After a few days in the great outdoors, the last thing you want to do when you finally get home is tackle the task of cleaning your gear—we get it. But, as any outdoor enthusiast knows, gear is pricey stuff—and that’s if you buy it once. However, putting in just a little bit of time […]
Nestled in the Pisgah National Forest, Looking Glass Rock is an iconic natural presence that beckons climbers and hikers from all over. For rock climbers, it's one of the premier multi-pitches in the South. For trail runners and hikers, it's one of the top 10 hikes around the city of Asheville (which is saying a lot considering the peaks and forests […]
Take care of your boots and they’ll take care of you. We expect a lot from a pair of walking boots, demanding they keep us upright on all kinds of treacherous terrain, as well as ensuring our feet are dry and warm no matter what weather we wear them in. And then what thanks do […]
Intro The Big Creek/Spencer Gap/Shut-In loop is an excellent trail run in the heart of South Pisgah. The tour begins at the rim of the Mills River Valley and drops down into a forgotten corner of the North Mills area. A long steady climb up Big Creek culminates in a heart pounding grade to the […]
In the past decade, Jennifer Pharr Davis has clocked more miles in the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains than most people do in their lifetimes. She’s often moving at a high rate of speed. An ‘endurance hiker,’ Pharr Davis holds the record for fastest thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, completing the 2,185 mile journey in an […]
Western North Carolina is a land of waterfalls. Countless cascades punctuate the waterways braiding the vast expanses of forest and lofty Appalachian peaks dominating the western corner of the state, lending the landscape an undeniably enchanting quality. Some of the falls are accessible only after delving into wild pockets of backcountry, while others are just […]
Food tastes better in the outdoors… we’re pretty sure it’s science. But no matter how delicious your favorite freeze-dried meal is, or how much you swear by tortillas and peanut butter, trying something new never hurts. It’s easy to enhance backcountry meals without much extra effort. Whether you’re car camping, out for a backcountry weekend, […]
If you’re among the outdoors enthusiasts who brave the chill for winter camping, you know how appealing the “off-season” backcountry can be. In addition to bigger helpings of solitude, spectacular snow-scapes, and greater visibility of animals and their tracks, the joys of winter camping—or, hey, winter glamping, if that’s more your style—include night skies of […]
It's no secret that the mountains of Western North Carolina have a wide array of wonderful places to live and play. With vibrant mountain towns like Boone, Brevard, and Asheville, as well as well-preserved national forests and serpentine scenic highways, it's easy to see why so many people choose to visit this area (we're talking […]
It’s 10 p.m., and the already quiet Davidson River Campground has been completely muted by the steady whoosh of rain pelting our tent. Through some on-the-fly engineering, we’ve avoided the potential doom of a couple minor leaks. Settling into a movie in our cozy monoplex (with the help of a laptop), we’re drying out from a day […]