hike this area, in the two years since, all of the hemlock trees there have now died. It's all nothing but dead timber, as far as the hemlocks are concerned. Alas.
In the Citico Wilderness. Beauty unmolested by Mankind's industry.
I was about 25 pounds lighter in 2006 than I am now. Hope to get back down to that weight again, which is one of the reasons I've been on such a strict vegetarian diet for the past couple of months.
