I'm getting closer to the start of my Appalachian Trail hike. I recently did a 4 day/ 40 mile hike. Had a great time and eagerly looking forward to starting the hike,
Another thing I'd like to share with folks is blog related. There is a website called The Trek. This website supports long distance hiking and helping those hikers. I've been a big fan of their site for a number of years.
This year I'll be one of the hikers blogging about my hike on their site!
A new hiker introduction. The hiker recounts his plans, preparations, and a recent animal encounter.
Still alive, just been an extremely busy week. Here are some highlights. Harper had a spa day to meet with his “cousin”. My niece and her husband came to visit and brought their halfling, Blaire, with them.
Also, our gift to Blaire was a big hit. She loves her rocking chair.
Well……as of Thursday, I am now retired. Technically, my position was eliminated. There will be a severance package, I’m waiting on the paperwork detailing it. I had time to let my team know what was going on and had a chance to say thanks and goodbyes..
How does this impact my plans?
To be honest, as I told my team, I was retiring in three months anyway. There were some benefits I wanted to take advantage of in January and I would have hit seven years with the company. Oh well.
As Janet said, when I told her, this allows me to be even more prepared for my big hike.
The hike was a blast. The only downside was I did cut it a couple of days short due to water sources were dry; it’s been incredibly dry here. I would have posted sooner, but enjoyed the week off work and social media.
The first day was about 11 miles and day two was 13 miles I think. This was the first time with the new pack, it carried 30 lbs well. Both days the eating plan was followed and will be tweaked for the big hike. The main points for the food is 1) I brought calories dense food, 2) pretty much followed the plan, and 3) I had accessible the food for that day in a gallon zip lock.
The first night had major winds howling winds, the tent was fine. Still not sure which tent I’ll take in the Spring.
I don’t want to bore folks with lots of details…..so, if you’ve got questions, ask away.
Okay, here are some of the pictures. A couple of notes regarding the pictures,
this was along the Appalachian Trail. This trail has white marks on trees/rocks/ground. Those marks are called “blazes”. You can see these blazes in a number of the pictures. This includes the rocks in picture 6. It’s a tight fit carrying a pack thru that.
The sign that says 500 marks about 25% of the trail (if you started at Springer Mtn in Georgia.
Lastly, the ponies are some of “the ponies of the Grayson Highlands”
Great question! Some of what I am about to explain is going to sound, to no one's surprise, kind of stupid.
In early 2020, as we approached 60, we had a "let's talk about the future" conversation. I didn't want to stay in California for a bunch of reasons. One of those reasons was the cost of living in the Bay Area is insane. Since we were talking about retirement, thats a huge factor we have to consider. If you don't have a job, there is no way we could afford to live there.
Janet was for moving back home to the southeastern states and I missed the green of the seasons. We did not want to move back to Tennessee and we liked North Carolina. We came up with a list of things we were looking for (more on that in a moment) and picked a starting place. We spent a week in the southern part of western North Carolina just south of Asheville.
It was lovely and spent the entire week in a niche hotel in Hendersonville. The town was cute and close to everything. No shock there as the town is a suburb of Asheville. We looked at some places, met with a real estate agent and explained what we wanted. It was pretty much our list.
We wanted a place at least 2000 feet in elevation (we ended up at 3250 feet)
Some property would be nice. The property we bought was 19.5/14.5 acres (I can explain that if anyone is curious).
We did not want cookie cutter house, rather we wanted character. Our cabin was built from fallen trees from Hurricane Hugo. The original builder built the cabin for him and his wife.
We had to have high speed internet for work. Much of the rural areas have Hughes Net and wouldn't be a good option for us. We were shocked to find our county has fiber optic internet. I mean I'm out in the boonies!
I wanted a night sky to see stars and lightning bugs. Check! We got that.
We wanted wildlife. Got that too. One of my favorite trail cam videos is a bear cub licking my camera! I'll have to post it.
There were other odds and ends, the list evolved a bit as we looked. Each evening, after work, we would spend hours looking at porn. DAMN AUTOCORRECT, I meant Zillow porn.
And then it happened.
Covid hit.
And we kept looking. This place popped up and we thought it had possibilities. We didn't know this part of the state, although I had visited a nearby town almost 40 years ago. I thought it would be worth exploring. For the next couple of weeks, we poured every website we could find to tell us about the area. We jumped on moping programs to find how far Costco or Sam's is, where the nearest gas station was.
The price was good, interest rates were incredibly low, and it has one thing that most people didn't want: a bath and half. We had no problems with that. We let our relator know we were very interested, few days later she sent us a shit ton of pictures and observations. A week or so later, I made the trip to Charlotte and drove the remaining 2.5 hours to the Jeffersons.
Again, this is a small town, I arrived in the evening, and it was during Covid, the first thing I notice was how vibrant it felt. I even sent Janet a note that night saying that. When visiting the cabin, I stood on the front porch and listened to the running creek across the road.Loved how the snow looked in the shade of the mountains. And noticed one last important aspect, the cabin reminded me of Janet's Grandmother's cabin. That was a place I would go to sit by the fireplace and read Calvin and Hobbes.
I made an offer on the house before I left the Jeffersons. Janet saw the house the weekend we closed.
I love the landscape here, the people are as a rule, good folks, my neighbors are neighborly. Every single time I drive any where, I I love how beautiful the drive is.
Thought I'd post more about the area we live in. Our county is Ashe County, it is in the extreme northwest corner of North Carolina. The county's tourism motto is "welcome to the coolest corner of North Carolina".
The county is extremely rural and has about 29,000 residents. Most of which are more elderly. The two biggest communities are: Jefferson (the county seat) and West Jefferson. As the towns butt up against one another, they are often referred to as "the Jeffersons" .
Just outside of the Jeffersons is the Mt Jefferson State Natural Area and here is an overview of the two towns.
West Jefferson, the largest town in the county, has a population of 1200-1500 people. At one time, it also had the distinction of having the only cheese factory in the southeastern United States. It's a popular tourist spot.
Yes, this the hard-hitting information you are still following for.
We have the typical small things, like the Farmer's Market.
In the summer months, we have free concerts available for folks to attend.
To the east of the Jeffersons, is the Blue Ride Parkway. This is a scenic parkway managed by the US park service and runs hundreds of miles through the Appalachian Mountains. There are some gorgeous views and plenty of overlooks to enjoy. Here's one of a sunrise.
We love living here! It seems to fit us quite well.
Our township, Creston, is about 10 miles or 30 minutes away. While it's a curvy drive, the countryside is beautiful.
I sent my drone up to capture this picture. It's looking south toward Todd/Boone NC.
The remaining pictures are from my immediate area.
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