Outdoors

The search for a forgotten crossing from North Carolina to Tennessee My relationship with Ekaneetlee runs as long as the creek. Since first reading of this secret passage from North Carolina into Tennessee, I was consumed with a desire…
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Walking in the footsteps of a forgotten expedition I was surfing through bottomless rhododendron patches on Blanket Mountain for miles. This stretch out of Elkmont, Tennessee, in the Smokies, was as off trail as it gets. My objective…
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A patch of heaven worth fighting for Prior to 2015, this rough patch of hill country was like many in our region, abandoned by timber barons to all but local adventurers. Fortunately, thanks to the rescue efforts of Unicoi native…
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We're off to the Andes! I was sick with flu-like symptoms for a week after paying $200 for a yellow fever shot. Other team members just had vivid dreams for a month. But that was not my biggest worry as we crossed the 24 hour threshold…
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Denali, 2007. There was nothing in the mountaineering manual that mentioned anything about having to use a communal bucket for high altitude human waste. Nevertheless, here at fourteen thousand feet on America’s highest peak I was…
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Hidden in Knoxville’s backcountry lies a landscape worthy of exploring If weekend traffic is any indication, Knoxville’s investment in the Urban Wilderness Gateway Park proved a success. Build it and they will come, indeed. Bikers…
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Often seen as the Smokies' little sibling, the Big South Fork rides like an emergency $20 bill in my wallet. As leaf peepers crowd the usual, high-altitude routes, I sneak off into this gorge to feast on colors that flow downstream…
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An annual pilgrimage reveals a lost treasure of years past Small waves tickled my kayak as the autumn sun warmed our chilled cores, a light breeze gently skimming Fontana Lake, just two hours south in North Carolina. Two eagles circled…
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Visiting the mighty before they make their final—and unplanned—departure In the 1800s, naturalist William Bartram once remarked that you could swing from limb to limb from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River without ever…
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Experiencing the Appalachian Trail hiking culture in Virginia I was fine with skipping the road walk and interstate noise, but Frank Whitehead insisted that we do the extra mile across I-81 in Groseclose, Virginia. That is where we…
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