OUTDOOR+TRAVEL
Let’s be honest. A lot of tiny houses look like they were thrown together from Home Depot remnants. But the folks at Getaway, a vacation rental company with 16 outposts nationwide, take a different approach. They build style-forward structures that are more MOMA than modular home.
In their location outside Charlottesville, buildings are clad with blackened wood, which is both chic and cozy. Inside, an enormous picture window defines the space, bringing the outdoors indoors. Getaway cabins are finished with neutral tones and amenities like crisp white linens, micro-kitchens, heat/AC, and their own wee libraries.
This Virginia outpost is special, said Getaway spokesperson Jordan Sweat, because it is located just 30 minutes from Shenandoah National Park. And nothing has been overlooked. From a simple self check-in to doggy bowls, Getaway covers details so visitors can clear their minds and reconnect with nature in a beautiful space.
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It’s really hard to stop peeing.
Even when you realize a timber rattler is slithering just inches from your bare buttocks, it takes some real restraint to pause the stream and pull up your muggy trousers. I know firsthand.
Last July, my wife and I had a random Saturday off. She’s a chef, so we almost never get a free weekend together. When we do get time to explore, it’s usually a random weekday when most 9-to-5’ers are in the office. All this to say, we had yet to witness the pandemic-driven outdoor boom until we pulled up to find a historically overlooked trailhead in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest teeming with long-haired brahs and fetid summer campers. We let out a collective grunt.
Intent on squeezing all the life we could out of the day, we started hiking anyway. But as soon as we gained momentum, 20-somethings in sandals and couples with toddling kiddos would round the corner, forcing us to step off the trail. The hike continued like a UPS delivery route—stop and start, stop and start—and as the miles dragged on, I could feel my bladder squirm.
As crisp autumn air starts settling in on late-September afternoons, leaf peepers begin hitting Virginia's stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Cloudless skies set an ethereal backdrop for clusters of crimson, burnt orange, and golden leaves lining the curvy two-lane highway, a bright runway for the smoky blue mountains peeking over the horizon. Carloads of tourists embark on the scenic drive every fall to take in Virginia's striking foliage. This year, escape the crowds, and pull off the parkway to explore a few mountain towns with their own front-row seats to the seasonal show. Hot Springs, with the historic Omni Homestead Resort surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains; Lexington, a charming college town in the Shenandoah Valley; and Roanoke, a buzzy city for both foodies and outdoor enthusiasts in the eponymous valley.
Many of us have great memories of watching and catching fireflies on warm summer nights. Remember sitting out on the patio and watching them light up the back yard? One would call, and another would answer, all via light. But lately, especially here in Maine, you may have noticed the numbers are declining. You’ll maybe see one or two. Are fireflies disappearing? Will the magic they bring to our warm evenings soon be gone forever?
Turns out, firefly numbers are decreasing all over the country and all over the world. According to Ben Pfeiffer of Firefly.org, most of us are seeing a decline in numbers of the Big Dipper firefly (Photinus pyralis) due to several factors: light pollution, pesticide use, and loss of habitat from development.
Fireflies are picky about where they live and many are not able to recover when their habitats are destroyed or rearranged. So what can you do to help fireflies make a comeback?
Help Fireflies Make A Comeback
Here are a few things you can do to help fireflies in your area...
Story by Susan Higgins
The outdoor is open.
That’s the phrase we heard in March, as the novel coronavirus began its march across the country. It reminded people that, while school, hugs, and public spaces were suddenly ticking time bombs, there was still peace—and adventure—to be found in the great outdoors.
But as the pandemic worsened, the phrase no longer held true. Trails shut down, campgrounds closed, national, state, and local parks locked their gates, and for the first time in recent memory, the outdoors wasn’t open any longer.
Two months later, the outdoors is opening again—with precautions.
On the western edge of the D.C. metro, elusive bobcats roam the darkness in the hills of West Virginia. Just how many, state biologists would like to know.
They’re enlisting the help of trappers in the state’s eastern panhandle and its Allegheny Mountains region, asking trappers to release the cats back into the wild with tracking collars, according to Gary Foster, assistant chief of the wildlife-management section for the W.Va. Division of Natural Resources.
Mostly active during twilight, the cats are rarely seen and more often heard and may inhabit most every county in the Mountain State, the most forested state per square mile in the contiguous U.S.
Deep in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, about 50 miles south of Knoxville, sits an American wonder 140 feet below ground.
Inside, a narrow tunnel leads to an intricate cave system drenched in history. Cherokee Indians used it as a shelter in the 1820s. And during the Civil War, Confederate soldiers used the cave's minerals to make gunpowder.
Tour guide Savannah Dalton is part of that rich history. Her grandmother and great aunt played down here as children.
"I was actually six years old the first time I came down here with my grandmother and older brother," Dalton said.
Few places encapsulate Appalachia like The Great Smoky Mountains. From the stunning views at Cades Cove to the rich history found in Cherokee, this unique range also represents the nation’s most visited national park.Here’s your chance to tour the Smokies on your own terms. The folks at RVshare have this terrific contest—The Smokies Summer Giveaway.
The grand prize winner receives a free RV rental for four-days, a free three-night campground stay in the Smokies, and $1,000 in cash for spending money. The prize package would give you the flexibility to go where you want and see what you want, all while bringing your lodging with you!
But be sure to enter soon. The contest ends July 1, 2019.
And once you enter, don’t forget to increase your chance of winning by taking some of these social media actions:
Finally, we want to hear about your Smoky Mountain experiences and aspirations. Be sure to leave a comment below and tell us—what’s your favorite spot in the Smokies or what spot do you most want to visit?
We all lie a little.
Maybe your boss asks what you think of her new top, and though it looks like it's made from fishing nets, you say, "It's really fun!"
Or the tub is clogged, and there's no way the plunger will fix it. You tell your significant other, "Yeah, I already tried that."
White lies sometimes get us by, and that apparently holds true on the Appalachian Trail. Greg and Jen Seymour started their thru hike on Springer Mountain in Georgia on March 22, 2017 and finished on Mount Katahdin, Maine on September 16, 2017. Along the way, they heard enough fibs to make this handy list, which originally appeared on their blog Appalachian Trail Tales.
Maybe some are familiar. Maybe you even have your own to add. What's the best lie you ever heard in the great outdoors? And what's the best you ever told?
Most Appalachian Trail thru-hikers start the trail as a neophyte and end it as an expert. Along the way they learn that some of the things they had been told about the trail just aren’t true. These are five of those things for us.
1. Virginia is easy/flat
Before we left on our thru-hike, we heard several times in several ways that the miles in Virginia were easy or at least flatter than those experienced in the preceding states of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
If you compare the elevations in the guidebook of Virginia against any one of the first three states, it does appear flatter. Don’t be fooled. Virginia has plenty of challenges for the thru-hiker and it is neither flat nor easy.
I believe one of the contributing factors to this fallacy is that in Virginia many hikers begin busting out serious daily mileage. That means it’s easy right? Uh, no. It means by Virginia, a NOBO hiker has earned their trail legs. They have also dialed in their gear and their packs are at an optimal weight. In this way daily mileage increases in Virginia, certainly not because it’s flat!
2. You should cut your toothbrush handle off to save weight
There is a trend in long-distance backpacking to be as light as possible. New backpackers are admonished to cut off tags from clothing, remove extra length from straps, and yes, cut the handle off a toothbrush. However, focusing solely on weight causes problems. Have you ever tried brushing your teeth with a toothbrush with a short shaft? I’ll carry an extra half ounce to have a product that is more comfortable. Another example is frameless or ultra light backpacks. They may be a pound or two lighter than their counterparts with support, but if they cause shoulder pain because they can’t support the weight you are carrying, it’s not worth it. So, when considering gear choices you have to weigh not only weight, but comfort, utility, durability, and cost.
3. Anything they say going down a mountain when you are going up
This is actually true of ANY hiker you meet descending a mountain you are climbing up. They will want to help … to be positive, but whatever they say, it’s a lie!
“You’re almost to the top, maybe a tenth of a mile.” Thirty minutes and half a mile later you reach the summit.
“It’s just a gradual climb up.” Translation? Rock scramble most of the way up.
The truth is everything is experienced differently by those coming down the mountain, plus they were just up at the summit hanging for an hour, they are refreshed. You, on the other hand, have been climbing all morning and are fatigued.
4. You can’t smell the stink on your self
Wrong. Lie. You can!
5. It’s only about the journey not the destination
It sounds good and it makes a great poster, but is it true? For the prospective thru-hiker, I think not. The two words, journey and destination, are a team and while you can have a journey without a destination, it is unlikely you would complete the entire Appalachian Trail if you didn’t have the destination in sight.
My assumption is that your goal is to do just that, to be a thru-hiker. If that’s the case, you must have a destination. Something to work towards. To walk to. A culmination of your hard work and aching bones. An end.
And that destination is your purpose.
Yes, over the course of five or six months you will meet incredible people, see unbelievable sights, commune with nature. And yes, the journey can change you and feed your soul for years to come. But, if the objective is to be a thru-hiker, focusing only on the journey will set you adrift.
Instead, focus on the destination and enjoy the journey.
Weekend getaways keep me sane. There's something liberating about throwing clothes in a bag and skipping town, saying goodbye to the office, to bushes that need trimming, to the mail pile I've ignored for weeks and, within a few hours, finding myself in a totally different space.
Often that space is west of my Alexandria townhouse. I drive past the D.C. metro's long arm, out where roads get curvy and the land rises up. Brave hills defy Virginia's Piedmont and make way for true mountains, which is where I'm usually going.
I'm no fan of motels. Those land gobbling, cookie-cutter eyesores just rile me, so before heading out, I usually find a good vacation rental. Over the years, I've stayed in cabins, bungalows, converted barns, and farm houses. Some are people's residences, vacated in a rush with little hints about them left behind like family photos, a stray hair bow, clothes, and toiletries. In other houses, every last drawer is empty.
Personal belongings or not, I feel the same—transported, immersed in an actual home where I can make a pot of coffee and pour whiskey into a real glass, where I can admire the landscape from a porch or patio or second story window. At dawn or dusk, I'll stare across rolling blue silhouettes and pretend that I again live among the mountains.
You could add a pleasing look to your house windows for which you have to Buy Blinds Online roller blinds.
Long story short. Everyone knows about windsor westside, but here is the list of some unit places. Enjoy.
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This rustic charmer is both affordable and secluded. Owned by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, it's a third of a mile from the nearest road. Reaching it requires a hike past barns and stone fences through what was once a mountainside farm. By the time you see the cabin itself, you feel decades away from the modern world. Inside, the newest amenities are electricity and hot water. No telephone. No internet. No mobile service. At Vining, you're left to enjoy unspoiled views and imagine the people who plateaued its steep hillside, old timers who downed chestnut trees by hand to construct their home more than a hundred years ago, carving a farm from this wilderness, one you can still enjoy today.
Not all mountain retreats are rural. This charming little bungalow rests on a quiet West Asheville street where cars are infrequent and big porches are the norm. Since North Carolina is a longer haul, I stayed for a week, cooking old family recipes like wild rabbit hash and lounging in the hammock out back. Arts and craft touches like wide posts and vertical-paned windows reflect a period when working class Americans could still buy a quality, thoughtfully designed home, knowing it would bring pleasure for generations.
I wrote this post here, alternating between the house's sunny front porch and a tufted leather sofa. This remodeled farmhouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, serves as a beautiful example of Appalachia's sophisticated side. With double parlors decorated in lush patterns, shining floral wallpaper in one and fake fur throws in the other, it reminds visitors that mountain folk can clean up real good. Though it has shimmering touches, including one magnificent gold ceiling, the house remains country at its core. Bailed hay is within sight of every window and wood is still hauled from the paint-chipped shed in a rusty wheelbarrow. High quality painting for home interiors in Central PA assists with getting such houses ready for sale or rental.
Most people like to visit Appalachia in spring, summer, or fall, but I'm also a fan of wintertime mountains. Harpers Ferry is uniquely pretty with a dusting of snow, and you can't get a better view than from the charming Bed n Biskit. This hillside house overlooks tin rooftops and brick storefronts, which stretch to the trestle-crossed Potomac. I suspect its stone patio would be a lovely place to sit on warmer days, but snow kept me inside, sipping whiskey and catching up with friends by the fire.
Some years ago, I spent Thanksgiving at this 1920s cabin. Nestled in one of Virginia's most charming counties, it fronts a wide creek and is surrounded by pastureland. With a stone fireplace large enough to stand inside, it was warm and inviting, the perfect spot for a celebration. In addition to a generous patio and shelves filled with books, it sports an unusual feature. The ceiling fans atop its soaring main room are mounted through long, rustic tree limbs, a design quirk that makes it feel like you've rented not just a cabin but an entire lodge.
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