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Ocnaluftee River Valley Overlook, Newfound Gap Road

While my new book Moon Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains isn’t out yet (you’ll have to wait till spring 2010!), the first of my downloadable iPhone tours of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are.  Download my Newfound Gap Road Tour to your mobile device here.

And get a sneak peek at the book on my website.

Happy travels!

Sea Lions on the War Path

Ever had the urge to get up close to a sea lion?  Well, me neither, but sometimes things just happen, and chances are good if you take a skiff loaded with 10 tourists in matching rain slickers up close to where a pack of sea lions are sunning, you just might start a stampede.  Did I mention sea lions have bad breath?

Yep, we were close enought to have a whiff.

More on exploring southeast Alaska coming soon.  You really haven’t lived till you’ve seen a glacier calve while wearing a neon orange Mustang suit and drinking hot cocoa with rum….

An official sign at the airport in Juneau, Alaska.

The vending machines, however, are located around the corner from the brown bear in the glass case…yes, seriously.

Sequoyah Bear at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian

So what’s with the recent run on fiberglass town mascots?  Norfolk, Virginia, has its mermaids.  Cherokee, North Carolina, has its bears.  Hendersonville, North Carolina, has its apples.  And then there are the painted fire hydrants.

Fiberglass apples in Hendersonville

Not that I don’t appreciate artistic license, especially when it involves “Sequoyah Syllabeary,” but where will the phenomenon end?  Does Tucson have fiberglass Saguaro cactuses?

Ready, bark, fire!

Only 33 crossings left to go!

If you’re up for some exercise and some challenging stream crossings (34 total at last count), check out the Basin Creek Trail, a 10-mile roundtrip trek to the isolated Caudill Cabin, the only remaining intact structure of the Basin Creek Cove community that thrived here at the turn of the last century.  Log entries at the cabin, which is five miles in, express visitors’ sentiments on the hike, ranging from “brutal” to “beautiful.”

Why it's worth the trip

I wouldn’t go so far as to call this trek brutal.  It climbs about 500 feet but gently for the most part over the course of five miles.  The most challenging part and what makes this trek take about 6 hours are the multiple stream crossings.  Depending on how wet the season is when you visit, expect upwards of 30 or more.  Only one crossing has a bridge.  For the others, be prepared to wade or pick your way across slippery rocks.

The original residents of this cabin had a four-mile walk to the nearest road.

It’s worth it, however.  Along the way are two scenic waterfalls and countless remnants of the Appalachian community that once existed here (including leftover foundations, chimneys, millstones, evidence of cleared pastures, and gravestones).  You can read more about the hike in my upcoming book Moon Smoky Mountains and Blue Ridge Handbook, which will be published in Spring 2009.  Look for it at www.moon.com or your favorite bookstore.

Hmm, I think I'd rather wade across....

Although this one isn’t.  I think he left his kilt back at the Highland Games.  Visit Grandfather Mountain in western North Carolina in July, and experience the “superbowl” of Highland Games in the eastern U.S.  You’ll never see this many guys in skirts anywhere else…except maybe Key West.  But there’s no genuine Scottish heritage there.  Check it out at www.gmhg.org.

Do you know what this is?

It looks like an optical illusion, but it’s not.  It’s the closest thing you’ll see to a flying buttress on a mountaintop.  It’s the new ADA compliant ramp at Mount Mitchell State Park in North Carolina.

In case you don’t already know, Mount Mitchell is the highest peak east of the Mississippi at 6,684 ft. above sea level.  A few years ago, the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation decided to tear down the aging stone observation tower at the summit of Mount Mitchell and, of course, replace it with an ADA compliant tower.  Nevermind that the average person pushing a wheelchair could never make it up the paved incline to get to the tower in the first place.  While visiting two days ago, I watched some poor man attempt it with his elderly mother.  He went about 100 ft. and promptly turned the wheelchair around in disgust.

Chances are nobody on wheels is going to enjoy this new observation ramp and deck (which kind of resembles a bobsled track) other than a few infants in strollers with parents eager to work off that baby weight.   Nevertheless,  it makes for one of the more unique of western North Carolina’s many mountaintop eyesores….

Tune in next week for more news from the “Cruise from You Know Where!”