#nantahala

[sewgeekmama]

The North Carolina Gem Mining Experience

Every year we take a trip to the Smokey Mountains in North Carolina and a must-do activity is gem mining! This year we stopped at the Nantahala River Gem Mine in Bryson City, NC. Natahala River Gem Mine My son and I both love to get a bucket of dirt at the gem mine and dig for treasures. It’s something I always wanted to do as a kid, but never got to, so now I enjoy sharing the experience with…

[rhodeskc]

Rustic Home Office - Study Inspiration for a sizable, rustic study space with a light wood floor and green walls

[kramlabs]

[bugcowboyart]

Nantahala National Forest

Wanted to create a small artbook/zine thing about how I feel when in the mountains of west North Carolina (small and weird)

[twoseparatecoursesmeet]

Cullasaja Falls, 1977

[sagehaubitze]

Getting drunk on a train ain't a bad way to travel.

Carolina Moonshine experience to the Nantahala Gorge was a good time. Now, I'm from Alabama, shine is definitely not a novel concept to me, but their sampling was very nice! Lots of history, lots of alcohol, and a very neat train to boot.

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Nantahala National Forest/Pisgah National Forest - North Carolina

Dennis Govoni/Moment Collection via Getty Images

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Asheville Citizen Times:

A coalition of five conservation organizations have sued the U.S. Forest Service, alleging the 2023 management plan for the Nantahala-Pisgah national forests failed to protect the biologically diverse areas, including the habitats of federally protected bat species, as the plan expanded logging practices in the more than 1 million acres of national forests.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service on the behalf of The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, MountainTrue and SierraClub in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in Asheville April 19.

The Pisgah and Nantahala national forests cover more than a million acres of mountainous terrain in Western North Carolina. The two are the largest of the state’s four national forests and portions of the forests are open to timber harvesting, hiking, fishing, hunting, paddling, horseback riding and other activities.

In 2023, the U.S. Forest Service released a new management plan for the two forests. The decade-long revision process on the Nantahala-Pisgah management plan — which will guide management for how much can be logged and how much of the land is protected, as well as many other forest uses, for the next 10-15 years — has been plagued with conservation group concerns about the long-term impacts of expanded logging practices.

The lawsuit alleges the Forest Service worked with "inaccurate and incomplete" information during the approval of the management plan violating the Endangered Species Act.

"The Forest Service ignored the best available science and withheld critical information from the Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species protection,” Josh Kelly, public lands field biologist for MountainTrue, wrote in a news release.

[collettcreekcabin]

long term cabins rental in andrews nc

http://www.collettcreekcabin.com/property/2

Collett Creek Cabins

[bigfootbeat]

1985 North Carolina Bigfoot Sighting

On June 15, 1985, a 12-year-old boy was exploring a secluded mountain route in Franklin, North Carolina, when he came upon an unidentified bipedal creature in what would turn out to be a life-altering event. The young witness was living with his family at their cabin near the Cullasaja Gorge on Walnut Creek Road, which is close to the boundary of the Nantahala National Forest. Jeff Carpenter, a BFRO researcher, looked into the witness's account and found that the encounter happened on a clear summer day at around 2:00 PM. The creature was squatting by a creek crossing, presumably scavenging in the water, when the child, who was wearing a safety whistle as requested by his parents, walked along an old logging road. The witness described a brown-haired, roughly seven-foot-tall figure with noticeably lengthy limbs and broad shoulders. The child was especially surprised by the creature's apparent absence of a neck. The witness, frozen in terror for a few moments, finally hurried down the mountain, whistling frantically as the creature rose and turned its head toward him. It was theorized this was a Bigfoot. The witness was adamant that the creature was neither a bear nor any other known local fauna, despite his family's efforts to persuade him that he had seen something else. Steep terrain, mountain streams, caves, and rock formations define the area, which is well-known for its varied wildlife, which includes deer, turkey, wild boar, and crayfish. Despite not conducting any additional investigation at the time of the incident, the witness's recollection of the incident has remained unclouded for years.

Source: https://bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=44354

[snototter]

A red legged salamander intergrade (Plethodon shermani int. Plethodon teyahalee) in Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina, USA

by Alan Cressler

[backside-into-the-heavenly]

Two of North Carolina's best summer activities crossing paths. A rafting excursion down the Nantahala River floats right by the iconic Great Smoky Mountains Railroad heading the opposite direction in the Nantahala Gorge. Floating or riding, you can't go wrong with either choice in this beautiful area.

#NorthCarolina #northcarolinaliving #ncliving #northcarolinalife #greatsmokymountains #greatsmokymountainsrailroad #scenictrainride #RiverRafting #nantahala #explorenorthcarolina

[aria-diary]

The Cherohala Skyway was completed in the fall of 1996 after planning and construction for some thirty-four years. It was North Carolina’s most expensive scenic highway carrying a price tag of $100,000,000. It winds up and over 5,400 (1645m) foot mountains for 18 miles (28km) in North Carolina and descends another 23 miles(37) into the deeply forested back country of Tennessee. The road crosses through the Cherokee and Nantahala National Forests thus the name “Chero…hala”. The Skyway is becoming well known in motorcycling and sports car circles for it’s long, sweeping corners, scenic views, cool summer breezes, fall colors, and winter vistas. This road enthusiast’s dream connects Robbinsville, North Carolina with Tellico Plains, Tennessee. It can be desolate at night and dangerous in the winter months. There are no facilities other than a couple of restrooms for the entire 41 miles so make sure you have enough gas to make the crossing. There is little evidence of civilization from views that rival or surpass any from the Blue Ridge Parkway

[davycoquette]

This one's from a collaborative writing post. The character is the "you" in #coyotebackstabby.

Never before had a man belonged so much to a place, a sound, a smell, an atmosphere, as Shiloh Kitson in that shabby dive bar. The atmosphere was Lonesomeness. It hung in the gauzy nicotine air, coruscated in the slick of grease on the bar. It fizzled Van Zant flavored out of the jukebox and painted shadows under sleepy eyes.

He smacked of an afterthought, the stranger pushing the door open: seasonable red flannel over a black shirt, Dick Palmer’s Old West Gun Room rounding a logo of wing-emblazoned pistols on the front of it. Worn out Levi’s from the thrift store. Work boots loose-laced, leather ‘n soles stained with every color of dirt the continental US could offer. Nantahala on the front of his trucker hat, half his face in its shadow, his blondish hair curling from underneath it.

He favored the hand that pushed the door, let all the pressure fall on his bony wrist. Tape around two fingers hid A-S on the knuckles; the pointer and pinky still read F and T. Bruises splotched his face, too, and angry splits recently shut by butterfly stitches. It was all fading, now, though; long past pain, beneath notice. All the watercolors belonged to a place and time that stretched far away behind him — farther even, it seemed, than the place where he picked up the carton of Pall Malls wedged in his back pocket.

Every other seat at the counter was taken, the patrons spaced respectfully apart even at that place reserved for a bar’s loneliest clientele. At the farthest end a man dozed with his chin on his collarbone, his cigarette-jaundiced beard bunching fleecy curls underneath his head like a cushion made from old poodle hide. His soft snoring drowned in staticky rock riffs and the clattering of bottles. On the counter beside him, a metal desk fan oscillated, clicking at the apex of every stretch before jerking back toward the center. The curled edges of printer paper stapled to wood panels fluttered then stilled.

Behind the barkeep a soccer game played out on a mounted television. Half the picture was blanched by a mysterious patch with rainbow edges. An announcer’s voice droned in and out of focus, on audible to those who listened for it.

Opposite the sleeper sat a woman past middle age, her hair a chaotic pile of frizz and curls in champagne yellow. Shadow gathered in the creases of her slow-blinking eyelids as she methodically nursed her second cocktail. Her purse occupied the barstool next to her, slouched open, combs and wallet and a dozen or so crinkled receipts on full display.

— And there were others! But Shiloh moved single-mindedly to the bar and took his place in between two other patrons. He looked shy, like an out-of-towner who never should have left his hometown holler. Like he was uncomfortable in the “big city,” like he dreamed of country roads and familiarity and a little lady back home. It didn’t seem as though he looked at his neighbors at all, but kept his head down and his periphery shadowed by the bill of his hat, and he sat and folded his tattooed hands on the bar in front of him.

But this was how he always played it.

When the barkeep paused in front of him, the corner of his mouth hooked coyly, then relaxed. His eyes lifted for a moment, then he bowed his head again.

“The Pilsner." He tilted his hand in the direction of the beer tap. The dreamily twitched almost-smile again as the barkeep moved wordlessly away, and Shiloh said, “Thank you,” to the back of him.

[bugcowboyart]

hey. i’m obsessed with your last nc art. i’m here in nc and am still actively deconstructing my shitty religious upbringing. just wanted to say ur piece really resonates with me. <3

I’m glad it’s resonated with you and so many other folks! I was worried it would be to niche.

The feelings I experience when I’m in the Appalachian range, specifically Blue Ridge, are so complex and help put my life into a perspective that makes it manageable. Add natural beauty, waterfalls, and wildlife and it makes Nantahala and Pisgah two of my favorite places to be in the world.

For me, being in Appalachia I am so completely dwarfed by the range’s size and their history (older than sharks older than bones) that i feel a way I can only remember feeling as a kid in church being told there was something greater than me that I could turn things over to and hearing my mothers voice join everyone else’s in the congregation. I’m no longer religious now, and have had a contentious relationship with the Church as an entity so finding that connected feeling again in a way that is disconnected from Institution has made quite the impact.

And there’s something about these mountains being older than humanity, so much older than the human concept of a god but now you have the people living within them who are entrenched in societal and religious Christianity (enough to post signs and make road shrines) but who also still believe in and interact daily with the superstitions, rituals, and folklore of the native peoples that were slaughtered so we could inhabit them in a way that reflected European standards ownership but discarded completely stewardship of basic care for the god/mountain/earth/home supporting us?

Specifically I was thinking a lot about judgement day and repentance as a Christian concept but also the natural punishment for our treatment of these ranges that have existed for so much longer than humanity. These places are now being shaped harshly by tourists and property companies—on the same trip I wrote this I saw a natural waterfall access roped off for private consumption by these horrible geodesic dome cabins but was I not also a visitor to those falls and my own footsteps are eroding more and more of the path?

Anyway that was a ramble here’s some pictures I’ve taken of the Appalachian range this last year.

[floridacracker]

I really love upstate SC and the Nantahala NF area of NC. Extremely beautiful, the normal people (not vacation house owners/golfers/etc) are great. Also reminds me of when I met my wife. One of my favorite areas in the country