Tanawha Trail at Cold Prong Pond
On a sunny and beautifully clear day in early February, 2008, I decided to go hiking on a section of the Tanawha Trail which I had not traversed before. The trail runs on the west side of the Blue Ridge Parkway from Price Park south to Grandfather Mountain. The section…
SnowShoe Skiing with St. Paul
Over the weekend of January 11 - 13, 2008, the intrepid and imperturbable Bruce Nolin led the St. Paul youth group on a ski expedition to SnowShoe Resort, West Virginia. The youth really were (mostly) well behaved. But when things got a little out of hand, or (a lot) behind…
Over Mountain Victory Trail in the Mud - Three Times
On the sunny and unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon of January 6, 2008, I took a shake-down cruise for the first mountain biking exercise on my new bike. Debbie gave it to me for Christmas. I drove my Bronco Moses with the bike on a rack to the Ranger station at…
Mountains to Sea Trail at Christmas
During the Christmas 2007 festivities with my wife Debbie's family, I got invited by Bill Dunn to temporarily join the Old Farts Club. Each Wednesday, they take their weekly 'constitutional' hike, often up to 15 miles. The Club has some very stringent entrance requirements: be over 70 years old and…