Recreation & Gardening
Featured
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Fire on the Mountain
Cherokee’s new uber accessible mountain bike trail system provides recreation options for riders and hikers of all skill levels in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. Read more
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NPS Photo/Bill Fultz
The Big South Fork: A Land Of Gorges & Arches
You hike through a forest on a rolling plateau. It’s pleasantly cool in the summer with the tree canopy above. After a while, you scan the landscape and perceive an openness through the forest ahead—it can give a queasy feeling of an upcoming void. Read more
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kentuckytourism.com
The Big South Fork: Adventure awaits on Trails, Rails & Waterways
Straddling both Tennessee and Kentucky, the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area provides visitors access to 125,000 acres with natural arches, waterfalls and a host of outdoor activities like camping, horseback riding and paddling. Read more
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Where's the Wine?
Carol and Jim Steiner say they understand that the idea of a jaunt on the Appalachian Trail can intimidate some would-be hikers. After all, the AT is about 2,181 miles long, known as the longest continuously marked footpath in the world. Read more
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John Forbes photo
Deep in the Devil’s Cellar
Western North Carolina’s Burke County is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts, and its crown jewel, the Linville Gorge, serves as a vast hub to foster pursuit of the momentary and sometimes inexplicable wonders of nature. Read more
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Bruce Ingram photo
Spring Gobbler Hunting in Our Mountains
Every year on the first weekend in April, my wife Elaine and I drive to the Johnson City area, stop by Mahoney’s Outfitters to pick up a hunting license, and then head for a rental house on the side of an East Tennessee mountain. Read more
Taylor Boyd Willoughby/Mountain Orenda Photography
Beer, Backpacking, and the Importance of Sunshine
Like many great ideas, this one was born over beer. “You know what we should do?” said my friend Taylor at the end of our weekly bar trivia night. “We should go backpacking.” Read more
Apr 1, 2019
Bruce Ingram photo
Sights, Smells, and Sounds in Our Spring Forests
In the Southern Appalachians, spring sends our senses into an ethereal otherworld as so many sights, sounds, and smells unique to the season greet us. Here are some of the sensory delights that folks in our region treasure the most. Read more
Apr 1, 2019
Lenny Bernstein photo
On the Move
Danny Bernstein has been a lot of things in her life. Originally from New York, she began her career in computer science “way before computing was cool,” working as a software developer and then as a college professor before moving to Asheville. Read more
Apr 1, 2019
Savoring Spring Tonics
When it comes to a traditional mountain rite of spring from yesteryear, it’s tempting to claim, decades after the fact, that I was the victim of child abuse. If so, however, child abuse was once near-universal in my highland homeland. Read more
Apr 1, 2019
Eric Middlemas photo
Virginia’s Hidden Labyrinth
Our guide is Eric Middlemas of The Mid-Appalachian Highlands Club, a hiking and outdoor activity club in the Tri-Cities area that was founded in 1976 and is one of the oldest organized hiking clubs in the region. Read more
Feb 1, 2019
Holly Kays photo
Searching for Winter
As someone who loves snow and warm hats and the orderly changing of seasons, it had been a disappointing winter. I’d seen barely a flake of snow, and daytime temperatures often felt more on par with what you’d expect from a typical April. Read more
Feb 1, 2019
Photo courtesy of Kate Rudd
Young Riders
Snowboarders under age 17 make up 34.3 percent of modern slope riders, according to winter sports authorities. To support this trend, slopes have developed classes, programs and events for child and youth boarders. Read more
Feb 1, 2019
A Conversation With A Smokies Architect
Billie Faircloth is an architect, but not of the blueprint-and-build variety. She’s spent her career asking why people build the way that they do, and how those decisions affect the ecosystems where materials are harvested and buildings built. Read more
Feb 1, 2019
