APRIL 2019
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It took more than a decade to acquire the land that is now Rocky Fork State Park. Now, Tennessee State Parks is allowing private interests to prevail in building a road and overdeveloping the park. Bad decisions are being made behind closed doors, and the public is left out. The public deserves a seat at the planning and decision-making table. —Billy Minser
WELCOME TO THE NOLI I wholeheartedly support Wild and Scenic designation for the Nolichiucky River. It’s so unique compared to other rivers. We need beautiful places like the Noli for our children and their children. —Steve Sanderford
SOMETIMES IT SUCKS I have to take exception with Graham Averill’s statement that sober skiing sucks. I enjoy a good drink as much as the next person. However, you do your readers and skiers a great disservice by encouraging skiing under the influence. It’s dangerous and even deadly. I don't think you would encourage driving under the influence. —Robert Roop
OVEREXPOSED: SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE OUTDOORS I post photos and details of my trips along, say, the C&O Canal, because I want people to know that if I can do it, they can too. But there are other places that I post without details because those places need to remain undisturbed. —Daniel Fleagle Social media helped rally volunteer cleanups during the shutdown and helped build community among outdoor enthusiasts. Sadly, it’s not always like that, though. I hope the good will balance out the bad and someday completely overshadow it. —Kristi Parsons
I hope print and social media focus not only on ‘where to go’ but also ‘how to protect.’ If media can highlight the lack of federal funding for our trails and recreation areas, and how lovers of the wild can give back by boots-on-the-ground volunteerism or financial contributions to grassroots organizations, then media becomes a blessing rather than a curse. —Mike Reardon
The outdoors are for everyone, but not everyone is for the outdoors. Natural areas are for everyone to enjoy, but not everyone enjoys them sustainably or responsibly. Social media is not the issue. Education is key. —Roger Upton TA L K B AC K TO U S H E R E :
START YOUR ADVENTURE TODAY, AND LET US COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE. @ROOFNEST • ROOFNEST.COM
APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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APRIL 2019
PHOTO BY STEPHANIE JACOBSON / WHIMSY & WILDERNESS PHOTOGRAPHY
F E AT U R E S 20 THE ADVENTURE IMPRINT A parent of adventurous pre-teens starts letting go—but still holds onto the rope. 23 BUILD YOUR OWN ADVENTURE Learn how to craft a fishing rod, build a bike, fashion a knife, weave baskets, and test your outdoor skills. 31 OUTDOOR FAMILY GUIDE 2019 Four outdoor families share their tips and tricks for adventures with kids—plus their favorite campsites, trail foods, and trail-tested advice. 43 A.T. ENTREPRENEURS An Appalachian Trail
thru-hike is an incubator for several business pioneers in Southern Appalachia. 53 BAMBI MEETS GODZILLA, BUBBA MEETS JESUS How did iconic whitewater rapids and climbing routes get their names? We dig into the backstory behind the region’s most colorfully named adventure hotspots. D E PA R T M E N T S 9 FLASHPOINT Access vs. preservation: new battles in a classic public lands tug-of-war. 11 QUICK HITS Is Appalachia the next Cancer Alley? • Mustreads for the outdoor fam • Zip lining and whitewater
paddling for kids with autism • Pipeline CSI uncovers dirty secrets 60 THE GOODS An outdoor instructor’s go-to gear for camping and backpacking. 62 TRAIL MIX Chatham County Line covers + 5 fave fests this spring. 64 LAST WORD Lessons learned from an outdoor parent.
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FLASHPOINT
CONSERVATION
ACCESS VS. PRESERVATION?
THE TUG-OF-WAR OVER PUBLIC LANDS B Y R YA N W I C H E L N S
THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WAS CREATED
rather quietly in 1916 by a relatively unknown piece of legislation called the Organic Act. Taking up just over a page in the Federal Register, it was a benign administrative reorganization that called for a small subsection of the Department of the Interior to be known as the National Park Service, charging it with, as it would turn out, a somewhat paradoxical task: "The service’s purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." The two clauses of that charge—to preserve the land, as well as to allow people to enjoy it—might not have seemed at odds in a time of simpler conservation ethics, fewer tourists, and no mountain bikes, drones, or RVs. But today, there is a fierce tug of war over what exactly the purpose of land protection should be. Are we protecting our lands to preserve the scenery and wildlife in its natural form? Or do we protect it simply so that we can have beautiful mountains in which to ride singletrack and clip bolts? Especially today, as the battle for national monuments intensifies and activists clash, an unspoken question lingers: why exactly are we protecting
public lands? Is conservation more shallow than we think?
FIGHTING A WAY IN
The Wilderness Act—one of the most important and preservation-focused laws ever—has banned any kind of “mechanical transport” in wilderness areas. If you want to explore a designated wilderness, you can’t use a mountain bike or any other machine, limiting the potential damage and impact to the land. But two bills before Congress—H.R. 1349 and its Senate partner S. 2877—are trying to change that. The bills propose a change to the Wilderness Act allowing some forms of human-powered mechanical vehicles like strollers, wheelchairs, and bicycles. The Sustainable Trails Coalition, a biking organization campaigning for the legislation, has left no questions about its motive: Its members want access to wilderness, and they are willing to partner with traditionally antipublic lands Republican lawmakers to get it. While most large conservation and outdoor groups oppose the legislation—including the International Mountain Biking Coalition (IMBA)—it’s an obvious crack in the otherwise steadfast unity of the outdoor industry when it comes to land protection, and a clear example of preservation taking a back seat to recreational access.
THE PERMIT SOLUTION
As more people venture outdoors, impacts from increased use have become an urgent issue. Excess human and dog waste, illegal trails, damage to rare and endangered species, trash at trailheads and campsites, and crowded summits have prompted the U.S.
Forest Service Officials in Oregon to propose a quota system for portions of the Deschutes and Willamette National Forests. By limiting the number of people who can enter certain areas at certain times of the year, the Forest Service aimed to explicitly limit access in favor of preserving the land. Responses to the proposed quotas were decidedly bent toward access. Most were opposed to quotas, permit fees, or any effort to limit their access to publicly owned lands. “Imagine only two groups allowed in the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower each day,” said one local. “Or only ten people can stand at the ocean’s edge and watch the sun set over the curve of the earth. This is the equivalent to what you are proposing.” Even climber-advocacy groups like The Access Fund took a proaccess stance: “We support proposed changes for overnight-use permits under Alternative 4, however we oppose the implementation of any online system to administer limited entry day-use permits which would limit climbers’ ability to access the Wilderness areas.” In the end, Forest Service officials scaled back their proposal and implemented a seasonal, limited-entry quota system at select trailheads. In their final decision, the forest supervisors wrote, “We believe the selected alternative...best meets the purpose and need to manage visitor use to reduce recreation-related impacts and to protect and enhance wilderness character.” For now, any solution that keeps public lands from being destroyed, damaged, or sold to private interests is a win. But how will the outdoor community respond when crowds and
R O C K Y B E A C H I N A C A D I A N AT I O N A L PA R K , M A I N E , W I T H V I E W O F O T T E R C L I F F S AT S U N R I S E .
human waste necessitate a climbing ban at a beloved crag? Or when threats to endangered wildlife require camping closures in Shenandoah or Pisgah? It may not be as simple as chaining the gates.
DOES IT MATTER?
Do our motivations really matter as long as land is being protected? Not to John Sterling, Executive Director of the Conservation Alliance. “Frankly, I don’t care whether an individual wants to ride their mountain bike or wants to protect the species on that land,” said Sterling. For him, advocacy is advocacy and, at least at this point, most everyone is on the same team. “There have always been stakeholders that come to conservation measures with different perspectives,” he said. For him, any voice advocating conservation is a good one. While the end result may be a debate over access and preservation (a debate he thinks is worth having), Sterling says we need to get there first. “I think it’s inevitable that we’re going to see more access regulations as more people spend their days on public land,” he said. “The Forest Service and other agencies have a mandate to manage those lands sustainably. I don’t love that my local wilderness areas have gotten so crowded that they need to add these restrictions, but I don’t oppose it.” Maybe that tug-of-war between keeping our public lands accessible while ensuring their beauty and wildlife stick around for generations to come was what the architects of the Organic Act had in mind all along.
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QUICK HITS
OUTDOOR NEWS
BY JEDD FERRIS + KIM DINAN
VIRGINIA RUNNER SETS RECORD WITH 10 MARATHONS IN 10 DAYS Michael Wardian is at it again. The 44-year-old, Arlington-based ultrarunner, well known in the running world for setting a range of long-distance records that are both amazing and a little strange, won the World Marathon Challenge for the second time in February. Runners in the World Marathon Challenge complete seven full marathons on seven continents in seven days. The multi-race event starts in Antarctica and finishes in Miami. Wardian averaged a time of 2:58:30 on the seven marathon courses. When Wardian returned home, he ran three more marathons on consecutive days on a USATF-certified course, and in doing so, set a pending record for the fastest completion of 10 marathons in 10 straight days with a cumulative time of 29 hours, 12 minutes, and 46 seconds. Surprisingly, Wardian posted his fastest time in the tenth marathon, completing the run in 2:44:33. In addition to winning national races like the U.S. 50K and 50-mile Championships, some of the records Wardian has set in the past include the world’s fastest 50K on a treadmill, fastest marathon while pushing a stroller, and fastest marathon dressed as Elvis Presley.
BIG WIN FOR PUBLIC LANDS In late February, the House of Representatives passed the Natural Resources Management Act, which protects more than three million acres of land, creates at least five national park units, bars mining on lands near two national parks, and classifies hundreds of miles of U.S. rivers as wild and scenic. The bill previously passed the Senate and now awaits the President’s signature as of press date. Some highlights of the bill include: 1. Permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which uses fees from offshore drilling to pay for conservation programs in all 50 states; 2. Extending the popular “Every Kid Outdoors” program for another seven years, which grants the nation’s fourth graders and their families a free national parks pass; 3. Preserving over 700,000 acres of land in southern Utah, an area that environmentalists have been trying to protect for decades; 4. Establishing a new national monument in Mississippi to honor civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who worked to end segregation and championed voting rights; 5. Creating an ecological buffer around Yellowstone National Park, preventing areas adjacent to the park from being mined. The bill designates 1.3 million acres as wilderness and funds protection for some 380 bird species under the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act.
NORTH CAROLINA ARTIST OFFERS CREATIVE HIKING INCENTIVE Courtney Pernell decided to put her own creative twist on trail magic. The artist, based in Raleigh, N.C., placed 100 ceramic stars along the 62-mile Falls Lake section of the Mountains to Sea Trail as a pottery treasure hunt for hikers. With help and promotion from the nonprofit Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, she also put three crafted hearts on the trail, which could be redeemed for prizes from the organization.
8,000 Number of bikes gifted by Wheels to Africa since the nonprofit formed 14 years ago. The Virginia-based organization collects unwanted bikes around metro Washington, D.C., and ships them to countries around the world in an effort to assist those with transportation needs. The organization was started by Winston Duncan (with help from his mother) when he was only 10 years old, back in 2005. Although most of the bikes have gone to residents in different African countries, this year Duncan and his mom, Dixie, took 400 bikes to Puerto Rico and gave them to residents still recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria.
MUST-SEE: DEEP WATER SOLO COMP AT TUCK FEST The world’s largest permanent free-soloing wall is at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, and on April 26-27, top climbers—and a few wild cards— will compete for a $15,000 cash purse at the Tuck Fest Deep Water Solo comp. Seeding rounds will take place on Friday followed by finals on Saturday. The top 16 male and female climbers will move on to the finals, where climbers will compete head-to-head in a single elimination, tournament-style bracket. The fastest climber to the top of the wall will advance until a champion is crowned. Emily Harrington, Carlo Traversi, Paige Claasen, and Emma Hunt are among the climbers competing at Tuck Fest this year.
FLOYD LANDIS TO OPEN BIKE SHOP AND HEMP-FOCUSED CAFÉ IN PENNSYLVANIA Former pro cyclist Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. This spring, Landis will open a joint bike shop and café that focuses on CBD-based products in Lancaster, Pa. Floyd’s of Lancaster Café will feature products from Landis’s Colorado-based company Floyd’s of Leadville, which sells a range of supplements containing CBD—the non-psychoactive compound in cannabis that is becoming a popular option to aid in recovery and pain relief among endurance athletes. In announcing the new business, Landis, who’s originally from Farmersville, Pa., stated that he plans to make “significant purchases” from hemp farmers in Pennsylvania, attempting to boost and promote agribusiness in his old home state. APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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QUICK HITS
OUTDOOR NEWS
THE FRACKING HUB
IS APPALACHIA THE NEXT CANCER ALLEY? BY MASON ADAMS
WHEN IT COMES TO BOOM-AND-BUST EXTRACTIVE
CLIMBERS FLEX ECONOMIC MUSCLE IN NEW RIVER GORGE A new study has found that rock climbers are a major economic force for the New River Gorge, a renowned rock climbing destination in West Virginia. The study found that climbers contributed $12.1 million in tourism dollars annually across a threecounty region in West Virginia. Climber spending also directly supports 168 jobs in the region and contributes $6.3 million in wages.
PHOTO BY DANIEL GADJA
$887 BILLION Amount spent on outdoor recreation in 2017 in the United States—more than coal, oil, and gas combined. The outdoor economy is also growing by 3.8 percent, faster than the overall economy.
IN THE DARK ABOUT SPACEPORT RISKS Conservation groups and concerned residents have filed suit over a proposed spaceport in south Georgia, charging that the county government is unlawfully withholding documents concerning public safety and environmental impacts. Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit after Camden County refused to release several public health and safety documents related to the proposed spaceport, including debris field maps and an analysis estimating the number of human deaths that could occur if a rocket explodes on the launch pad or in the air. The proposed spaceport would launch rockets directly over neighborhoods and hikers and campers on Cumberland Island National Seashore. “While we have long been concerned that this project poses 12
serious threats to public health and the local economy of Camden County, the lack of transparency about the real risks of Spaceport Camden only deepens those concerns,” said Megan Desrosiers, Executive Director of the nonprofit One Hundred Miles. “The notion that coastal communities can and should accept that rockets will be launched over one of the most economically and ecologically important areas for the state of Georgia without knowing exactly what those risks look like is absurd.”
WALLS ARE MEANT FOR CLIMBING The North Face is building a public climbing wall in Atlanta. Through a partnership with the Trust for Public Land, The North Face is establishing public climbing boulders across the country. Atlanta’s public climbing wall will resemble the local rock in Horse Pens, a legendary climbing area in Alabama, and will also display the initials of the kid designers. The new climbing area, part of Rodney Cook Sr. Park, aspires to attract a diverse population of climbers, both experienced and beginners. Martin Luther King Jr.'s adult home is one block from the park.
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
industries, Appalachia has been there, done that. It’s endured coal mining, clearcutting, and most recently, the fracking boom. Now, as the country is moving toward renewable energy and mountain towns are leaning into outdoor recreation, politicians and international investors are putting their weight behind a fossil-fueled plan to turn the Ohio River Valley into a petrochemical powerhouse. A development group has already secured a $1.9 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to build the Appalachia Storage and Trading Hub—a network of underground caverns to store petrochemical byproducts of the natural gas fracking in Appalachia. In December, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry wrote an op-ed in support of the hub, calling it “an opportunity we can’t afford to waste.” West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said it’s the “number one economic focus of my office today.” And U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia identified it as a priority in his agenda as ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. If the Appalachia Development Group, the developers behind the hub, can secure the necessary funding, it will still be several years before the hub is up and running. Communities within the region, however, already are seeing the petrochemical infrastructure beginning to take shape. In November 2017, China Energy Investment Corp. Ltd. agreed to invest $83.7 billion in natural gas development in West Virginia, including in chemical byproducts. Royal Dutch Shell is pursuing a $6 billion ethane plant in southwestern Pennsylvania, while PTT Global Chemical and South Korea-based Daelim Industrial Co. is planning a similar plant in southeastern Ohio. Another company, Mountaineer NGL, is working its way through permitting for six salt caverns to store natural gas liquids near Wheeling, West Virginia.
Each one of those announcements represents a major industrial project that has inspired both hope and fear. Paired with the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub, however, they amount to a massive buildout of extractive infrastructure with the potential to affect the five million people who rely on the Ohio River for drinking water, not to mention the growing outdoor economy built around the waterway. Doug Patchen, director of the Appalachian Oil and Natural Gas Research Consortium, assembled a team that concluded the Ohio River Valley holds the best prospects for the Appalachian hub because of its proximity to the shale fields and because of the presence of salt and limestone caverns with the appropriate thickness and depth to store natural gas liquids. “A lot of people think about this hub as being one thing, but it’s really a series of storage facilities linked together at the surface, with pipelines going in and out,” Patchen said. “The idea is to be able to store multiple products and withdraw them as a constant volume for storage and industry. They stockpile it and pull it out as needed.” Most of Appalachia drains out through the Ohio River, which flows along the borders of six states before arriving at the Mississippi River as its biggest tributary. It marks West Virginia’s western edge and Kentucky’s northern boundary, and was named in the ’90s as the second most polluted river in the U.S., after the Mississippi. But the Ohio River’s advocates say it’s in the midst of a comeback and now provides the setting for more than 250 fishing tournaments between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati alone, as well as a burgeoning paddling community. Cincinnati’s Ohio River Paddlefest proclaims itself as the largest such festival in the country. “Louisville, Evansville and Cincinnati all are investing millions in redeveloping and re-greening their riverfronts,” said Cheryl Johncox of the Ohio Sierra Club. “We’re making incredible strides in Ohio cleaning up the legacies of mining, and at the same time we have all these new impacts, not just to the land but also to the people who live here.” The working model for an Appalachian petrochemical industry lies nearly 1,000 miles south along
READING LIST the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, where a petrochemical corridor and a series of studies have earned it the nickname: “Cancer Alley.” Further north in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration recently banned a company from using ethylene oxide, a chemical derived from natural gas, after a public outcry and a federal study showing that even small concentrations of the substance significantly increase the risk of cancer in the surrounding community. Health is a primary concern for groups like the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, who are fighting the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub and the various petrochemical projects related to it. “This is looking at being bigger than Cancer Alley in Louisiana, where a similar petrochemical buildout is in existence and has been for decades,” said Dustin White, an OVEC staffer and lifelong resident of West Virginia. “The proponents keep calling it a game changer for our region, but we see it as game over.” White and other opponents rattle off a list of additional concerns such as degraded water quality; lingering air pollution in valleys prone to temperature inversions; sinkholes; fires; and gas explosions. All of these threats are based on historical precedent, from the discharge of toxic chemicals into the Ohio River to a massive 2017 fire at a Parkersburg, West Virginia, recycled plastics warehouse that raged for eight days. And despite advocates’ claims that the hub will bring economic prosperity, opponents say those are hollow promises that echo those made repeatedly through the region’s extractive past. “It’s another boom-bust industry,” said Beverly Reed, a near-lifelong resident of Belmont County, Ohio. “These extractive industries never last. Everyone here in Belmont County and the surrounding area who is super pumped about this, what they don’t get is that it’s going to end quickly and badly.” That’s especially the case, she said, given that the global movement to stem climate change and the mass production of micro-plastics means that much of the rest of the world is moving away from fossil fuel-based industries. Buoyed by international investment and the support of elected officials, the Appalachia Storage and Trading
Hub seems to have momentum—and a lot more resources than the activists fighting it. Reed and others remain undaunted. "I’m sensitive to the fact they have so much energy behind them,” Reed said, “but the energy they have behind them is that of greed. The energy I have behind me is love and connection to the planet. Honestly, that’s the well that I draw from.”
ADVENTURE KIDS’ BOOKSHELF
HERE ARE 12 GREAT READS FOR ASPIRING OUTDOOR ADVENTURERS B Y S H A N N O N M C G O WA N
ADVENTURE A CAMPING SPREE WITH MR. MAGEE
Written and Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen Mr. Magee and his trusty dog, Dee, find themselves racing down a mountain and teetering on the edge of a waterfall. It’s an exciting adventure tale filled with bright colorful pictures and playful rhyming text. WHISTLING WINGS
by Laura Goering A young swan, Marcel, figures out how to survive the winter season. While migrating, Marcel gets tired and hides to avoid the long flight that still lies ahead. But with the lake nearly frozen over, he soon realizes that he is not cut out for life on ice. This book addresses responsibility, the consequences of laziness, and adapting to new situations and trying to make the most of them. OPERATION REDWOOD
by S. Terrell French Follow Julian Carer-Li as he finds himself caught up in a fight against his high-powered uncle to save the oldest
trees on Earth. His uncle’s company plans to cut down California’s oldest redwood trees until Julian and his ragtag group of friends come up with clever ways to stop it.
HISTORY THE POLE
by Eric Walters Based on true events of Robert Peary’s expedition in 1909 to be the first to reach the North Pole, the book follows the youngest crew member, Danny, who finds himself on a journey of a lifetime. It also features Matthew Henson, Peary’s assistant and the first African-American Arctic explorer. The adventure includes dog sledding, polar bears, freezing temperatures, thin ice, and epic determination. CAMPING WITH THE PRESIDENT
by Ginger Wadsworth It’s the heartwarming story of outdoor icons Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir who take a Yosemite camping trip in 1903. In their four days together, they discuss the beauty and wonders of the outdoors and the importance of protecting it.
EDUCATIONAL LONELY PLANET’S HOW ANIMALS BUILD
by Michael Leach Explore the incredible world of animal architects with beautiful illustrations in a lift-the-flap hardback allowing kids to interact and discover the amazing homes creatures can build, including spider webs, rabbit warrens, bird nests, ant colonies, coral reefs, and beaver lodges. WHAT A WASTE: WHERE DOES GARBAGE GO?
by Claire Eamer What a Waste dives into the history of garbage and how it’s evolved through time while also covering dumps, human waste, and water pollution. The silly and humorous illustrations offer an inviting and enjoyable experience while you learn about rubbish.
ANIMALS BUILD CHARACTER SERIES
by Aviva Hermelin This book series prides itself on “promoting compassion, respect, and responsibility from observing animal wisdom.” At the end of each chapter, there are questions to initiate conversation with your children that are focused on the importance of living a life based on positive values and good character traits.
CLASSICS MISS RUMPHIUS
by Barbara Cooney Miss Rumphius simply wants to make the world more beautiful by planting lupines everywhere she goes. The fictional Miss Rumphius is based on Hilda Hamlin, the real “Lupine Lady,” who was known for spreading flower seeds on every walk or car ride she took. WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT
by Michael Rosen It’s not really a hunt, but a search for an elusive bear that takes readers across a river, through the mud, into a snowstorm, and to the entrance of a spooky cave.
PARENTS OUTDOOR PARENTS, OUTDOOR KIDS: A GUIDE TO GETTING YOUR KIDS ACTIVE IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS
by Eugene Buchanan This bestseller offers great insights and advice for parents to instill respect for health and environment in their kids at a young age, and most importantly, to help get them outside. BALANCED AND BAREFOOT: HOW UNRESTRICTED OUTDOOR PLAY MAKES FOR STRONG, CONFIDENT, AND CAPABLE CHILDREN
by Angela J. Hanscom Written by a pediatric occupational therapist, this book shows how outdoor play and unstructured freedom of movement are vital for children’s cognitive development and growth. The book also offers tons of fun, engaging ways to help ensure that kids grow into healthy, balanced, and resilient adults. Hanscom includes studies showing the cognitive harm in lack of movement and offers information on the importance of outdoor play in developing kids' sensory, motor, and executive functions.
APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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QUICK HITS
WHITEWATER HEALING
PADDLING WITH PURPOSE
WHITEWATER HEALING HELPS KIDS WITH AUTISM BRAVE NEW WATERS BY DENNIS MASHUE
PUT A BUNCH OF KIDS WITH AUTISM AND THEIR
families in rubber rafts and shoot them through the Nantahala Gorge with guides who know nothing about autism. That’s the basic idea put forth by Canadian whitewater canoe legend and global swiftwater rescue guru Jim Coffey to a couple of self-described dirtbag boaters from Chattanooga. Together, they created Whitewater Healing, which, in its first year of existence won Canoe & Kayak Magazine’s 2016 “Paddle With Purpose” Award. “We decided that we could use our talents and our connections in the whitewater world to present the magic of whitewater to people who are challenged with autism,” said Coffey.
Coffey teamed up with Endless River Adventures, based on the Nantahala River in Western North Carolina, which quickly committed to provide necessary boats, gear, and logistic support. Meanwhile, elite paddler Shawn “Animal” Malone organized a team of volunteer ambassadors consisting of the Southeast’s premier whitewater boaters, including Matthew Thomas, Eli Helbert, Jennifer Taylor, and Jerrod Jones. All of them volunteer their time, money, and talents to provide whitewater excitement to a group of people who might never get that exposure without them. “All guides come away enriched,” said Malone. “Personally, Whitewater Healing opened my eyes to challenges that some families face.” “I'll be walking with this stoke for a long time,” added elite paddler and Whitewater Healing volunteer Nathan Cline after this year’s event. 12-year-old Will Brittain, of York, S.C., has developed a very special relationship with paddler Shawn PA D D L E R S W I T H W H I T E WA T E R H E A L I N G T A C K L E T H E R A P I D S O F T H E N A N TA H A L A R I V E R .
At Blue Ridge School, we are experts in how boys learn best. The result is a college prep program that guides boys to reach their full potential in the classroom and beyond. Our 750-acre campus at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains is home to a renowned Outdoor Program that fosters a respect for nature and leadership skills that last a lifetime.
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
OUTDOOR
ELECTIVES
ALL BOYS. ALL BOARDING. ALL COLLEGE BOUND. BLUERIDGESCHOOL.COM
OUTDOOR EXPERIENCES Malone over four years of paddling together on the Nantahala. “Often people don’t know how to engage a child with autism, especially one who doesn’t talk," says Will's father, Bill. "But with Shawn, the communication and understanding just seemed to come naturally and from his heart. Will reads people very well and he knows Shawn is someone he can trust and be himself with.” 14-year-old twins Daniel and Darren Pernell, along with their 16-yearold sister Olivia, were first timers at Whitewater Healing WNC 2018 and vow to return next year. “It was a super chill event, very similar to Surfer’s Healing,” said Marty Pernell, their father. “The boys’ disabilities can be very isolating for the entire family. An event like this, for the entire family is priceless.” My own son Tuck has had similar experiences with Whitewater Healing. In 2016, he and other paddlers were offered the opportunity to leap off a large boulder into the frigid Nantahala River. Already Tuck was cold, wet, hungry, tired after a long day on the river, and now he was afraid, too. For
ZIPPING FOR AUTISM
many people with autism, moving forward under these conditions is impossible. I knew how badly he wanted to join the others in this adventure, but it had to be his decision, not mine. He did it. Afterwards, I asked him why. Tuck said, “Sometimes the fear won’t go away, so you have to do it afraid.”
WHEN JEFF GREINER’S SON WAS DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM, HE AND HIS WIFE WERE DETERMINED TO HELP HIM AND OTHER CHILDREN WITH AUTISM EXPERIENCE OUTDOOR ADVENTURE. GREINER, OWNER OF WILDWATER ADVENTURE CENTERS AND THE ASHEVILLE ADVENTURE CENTER, TALKS ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF ZIPPING FOR AUTISM. BY WILL HARLAN
What inspired you to create this program? My wife came up with the idea. Her inspiration was both the benefits
our family had personally received from autism services and inspiring advocates, and also her desire to help educate other families about how to advocate for services from an early age. She also hoped to increase overall awareness about the tremendous impact of early intervention. About how many total number of participants so far? Annually it’s between 150-200 team members. We have been doing the event for seven years so roughly 1,2001,400 people have participated over the years and helped us raise over $250,000. What happens at the event? It’s work first, play later. Teams and individuals use the social media platforms, friends, and neighbors to rally fundraising support. 100% of the money raised by teams goes directly to autism services in Western North Carolina. Event costs are paid through sponsorships. Any extra sponsor money also gets donated. Then comes the fun. Always the
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Camping above Montezuma Basin on the Continental Divide Trail, Colorado. Noah Wetzel
APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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Corbin is The Premier Outdoor Adventure Destination! Where Adventure, H istory & Hospitality Await !
Conveniently located off of I-75 at exit 25, Corbin is home to Laurel Lake, Cumberland Falls State Park, Daniel Boone National Forest and other natural jewels! Your next outdoor adventure awaits in the peaceful grandeur of southeastern Kentucky.
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Limitless adventure awaits. Spring in St. Mary’s County is breathtaking. Outdoor adventure, history, food, culture, and everything in between await you where the Potomac and the Chesapeake meet. Come discover the mid-Atlantic’s best kept travel secret.
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
BOUNDLESS EXPERIENCES AND ADVENTURE St. Mary’s County
QUICK HITS
OUTDOOR EXPERIENCES
first Sunday in June, the Adventure Center of Asheville blocks all tours on the ziplines and adventure park. Teams that raised $800 go on a zipline tour. Teams that raised $1,100 or more get to zipline and climb in the adventure park. Teams have included families, high school student groups, doctors’ offices, businesses, and groups of friends. Some teams even create their own shirts, costumes, chants, and tailgating area to hang out all day. Bike trails are open for free to teams that day
wouldn’t see their full amount posted on the Zipping for Autism website. Another team raised the money to zipline and then turned around and donated their experience to a group of adults with autism that would have never had the chance to go ziplining without this donation, effectively doubling their fundraising access.
Any memorable moments? The commitment to raise a tremendous amount of money in unique ways has been fun to watch. Families have done bake sales at work, and seeing teenagers dominate the fundraising has been heartwarming. Seeing college students dress up in clown costumes and adults dressed as flying fairies and ninja warriors has been amazing. Once, a business with multiple office locations became so competitive that both teams “sandbagged” money they had raised until the day of so the other team
A VOLUNTEER ARMY OF CITIZEN SCIENTISTS IS WATCHING PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION AND SAFEGUARDING WATERWAYS
Initiative (CSI) are teaching this group how to analyze aerial photographs shot by airplanes and drones and report construction violations that they expect to see along the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s 600-mile path through their little corner of Nelson County. “Government officials have said that they don’t have the resources to investigate this stuff and that they are only going to be responding to direct complaints,” explains Joyce Burton, Friends of Nelson's landowner liaison. “If construction continues, it’s going to take a lot of bodies on the ground and sitting at computers to keep up.” Pipeline CSI has been hosting workshops across the region to build an army of citizen volunteers who are stepping up to protect streams and forests in their own backyards. The Pipeline CSI works through a mix of remote and local volunteers to ensure strict application of environmental laws and regulations for pipelines.
PIPELINE CSI
BY SIERRA GLADFELTER
MORE THAN 50 RESIDENTS PACK INTO THE
Rockfish Valley Community Center in Nellysford, Virginia, to learn how to fight pipelines even as they begin going into the ground. Coordinators of the Pipeline Compliance Surveillance
April 12/13
VIEW FROM A PIPELINE AIR FORCE DRONE LOOKING SOUTHEAST IN THE AREA OF UPSHUR C O U N T Y, W V T H I S PA S T S U M M E R 2 0 1 8 . / P H O T O BY BEN CUNNINGHAM
Hellbender 100 - Old Fort
April 20
Sweet Treats of the Carolinas Festival - Marion
April 27
Route 70 Cruisers’ Car Show - Old Fort
April 27
Pioneer Day Festival - Old Fort
Details and other events are online.
888-233-6111
|
www.blueridgetravelers.com APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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Charge ahead on life’s great adventures with the comfort, fit and support of the versatile New Sawtooth II Collection.
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
At least once every two weeks, the Pipeline CSI’s Air Force volunteer pilots fly the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s proposed route with high resolution cameras taking 20 highquality geotagged photographs every mile. Photos are uploaded to the Pipeline CSI’s state-of-theart online mapping system where remote volunteers analyze the photos of active construction sites for compliance violations. If further investigation is required, CSI operators dispatch licensed drone pilots or first responders armed with cameras and water quality monitoring equipment to collect more nuanced, site-specific data. If the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) further south is any indication of what lies ahead for those resisting the ACP, however, it may be a long fight for the Pipeline CSI. Since construction began on the MVP in April, citizen volunteers with Mountain Valley Watch (MVW), a sister initiative to the Pipeline CSI, have presented over 500 violations to Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). However, they have received very limited responses from DEQ. “In the end, if DEQ doesn't respond,
ABEN CUNNINGHAM AND RICK WEBB, PIPELINE CSI C O M M I T T E E C H A I R P E R S O N & R E T I R E D U VA WAT E R Q U A L I T Y R E S E A R C H S C I E N T I S T, C A L I B R AT E T H E YSI DEVICES FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SUMMER. / PHOTO BY ALECIA MILNER
then that's when we bring in our lawyers,” says Burton. “We may be able to slow the pipeline down enough for several other pending legal challenges to make their way through the court systems. And even if we fail to stop this pipeline, by showing the inadequacies of what the regulatory bodies demand, we may have a role in changing the way pipeline decisions get made and what protections get put in place for future projects.” In this way, the Pipeline CSI is about much more than resisting the pipeline; it is also about empowering citizens to stand up for justice far beyond its path. Says Burton, “We are writing the playbook for how citizens can respond to extractive industries even when the playing field is so tilted against us.” Pipeline CSI is currently seeking citizen volunteers. Even if you do not live along a pipeline route, you can sign up at pipelineupdate.org/csi to review aerial photos collected by the Pipeline Air Force from anywhere with an internet connection.
The Adventure Imprint A PARENT STARTS LETTING GO (BUT STILL HOLDS ONTO THE ROPE) B Y G R A H A M AV E R I L L
I
’m not convinced my son is actually going to walk off the cliff until I can’t see him anymore. There are so many opportunities for him to back out between the point where he gets clipped into the rope and the point where he backs off the edge of the cliff, and I wouldn’t blame him for reconsidering. Rappelling off a 100-foot cliff sounds like a great idea when you’re in the van heading to the trailhead, but standing on top of the ledge, looking straight down into a deep river gorge, things get real. Fast. We’re in the New River Gorge, that deep slice of rock and whitewater in West Virginia that has inspired so many men and women to put down roots on the edge of the chasm and live the adventure life dream. I’m here with my two 9-year-old kids, Cooper and Addie, pursuing a different dream: the ultimate summer camp experience. The idea is to spend a few days ticking off a list of summer camp-style adventures in the gorge. Whitewater rafting, cliff jumping, campfire stories, cabin v. cabin shenanigans…I never went to summer camp as a kid, but I’ve seen Meatballs a dozen times, so I know summer camp is a key part to personal growth. It’s where you make new friends who have different backgrounds and cultural experiences. It’s where you stick up for yourself against the bully, and climb the rock face called “Certain Death,” and swim the winning leg in the race versus Camp Mohawk, where the rich kids go…Summer camp is important and I want my kids to experience it. But I’m also not ready to let my kids explore the world on their own yet, so I’m going to summer camp with them. Does the fact that I never got to swim in a race against Camp Mohawk have anything to do with my decision to insert myself into this de-facto camp experience for my kids? Maybe. I’m not a psychologist. But I’d argue the factor that’s more in play here is that I’m a super controlling parent who wants to teach my kids everything. I want to teach them how to catch a fish, how to whittle a stick. How to whittle a fish? If that’s a thing, I want to teach them how to do that too. How to rappel and how to keep their feet together when they jump off a cliff into a lake…I want to imprint on them, the way mama ducks imprint on their babies or kidnappers imprint on their victims. Stockholm Syndrome. That’s basically what I’m after here: a bond so strong that even logic can’t break it. Because I’m going to have to let them go. Eventually it will be college and study abroad and spring break in Cancun and marriage…the separation is on the horizon and that separation will start with a legit summer camp experience where they go off for weeks at a time without me, learning 20
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
A D D I E AV E R I L L O N A S T A N D - U P PA D D L E B O A R D O N S U M M E R S V I L L E L A K E , W E S T V I R G I N I A . / P H O T O B Y G R A H A M AV E R I L L
how to whittle a fish from some camp counselor barely out of high school. So, a family summer camp at New River Gorge. And so far, it’s been amazing. We staged the camp at Adventures on the Gorge, partly because of its location (as the name implies, it’s “on the gorge”), partly because it has a summer camp vibe with a bunch of cabins on a sprawling campus stacked with ropes courses and climbing walls and its own system of trails, and partly because they have guides that can lead us through a suite of adventures that would make up a badass summer camp: whitewater rafting, climbing, lake shenanigans…The guides can handle the logistics while I focus on quality time with my kids.
Day one has us on a pontoon boat exploring the serene waters of Summersville Lake, which sits at the head of the Gauley River. We join forces with two other families, both with kids about Coop and Addie’s age and they become fast friends, peering over the edge of the boat looking for fish. They don’t have much in common—they’re from different towns, play different sports—but it doesn’t matter. They’re kids. Kids get along. Make new friends: Check. Summersville is lined with tall, sandstone cliffs, so we idle beside a shady rock wall and one of our guides sets up an easy top rope for everyone to climb. Later, we paddleboard into concave amphitheaters with waterfalls and find a beautiful
"That’s basically what I’m after here: A bond so strong that even logic can’t break it."
20-foot tower sticking out of the water like a giant thumb. The kids help each other climb the tower and gather the courage to leap (“I’ll do it if you do it.”). And their form is perfect. So are the smiles on their faces. Cliff jump: Check. Later there are half eaten dinners in the cafeteria and s’mores and stories around a campfire (check), then a wild trip down the Upper New River in duckies where my kids point to the biggest rapids and say, “There, Dad! There!” During the deep, calm stretches of the river, the guides flip over a boat and the kids wrestle on top, king of the hill style. Cabin-versus-cabin shenanigans: Check. There’s a ropes course that my daughter zooms through, and games of hide and go seek. I hear my kids telling the other kids that they’ll have to meet back at the gorge again next summer. And the entire scheme seems to culminate with this rappel off the Bridge Buttress, in the heart of the gorge. You can see the steel bridge in the background as my son slowly inches backwards towards the edge of the cliff. We’re so high up; it’s equal parts beautiful and scary. My daughter has already rappelled and is waiting patiently on the floor of the canyon for her brother to make the leap. She’s only scared of the ridiculous: zombies in the toilet. But my son has real fears: Heights and sharks. Rappelling is the sort of thing that he’ll say he wants to do, but decide against it when the time comes. I watch him work through it all: Pulling the gloves onto his hands, adjusting his helmet, listening to the guide explain how the whole system works. How
C O O P E R AV E R I L L P R E PA R E S F O R H I S RAPPELL OFF BRIDGE BUTTRESS IN THE NEW RIVER GORGE. / PHOTO B Y G R A H A M AV E R I L L
he’ll have to lean away from the wall and let gravity do the work. I watch him inch backwards and I know any second he’ll quit. He’ll ask me to get him off the top of the cliff, out of the harness and to take him home where it’s safe. That’s why I’m here, to be a cushion for the world. I’m already preparing myself to be kind. To not push him. But he doesn’t quit. He gives me one last look, a little bit of fear in his eyes, but also an eagerness, like he knows if he can just sidestep his fear, life will be amazing. He takes two
small steps down the rock wall and then I can’t see him anymore. He’s gone. Push out of your comfort zone: Check. And this is the way life will go as my kids get older. Every little step will create distance between us. They’ll leave me and go out into the world. I can only hope I’m doing a good enough job during our time together to imprint on them. Fingers crossed that my baby ducks have Stockholm Syndrome.
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W
ith a quick search online, you can find guides and classes for just about any outdoor activity. You can learn how to mountain bike, rock climb, roll a kayak, or fish for trout from masters of the sport. But these instructors take it a step further, teaching you to how to construct the gear you need to get outside and start playing by hand.
CRAFT A FISHING ROD
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY LEARN HOW TO CRAFT A FISHING ROD, BUILD A BIKE, FASHION A KNIFE, WEAVE BASKETS, AND TEST YOUR OUTDOOR SKILLS. BY ELLEN KANZINGER
BILL OYSTER LEADS A CLASS IN HOW TO MAKE A F L Y R O D G R I P. / P H O T O B Y J E R R Y M U C K L O W.
There is a long and storied history of fly fishing in the Southeast, from the world class trout streams to saltwater and warm water destinations. It is here, in the heart of Blue Ridge, Georgia, where the Oysters set up their bamboo fly rod shop. For more than 20 years, Bill Oyster has been crafting some of the finest fly fishing rods by hand. Anglers from all over the world, including former President Jimmy Carter, commission Oyster to make unique rods with his signature engravings. If he is the craftsman, then his partner Shannen Oyster is the driving force behind the business, handling all of the details that come with running and marketing a small business. With his six-day bamboo fly rod making class, Oyster invites students to enter his world and craft a rod of their own. “We have some people who are extremely experienced, we have people that have made some rods and want to learn how to make them better,” Oyster said. “And then we have people who literally have no interest in fly fishing, have never done it in their life. They are coming because of the traditional craft of it. They like the idea of “I THOUGHT MAYBE making things.” Growing up in Wyoming, THE ONLY THING Oyster remembers seeing fly COOLER THAN anglers on the water, but it was not until he moved to the BUYING ONE WOULD South that he really took an BE IF I COULD MAKE interest in fly fishing. IT MYSELF." “At about 19 years old, I discovered the North Georgia Mountains,” Oyster said. “That’s where I was really intrigued by fly fishing again, those crystal-clear trout streams. I just fell in love with it. At the time, I was a professional bicycle racer and fly fishing was my noncompetitive, nonpainful, just relaxing, enjoyable thing. I eventually had a bad crash on the road, and it took me out of racing. So, I put all of my passion, time, and energy into fly fishing.” As a studio art major at the University of Georgia, Oyster was always into making things. “I got intrigued by the idea of the bamboo rods because I love the classic, handmade things and the whole craftsmanship of it,” he said. “I thought maybe the only thing cooler than buying one would be if I could make it myself.” At the time, there were no rod making classes and other masters of the craft refused to share their information with Oyster. “I started playing with it, reading and research, trial and error, and studying the old ways that things were done,” he said. “Little by little, I started to figure it out.” It is with that knowledge and understanding that APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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Each season there’s a new reason to SEE ROCK CITY! Sensational events like Summer Music Weekends and Rocktoberfest are held throughout the year and feature live entertainment, and specialty food and beverages. Enjoy fun activities for the whole family during EarthDayz and the Southern Blooms Festival, then marvel as you wind your way through the ancient rocky wonders on the Enchanted Trail. Savor modern southern cuisine with the spectacular Seven States view at our full-service, seasonal restaurant Café 7; where craft brews, full wine list, kids’ menu, and contemporary southern dishes delight. Enchantment awaits at our award-winning holiday lighting extravaganza The Enchanted Garden of Lights. It’s a family tradition treasured by generations. Leashed pets are always welcome - so bring your fur kids too!
Visit: SeeRockCity.com 24
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
Oyster approaches each class. Students go through the process of splitting a bamboo stalk, crafting the shaft, shaping the grip, and applying all of the hardware and varnish. At the end of the week, they leave with a fully functional and ready to use rod. “Somebody could make a rod for high mountain Appalachian brook trout, so they’ll make a little bitty two weight or something like that,” Oyster said. “Then we’ll have guys come in and build a 12 weight that they’re catching 150-pound tarpon in the Florida Keys. From a functional standpoint, they get to make all of those decisions so they can handle any variety of fishing situations and make the rod to suit.” Kathy Luker and her husband been have been fly fishing around the country for 25 years. After meeting the Oysters at an outdoor event, the Lukers decided to sign up for a class together. “I loved it, my husband hated it,” Kathy Luker said. “If I could do it full time, I would.” In March, Luker attended her fourteenth class, although she leaves her husband at home now. Over the years, she has kept some of the rods for herself but has gifted several of them to her children and close friends. “I enjoy the physical work of making the rod from raw bamboo and you end up with the finished fly rod,” she said. “I’ve come to appreciate the bamboo itself, where the bamboo came from, and L E F T: B I L L O Y S T E R T E A C H E S A B A M B O O F L Y R O D M A K I N G C L A S S . P H O T O B Y J E R R Y M U C K O W. T O P R I G H T: S T E V E " B R E W D U D E " G A R N . P H O T O B Y B R YA N H E L M . B O T T O M R I G H T: PA R T I C I PA N T S A S S E M B L E A BIKE FRAME. / PHOTO BY STEVE GARN.
how through our skills, we are able to work with the bamboo and make it something very beautiful. When you take that piece of art out on a river, stream, or in the ocean and you use it, it brings life to that rod. It comes full circle.” In the age of mass marketed goods, these rods stand out for their craftsmanship. “The bamboo rod is not as high tech or lightweight as the newer rods, but they’re much more durable,” Oyster said. “These rods are made to last your lifetime and then be passed on after that.” Every student walks away with one of those rods and the knowledge that they shaped it with their own hands. “We’ve never had a single student fail to complete the rod in the 20 years of classes,” Oyster said. “We have a running streak here that we don’t intend to break.”
BUILD A BIKE
When Kathy Knapp signed up for Steve “Brewdude” Garn’s bicycle frame building class in 2011, she just thought it would be something fun to do that she could walk away with a bike from. She was into road cycling and was considering a coast to coast trip by bike. “I wanted to build the touring bike,” Knapp said. “There were some things on the market that were close but not exactly what I wanted. So, I thought I’d build my own.” Knapp left the class with more than a bike frame.
“I wasn’t always a bicycle mechanic,” she said. “When I went to Steve’s class, I was actually working in TV news. So, it’s been sort of a career switch since then.” Working with Garn during his five-day frame class inspired the maker and bicycle enthusiast in Knapp. Within a year of completing the class, she had gone on to bicycle mechanic school and started working at a shop in Atlanta, Ga. “Building a frame teaches you a lot about all the work I do with bicycles now,” Knapp said. “He gets into why you build a bike the way you do, why the geometry is the way it is for different bicycles for different purposes. While he’s explaining, you’re putting your hands on and you’re doing all of this.” In 1974, Garn had to take six months off from motocross racing after a few too many injuries. During that time, he built a few BMX bikes for some kids in the area to support his racing. But it wasn’t until he started Blue Ridge Electric and Welding in the 80s that Garn really got into the bicycle building business. He built a little bit of everything, including road, single speed, touring, and mountain bikes. At its peak, BREW was producing 250 frames a week with several professional cyclers racking up National Championships on his frames. By 2006, most of the work had moved overseas. That’s when Garn started offering his frame building class. Within 10 days, the first round of classes was full. “There’s a resurgence now in a lot of people wanting to work with their own hands and build their APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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own stuff, especially when they are really young,” Garn said. “We’re starting to see almost like a revolt against technology in 18- to 22-year olds. They want to do everything by hand.” Garn caps the classes, held at his shop in Creston, N.C., to two students so that he can spend more individual time with each person and the bicycle of their choosing. He starts with the basics of TIG welding and bicycle design concepts before moving into the actual construction of the frame. At the end, students help him weld all of the pieces together and powdercoat their frames. It is then up to the student to finish putting the bicycle together with wheels, pedals, and handlebars. “Every class is different because we have people from different backgrounds,” Garn said. “We’ll have people who have had metal fabrication work in their past. Next thing you know, we’ll get a young kid at 18 years old who has never had a drill in his hand. Some of them want to pursue it and do frame building afterwards at home. A lot of them just want to build their own custom bike.” That is what John Myers thought going into the class. “I’m going to take this class, build myself some bikes, that way I can do it for myself,” he said. “A couple of years later, it turned into a small little business for me. I’m definitely not going to be a millionaire but I’m building some really cool stuff and enjoying what I do for a living for a change, which is nice.” In 2014, Myers opened Cin-City-Cycles, focusing
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
on building mountain, trials, and BMX bikes. “A lot of frame builders act like what they do is this magic thing that nobody else can do,” Myers said. “There’s this sort of mysticism about it. With him [Garn], it’s just the opposite. There’s nothing that somebody with a million dollars’ worth of machines can do that you can’t by scaling it down and doing it your way. I took so many notes during class that I’m still breaking out my book every now then, flipping back through, like man, I know he covered this somewhere.” Six and a half years after having taken the frame class, Myers still bounces his ideas and questions off of Garn when he’s in a tough spot. “He’s kind of the godfather of frame building when it comes to the bicycle business,” Myers said. “He did a lot of firsts as far as some of the materials he was using, the way he was welding things together. He really pushed the industry in the direction it’s going now.”
FASHION A KNIFE AND SHEATH
The origins of the Living Earth School go back to when Kate and Hub Knott met in college. After graduation, they went on a three-month paddling trip to British Columbia in kayaks they made themselves, fishing and gathering plants for food along the way. In 2002, the Knotts opened the Living Earth School in Afton, Va., offering a wide variety of
programming. Hub Knott said the decision to open the school came from “our love for the wild and wanting to try to see what it was like to live off the land, but also the love of crafting and making things with our hands.” They offer overnight summer camps, weekend classes during the school year, and homeschool programs for kids as well as weekend classes for adults. The programs cover a range of topics from wildlife tracking and identifying edible plants to wilderness philosophy and building a connection with nature. Their Weekend Camps are a chance for families to come together and spend a few days learning a skill in the woods. Two of their more popular programs are the family knife making and family archery camps, available for anyone eight years and older. “The real reason is just to create good experiences outdoors without a lot of media for families to have that common time together,” Knott said. “It’s not always easy to create that time and I think that sitting around a fire, laughing and telling stories, is something they remember forever.” With the knife making and leather working camp, instructor Peter Yencken helps participants craft a stainless steel, fixed blade knife by hand with a leather sheath or bag for storage. After an initial demo of all the tools and supplies, each individual begins construction with some one on one instruction. In the archery class, Yencken takes participants
through the process of carving down a piece of wood into a long bow and making the string for the bow. Yencken also teaches how to make a quiver out of leather and shape arrows. Once the bow and arrows are complete, he goes over the instinctive shooting method so that everyone knows how to work their new tool. All of the instruction and materials are included with both programs. Families should come ready to camp all weekend and prepare their own meals.
TEST YOUR SKILLS
Since 2002, the Mid Atlantic Primitive Skills Meet in Maryland has been a gathering place for people looking to learn a new skill and spend some time outside. Over the course of Memorial Day Weekend, participants can choose from over 100 workshops, including basic knife safety, primitive pottery, bee keeping, blacksmithing, and more. The four-day event has something for the whole family. The youth programs introduce children, ages three through 11, to nature through stories, games, and practicing new skills while older children and adults participate in the workshops. Heather Cornelius first attended the meetup with her daughter more than 12 years ago. Although other commitments and logistics prevented them from returning for several years, the whole family has attended the past four years. “We mark it on the calendar six months in advance,” Cornelius said. “We hold that weekend because we all value it so much. One of the things
we love about it is we can attend as a family.” Over the years, Cornelius has taken several classes, including an earth pigment workshop where they made paints by grounding up different colored stones. During the weekend, her kids split their time taking workshops with friends and with their parents. “It always refreshes our commitment to spending time in nature as a family,” Cornelius said. “It’s something that’s really important to us anyway but we always get a recharge and a reminder of why we value that time together and creating together. One of the big draws for me is it really feels like a pop-up community.” Cornelius and her husband are now on the board for Ancestral Knowledge, the organization behind MAPS Meet, and her oldest daughter is an instructor. Ancestral Knowledge offers similar programming throughout the year for kids and families, including homeschool programs and weekend classes. As a non-profit, they offer some financial assistance for families who cannot afford the summer camps or MAPS Meet through private donations.
WEAVE BASKETS AND CORDAGE
After a friend showed her how to make pine needle baskets, Nancy Basket moved to South Carolina to be able to collect the long leaf pine needles for her work and to be closer to the Cherokee people from whom she descends. For more than 30 years, she has been experimenting with different materials in
her artwork. “You have to do things inaccurately, things that don’t work the way you want them to, but you find out ways that they will work,” Basket said. “I concentrate on how to take one idea and turn it into something else.” In addition to the pine needle baskets, she also makes cordage, mats, and bags from anything she can find outside, including cattail leaves and tree bark. Basket also taught herself how to make paper, cloth, and lamp shades with kudzu, an invasive plant commonly found in the Southeast. “We need to learn how to use invasives,” she said. “When people think something isn’t worth anything, you have to look at it again. Weeds that you don’t like could be a natural resource too. It’s how you think about it and use it that makes a difference.” Basket shares her knowledge and skills with the public through school presentations, artist residencies, and museum exhibits. She also teaches several classes every year through EarthSkills in South Carolina. “If you take the glass, metal, and plastic out of your house, what do you have left? Not a whole lot,” Basket said. “Come out to a class in a field where you see what you would call weeds and then learn how to turn them into something that can support you in your life right now.” These classes combine hands-on experience with the materials and storytelling to help participants better understand the connection with the natural world.
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MORE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES Thru Hiking and Trail Maintaining The Appalachian Trail Conservancy offers a number of workshops throughout the year that focus on maintaining the wilderness of the A.T. For anyone considering a thru hike of the trail, the ATC hosts several free workshops in cities along the East Coast. The three-hour course covers the reality of thru hiking and the environmental impact on the trail. The ATC also partners with other trail clubs to offer trail maintenance workshops, covering important skills like drainage design, rock staircase construction, and crosscut saw training.
Boat Construction Water enthusiasts should check out Chesapeake Light Craft for their boat building classes. Each class focuses on a different model, including kayaks, standup paddleboards, and dories. While most of the classes are held at their shop in Annapolis, Md., these boat builders also lead classes in California, Michigan, Maine, and Washington. They also sell boat kits, plans, supplies, and gear on their website, so you can assemble your own vessel at home.
Beginner Friendly The programs at Outdoor Chattanooga are geared towards families and beginners to the outdoor recreation scene. Try everything from mountain biking and whitewater kayaking to bike commuting 101 in this outdoor Tennessee destination. For most of the programs, your first class is free, and equipment is provided so you don’t have to make the initial investment to see if you are interested in that activity.
Rock Climbing Based in Fayetteville, W. Va., the Appalachian Mountain Guides lead rock climbing trips and clinics, including self-rescue courses and single pitch instructor courses in the New River Gorge and Red River Gorge. These guides also manufacture and sell locally made bolts, customizable for your climbing environment.
Conservation and Stewardship The Nolichucky Outdoor Learning Institute is one of the newest additions to the outdoor scene in Northeast Tennessee. Discuss how to better protect wild places with conservationist and photographer David Ramsey or take part in the Leave No Trace trainer course. NOLI has dozens of other classes to choose from, including whitewater kayaking, wilderness first aid, outdoor art classes, and group team building.
Gear Repair and Maintenance Although Clintonville Outfitters is located outside of the Blue Ridge in Columbus, Ohio, the shop offers a gear repair and maintenance class for backpackers and campers. Participants learn how to make repairs while on the trail and how to maintain their gear at home. The course covers tent pole replacement, stove repairs, torn backpack repairs, shoe and clothing repairs, and how to wash everything at the end of the season. Useful skills for anyone who has ever been caught out on the trail and run into a gear mishap. 28
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
#ShareWhatYouLove. From coastal marshes to the famed Appalachian Trail, and the winding rivers that stitch it all together, Virginia is not meant to be admired from afar. Find what you love in Virginia. Virginia.org
keeping it in the family
OUTDOOR PARENTS SHARE THEIR TIPS AND TRICKS FOR ADVENTURES WITH KIDS. BY ELLEN KANZINGER
BEFORE EACH BACKPACKING TRIP, NICK BROOKS WOULD TAKE OUT ALL OF HIS GEAR FOR THE WEEKEND AND LAY IT OUT IN THE HALLWAY.
As a self-described “gear head to the core,” this was his way of making sure all of the equipment, from his sleeping bag to cook system, was working and accounted for. Brooks noticed his three-year-old son, Preston, taking an interest in what he was doing. “My oldest would start taking my gear out and help me organize it,” he said. “You could tell he was watching me.” For his fourth birthday, Brooks and his wife, Amanda, asked Preston what he wanted to do for his big day. “He was like, I want to go backpacking like you,”
Brooks said. “So, we went backpacking for his fourth birthday.” Preston, now 11, was hooked. Around the same time, Asher, 8, joined the family and Brooks found it harder to go on as many backpacking trips with his friends. “When I was younger, I used to say, you would never catch me car camping,” Brooks said. “I was like, I’m a backpacker. This is what I do. What changed that was still wanting to get into the outdoors. When I had a second child, that kind of limited my time to get out at the drop of a hat. As they got older, I wanted to APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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expose them to it the way my father did when I was a child.” The Brooks started packing all of their gear up in the family car and exploring various campsites around the Southeast on the weekends and school breaks. “The big deal was for everyone to be potty trained,” Brooks said. “Once that was squared away, the world was ours.” Now the Brooks get out as much as possible, exposing the kids to the world around them. “During the school year, it’s go, go, go time,” Brooks said. “My boys both play soccer, they’re both in scouts. One is in band and then church activities. Just so much stuff going on. When you get away, you almost forget about all of that stuff because you’re in a new place, you’re away from everything. It’s really cool to unplug and be with your family.” Car camping has allowed them to travel all over, including a trip out West to Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Parks last summer. “Doing that trip, the camping made it so much more affordable,” Brooks said. “Instead of paying hundreds of dollars a night to stay at a hotel or resort, I’m paying $25 a night and driving into a National Park area.” Brooks said they reserve their campsites as soon as possible to ensure they get the best spot, especially if they can be next to a river or creek. “After every trip, we are already looking for the next place to go,” he said. “It’s the summer and I’m already looking for the fall and spring break, several months forward. I’m already trying to find the next
place so I can make a good reservation and find the campsite that I want.” The family regularly packs activities that help create togetherness such as board games, cornhole, and bocce ball. In recent years, they have started inviting friends to travel with them, building their relationship with other families through the outdoors. For Brooks, that is what camping is all about, exploring a new place and sitting around a fire together. It is the little moments like watching his sons skip rocks on the lake that keeps him packing up that car over and over again. “They’re just hanging out together, just being brothers,” Brooks said. “It’s a reminder to stop and enjoy the moment of being a family and being together.”
T H E B R O O K S FA M I LY — A N G E L A , PRESTON, ASHER, AND NICK— BESIDE THE GRAND CANYON.
TOP TIP: “The cook system is really the most fun and important thing. If you have gear and it doesn’t work well, it just kills the experience.” Brooks prefers his Camp Chef Everest 2-burner camp stove. He reviews gear and beer on his Instagram, @outdoorgearandbeer. FAVORITE FIRESIDE FOOD: Bacon, eggs, grits, hash browns, and pancakes for breakfast. “We go all in.” GO-TO CAMPSITE: Tugaloo State Park or Tallulah Gorge State Park in Georgia. On the border of Georgia and South Carolina, Tugaloo provides access to more than 100 campsites, volleyball and tennis courts, and boat rentals. Swim, kayak, or fish on the 55,600-acre Lake Hartwell. At Tallulah Gorge, visitors will find miles of hiking trails as well as places for biking, paddling, and rock climbing.
more play time than travel time.
Mecklenburg County is made for exploring. Hike, bike and camp in our State Parks, Tobacco Heritage Trails and many Wildlife Management Areas. Enjoy the open waters of our rivers and lakes when you launch your vessel from one of 17 boat launches... and in your down time, enjoy a craft brew, a gourmet meal or a stroll through our historic gardens and wineries.
More of what matters. More Mecklenburg. visitmeckva.com | #moremeck APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
THE UPGRADE
Julie and Kevin Smith were avid travelers as young adults, carrying all that they needed on their backs. But their three kids, Lily, 15, Loretta, 7, and Opal, 4, changed all of that. “You can’t just take an all-day hike, you have to pack so much more,” Julie Smith said. “You have to have your sippy cups, your diapers and your diaper bag, your pack and play, and your Baby Bjorn. It changes the whole thing. But the greatest thing is you get them out there. They’re dirty and get to run around and be in nature. It’s a tremendous amount of work but once you’re there, it’s so rewarding.” As the Smiths juggled having children with still wanting to get outdoors, they cut down on the number of backpacking trips and started driving to campsites for a weekend. “When you car camp, you’re allowed to bring coolers and tablecloths, all of those type of things,” she said. “There’s no more long hikes but there’s a lot of s’mores and playing in the dirt and river.” Preparation is key for these trips. “We have these big Tupperware camping boxes,” Julie Smith said. “I kept those clean, packed, and stocked. I’d have one camping box of all the dishes, camp stove, and percolator. That box would get washed when we’d get home and put back so next time we went, we just grabbed it. Same things with the air mattresses.” Having the supplies ready to go made it easier to get out the door without scrambling to make sure everything was packed. This also comes in handy when making dinner for a hungry family. “Do as much prepping you can do before you go,” Smith said. “Make your chili at home, cut your onions at home, wrap your potatoes in aluminum foil at home. Then you just have to throw them on the fire.” Once they reach the campsite, everyone has a job to keep the kids engaged. “We each get to take turns making the fire, we rotate washing dishes, and they take turns picking the actual camp spot,” Smith said. After years of packing and unpacking the car for each trip, the Smiths upgraded to an RV and have not looked back. “The RV is fully stocked,” Smith said. “We actually get out more now that we have it because I don’t have to pack the air mattresses, sheets, toothpaste and toothbrushes, the pack and play, the pillows, and the towels.” While some families can make car camping work for a larger family, it made sense for the Smiths to invest in the RV with the number of weekends they spend camping. “We car camped a couple of times with all three kids and we were just like this is too much for us,” Smith said. “We went to Hot Springs once and had to take two cars. We were like, this is ridiculous. We’re not even riding together.” For the last 20 years, the Smiths have been going to the annual French Broad River Festival at the Hot Springs Campground the first weekend in May. “Every year we gather college friends and college friends turn into other friends,” Smith said. “Now it’s a bunch of families and old married people. Some people we don’t see except for there. It’s like a huge reunion.”
T H E S M I T H FA M I LY E N J O Y S A S C E N I C V I S TA F R O M T H E I R C A M P S I T E .
The weekend kicks off with a river cleanup on the French Broad followed by a weekend of whitewater rafting, music, mountain biking, and more. A portion of the proceeds benefit American Whitewater and other local charities. The Smiths, who have had the same campsite every year, turned the festival into a week-long camping trip with their kids and other families. They all look forward to the event every year in what has become a family tradition. As with all of their camping trips, it’s a way to get away from the disruptions at home and be together. “I think the pinnacle on any camping trip is when you’re hunkered down by the fire at night and laughing,” Smith said. “My husband plays the guitar so there’s lots of music and singing. The kids love it. They get to stay up late. We’re all just sitting there together, no electronics. The stars are out and you’re like this is it. This is the entire reason why we’re here.” TOP TIP: “Do it, get out there. We live in probably the most beautiful place in the world and there are some amazing campgrounds. It’s one of those things where you’re like we’ll go another week, we’ll go another weekend. It’s transformational for the family to do it. It’s family time without any interruptions, which as much as we try, is almost impossible to do when you’re at home.” FAVORITE FIRESIDE DISH: “We almost always do
chili. That’s a winner all the way around.” GO-TO CAMPSITE: Hot Springs Campground in North Carolina. Situated beside the French Broad River and a short drive from the Appalachian trail, Hot Springs is a great basecamp for adventure. Hike, whitewater raft, or zip-line only 40 minutes from Asheville.
FULL TIME CAMPERS
Whether they were out with their scout troop or camping with family, Mary Leigh and Japhet Vallejo could often be found outside growing up. “Once we hit our teenage years, we sort of fell out of that for a while,” Mary Leigh Vallejo said. “I think having a kid reminded us how much fun we had and enjoyed doing it. We started back and haven’t stopped since.” Jonathan Vallejo, 7, could not have been more than three months old when his parents started taking him outside. What started off as family picnics and short day hikes evolved into overnight camping trips almost every weekend. For Jonathan, the best part was always getting to the campsite at the end of a long hike and setting up his hammock. Unless the site was close to water in which case you could find him swimming. “It requires a lot of patience,” Vallejo said. “They’re not going to enjoy every moment of it but knowing at the end it’s going to be worth it.” APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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They make sure to pack mini rewards for Jonathan on the trail, including Gatorade, mint chocolate chip Clif Bars, and a movie for in the tent at the end of the day. This, along with small tasks like helping collect firewood, helps motivate him and keeps his spirits up. Although their car is often close by, allowing for easy access to all their supplies, the family recently spent five days thru-hiking the Foothills Trail in South Carolina. “Our son said he liked it, but 77 miles is a lot to ask of a seven-year-old,” Vallejo said. “My son and I both had a little foot stepper. His steps were double my steps. To us, we think we have to get these six miles in before we can take a break. To him, this is a lot more. So, we just had to be patient and slow down.” Seeing how much Jonathan enjoyed these trips, the Vallejos decided to sell their home in the summer of 2018 to travel the country, homeschooling Jonathan and visiting as many public lands as possible. They downsized from 1,500 square feet to a 30-foot RV. “It seemed like every weekend we were going out,” Vallejo said. “We decided that we didn’t spend enough time at our house anymore and we were always traveling. We would get off work Friday afternoon and would not get back Sunday until we had to.” The family traveled across the country and back, visiting 19 national park units along the way. “Our son is earning his Junior Ranger badge at these parks,” Vallejo said. “Even my husband and
I didn't know many of the things he has learned at such a young age.” After spending a few months in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, and South Dakota, the Vallejos are back on the East Coast and planning to drive the entire Blue Ridge Parkway, visiting family and friends along the way. Even though they have the RV now, Vallejo said they try to make an effort to camp outside at least once a week. “Tent camping is definitely more enjoyable,” she said. “The RV is our house, so we have Netflix and a refrigerator. It’s nicer to be outside.” TOP TIP: Always carry a first aid kit, fire starters, and extra socks. FAVORITE FIRESIDE DISH: Tofu, vegetables, rice, and beans. “That’s pretty much staple for us.” GO-TO CAMPSITE: Somewhere in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, especially Big Bald, Huckleberry Knob, and Cheoah Bald. There are several campsites near each of these locations and the views from the peaks offer some of the best views in the area.
LEARNING ALONG THE WAY
Samuel and Oliver Poulton (age 7 and 5 respectively) have their special camping gear and routins when the family goes on trips. They each have their headlamp, sleeping bag, and spot in the tent. They get to roast marshmallows and stay up late. Those little things, like seeing the stars on a recent trip to Jackrabbit Mountain, really bring the
family together. “The boys were up, certainly later than they would be at home, and you’re away from city lights and populations,” Tim Poulton said. “There were a gazillion stars and they were just amazed. They had seen stars, but that was their first time seeing some of the Milky Way and so many stars on such a clear night. I was thinking this would be a nice thing to help calm them down and they were so excited. So it wasn’t the best go-to-sleep strategy, but they definitely appreciated getting out there.” Like most parents, Tim and Ginger Poulton discovered early on that camping with kids looked a lot different than what they were used to. “For adults who have camped throughout their lives, we kind of have this picture of what camping is,” he said. “It may be a little more purist or rustic. I think it’s important to focus on what’s going to make this a good experience for the kids. What’s going to make the kids think camping is fun and something they want to do?” They started taking their kids out before they were walking and talking. “Honestly, they're easier when they are yonger,” Poulton said. “When your kid’s a little baby, they’re not doing anything. They’re just there. They’re eating, pooping, and sleeping.” Once the boys started getting older and could understand what was going on, the family would set up the tent and camp in their backyard. “That was pretty nonthreatening for them,” Poulton said. “Their bathroom was available, and if we needed to bail on the experience, we were
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THE POULTON FA M I LY — T I M , O L I V E R , SAMUEL, AND GINGER—VENTURE ACROSS THE REGION AND BEYOND.
already at home.” This helped prepare the kids for longer trips away from home. “There’s a little bit of conditioning,” Poulton said. “It’s kind of like getting your kids to eat healthy food. If that’s the expectation you set, and you continue to do that, then that’s just sort of the norm for them. What we like is we’re giving them many opportunities to get outdoors and appreciate the outdoors and love different elements of the outdoors.” To keep the kids entertained, no matter the weather, the Poultons have their special camping books that they only get to read on one of their trips. Their favorite is A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen. The family also enjoys card games, and they started keeping a camping journal where everyone takes a turn writing something when they go out. The Poultons decided to buy a pop-up camper that they tow behind their car after a camping trip where temperatures dipped down to the 30s one night and the boys refused to wear anything except for their pajamas. “We ended up kind of being like a family of foxes curled up in the tent,” Ginger Poulton said. “Then I was swayed to get a camper. Being more of a camping minimalist, it was hard for me to get into having a camper, and I occasionally have mixed feelings about it. But we’re going to be outside so much more that it kind of lessens the blow.” Although they still tent camp occasionally, the pop-up helps prevents exhaustion and meltdowns after a weekend trip is over and the kids go back to school. Poulton said actually getting outside is more important than how they do it. “We’re out there to enjoy being outdoors and to foster that love in our kids,” she said. “And also, just to create shared family experiences that everyone wants to keep having.” TOP TIP: “Pack for a little warmer than you think it’s going to be and colder than you think it’s going to be,” Tim Poulton said. “If adults are a little improperly dressed, we’ll tough it out and can rationalize it. Kids aren’t as willing to do that. So, we try to make sure we have layers for them so we can dress them appropriately.” FAVORITE FIRESIDE DISH: Add apple slices and cinnamon to a piece of tin foil and put over the fire. “It’s like apple pie for the kids,” Ginger Poulton said. GO-TO CAMPSITE: Jackrabbit Mountain Campground in the Nantahala National Forest of southwestern North Carolina. There are several mountain biking and hiking trails easily accessible from the campground. The site sits beside Lake Chatuge where families can swim, paddle, and fish. 38
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
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Fontana Village is the perfect family getaway, no matter the season! Worlds away from everyday noise, stress, and obligation, it is nestled in the Nantahala National Forest in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina. The Village has it all- lodges, camping, Ashland, Kentucky is a small town cabins, disc golf, putt-putt, hiking, with big fun, and is located along U.S. 23 Country Music Highway. This biking, and a lake. The whole family summer, check out this mecca for arts, will find something they love. fontanavillage.com family friendly festivals, great food, entertainment, trails, and 100 miles of off-road trail adventure on a 7000 acre tract of land. 2019 means new for Gatlinburg! New visitashlandky.com lodging, dining and attractions for the whole family. Visit Blake Shelton’s Ole Red, Anakeesta outdoor adventure park, the longest Sky Bridge in America and Ripley’s Believe it or The Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Not’s renovated museum. Stay at Railroad offers Mountain Rail the new Margaritaville Resort, Appy Adventures that depart the depots of Lodge, or rent a cabin at Cherokee Elkins, Durbin, Cheat Bridge and Cass Orchard or Stony Brook Cabins. – April through December. These gatlinburg.com
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Massanutten Resort, VA
Massanutten Resort is an all-season resort destination that provides an unforgettable experience for the most adventurous families. Massanutten features an Indoor/ Outdoor WaterPark, Mountain Bike Park, zip lines, hiking, tubing, and so much more! There is something for everyone at Massanutten Resort, all within reach. Save money on your next adventure with one of their seasonal lodging packages. massresort.com
rock formations and gardens. Other stunning scenery includes the High Falls with a seven-states view. Enjoy the outdoor seasonal restaurant Café 7, featuring southern cuisine with a modern twist. Spring events include EarthDayz and the Southern Blooms Festival! Free Parking. seerockcity.com
St. Mary's, MD
Boundless inspiration and adventure await in the mid-Atlantic's best kept travel secret. Whether your family is into the outdoors, history, delicious Oconee County, SC is a family friendly restaurants or bountiful farms, we have something for everyone. From history to outdoor adventure. Heart stopping technology and everything in between, white water rafting on the Chattooga we're eager to share it with you. River. A primitive lake surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains with visitstmarysmd.com waterfalls that you can pull your boat up to and swim under. Hiking trails to 29 waterfalls. Lakeside lodging in tree Birthplace of Beer Cheese, home of houses and cabins. Oconee SC is a the Beer Cheese Trail, Ale-8-One cool place to play! tours, brewery, and 2 wineries! visitoconeesc.com Fun for the whole family including the Bluegrass Heritage Museum & great outdoor rec such as canoeing, Create memories worth repeating kayaking, hiking and biking. Near at Rock City! High atop Lookout Lexington’s restaurant and distillery Mountain bring your pet for a district, and The Kentucky Horse Park. leisurely walk through massive winchesterky.com
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This is Lynchburg. When it comes to family adventure, we’re spoiled here in Lynchburg. With 40 miles of urban trails to ride, the historic James River right at our feet and easy access to the Blue Ridge Mountains, we can reconnect with nature and loved ones at the same time. And we’d love to share our good fortune with your family! Come see why Lynchburg will be your new home for adventure.
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
ANNUAL STORMING OF THUNDER RIDGE MAY 19
A.T. Entrepreneurs An Appalachian Trail thru-hike is an incubator for several business pioneers in Southern Appalachia BY MICHAEL WELCH
F
amous thinkers throughout history have touted the benefits walking can have on our ability to think creatively, from Aristotle and the Peripatetics (literally, “one who walks about”) to Henry David Thoreau. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche even went so far as to say that “all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking,” and while many other influential minds have subscribed to this wisdom, it’s only in the last few decades that science has started to catch up. Researchers at Stanford recently published a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology entitled “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking.” Authors Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz relied on four different experiments to test their hypothesis, and their results indicated that walking contributed to a 60 percent boost in creativity among the 200 test subjects. If you combine these findings with the numerous studies detailing the creative benefits of time spent in nature, then it stands to reason that the Appalachian Trail is one of the finest entrepreneurial incubators in the country. These five hikers and their companies are living proof, and they represent just a handful of the many businesses born on the trail.
S U N S E T O V E R M A X PAT C H , N . C . / PHOTO BY YVONNE MCKENNA
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EDDIE HINNANT AND THE PACKA
“Lightweight Joe” during his 2004 trek, and other impressed hikers encouraged him to start selling his backpacks. After years working full-time as a software engineer and building gear in his apartment on nights and weekends, Valesko went all-in on Zpacks in 2010. The late nights in the shop kept coming, but he approached his business with the persistence of a distance hiker: “A thru-hike takes months, and no one is forcing you to keep going. You’re your own boss. To hike the A.T.’s entire length you have to be a motivated self-starter, and these qualities translated well to starting and running a small business.” To say Valesko is motivated is an understatement. Three years after his A.T. thru-hike, he took on the 2,653-mile Pacific Crest Trail. Two years later, he earned the long-distance “triple crown” by completing the 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail.
THE A.T. WAS EDDIE HINNANT’S FIRST BACKPACKING TRIP,
which is a heck of a way to start. He was no stranger to camping, but he left the trail’s southern terminus blissfully ignorant of some of the unique challenges he would face along the way. In particular, he was unaware that the southern portion of the A.T. meanders through a temperate rainforest, and he would have been shocked to learn that many of the trail’s peaks are drenched in more than 100 inches of rain each year. Hinnant had the necessary rain gear, but his journey was frequently brought to a halt when rain appeared. He was forced to stop and don his jacket and pack cover for even short spring showers and then remove them to prevent excess perspiration when weather passed over. For thru-hikers who spend all day walking, unnecessary stops can add up and impede progress. After completing his thru-hike in July of 2000, Hinnant mulled over the problem for a few months and came up with the Packa. The design is an elegantly simple combination of jacket and pack cover that allows a hiker to put on and take off the jacket without having to stop and remove their pack. After filing a patent, Hinnant began prototyping Packas and shopping the idea around. A few major gear companies including Big Agnes expressed interest. While they never acted on it, Hinnant said the generous mentorship of Bill Gamber, founder of Big Agnes, was instrumental in helping him establish manufacturing in a reputable overseas factory used by the world’s biggest gear companies. Sales of the
J O E VA L E S K O , F O U N D E R O F Z PA C K S A N D A . T. T H R U - H I K E R
JUDY GROSS AND LIGHTHEART GEAR IN 2006, HALFWAY THROUGH THE A.T,. JUDY GROSS WAS
Packa have increased 25 percent in each of the last five years, and Hinnant, a natural inventor, has other patents pending for his latest designs.
JOE VALESKO AND ZPACKS JOE VALESKO FIRST HEARD ABOUT THE A.T. IN THE 90S.
Although he wouldn’t undertake his thru-hike for years, he recalls that he immediately felt the allure of a continuous hiking trip. When the time came, he wasn’t impressed with the available equipment, so he found himself designing his own ultralight backpacking gear. He picked up the trail name
fed up with her tent. The design weighed almost five pounds, and to make lugging it around even worse, she was spending almost every night in trailside shelters. A fall that tore her rotator cuff eventually forced her back to civilization, but on her last night she saw the holy grail of shelters — a man sharing her camp set up a tent that was half the weight of hers, and with twice the space. Away from the trail, she inquired about the tent on a Yahoo group for hikers (this was 2006, after all). A woman sent her a similar model with a broken zipper, and it didn’t take long before Gross was
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Come explore Patrick County, Virginia. Picnics at a covered bridge or along the Blue Ridge Parkway, canoe rides, traditional mountain music, artisan studios, local wineries, bed and breakfasts, camping, hiking, mountain biking, and fishing are just a few of the attractions awaiting you. From the rugged outdoors to 5-star luxury, there is so much to discover in Patrick County. www.visitpatrickcounty.org
APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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THAT TIME you sprang into the great
OUTDOORS. Inside and out, Chesapeake is the place to be for spectacular spring events and activities. April through June, birders flock together to watch more than 200 species migrating home or just passing through. Amateur astrologers gather from near and far for our Skywatch in Northwest River Park and Campground. And runners, bikers, hikers, and paddlers put good times in motion in our waterways and parks. Join us, and let the moments begin. VisitChesapeake.com
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Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
LIGHTHEART GEAR FOUNDER JUDY GROSS.
designing her own tents based off improvements to this homemade prototype. She started looking around for a program to help her draw her creations and stumbled across Google Sketchup, a free CAD program that would become the jumping off point for her new designs. In 2009, she sold her first tents at the Franklin Trail Days hiker festival. As word spread, she leased a building to begin producing LightHeart Gear at scale. In December of 2018, LightHeart moved into a new factory with three times the square footage. The additional space allows the company to produce more ultralight gear, and they also sew for a few other small companies that want to keep production here in America instead of sending it overseas. In addition to tents, Gross is a pioneer of pockets, and
her new line of functional women’s hiking apparel aims to meet a need that has frustrated her for years.
CHRIS CAGE AND GREENBELLY CHRIS CAGE HAD A PROMISING CAREER AS AN ACCOUNTANT
at a Fortune 500 company, but after two years he realized cubicle life wasn’t for him. Weekend trips as a Boy Scout in Georgia had introduced him to the A.T., and after a year of unemployed traveling, he decided to undertake his thru-hike. He credited completing the trail to preparation: “I’m an analytical kind of guy, and I think the research I did beforehand was critical because it helped set my expectations. I knew going in that it wouldn’t be a beautiful nature walk — there would be tough times.” All that preparation meant he became very
familiar with the backpacking market. Since he knew he didn’t want to go back to accounting, he kept his mind open to new ideas, and one came to him about two-thirds of the way through the trail. Distance hikers burn massive amounts of energy every day, and Cage noticed that the bars and snacks available to hikers were underperforming. Instead of heavily processed, 200-calorie bars for weightlifters, he decided to produce 600-calorie, all-natural bars that served as robust hiking meals. While he could prepare all he wanted for the A.T., starting his own venture was another matter. “I would’ve guessed I was well-equipped to start a business, but there’s no sugarcoating it. In hindsight, I was as green and clueless as they come.” He persisted, and after a year of product development, market research, and website creation, GreenBelly raised $19,000 on Kickstarter in March of 2015. By July of the same year the company had officially launched. Thanks to a healthy appetite for its products, the business was sustainable almost immediately, and it’s more than doubled in growth every year since.
EVANS PRATER AND MOUNT INSPIRATION EVANS PRATER EMERGED FROM HIS THRU-HIKE WITH A
mantra: “Everything you carry should be light.” Although it might have started as a reference to the pounds in his pack, it evolved into an acknowledgement of the power of positivity. In the final weeks of his hike he was more than ready to be finished, but as he looks back he feels that seeing things through to the conclusion at Mt. Katahdin was
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We’re so Fly MAY 2-5 in BATH COUNTY, Va
Join us for the first annual Fly-Fishing Festival in beautiful Bath County. Be a part of this 4-day event to celebrate all things fly-fishing. Featured Events: • Guided and Self-Guided Fly-Fishing • Access to Private Stretches of Jackson and Cowpasture Rivers • Fly-Casting Clinics • Fly-Tying Demonstrations • Presentation Speakers and Guest Speakers • Silent Auction Benefitting Project Healing Waters
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
Photo courtesy of Fort Lewis Lodge
Ω
invaluable. “I don’t think I would’ve been mentally equipped to run a business without that experience.” Prater joked that he was driven to finish so he could get a 2185.3 tattoo on his calf (the precise mileage of the A.T. at the time), but sheer obstinacy is really what kept him going. He admitted that “I can’t set a goal for myself and not follow through with it,” and follow through he has. His company, Mount Inspiration, began as a single sticker with the phrase he coined. He sold them to local Asheville gift shops 10 at a time, and customers couldn’t get enough. Now, the business produces t-shirts, hoodies, hats, stickers, leggings, and more, all sporting funny or inspirational lines like “May the forest be with you,” “Be humble,” and “Hike more. Worry less.” To Prater, sustainable manufacturing is a critical part of his business. He goes to great lengths (and considerable expense) to source environmentally friendly soybean inks, and all of Mount Inspiration’s apparel is made out of recycled or organic materials. To broaden the company’s impact, 5 percent of profits are donated to causes that advance environmental protections.
GEORGANNA AND LOGAN SEAMON AND MOUNTAIN CROSSINGS AFTER SPENDING TIME IN MT. PLEASANT, S.C., GEORGANNA
GREENBELLY FOUNDER CHRIS CAGE H I K I N G T H E A . T. I N W I N T E R .
and Logan Seamon knew they wanted to move back to the mountains. Because they didn’t have a specific location in mind, they decided to do what Georganna called “town-shopping.” The couple set out on a northbound thru-hike in 2009 to explore the mountain towns in the Appalachians, not knowing
where they would land after their hike. They didn’t end up far from the trail. In fact, the trail goes directly through Mountain Crossings, the outfitter where they started working in Blairsville, Ga. After three years on staff, the pair made an offer to buy the business. The owner hadn’t planned on selling, but he acquiesced because he felt like the Seamons were a good fit. Every year, Georganna and Logan see about 4,000 thru-hikers come through their store in a three-month window. With so many experienced thru-hikers on staff, they’re able to offer a free “pack shakedown” to help hikers lighten their load whenever possible. If they’ve learned anything, it’s that you can’t judge a book by its cover. “People will surprise the hell out of you,” she says. Now, the owners of Mountain Crossings are opening their second outfitter. Black Balsam Outdoors is located on Main Street in downtown Sylva, and this time they’re starting from the ground up. Building a business isn’t easy, but Georganna stands by the same wisdom that got them from Georgia to Maine: “If you feel like quitting, wait three days. Chances are, something’s gonna change.” Starting a business is a long road, but that’s why the AT is an ideal incubator. In many ways, the ups and downs of this 2,200-mile journey make Y Combinator look like a walk in the park. Ultimately, however, it’s the whole of the experience — both immense triumphs and exhausting struggles — that prepares these and other entrepreneurs for life after the trail.
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Bambi Meets Godzilla, Bubba Meets Jesus How did iconic rapids and climbing routes get their names? B Y N ATA L I E S T I C K E L
V
isitors to the Blue Ridge often remark that the names of our mountains are imaginative, if not abstract: Reddish Knob. Old Rag. Little Stony Man. Used as landmarks, these peaks’ straightforward, descriptive monikers made sense. But as future generations began using the landscape less for orientation and more for chasing its many world-class crags and rivers, naming traditions evolved to tell the exciting, hilarious, and tumultuous histories of climbing and paddling in the region. Flip through any climbing guidebook today, and you’ll find a range of colorful, silly, or cryptic route names: Pudd’s Pretty Dress, Death by Chewing Insects, I’m So F’in Hungry, and Eye of the Narwhal. Names of rapids can be just as out there but are often more candid. Iron Ring on the Gauley River is named for a big iron ring embedded in the rocks above the class V rapid. The four drops of Pipeline on the James River in Virginia were creatively dubbed First, Second, Third, and Fourth Drop. Not all river feature names are as universally accepted as climbing routes, either. Want to start an afternoonlong debate with some James River paddlers? Ask whether one break in an old Richmond dam is called Grummans or Suckers.
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The Legend of Bubba
Mike Williams, a climbing guide and author of the New River Rock guidebooks, has been climbing in the New since 1998, establishing many of the most popular routes. He points out that “a lot of tall tales” characterize the region and climbing in general. “It’s an oral history. Someone puts up a new route, and they might note all the things that happened that day,” like who was with them and what they were thinking. Any of those factors could contribute to the new route’s name, but some climbers take it more seriously than others. One area in the New, Bubba City, got its name because prolific climber Kenny Parker and friends thought some other climbers took route naming too seriously. “In climbing, as in all sports, everyone thinks their attitude is the best. We were just having fun, and we never thought what we were doing had any greater meaning,” says Parker, who has almost 30 years of New River Gorge first ascents. At that time, he says, “Staying out of the line of fire with the locals, laying low, was always a strategy.” He says back in the 80s and early 90s, much of the land, like Endless Wall, was still privately owned. If one wanted to continue to climb there, standing out or directly disrespecting the locals was nonsensical. A short profile of Parker in Williams’s New River Rock Vol. 2 guidebook, appropriately titled Kenny Never Wore Lycra, highlights his desire to blend in rather than stand out like many neon-clad climbers of that era. “Bubba” became tradition, and today it lives on in dozens of route names, from Peanut Bubba and
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Jam (a 40-feet 5.8 trad route at Bimbo Buttress) to Hubba Bubba (a 60-feet 5.9 sport route on the Head Wall). Sometimes, two threads of regional climbing history come together in one weird name. Kenny Parker relays that when he was younger, many climbers started at Seneca Rocks before the New matured into a hotspot. At Seneca, they looked up to one of the most impressive climbers of the day, the late Cal Swoager. A Vietnam War veteran, Cal partied hard and climbed harder. As one story goes, after staying up late then finally topping The Bell, establishing perhaps the first 5.12 at Seneca, he bent over and emptied his stomach off the other side of the cliff. Swoager was welcoming and encouraging to budding climbers and sent routes with Kenny at Seneca. Some time later, he became a born-again Christian and part of the development of climbing at the New. His passion for his religion fed into nearly every route he established, from the ever-popular Leave it to Jesus to Team Jesus and Never Alone (all first ascents in 1985). Later routes began to play off the legendary Swoager’s love for the cross, and routes like Bubba Meets Jesus, a 60feet 5.11a established by Dave Merritt, were born.
The Hookup Spot
Another unforgettable Kenny tale revolves around one unofficial campsite. Apparently unbeknownst to climbers, a certain bridge was a known local spot for covert coitus. Because of its proximity to a popular crag, it also became a logical spot for visiting climbers to camp. “We would drive up and sleep at pull-offs in the gorge. There had been incidents involving law enforcement,” Parker describes, “but it was sort of under the radar. We had encounters where locals thought we were there [for hookups].” He describes how one time a group of climbers were camped out at the spot, some in tents or just sleeping bags, some in trucks. One of them, let’s call him Mark, had the unfortunate habit of sleeping in the buff. Mark had gotten up in the night to use the bathroom donning only boots and birthday suit. Kenny says, “I get woken up to someone outside; I’m like, 'Mark, what the hell is going on?' He had gotten caught outside naked by these two girls,” who were supposedly there to bait guys meeting up for other reasons. Kenny, after getting dressed, exited his tent to deal with the situation. “Next thing I know, a car comes rolling up, and it’s their boyfriends. One guy gets out, but the girls talk him down, having figured out I was fine.” Parker proffers a beer as a peace offering, but the second man wants to start a fight. “I’m getting shoved while the girls try to break it up.” Eventually, things simmered down. “I think I hung out with them for awhile, and they went away. But the very next weekend, with the same group at the exact same spot, we were woken up again by the same girls,” this time asking for Parker. They hung out for awhile, locals and climbers. When asked what route name arose from all that, he says, “A number of them.” Rapids often get their names from happenstance or a comical turn of events. Lost Paddle, one of the Big Five rapids of the Upper Gauley, found its label during a 1969 trip devoted to naming the river’s rapids. In a 2017 piece for Highland Outdoors, editor and raft guide Juniper Rose relays pioneer Gauley kayaker Jim Stuart’s account of the naming trip. “Crew member Barb Brown’s paddle was launched from her grip in the class V rapid just below the confluence with the Meadow River.” Brown swam, her paddle gone. Miraculously, “years later, Brown’s paddle was found with her name engraved on it. It was returned to her, but by then, the name Lost Paddle had been imprinted in the legend of the Gauley,” Rose writes.
Trad vs. Sport
Names have long been used to either nod or jab at others. Advocates for two styles of climbing, traditional (trad) and sport, have butted heads since the latter was invented. Trad climbing requires gear like cams, nuts, and sometimes hexes, which the climber must place in natural cracks for protection as they climb upward. Sport climbing allows for bolts to be drilled into the rock every few feet so that climbers only have to bring quickdraws to clip into the bolts as they lead. The trad-or-die tribe believes that sport climbing defaces the rock and allows for the first-ascensionist to rappel down the face, drilling bolts in preparation for a groundup push. Sport climbers see their preferred process as an inevitable evolution of climbing, opening up more diverse rock that would otherwise be inaccessible. Others still, like Kenny, might have resisted it in the past but came to see the benefits of each. “Ethics wars between trad and sport were huge in the 90s; people got into fights over it,” he says. “Still, there was a lot more seriousness to APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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the famous areas [like Yosemite]. Here, some people got serious about it, but most of us had a life and jobs outside of climbing and not enough personal energy to crusade.” This story is told in part by Saved from the Blasphemers, a route which was put up on trad gear. When someone returned to bolt it as a sport route, they were stopped by local trad climbers.
A ‘Travisty’
The intentionally-misspelled Travisty is another example of trad-sport tension. This route’s origin story is told by Mike Williams in an article published on his blog “Mike’s Ironclad Beta” in 2012. When a visiting climber named Travis bolted a hard climb at Beauty Mountain, he drilled some holds in the rock to make it easier. “After his departure, the holds were filled in with epoxy and when Harrison Dekker completed the climb [in 1991] in its natural state, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to exploit the unfortunately-named equipper. Years later, an inferior, traditionally protected variation to the route was done and dubbed the Tradjedy.” Outside of the sport itself, names also point to paradigm shifts in the history of regional recreation and external tension that inevitably arises from priorities competing for the resource. A lifelong James River paddler, Charles Ware recounts the fight against hydroelectric power in the early 80s. One firm’s proposal became a serious threat to river ecology and recreation, prompting Coastal Canoeists and American Whitewater to establish
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APRIL 2019 | BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
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WE’RE BACK! 2019 ROAD TOUR They say that the third time’s a charm and we tend to agree! This year we’re back for our third season as your Live Outside and Play Road Team. We’ve decided to shake things up this season and we couldn’t be more excited to get things underway. This season we have decided to focus more on community. That means spending more time with you! We’ll be attending some of the same great festivals, adding in a few new festivals, and we’ll be hosting 20 community style meetups. We’ll be spreading love across the rolling hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains all the way to the craggy peaks of the Colorado Rockies. Each year our tour is brought to you buy some of the best brands in the outdoor industry and this year is no exception. Big Agnes, LEKI, Lowe Alpine, Mountain House, Roofnest, Sea To Summit, Stio, and the town of Franklin, Virginia will be joining along the way. We’ll release a full list of our 2019 events and meetups very soon. Make sure to like and follow along at @liveoutsideandplay, @elevationout, and @blueridgeoutdoors. See you soon!
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BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
a group to oppose the plan: the Virginia Rivers Coalition. To increase awareness of the issue and publicize local river recreation, they conceived of an urban whitewater race day and sought sponsorship. The first downriver race in 1983 was roughly eight miles long and included the infamous Hollywood rapid, with a takeout at Ancarrow’s Landing, well below the Falls of the James. It was essential that everyone run through one particular dam, in the middle of downtown Richmond, correctly, and while local participants knew the maneuver well, the Coalition thought visiting competitors should have a visual marker. Just before the race, the river was low enough to allow Ware to paddle out to the dam in a canoe and spray paint two giant Xs on the bridge pillar ruins that abutted the proper line. The paint, supplied by a utility opposed to the power proposal (imagine that!), was said to wash out in a few days. But there the Xs remained for ten years, until they were updated to skulls and crossbones. The name of the line, Xs, was given in the 1985 race and has stuck ever since. As for the electric proposal, it was foiled. The descendants of those regional pioneer paddlers, like Ware’s son John, continue to run the James’ class I-IV rapids, while other rivers around the world continue the fight against hydroelectric dams. Names or rapids and routes can be steeped in mythology. When asked what mythology in climbing means to him, Mike Williams puts it succinctly: “Mythology doesn’t have to be true. It’s an oral history, often based on a sort of campfire mythology.” Embellished details, memories fogged by both time and intoxication, different versions of the same event… Humans are adept, if not objective, storytellers; we’ve named everything since the dawn of language. The mountains and rivers couldn't care less what we call them, but no matter what’s in a name, the act of naming lets someone leave their mark on history, cement in some small, symbolic way their side of a great story.
More Weird Names Do you know the history behind any of these wacky names of outdoor destinations in the region? Or do you have any stories or experiences from these colorfully named adventure hotspots? Email us at info@blueridgeoutdoors.com. Climax Russell Fork Gorge Banana Hammock Lower Rocky Broad, Watauga River Gorge Bitch Slap on Wilson Creek Slice of Life / Sluice of Death Haw River Sex with the Lights On Haw River My Nerves are Shot and I Can’t Take Any More Upper Blackwater Colostomy Bag Bike Trail Big Ivy/Coleman Boundary Chinese Arithmetic Pigeon Dries Widow Maker, JC Pigs in Space Citico Creek Body Snatcher Doe Gorge Lost Guide Rapid Pigeon River Go Left and Die Rapid Green Narrows Bring Me My Brown Pants Fluffy Box of Kittens Gauley River Bob Ross Gorge Linville River Coming Home Sweet Jesus 9 Shades of Death Mike Tyson’s Punchout Jedi Training Cannibal 5.7 trad in Elizabeth Furnace Bologna Beach New River Chicken Coop Gap Coosawatee River Fart in Your Mouth James River Jesus' Stomach James River Dismal Trail South Carolina Bambi Meets Godzilla Johns Creek
HAGERSTOWN HAS IT!
ing t r a t s $79 at
One County, Five National Parks!
Spring Whitewater Deals Call or visit us online to get a free Visitor’s Guide!
301-791-3246 • visithagerstown.com
West Virginia’s New River Gorge
800.463.9873 | raftinginfo.com
Our Recycled Rainwear Collection
Equipping Life & Adventure Hilltop East Shopping Center, Virginia Beach GreatOutdoorProvision.com R I C H M O N D / VA B E AC H / M E T R O D C A P R I L 2 0 1 9 A P R I L 2 0 1 9 | B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M
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THE GOODS
ON THE TRAIL
7
BEST IN BACKPACKING
3 2
AN OUTDOOR INSTRUCTOR'S GO-TO GEAR B Y G R A H A M AV E R I L L
CLAUDE DIDN’T GROW UP IN THE Southern
Appalachians but he moved here as quickly as he could. “I visited Asheville when I was younger, went home and immediately started making plans to move back,” Matkin says. “I knew right away that I wanted to live in these mountains.” He’s called Western North Carolina home for the last decade and has spent most of his free time exploring the surrounding peaks and valleys on foot. If he’s not on a trail with his dog, you’ll find Matkin in a classroom, teaching courses on key outdoor skills. Matkin is an outdoor instructor at REI, with a special focus on backpacking. “I teach everything from bear safety classes to food preparation to map and compass skills,” says Matkin, who says he’s had an interest in backpacking skills since he was a Boy Scout. We asked the Eagle Scout and outdoor instructor to dish on his favorite pieces of backpacking gear. Here are his picks in his own words.
1. GREGORY PARAGON 58 When it comes to long treks I am a bit of a minimalist. I have a bad knee so a heavy pack and long miles are not the best compadres on the trail. To help reduce the load, I carry the Gregory Paragon 58-liter backpack, which is lightweight with an external frame that allows you to wear the weight, not carry it. (gregorypacks.com; $230)
2. BEARVAULT BV500 I chose the larger pack size to allow for the mandatory bear canister, which is required when you backpack in Pisgah National Forest. I also use it for a camp chair, so you no longer have to debate about whether to carry a bulky chair with you anymore. (bearvault.com; $80)
3. MSR TRAILSHOT Hydration is key when you’re hiking long miles and the MSR Trail Shot is my go to water filter. The easy-to-use hand pump allows for drinking straight from 60
4 6
1 the source, or filling water bottles for transport. Msrgear.com; $50
4. KUJU COFFEE A cup of this single-serve coffee has become my new favorite way to start on a cold morning. It has a built-in filter for pour-over coffee, which makes clean up a breeze. And it’s a quality cup of coffee, too. (kujucoffee.com; $22 for a 10 pack)
5. LEKI TREKKING POLES These are an absolute must for me. Even if I didn’t have a bad knee, I’d still use them. Do you want to climb a mountain in four-wheel drive or two-wheel drive? That’s the difference trekking poles make and they take up to 25% of the impact off your knees and ankles, so you are going to hike farther, faster, and safer. $139
6. ZPACK DUPLEX This is another reason to carry trekking poles. This super light tent uses the trekking poles for the structure, which saves a ton of weight. It’s big enough for two people and weighs just 19 ounces. $599
7. EXOFFICIO GIVE-N-GO BOXER BRIEF I can’t stress the importance of proper underwear and socks. Cotton makes everything rotten, so please make the best investment of your outdoor life and get some ExOfficio underwear. These are made from nylon and lycra and they’re built to be worn day after day. And get some good wool socks too. You won’t regret it. $26
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
MORE GEAR PRANA RECYCLED NYLON VIVIR / INNIX This reversible swimsuit features a racer-back top with a sweetheart neckline and full bust coverage, as well as a low-rise bottom with moderate seat coverage. The 100%-recycled nylon dries quickly and resists degradation from chlorinated water $115 MYCHARGE ADVENTURE H20 MAX CHARGER Complete with a carabiner clip, the myCharge Max provides 10,500 mAh of power and 2 USB ports, ideal for extending the life of your tablet, smartphone, bluetooth speaker or another USB device up to six times. $50 SALEWA ALPENVIOLET MID GTX This mid-cut hiking boot is designed specifically for female ergonomics and biomechanics, particularly in the forefoot, which offers a higher shape and wider instep. It’s built to handle the toughest terrain in Southern Appalachia and beyond. $199 CASTELLI FREE AERO 4 RACE BIB The 2019 version of this classic cycling bib is more aero than ever—vetted by wind-tunnel testing, computer modeling, and feedback from pros and amateurs across the globe. The Aero 4 is the perfect blend of comfort and performance. $140
BIOLITE HEADLAMP This adjustable lightweight, 330-lumen headlamp offers 40 hours of run time (on low / 3.5 hours on high) with a spotlight distance of 75 meters. Rechargeable lithium-ion ensures a long battery life. $50 GARMONT DRAGONTAIL HIKE II GTX This lightweight, versatile boot is built for fast-paced, technical adventures. It features a roomy toe box, Gore-Tex liner, and sticky Vibram sole. The boot’s asymmetrical lace closure, heel cuffs, and pads provide a more custom fit and allow the foot to flex naturally. $220 SILCA VIAGGIO TRAVEL BIKE PUMP The Viaggio is a compact folding floor pump featuring a Bluetooth® enabled gauge, designed specifically for cyclists who travel with their bike. Featuring folding feet, a detachable full-sized handle, SILCA’s innovative Bluetooth® gauge, and a waxed-coated canvas roll with tool storage, the Viaggio pump offers optimal portability without sacrificing any of the performance or durability benefits that you’d expect from a SILCA pump. $270 BOGS SAUVIE SLIP-ON BOOT Bogs has re-made rubber boots into stylish and versatile footwear. The 100% waterproof mid-cut boots are cushioned, slip-resistant, and durable. With stretchy sides and a heel loop, they’re also super-easy to pop on and off. $100
WEST VIRGINIA. BY RAIL.
FREE Fishing Days | June 7–9, 2019
Who’s ready for a train trip, y’all?
CALL 304.636.9477 EXT 5 • MTN-RAIL.COM
visit dgif.virginia.gov/freefishing01 for more information
TOUR DE COAL
The Tour de Coal is an annual 11-mile float trip from Tornado, WV to St. Albans, WV sponsored by the Coal River Group.
ST. ALBANS, WEST VIRGINIA
COALRIVERGROUP.COM
JUNE 15, 2019
The event is a fundraiser that helps fund the CRG’s river cleanups, restoration, and education activities.
R I C H M O N D / VA B E AC H / M E T R O D C A P R I L 2 0 1 9 A P R I L 2 0 1 9 | B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M
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TRAIL MIX
CAROLINA STRING BAND
COVER STORY CAROLINA STRING BAND CHATHAM COUNTY LINE REINVENT ROCK STAPLES BY JEDD FERRIS
CHATHAM COUNTY LINE HAS BEEN ONE OF NORTH
Carolina’s most prolific yet underrated string bands since emerging from the state’s Triangle region in the early 2000s. Though often pegged as a straight-forward bluegrass outfit, due to traditional instrumentation and the preference of playing around a single microphone, the group uses acoustic strings to incorporate a wide range of styles from folk and country to various eras of rock. Last month the quartet released its eighth studio album, Sharing the Covers, which, as the name suggests, pays tribute to the band’s broad influences with a full set of songs by other artists. Though the group has a deep cache of original music found on seven albums dating back to a 2003 self-titled debut, the band has always peppered its fleet-fingered live shows with a dynamic blend of covers. After gigs, fans have often asked where they can hear the band’s versions of Beck’s “Think I’m in Love” or John Hartford’s “Tear Down the Grand Ole Opry,” so the new record was inspired by popular demand. 62
“This is kind of a scrapbook of all the years that Chatham County Line put on wax for the fans,” said singer/ guitarist Dave Wilson, in a statement on his band’s latest album. In addition to interpreting the electro-rock sounds of Beck with front porch warmth, the group also lends its rich, Southern-accented harmonies to sturdy takes on Wilco’s “I Got You (At the End of the Century),” Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” and John Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels.” The record, though, doesn’t just reboot the work of familiar heroes. Some of the finest moments come from less recognizable gems like Leo Kottke’s peppy folk shuffle “Bumblebee” and Alton Delmore’s mournful “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar,” which features the band members resting their usual strings in favor of a minimalist piano arrangement. Chatham County Line is hitting the road behind the new effort this spring and summer, performing at the Crimson Moon in Dahlonega, Ga., on May 4 and the Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, Va., on August 3. Of note, the band is also playing select shows in the Midwest in May with comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short in the supporting role usually occupied by another North Carolina string band, the Steep Canyon Rangers.
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
5 Best Spring Fests Festival season starts early in the South. If you’re itching to get out, check out these five essential music bashes taking place around the region this month.
roster features the Avett Brothers, Brandi Carlile, Tyler Childers, and Wynonna & the Big Noise. Merlefest.org
High Water Festival
Charlotte, N.C. – April 25-28 Tuck Fest is becoming a huge party that mixes an impressive music line-up with more than 35 outdoor competitions, including options for running, kayaking, biking, climbing, stand-up paddleboarding, and adventure racing. Last year around 55,000 people came to the scenic property of the U.S. National Whitewater Center over the course of the four-day event to get dirty, check out an array of gear booths, and dance to a stout roster of bands. This year, in addition to running a night trail race, showing off your freestyle boater skills, and entering a bouldering comp, you can check out sets by Tyler Childers, Marcus King Band, Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, and J. Roddy Walston and the Business. TuckFest.usnwc.org
Charleston, S.C. – April 13-14 Hosted by Americana duo Shovels & Rope in their home city, this festival at Charleston’s Riverfront Park has quickly become a must-attend in the roots music world. In addition to sets from Leon Bridges, the Head and the Heart, Dr. Dog, and Lord Huron, the event also places focus on the coastal city’s thriving food scene, offering cuisine from the area’s award-winning chefs. HighWaterFest.com
SweetWater 420 Festival
Atlanta, Ga. – April 19-21 Named after SweetWater Brewing Company’s flagship pale ale, this festival at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park has grown into a regional mainstay. Heading towards its 15th year, the upcoming iteration is set to feature two days of home-state heroes Widespread Panic, along with the Avett Brothers, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and Rebelution. If you want to work up a sweat before the tunes and brews, sign up for the 420 Fest 5K on Saturday. SweetWater420fest.com
Merlefest
Wilkesboro, N.C. – April 25-28 Merlefest is one of the country’s preeminent Americana festivals, started by late icon Doc Watson to honor his son and fellow musician Merle, who predeceased him. An estimated 80,000 people flock to the campus of Wilkes Community College for a huge line-up of artists that blur the lines between country, blues, bluegrass, and rock. This year’s
Tuck Fest
Charm City Bluegrass
Baltimore, Md. – April 26-27 Baltimore has a rich history with bluegrass, dating back to the mid 20th century when Appalachian migrants moved to the city looking for industrial work with instruments in tow. That legacy is celebrated at the annual Charm City Bluegrass Festival, which will take place for the seventh straight year at Druid Hill Park. The festival features acts that respect tradition but also favor a progressive edge; this year it's hosting Steep Canyon Rangers, Seldom Scene, and Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen. Even more out of bounds, sets from countrypunk outfit Deer Tick and jam band the Bridge. CharmCityBluegrass.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA
Grand Tasting Event
St. Michaels Running Festival
best
wines
of the
Saturday, May 18th, 2019
flattest, fastest 13.1 in the mid-atlantic use code save for $15 off half-marathon
SOLD OUT
5k and kids 1k
enjoy beer, live music and race awards during the after party in runners village!
Monticello American Viticultural Area
Saturday, May 4
get more info or register at www.runstm.com M E T T A V O L U T I O N
T O U R
with special guests
JUNE 5
0 9.1 3.1 9 // C HAR LOTTESVI LLE, VA SP R I NT PAVI L I ON
At B l u e Moon R ising, the guid ing pr in c iple in i t s e ve r y a s pect, is to d emonstrate t h at c o m f o r t a nd be a uty need not b e (and wi ll n o t b e ) s acr i fi ce d for humans to liv e lightly o n t h is, o u r o nl y p l a n e t . I f y ou would like to v is it u s in D e e p Cr e e k La ke Mary land , please v iew o u r we b sit e for mor e details ab out our cab ins an d r e so r t !
with special guest Liz Cooper & The Stampede
Sept. 12 ON SALE NOW Tickets: SprintPavilion.com, Downtown Visitor Center, 877-CPAV-TIX KM-OWAWT_Print-091319.indd 4
R I C H M O N D / VA B E AC H / M E T R O D C A P R I L 2 0 1 9 A P R I L 2 0 1 9 | B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M
1/31/19 2:52 PM
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THE LAST WORD
LESSONS FROM MY FATHER
PARENTING IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS WHAT OUTDOOR FAMILY TIME HAS TAUGHT ME ABOUT BEING A BETTER DAD B Y R YA N L I N K
MY MOST VIVID CHILDHOOD MEMORIES ARE OF
family camping trips. These experiences shaped my love for the outdoors and gave me the confidence to take risks and overcome challenges. Over the past 15 years, my wife and I have made every effort to get our children outside as much as possible. Our family trips started small, with our daughter strapped to my back in the baby carrier for short walks on the trails of Pocahontas State Park, around Belle Isle, or other parks in the Richmond area. When our son was five, we went on our first multi-night trip, camping in Big Meadows Campground and hiking to Lewis Falls in Shenandoah National Park. Since then, we have taken many family trips to the Blue Ridge Mountains, White Mountains, Acadia National Park, and beyond. The biggest challenge, of course, is making time for the outdoors. Between school, sports, work, and social activities, it is easy to let life take over and to set aside what is really important. I know our family is not unique in this regard, and I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. However, after thinking back on 15 years of parenthood, there are some key lessons that I have learned to help make the most of the time our family does find to spend in the great outdoors. Don’t be “that Dad.” No one likes a know-it-all. I can also get a bit carried away with my passion for the environment and current events. I have come to realize that after I convey what I know regarding a particular subject to my kids – the most important thing I can do is shut up and listen. Fortunately, my children are now old enough to tell me outright when I am being annoying. They have proven time and again that they sometimes need time to process things before, more often than not, they come back with questions and thoughts of their 64
own. As parents, the best thing we can do is to foster these discussions and provide them with experiences that help them to connect the dots between themselves and the world around us. What is the worst thing that can happen? 95% of the time, the worst thing that can happen is not that bad at all. As humans, we all learn by making mistakes. It can be nerve-wracking for parents, because in the outdoors, mistakes can often result in scratches, cuts, bruises, or worse. When our children were very young, it was hard not to hover over them to shield them from any stumble. I quickly realized that approach was preventing me from getting to truly know both of my kids. This became crystal clear to me during one of the very first mountain bike rides I went on with them in Deep
BLUE RIDGE OUTDOORS | APRIL 2019
R YA N L I N K A N D H I S S O N E N J O Y A M O M E N T TOGETHER BESIDE THE OCEAN ON A RECENT F A M I L Y VA C A T I O N .
Run Park. At the time, my son was five, and my daughter was eight. From the beginning, my son wanted to be in the lead, while my daughter preferred to be in the middle of the pack. The ride was going just fine until we reached the first downhill. Before I could provide any direction, my son took off down the hill. He picked up too much speed and lost control, and his front tire ran directly into the tree. He shot almost straight up off his bike, bounced off the tree, and landed flat on his back. As I raced toward him horrified at what I might find, he jumped right up and said casually, “Next time I need to
remember to use the brakes.” It’s about the journey, not the destination. Sometimes I can get so caught up in the big attraction or final destination of a trip that I lose track of all the steps in between. One of the highlights of our first big family trip to Shenandoah National Park was a three-plus mile loop hike to Lewis Falls. Three miles isn’t a long hike, but at the time our kids had pretty short legs, which can make three plus miles of hiking pretty intimidating. Both of our kids knew it was going to be the longest walk they had ever been on. They both made it the full way with energy to spare and even logged their first steps on the A.T. during the hike back. This was the first great outdoor journey for both our kids. To this day, when they talk about that hike, it always brings a smile to their face, and I am amazed how they both can recall the details of what seems like every step they took. The splendor of Lewis Falls rarely comes up in these discussions. It was the journey itself that mattered most to them. Think and dream big. This is such an easy thing to do, yet it can be so difficult. My children, like most, have big dreams, and new ones come up each day: thru-hiking the A.T., visiting Yellowstone, seeing the northern lights. One of the things that sucks the worst about being an adult is how difficult it can be at times to think the same way. Many times, I have been too quick to focus on the challenges and obstacles to achieving a goal rather than opening my mind and dreaming along with my kids. It wasn’t until they started to point out that I was being a downer that I realized that I needed to stop thinking like a grumpy old man. John Muir once said, “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” Time spent in the outdoors provides us all with an opportunity to free our minds from the day to day, to appreciate the world around us, and to dream big dreams about what could be. We just need to be open to letting that happen. Ryan Link lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife, son (12), daughter (15) and their labradoodle, Mavis. In the periodic moments between his grownup responsibilities, Ryan documents his thoughts and narratives on growing up, fatherhood, productivity, and the outdoors.
SPRING IS HERE AND SO IS
NEW MERCH SHOP.BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM
Trying to reach active outdoor enthusiasts, adventure seekers, and gear junkies? FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PRINT OR DIGITAL ADVERTISING CONTACT: LEAH WOODY | LEAH@BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM HANNAH COOPER | HCOOPER@BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM KATIE HARTWELL | KATIE@BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM OR VISIT BLUERIDGEOUTDOORS.COM/ADVERTISE R I C H M O N D / VA B E AC H / M E T R O D C A P R I L 2 0 1 9 | B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M
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APRIL 2019
TRAVEL Destination
FIND MORE GREAT TRAVEL ITINERARIES AT
BlueRidgeOutdoors.com
Alpine Helen, North Georgia Mountains NO PASSPORT REQUIRED Travel: to a place that has Old World towers, gingerbread trim, traditional German foodstuffs, and strasses and platzes spilling over with Scandinavian goods. SEE
See: a natural beauty perched on the Chattahoochee River in the Northeast Georgia Mountains. Alpine Helen-White County is an outdoors persons dream come true.
Enjoy: mining for gemstones in three different locations. Tube, kayak, or canoe down the Chattahoochee River, ride horses and ATV’s in the mountains, zip line at three
breathtaking locations, and mini golf with your family. EXPLORE
Explore: the many waterfalls and hiking trails in the region - including Unicoi State Park’s lake trail where you can canoe, swim, geocache, and take part in daily activities. Rent or bring your own mountain bike to tackle the many adventurous trails in the area.
Tour: the Historic Hardman Farm and Smithgall Woods Conservation area, as well as several Antique shops. GO
Go: fly fishing on Smith Creek, Dukes Creek, or the
Chattahoochee River, and golfing on a Champion par 72 mountain course
Take: the Unicoi Wine trail and enjoy seven award winning White County Wineries/Tasting rooms. Photograph Indian mounds, old mills, historical buildings and nature at its best.
Taste: Helen offers over 25 restaurants, including cafés, bakeries and farm to table. Our many candy shops are open to tempt your taste buds.
Stay: downtown in one of our hotels and condominiums or in the woods at one of our cabins or campgrounds. FOR THESE AND MANY MORE OPTIONS VISIT US AT HELENGA.ORG OR CALL 1-800-858-8027
Don’t take the same old journey. Be somewhere genuine. Be somewhere amazing. Be changed.
playanydaygetawaycation
800.828.4244
visithendersonvillenc.org