PT and I went for a little walk on Saturday in the Black Balsam Wilderness. We crossed Black Balsam Knob (see above) and made our way to Tennent Mountain where we stopped for lunch. We hung out, chatted and watched some hawks. On the way back we took part of the Art Loeb Trail where I tried my best to step on a snake. Turned out it was just a garter snake … so it wasn’t anything to get too uppity about. I would have gotten a picture but he slithered away pretty quickly. The main thing that I did catch on the hike was a sunburn. So, I am gonna be a nice lobster pink when I travel to NYC later this week.

View of Looking Glass Rock from Tennant Mountain.

PT having his lunch. Graveyard Fields is below us.

Gratuitous Self-Portrait.

View of the Shining Rocks and the summit of Cold Mountain.

Mountain and Valley View.

Tennent Mountain Marker.

Hawk!

More Mountains …

The Lazy Hikers (PT and Myself).

Gas prices really, really, really suck.

The was the view Friday night of just part of what’s now being termed the Pinnacle Ridge Fire. It was hard to find a good spot to take a picture of the whole fire. You could see one section here it went in a straight line up the mountain that had definitely jumped the Parkway. The line of fire pictured above was below the Parkway road and we quite a site. The Forest Service helicopter was a constant presence the last few days. Seemed like they were just keeping an eye on things as they never attached the water bucket again. It’s was fun having the house shake as it roared overhead to make landings in the park just beyond my place.

Here’s the latest news stolen from the C-T site:

Meanwhile, part of the Blue Ridge Parkway remained closed because of a 425-acre fire at Pinnacle Ridge near Balsam Gap in Haywood County. That fire was 95 percent contained by Sunday evening, said David Brown with the N.C. Forest Service. It should be fully contained by noon today.

Rain had been helpful for firefighters. “Without it, this fire could have easily gone over 1,000 acres,” Brown said.

The fire crossed over the parkway at Pinnacle Tunnel, forcing officials to close the southern portion of the scenic road from U.S 23/74 at Balsam Gap to N.C. 215 at Beech Gap.

Now it looks like there’s another wildfire going or else the original one has really spread. If it has spread, I would imagine that it’s now burning an area of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

After I got home yesterday, fire trucks, EMS vehicles and an ambulance went screaming up the road over the course of about a half hour. I suspected that someone’s house had caught on fire. The yard needed a mow so I got out and got started. From my back yard I could see the plume of smoke rising up over the ridge and smell burning wood.

I continued to mowing thinking about some person loosing their house and possessions and about how sad that was. I thought about the ambulance and hoped that nobody was hurt. But by the time I finished the back yard I was thinking that this wasn’t a house fire as the smoke had been very steady the entire time. Maybe a brush fire that got out of control?

I heard the helicopter over the lawn mower. I switched the mower off and looked up to see a bright yellow ‘copter (I think it belongs to the Forest Service) bank over the ridge. It started to descend and came in low right over my house and landed in the park just beyond. When it took off it had a huge bucket attached. The town water reservoir is at the end of the road and that’s where they headed. The helicopter made some passed over the fire and then landed and took off again.





They continued dumping water for about and hour and then they were gone. The smoke from the fire had lessened considerably. So it seemed like everything was under control.

Now it doesn’t appear to be so. You can see the smoke from the fire here at work and it looks to be much larger than yesterday. This photo was taken from the parking lot here a half an hour ago (about 10:50 a.m.).

The grapevine tells me that a fireman got seriously burned in the fire yesterday. That is sad news. As for the fire, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens …

The rodeo on Friday night was a lot of fun. I was so totally into the “when in Rome” mode that I actually had a Mountain Dew with my Chili Cheese Dog and Cheese Fries. We watched Bull Riding, Calf Roping, Barrel Racing, Bronco Bustin’ and some Trick Ropin’. I am already looking forward to the next time the rodeo is in town. Yee-Haw!

Here’s Ian being all redneck with his burger smothered in chili, cheese and cole slaw …

Here’s myself and Mary enjoying the Rodeo Action …

I didn’t take a lot of pictures of the actual rodeo in action as I was too busy really watching it. For the record: there was a lot of nice “cowboy” eye candy. Double Yee-Haw!!

Welcome to the world, Violet Kathryn!

Last night I got home from rehearsal just in time to watch some of the Lunar Eclipse from my back deck. Good thing I actually remembered! It was quiet and cold last night which made the viewing peaceful and relaxing. I snapped a few pictures (see above for the best one I got). When there was just a sliver of moon left, the clouds rolled in and robbed me of the chance to watch it leaving the Earth’s shadow.

So, here’s a picture of the Bug parked at work this morning.

It snowed last night … and that makes me all smiley and happy. Yea for snow!!!

PT, the Tom and I trekked off for a wee hike this past Saturday. We did a very small section of the Mountains to Sea Trail then cut across to Devil’s Courthouse and walked back down the Parkway to the Jeep. All-in-all it was a great hike. There wasn’t nearly as much snow as I thought there would be … but what can ya do? I took quite a few photo with my snazzy new point and shoot Canon. Yeah. I bought another camera. I found that the Digital Rebel was just a wee too cumbersome to cart around on long distances through the woods. More photos are inside, of course. Continue reading “Into the Woods” →