Blue Ridge Outdoors May 2018 by Summit Publishing

In some sanctuaries, i t â&#x20AC;&#x2122; s p e o p l e t h at r oa m f r e e .

Wandering. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a natural instinct. That urge to set a compass bearing to nowhere in particular. From wide open spaces to meandering trails with surprising discoveries around every bend, West Virginia lets us appreciate the moments weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll preserve forever in our memories. Your family refuge is calling. Heed the call.

WVtourism.com

Monongahela National Forest

7 OCT 2018

Priority Registration

General Registration

Washington, DC, Pentagon

opens 9 May 2018

#RUN ARMY RUN STRONG

opens 23 May 2018

Share your inspirational ATM story with us at submissions@aboutsage.com Lead Sponsors

Major Sponsors

Distribution of this announcement does not constitute endorsement by the Federal Government, the DoD, or the Army. All race proceeds benefit U.S. Army Soldiers and Soldier family MWR programs.

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8 / R I C H M O N D - VA B E AC H - M E T R O D C E D I T I O N

M AY 2 0 1 8

l a v i t es 18

F GUIDE 20

For concerts, festivals or just getting together with family and friends,

R E D W I N G R O O T S F E S T I VA L / T H E C O M M O N E E R

D E PA R T M E N T S 8 EDITOR’S

NOTE

98 percent of public comments support stronger protections for Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest. 10 QUICK

HITS

Ripmaster wins 1,000-Mile Iditarod Footrace • Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s first female president • Can biohackers make you faster and stronger? • Hall of Fame hikers • Barkley puppy rescue • Remembering Maria Noakes 18 FLASHPOINT

Rockets over Cumberland: Can a private space facility close a beloved national seashore? 80 LAST

WORD

Locals and rural folks know a lot more about the outdoors than we often assume.

F E AT U R E S 23 FESTIVAL

GUIDE

Our 15th annual guide includes the region’s 100 best fests, our favorite festival gear, and side-stage upstarts from the last decade that have become headliners in 2018. 57 COMING

HOME

Not every small town in Appalachia is an adventure hub. Jess Daddio returns to her hometown of Berryville, Va., to find out what’s missing—and what’s not. 61 THE

HUNT FOR ERIC RUDOLPH

74 THE

SUMMER CAMP EFFECT

20 years ago, the biggest manhunt in history ended beside a grocery store dumpster. How did Rudolph evade the law for years? An old chapter in Appalachian history reveals new insights about culture clashes today.

Western North Carolina is the country’s summer camp capital. Not surprisingly, many of the region’s outdoor industry leaders got their start roasting s’mores in the mountains.

COVER PHOTO : JOSHUA T I MMERMA NS / NOBLEVISION S.COM G R E E N S K Y B L U E G R A S S P E R F O R M S AT T H E 2 0 1 7 L O C K N ' F E S T I VA L I N A R R I N G T O N , V I R G I N I A

800-933-PARK (7275) | www.virginiastateparks.gov M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M BRO_May_18_00881.indd 1

3/30/2018 11:06:39 AM

BACKTALK WHEELS OVER WILDERNESS?

PRESIDENT

BLAKE DEMASO

E D I TO R I N C H I E F W I L L H A R L A N will@blueridgeoutdoors.com P U B L I S H E R L E A H W O O DY leah@blueridgeoutdoors.com A R T D I R E C TO R M E G A N J O R DA N megan@blueridgeoutdoors.com E D I TO R I A L & P R O D U C T I O N S E N I O R E D I TO R J E D D F E R R I S jedd@blueridgeoutdoors.com T R AV E L E D I TO R J E S S DA D D I O jess@blueridgeoutdoors.com S E N I O R D E S I G N E R L AU R E N W O R T H lauren@blueridgeoutdoors.com C O N T R I B U TO R S L AU R A I N G L E S M A S O N A DA M S N ATA L I E S T I C K E L G R A H A M AV E R I L L E M I LY S H E A DA N I E L D E W I T T WA L LY S M I T H KIM DINAN DAV E S TA L L A R D G R E G PA R L I E R C O P Y E D I TO R S JULIA GREEN ROBERT MCGEE A DV E R T I S I N G & B U S I N E S S S E N I O R AC C O U N T E X E C U T I V E

M A R T H A E VA N S

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martha@blueridgeoutdoors.com AC C O U N T E X E C U T I V E / D I G I TA L P U B L I S H E R

DUSTY ALLISON

AC C O U N T E X E C U T I V E K AT I E H A R T W E L L katie@blueridgeoutdoors.com

B U S I N E S S M A N AG E R M E L I S S A G E S S L E R melissa@blueridgeoutdoors.com C I R C U L AT I O N M A N AG E R K A I T Y VA N C E kvance@blueridgeoutdoors.com D I G I TA L M E D I A O N L I N E D I R E C TO R C R A I G S N O D G R A S S webdir@blueridgeoutdoors.com D I G I TA L M E D I A S P E C I A L I S T

JUSTIN FORREST

justin@blueridgeoutdoors.com

SUMMIT

PUBLISHING

116 WEST JEFFERSON STREET C H A R LOT T E S V I L L E , V I R G I N I A 2 2 9 0 2 5 6 C O L L E G E S T R E E T, S U I T E 3 0 3 ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA 28801

License Plate Application The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) now has a specialty license tag in the state of North Carolina. By getting your tag today, you’ll help the ATC protect and maintain America’s Facts Favorite Long Distance Trail!

Name (as shown on certificate of title): FIRST

MIDDLE

LAST

ADDRESS CITY

STATE

ZIP CODE

HOME PHONE

OFFICE PHONE

Current North Carolina Vehicle _______________________ ____________________________________ PLATE NUMBER

VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER

______________________ ____________________________________ DRIVER’S LICENSE #

YEAR

MODEL

MAKE

 You must already have the vehicle registered in North Carolina.  You receive a FREE ATC Membership with the purchase of your NC AT Tag.  *The $30 or $60 annual fee is in addition to regular annual license fees you have already paid.  Personalized tags may be relinquished to someone else, but once a numerical tag expires without renewal, that number can never again be reissued.  If you change your mind, you can go back to a regular license plate at any time. There will not be a refund of unused portion of special fees.  Additional applications can be found online at

BODY STYLE

FULL NAME OF INSURANCE COMPANY AUTHORIZED IN NC – NOT AGENCY OR GROUP

6 B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

POLICY NUMBER – IF POLICY NOT ISSUED, NAME OF AGENCY BINDING COVERAGE

______________________________________ _________________________________________ SIGNATURE OF OWNER

DATE OF CERTIFICATION

WILDERNESS UNDER ASSAULT

If the Sustainable Trails Coalition bill passed, it wouldn’t mean suddenly every single trail would be open to bikes, it would mean that the Forest Service can make decisions about if bikes are allowed on certain trails within a wilderness, as they do currently for trails outside wilderness areas. —@slounsberry Wilderness should allow for solitude. Quietness. Natural sounds and sites. Not gears, brakes, rattling wheels and people speeding past one another. —@smileyadl2000

Ban damned horses from trails. Horses destroy trails and natural areas far more than mountain bikes do. And mountain bikers aren't pooping all over trail. —Mark Anderson Everybody needs to quit crying about horses. There are ten times more mountain bikers than horseback riders. Horseback riders are the real user group that has been losing trail access, while the number of mountain biking trails has exploded. —Todd McMahon

AGAINST TROPHIES

H AV E S O M E T H I N G TO S AY ? F I N D U S H E R E O R AT B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

www.appalachiantrail.org

Owner’s Certification of Liability Insurance I certify for the motor vehicle described above that I have financial responsibility as required by law.

It’s not about recreation, or impact. It’s about preserving a place where the works of mankind are subservient to those of nature. —@reedinthewind

Nobody should go crowing around the water cooler at work after getting a participation medal. To lump finishers’ medals with trophies given out to peewee soccer teams is comparing apples to oranges. Are you unhappy that the last-place guy gets the same thing as 4th place? Get over it. —Jeff Joseph

North Carolina Appalachian Trail

How Much Does It Cost?  $30 Regular Appalachian Trail plate*  $60 Personalized Appalachian Trail plate* You are allowed four (4) spaces for a personalized message. __ __ __ __ 2nd Choice __ __ __ __ 3rd Choice __ __ __ __ 1st Choice

Anyone who has worked on a trail crew will tell you that in wilderness areas, what passes for trails would be no match for bike tires. —@ranjones30

dusty@blueridgeoutdoors.com

AC C O U N T E X E C U T I V E H A N N A H C O O P E R hcooper@blueridgeoutdoors.com

The ATC will receive $20 annually for each AT plate purchased or renewed.

The bicyclist travels farther per day, uses fewer campsites, stays on trail— and is therefore the very definition of the Wilderness Act's proclamation that humans ought to be "visitors who do not remain." —Arn Peryason

APRIL 2018

It’s time for your next great escape.

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WV PRESENTED BY

JULY 13-15, 2018

Join us for West Virginia's newest mountain bike festival! • Locally sourced Live Music • • Mountain Bike Skill Clinics and Rides • • Huge expo area with bike and gear demos • • Weekend Long Camping • • Register by May 1 and get entered to win sweet prizes • Big Bear Lake Camplands and Trail Center Bruceton Mills, WV For more information check out www.dirtragdirtfest.com R I C H M O N D - VA B E AC H - M E T R O D C E D I T I O N / M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

EDITOR'S NOTE

98 PERCENT THE PUBLIC OVERWHELMINGLY WANTS MORE PROTECTIONS FOR PISGAH

Preferred Seating

True North Treks

CrazyCreek.com 8

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

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THE RESULTS ARE IN. NEARLY 15,000 COMMENTS have flooded the Forest Service as it prepares to release a 20-year management plan for the PisgahNantahala National Forest. This plan will decide how much forest will be cut and how much will be protected. 98 percent of the comments support stronger protections for the forest. The University of North Carolina at Asheville and Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine read and analyzed all 14,577 comments submitted to the Forest Service as of April 2, and 14,278 favored more protection for Pisgah. 261 comments, or 1.8%, advocated for more logging and fewer protections. (38 comments, or 0.2% were miscellaneous comments unrelated to the forest plan.) The results are not entirely surprising. Overwhelmingly, most users of the Pisgah-National Forest are outdoor enthusiasts who want to protect the places where they play. According to the Forest Service’s 2014 Forest Assessment, the vast majority of visitors to Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest are hikers, bikers, runners, paddlers, climbers, anglers, naturalists, photographers, and nature-seeking outdoor enthusiasts. And their numbers are increasing. The Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest is the second most-visited national forest in the country. Seven million people visited the Pisgah-Nantahala last year, and most of them came to hike, camp, and enjoy its scenic wonders. Increasingly, visitors are coming from Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Knoxville—and beyond. They are bringing tourism dollars and helping to revitalize many areas of Western North Carolina. Today, the forests’ scenery and recreational opportunities are worth more than the short-term profits from board feet of timber. Logging has played an important role in Western North Carolina’s history, and some timber harvests can certainly continue in the 1.1-million acre forest. But in the 21st century, recreation and tourism are the economic engines of the mountains. Pisgah-Nantahala’s forests

P L AC E S N E E D I N G P R OT E C T I O N

Public comments focused on safeguarding these 20 areas of pisgah national forest most often

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1 0. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 1 7. 18. 1 9. 2 0.

B I G I V Y / C R AG G Y 3,183 —22% of all comments S N OW B I R D W S A OV E R F LOW W S A H A R P E R S C R E E K / LO S T C O V E B L AC K M O U N TA I N S LINVILLE GORGE DA N I E L R I D G E / FA R LOW G A P C E DA R R O C K B A L D M O U N TA I N S TUSQUITEE BALD A R T LO E B T R A I L A P PA L AC H I A N T R A I L M O U N TA I N TO S E A T R A I L NORTH MILLS RIVER SHINING ROCK/MIDDLE PRONG UPPER SANTEETLAH J OYC E K I L M E R E X T E N S I O N PA N T H E R TOW N VA L L E Y TELLICO C H E OA H B A L D

— 2018 Pisgah-Nantahala Forest Plan Public Comments analysis

are now far more valuable standing than cut down. Despite the clear economic benefits and widespread public support for more protections, so far the Forest Service has not responded with any new permanent protections. Instead, their preliminary draft plan released last year calls for substantial increases in logging throughout the Pisgah-Nantahala. Iconic footpaths like the A.T., Mountains to Sea Trail, Benton Mackaye Trail, Bartram Trail, and Art Loeb Trail are largely unprotected from logging. Most of Pisgah’s world-class singletrack would be open to timber harvests, too. Over 25,000 acres of old-growth forests are unprotected. And over 155,000 acres of special recreational and biological areas—including many trout streams, whitewater creeks, and drinking water sources—are also vulnerable. The people have spoken. 98 percent want these public lands protected and unspoiled for their kids and grandkids to enjoy. They want the Forest Service to invest in the future. They want the forest plan—scheduled to be released this summer—to reflect 21st century priorities. They want the Forest Service to fulfill its mission of providing the greatest good for the greatest number in the long run. We are hopeful that the Forest Service will draft a forest plan that recognizes the overwhelming public support for stronger protections in the Pisgah-Nantahala. This national forest belongs to all of us.

—Will Harlan, Editor-in-Chief

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Filibuster ‘Dual cask’ Bourbon

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MAY 15

Two Full Sets June 16

ALISON KRAUSS JUNE 21

Indigo Girls with The War and Treaty

JULY 11

ON SALE NOW Tickets: SprintPavilion.com, Downtown Visitor Center, 877-CPAV-TIX

R I C H M O N D - VA B E AC H - M E T R O D C E D I T I O N / M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

QUICK HITS BY JEDD FERRIS AND EMILY SHEA

MUST READ

North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail BY S C OT T J U R E K

Scott Jurek is one of the world’s most accomplished ultrarunners (fueled entirely by a vegan diet), and in 2015, he attempted to set the speed record for the Appalachian Trail. Just a week into his run, he sustained a quadriceps muscle tear that nearly shattered his recordsetting dreams. But never bet against the champ. Jurek finds a way to push through injury in one of the most demanding and transcendent efforts of his life.

NAME THAT SUMMIT This mountain—named for the farmer who cleared its summit for cattle grazing in the 1800s—is one of the most popular spots along the Appalachian Trail.

NOOGA’S 11-YEAR-OLD CLIMBING CHAMP

Pipeline tree-felling begins in Nelson County

Atlantic Coast Pipeline construction began in Nelson County last month near Wintergreen Resort, where crews began clearcutting along the 600-mile route. The pipeline also received permission to begin cutting trees along the pipeline route through national forest lands in West Virginia and Virginia. MOONLIGHT MADNESS Don’t feel like waking up for another early-morning road race? Toe the starting line of the Moonlight Madness 10K and run trails by the light of the moon. Race begins at 9 p.m. on May 26 at Camp Arrowhead in Ona, W.Va. 10

E M A I L YO U R R E S P O N S E TO F O R A C H A N C E TO

A Chattanoogan cemented his claim as one of the nation’s best young climbers in February by winning his class in USA Climbing’s 2018 Bouldering Youth National Championship. Hugo Hoyer, then 10, was one of six members of the High Point Chattanooga team to qualify for the national tournament. He’d finished third in the same competition in 2017 and third at USA Climbing’s Sport & Speed Youth National Championships in 2016 in Kennesaw, Georgia. Hoyer’s parents, both climbers, have encouraged him to climb since his playground days. A couple of years ago, they scouted climbing cities around the country before eventually relocating from Hoyer’s childhood home in Queens, New York, to Chattanooga. NEW A.T. HALL OF FAME A new class of Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame inductees will be honored this month at a ceremony in Pennsylvania. The eighth class of A.T. hall of famers includes the late photographer George Masa, a Japanese immigrant who lived in Asheville, N.C., in the early twentieth century. Masa’s influential images of the mountains and ardent conservation efforts are credited with helping with the foundation of Great Smoky

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

Mountains National Park. W I N F R E E B R O S WAG ! Another regional inductee—Bob Peoples—is the owner of the Kincora Hostel, just off the trail in Hampton, Tenn. In addition to his hiker hospitality, Peoples is also known for his tireless trail maintenance efforts. Along with Masa and Peoples, two more inductees, William Kemsley and Liz Levers will be inducted during the annual Appalachian Trail Hall of Fame Banquet at the Allenberry Resort in Boiling Springs on May 4.

submit@blueridgeoutdoors.com

RUNNERS FIND PUPPIES ON BARKLEY MARATHONS COURSE Back in March, two runners training on the course of the infamous Barkley Marathons, a grueling 100-mile slog in the backcountry of Tennessee’s remote Frozen Head State Park, found an abandoned litter of black lab puppies. According to Runner’s World, Ashley Blake and Joshua Scott were running on a trail when they heard noise in the nearby woods and surprisingly discovered five puppies huddled together trying to stay warm in nearfreezing temperatures. After contacting a ranger station, the runners carried the puppies to safety, and the litter was eventually brought to Oak Ridge Animal Shelter. With the pups on his mind, Scott went to the shelter soon after the rescue and decided to adopt one of them. He named him Barkley. B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

Fastest Race in Asheville

For the past decade, some of the best runners in Asheville have gathered each week for a fast, flat training run along the French Broad River that finishes at the Wedge, an iconic brewery in the River Arts District. This legendary training run has grown into a 10K race on May 5—and it’s not just for fast folks. It’s a kid- and familyfriendly event, and all youth runners under 17 get a 40% discount. The race benefits Girls on the Run WNC. Learn more at: ASHEVILLERUNNINGCOLLECTIVE.COM

ROCK STARS IN VIRGINIA The first-ever RockStar VA challenged mountain bikers to tackle 270 miles of dirt or gravel from Harrisonburg (ROCKtown) to Roanoke (STAR City). The multi-day bikepacking event began April 7 and included snow, rain, and sub-freezing temperatures on the first day. Of the 35 registered riders, only 9 finished (one rider was still on the course as of press date). Barry Croker won the trail route in 3 days, 19 hours, and 27 minutes. Croker has been racing mountain bikes since the early 90s and was the first to ride the Massunutten Ring solo. The 40-yearold rider is an active duty Air Force engineer with six children. David Landis took the gravel title in 1 day, 17 hours, and 45 minutes, and Jonathan Hicks and Dustin Welch completed the gravel ride on singlespeeds. G O O U TA N D P L AY

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

BACKCOUNTRY REMEDIES Backpacking season has finally arrived! We have already lived a month of #vanlife in 2018, and we’re remembering everything we love (and love to hate) about it all—like putting up mosquito nets every time we stop, falling asleep to crickets, showering irregularly and brushing our teeth to sunrises. Now, it’s time to get out from our mobile metal walls and sleep in the backcountry. So check out the best gear the Live Outside and Play road team takes out into the wild.

MAY 2018

REMEMBERING MY MOM

MARIA NOAKES BY DOMINIQUE WILLIAMS

2018 ROAD TOUR

Editor’s Note: Dominique Williams is Maria Noakes 14-year-old son.

Maria changed and touched the lives of so many people, which was apparent from the 700 people who showed up at her memorial service, as well as the huge community of people worldwide that watched online or posted on her Facebook page. Some may see her death as she died too soon, but I look at it as her living every moment to the fullest. Risk is very complicated, but I define it as doing something with the chance of it going wrong. My mom loved taking risks, whether it was marrying an American or working in London, but she always did so in a calculated way. Taking risks allowed her to build a life of adventure, one which she shared with me and hundreds of others. Risk shaped her and allowed her to touch the lives of so many. What if she hadn’t learned to kayak? Or traveled to Nepal? Or had kids? Who would she be, and who would I be, if she had not taken on these challenges? She taught me to take risks, live life to the fullest, and to reach for my best. These lessons I will carry with me forever. I challenge you to live life to the fullest, take risks, and live like my mom. I remember the good moments in her life, and am grateful that I was fortunate enough to be a part of it. TO H O N O R H E R L E G ACY, D O M I N I Q U E A N D H I S FA M I LY H AV E E S TA B L I S H E D T H E L I V E L I K E M A R I A M E M O R I A L F U N D AT

M AY 2 0 1 8 E V E N T S

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M AY 4 - 5

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G E A R W E ’ R E LO V I N G

MOUNTAIN HOUSE TURKEY DINNER CASSEROLE Want to make the backcountry feel like a holiday? Mountain House lends a hand with lightweight, comfort foods ready in just a few minutes. This turkey dinner casserole has all the essentials, but none of the fussy relatives. $11 CRAZY CREEK HEX 2.0 You may think to yourself, why did I strap this foldable, lightweight chair to my backpack for a 10-mile hike in? Easy comfort, that’s why. You’ll thank yourself ten times over when you arrive at camp and have a solid seat to cook from, relax on and brag about. $54

LEKI MICRO CARBON VARIO LADY Built specifically with a lady’s build in mind, these sturdy poles prove essential in the backcountry. Lightweight, foldable and featuring speed lock technology, they impart extra confidence when you’re hauling a heavy load. $200 LOWE ALPINE AEON 35 With new technology and a smart cinch system, this 35-liter pack transforms to fit your needs. It works perfectly as a day bag for your 9-5, a technical pack for that summit push, or a minimalist hauler for a two-day overnight. $130

EST. 71

MARIA WAS A MOTHER, A FRIEND, A WIFE, and an all-around amazing person. She was born on to dairy farmers in small town in New Zealand and lived on the farm until age 13 when she attended boarding school. Choosing to go to boarding school was one of several pivotal decisions in Maria’s life. Leaving home, making many lifelong friends, and gaining the knowledge to eventually get a degree in occupational therapy all set her on a path toward travel and adventure. While on vacation travelling the world, my mom found the gift of whitewater on a multi-day raft trip on the Sun Kosi River in Nepal. Her journal from those weeks has enthusiastic descriptions of river life. Athe top of one of the pages, she wrote, “WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A KAYAKER.” She loved the river so much that she eventually got a job raft guiding in Nepal. This is where she met my dad, Nick Williams. From here, my mom’s life would never be the same. She learned how to kayak, and she followed my dad to Bryson City, N.C. where they built their dream house and showed me and my brother Matteo how to love the outdoors, especially the river. On March 3, 2018, Maria died tragically while whitewater kayaking on the Cheoah River. The Cheoah was one her favorite rivers and one that she had paddled over 100 times. We will never know exactly what happened that day, but we know that she would have wanted us to continue to love the river in her memory.

CFWNC.ORG M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

QUICK HITS PETER RIPMASTER NEARLY DIED ATTEMPTING THE

Iditarod Footrace two years ago. He fell through ice, yet somehow climbed out and ran four miles, hypothermic and frozen, to rescue himself. He had every excuse never to return to Alaska. But in 2018, Ripmaster ran the Iditarod again—and won it. We talked with the Asheville runner a week after his epic comeback. W H AT W E R E T H E M O S T D I F F I C U LT M O M E N T S O F T H E R AC E ?

Waking up after sleeping in the cold. I’m 41, and getting all systems go when it is -20 can be tough. It was also tough early on when I made big pushes but still felt the enormity of what was in front of me. H OW D I D YO U T R A I N ?

THE COMEBACK RIPMASTER WINS IDITAROD FOOTRACE

BY EMILY SHEA

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

Ran trails. I was in good ultrarunning shape and I was hiking plenty of vertical too. I also regularly go to a psychologist to train my mind too. Physical will go to shit in our race, but mental will get you to the finish line. D E S C R I B E AG A I N F O R U S W H AT H A P P E N E D W H E N YO U F E L L T H R O U G H T H E I C E A F E W Y E A R S AG O A N D H OW YO U S U R V I V E D I T.

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

In 2016, I was alone going over the most dangerous spot on the whole route. I was looking for a different route over an ice bridge when the bridge failed and I was dumped into fast moving water over my head. After crawling out, finally, I had to run 4 miles to the checkpoint completely covered in ice. I found a way to go 300 miles after that close call but couldn’t finish the job. I had to trust the process too. D I D YO U E V E R C O N S I D E R Q U I T T I N G ?

Many times. Ultimately, the further I got the harder it made it to stop. Honestly, the point I wanted to stop the most was over 800 miles into the route. I had to dig deeper than ever. W H AT D I D YO U T H I N K A B O U T M O S T O F T E N O N T H O S E LO N G C O L D M I L E S A LO N E ?

Usually nothing. I tried to be in the moment. If I thought of anything other than the terrain in front of me, my mind would reject it. It was quite beautiful really. D I D YO U E V E R T H I N K A B O U T YO U R FA M I LY ?

For sure. I once told a native villager that

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I was really missing my family, and he told me to talk to the ravens. I did and laughed at myself every single time. It helped, though. It gets lonely out there, but thoughts of family or parents would usually not be productive to me. I only talked to them on the satellite phone once a week. W H AT W E R E YO U R G O -TO F O O D S ?

I ate the same shit ultra runners eat: crap. My favorite meal was when a local invited me into his house and fed me caribou and rice. It was amazing and fueled me up for a big scary push. H OW D I D YO U S TAY WA R M ?

I moved. The only time I stopped was when I had to go to the bathroom or make some food. It’s when you stop that you realize how damn cold it is. I had the best gear in the world that has been hand-picked over the years, including a -40F sleeping bag, which always helps, if it’s not wet. W H AT W E R E T H E W E AT H E R CONDITIONS LIKE THIS YEAR?

Mild. I think the coldest I slept out was -25F. Of course, last year we saw -60F on the trail. With all the snow we had, if it was also brutally cold, it might have made it too difficult to complete. B E S T P I E C E O F A D V I C E YO U H AV E F O R F U T U R E I D I TA R O D R U N N E R S ?

Find your own path. Don’t mimic what worked for somebody else because you might not be as comfortable with a few pieces of gear. That can come back and make big problems for you in the field. Lastly, start small, and build up to burly, winter adventures. A N Y T H I N G YO U L E A R N E D A B O U T YO U R S E L F O R L I F E F R O M T H I S EXPERIENCE?

I like things simple. I got back to basics out there and after a while, I only cared about food, water and shelter. Anything with a cord attached usually just ended up pissing me off. I would’ve like to have gone even lighter which would’ve afforded me the opportunity to move more efficiently. W H AT I S L I F E L I K E N O W A F T E R T H E R AC E ?

It’s been a difficult re-entry. There is a sense of pride for finishing a goal I’ve been working on my whole life. This was my #1 goal in my athletic life. I’m honored and humbled to slay the dragon. L E A R N M O R E AT

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FEMALE PRESIDENT SUZANNE DIXON IS ALREADY ASKING TOUGH QUESTIONS AND TAKING THE APPALCHIAN TRAIL CONSERVANCY IN NEW DIRECTIONS. B Y N AT A L I E S T I C K E L

THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL CONSERVANCY (ATC)’S new first female president and CEO, Suzanne Dixon, is intimately familiar with advocating for open spaces. Growing up in Ireland, she spent time as a youngster in its national parks. After moving to the U.S., the first park she visited was Shenandoah. “Protecting this open landscape excited me the most,” she says At her previous position at the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), she was instrumental in securing the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park as a World Heritage Site (WHS) and in designating other sites and monuments. Afterward, while conversing with a San Antonio taxi driver about local relevance of the designation, he asked, “What does it mean for me?” That’s the question she continually tries to answer with her conservation work—especially now with the ATC. The 2,190-mile A.T. sees over 3 million visitors annually. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s founders in 1925 would be astonished at today’s 42,000 members and 6,500 volunteers. To continue this legacy, Dixon hopes to further connect the trail to communities and nearby towns so they can best leverage what’s right in their backyards. Last month, Dixon and the ATC launched its first official economic study of Appalachian Trail communities to look more deeply at the tourism benefits of the A.T. “We have to look beyond the footpath,” says Dixon. A.T hikers traveling to Damascus, for example, could also take advantage of the Virginia Creeper Trail. “These places have a shared identification, because the trail is contiguous,” Dixon says. Another question that Dixon often asks is: “Who’s not at the table?” Dixon suggests that we can learn what’s important to others and expand the tent of people caring about

the A.T. Since voices of people of color are often underrepresented in conversations about parks and trails, Dixon says that one solution could be to look to the NPCA’s Next Generation Advisory Council, which brings together a group of 18- to 34-yearolds to consult with Congressional leaders about conservation issues and barriers to outdoor recreation and employment. “Congress loves to see their excitement and hear from them,” says Dixon. “The ATC could definitely build on this.” The A.T. is not only about people. With a footprint of 260,000 acres, the A.T. protects one of the largest corridors of green space in the country. Preserving the trail preserves key habitat for species threatened by development and climate change. “The A.T. is ground zero for wildlife corridors,” says Dixon. The ATC also has been publicly opposed to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will burrow under the A.T. and run parallel to it for over 90 miles. The ATC will continue to refine its strategies for this and similar issues, since, as Dixon predicts, “The Mountain Valley Pipeline will not be the last pipeline proposed.” This year, the National Trails System Act celebrates its 50th anniversary. Dixon is keenly aware of the challenges presented by today’s divisive political climate, but she remains hopeful. “Public lands are nonpartisan,” she says. “How do we protect and preserve these places together?” SUZANNE’S SECRET PASSION FOR THE PITCH

“I don't have many days off lately, but I love to hike, bike, and spend time with my husband and dog. Soccer also has long been a big outlet for me, and I miss it. When I commit to something, I'm all in, so when I don't have time to train, I won't show up only to play.

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ARTIFICIAL ATHLETES CAN BIONIC LIMBS AND IMPLANTED TECHNOLOGY MAKE YOU FASTER AND STRONGER? MEET BIOHACKERS WORKING ON THE FRONTIER. BY LAURA INGLES

oltan Istvan has achieved every runner’s fantasy: the ability to run without the hassle of carrying his keys. Thanks to a tiny chip implanted in his hand, Istvan doesn’t have to tie a key onto his laces, tuck it under a rock in the front yard, or find shorts with little zipper pockets built in. Just a wave of the microchip implanted in his hand will unlock the door of his home. The chip doesn’t yet negate the need for a Fitbit, a phone, or a pair of earbuds on long runs, but Istvan says it’s only a matter of time. A long-time athlete and technology geek, Istvan identifies as a transhumanist: he believes that the transformation of the human body through ever-developing and evolving technologies will improve human life and ultimately lead to immortality. “We have these technologies that literally could change the face of humanity here very soon,” Istvan says. “In a decade’s time, we’ll have intelligence at least as smart as humans, probably smarter.” For now, Istvan’s implant doesn’t do much for him as an athlete, aside from eliminating the need to carry a jangling set of keys when he’s running or surfing. But as the implant industry continues to develop, Istvan says it’s only a matter of time before people— especially athletes—are voluntarily replacing entire arms and legs with bionic limbs. “In seven to 10 years bionic arms will simply be better than human arms,” Istvan says, predicting that football players, for example, may find themselves willing to sacrifice a biological arm in favor of a robotic alternative that can repeatedly throw a flawless 100-yard pass. “I think athletes should be able to use drugs and technologies to enable them to be more competitive,” he says. “I know there are Olympic athletes who would do bad things to their bodies in order to achieve five minutes of fame, and sure there’s an ethical question, but to restrict that is to go against the very best of what we can become. If somebody wants to take these risks, they should have the rights to do so in full.”

Would it be fair for athletes with biomedical enhancements (like swimmers with webbed feet, or marathon runners with bionic legs) to go up against competitors who haven’t altered their bodies? Absolutely not, Istvan says. “That’s why I think an entire new sporting environment should be created to harness those ambitions,” he says, touting a concept from his political platform: the Transhumanist Olympics. “It would be really interesting to have people wear an Ironman suit and box it out. Who wouldn’t want to watch that? I think people would say wow, this is the next level of human evolution.”

Pandora’s box of prosthetics Gary Hearn, a long-time ultrarunner who lives in Farmville, Virginia, has what may be the original performance enhancement implant: a pacemaker. And that’s about as far as he’s willing to go on that front. But having competed in upwards of 40 races per year during his peak running years, he says there will always be athletes who want to push the envelope. “I think it’ll be a Pandora’s box once you open it up, where anything goes,” he says. “I could see more along the lines of genetic engineering, trying to create superior individuals using selective breeding.” Or perhaps using injectable material to grow additional tissue, he suggests. At this point, very little seems entirely out of the realm of possibility. “This is where medical science has brought us to today, implanting things into ourselves,” he says. “How far do you go before enough is enough?” Justin Worst, COO and CFO at Grindhouse Wetware in Pittsburgh, is pushing that boundary. His company is rolling out implants that may be of particular interest to athletes. As seen on an episode of MTV's True Life in 2015, Worst has a device roughly the size of four stacked quarters inside the back of his left hand. The medical-grade silicon-coated device is a precursor for the more advanced product they plan to roll out over the next several years called Circadia. Circadia monitors and records

Athletes should be able to use drugs and technologies to enable them to be more competitive. To restrict that is to go against the very best of what we can become. If somebody wants to take these risks, they should have the rights to do so in full. —Zoltan Istvan

vital signs like blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and blood sugar. Its capabilities will also include linking via Bluetooth to a smartphone, much like health and fitness apps. “We want Circadia to be able to look at people’s biometric stats,” says Worst. “People will be able to sync it, pull up the app, and look at all those health metrics whenever they want.” The goal, Worst says, is to make health tracking easier for everybody, not just athletes, and to normalize implant devices. “If it’s physically inside, versus a Fitbit that’s touching the outside of the skin and can be taken off, you’ll be able to get a lot more accurate readings,” Worst says. “A lot of the guys that do the Tour de France, for example, they’re constantly checking their vitals during pit stops. It’ll be a lot easier for them if they already have the device in them.”

Athlete Implants Once a consumer buys a device from a biotech company like Grindhouse, the next step is finding someone who can perform the insertion. As someone who’s already well-versed in the world of tattoos and other body modifications, Worst says it didn’t hurt quite as badly as he had anticipated. Unlike with a tattoo or piercing, the procedure involved a scalpel and what he describes as a “small metal spatula” to make a pocket for the device to fit into. “The process was fairly quick, probably 10 to 15 minutes, and the stitches were the worst part,” Worst says. Despite the use of scalpels and stitches, you’d be hard-pressed to find an American medical doctor to perform the procedure. Someone’s got to do it safely and prevent well-meaning aspiring cyborgs from slicing into themselves with medical instruments, which is where people like Zack Watson come in. Quick to point out that he is not a doctor and does not perform surgeries, Watson is a Pittsburgh-based body modification artist. For years, his focus was primarily piercings, and as a self-described “techy nerd,” he was intrigued when the team at Grindhouse M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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asked if he had any interest in doing tech implants. The industry doesn’t currently require (or even offer) formal certifications to qualify a body modifier to perform implant procedures, but Watson shadowed and trained extensively under experienced mod artists before offering the service himself. “My goal is to help people be happy with their body,” Watson says. The proud host of an in-hand microchip himself, Watson is excited to see what the future of biotech implants holds. “For athletes, these devices can monitor while under the strain of doing whatever activity you’re doing, fine-tuning your body to a much more accurate level.” He doesn’t anticipate a simple or smooth road in getting there, though. As a body piercer, Watson encounters his share of judgment and discrimination based on both his appearance and his career choice. He’s been accused of “doing the devil’s work” and “destroying God’s image” on more than one occasion, and he expects it may be a while before the general public is on board with implants.

“It’s a constant battle of legislative fear and worry for public safety versus trying to pioneer a new field.” As for pushback against the products themselves, Worst says it’s a mixed bag. “It could easily be misinterpreted if you’re only hearing sound bites. Mostly I think the impressions people get are us being able to develop chips for the government and things along those lines, which, Worst says, the team at Grindhouse will never do. The biohacking movement is generating interest and support among East and West Coast millennials, Istvan says, but as Zoltan experienced firsthand during his 2015 cross-country trip in a coffin-shaped bus that he affectionately called the Immortality Bus, not everybody is on board. “The reaction really changes based on demographics. If it’s an older, Christian person, they’re not going to like what I have to say,” he says, adding that folks in the flyover states also tend to be skeptical. “But the reality is we have more opportunity than ever before, and it’s entirely based on science and technology.”

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FLASHPOINT

ROCKETS OVER CUMBERLAND

CAN PRIVATE SPACE COMPANIES CLOSE NATIONAL SEASHORES—AND ENDANGER HIKERS AND CAMPERS? B Y G R E G PA R L I E R REBECCA LANG

CUMBERLAND ISLAND IS A BELOVED NATIONAL seashore and a global biosphere reserve along the coast of Georgia. Over 60,000 hikers and campers visit the island each year. But if a proposed spaceport is built directly across from the island, the national seashore could be closed to visitors for weeks at a time, several times a year. Camden County, Georgia, home of Cumberland Island National Seashore, has spent millions in planning and promoting the proposed spaceport, with the goal of luring private spaceflight companies to the area. Conservation organizations and property owners in the area have been adamantly opposed to the project for years. The launch site is located dangerously close to Cumberland Island and hundreds of private landowners, but Camden County continues to pour money and resources into it, hiring a public relations firm and promising jobs and an economic boon for the area. “Georgia has now officially entered into an elite group of space states,” said Georgia Representative Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine) in a written statement. “Commercial space companies will see this as a major development and will start heavily considering Georgia’s aerospace assets and create high paying jobs for our citizens.”

A recently released Draft The Draft Environmental Impact Statement, paid for by Camden County and written by private firm Leidos, proposes that the county 18

move forward with the project. The document suggests any adverse impacts are “short term and temporary” and therefore not “significant” enough to derail the project. However, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement does not address potential impacts in the case of an explosion, or launch failure, among other apparent missteps, leading many environmentalists and concerned citizens to question the validity of not only the environmental review, but the entire project. “The Environmental Impact Statement is an incomplete document,” said Megan Desrosiers, Director of Brunswick-based environmental group One Hundred Miles. “You cannot assess the costs and the benefits of this project without truly understanding the risks associated with that type of land use in that location.”

‘THE WORST POSSIBLE SITE’ Every other spaceport in the United States launches directly over the ocean. But the proposed Spaceport Camden site would launch over dozens of private residences and a national park that hosts tens of thousands of visitors each year. It’s also located on a toxic site that has already experienced deadly explosions. Morton Thiokol, Inc. manufactured booster rockets on the site for NASA, including the space shuttle Challenger in the 1980s. Those Thiokol-built rockets failed, and caused the infamous shuttle to

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

explode just 73 seconds into flight in 1986. Fifteen years earlier, Thiokol was involved in another tragedy in Camden County on the banks of Todd Creek. Also on the chosen Spaceport Camden site, a fire started where 60 people were assembling magnesium flares. The fire reached a storeroom where four tons of magnesium and sodium nitrate were kept. The resulting explosion killed 29 and injured 50, with shock waves shattering windows up to 11 miles away. The explosion was heard as far away as Jacksonville, Fla., according to a 1986 New York Times article comparing the two Thiokol-related disasters. Years later, Union Carbide produced highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas on the site. The gas is famous for a 1984 tragedy in Bhopal, India, where it spilled at the city’s Union Carbide plant and was eventually held responsible for more than 3,500 deaths. Camden County spent $960,000 for a two-year option to purchase the site, allowing the environmental review process to take place. If Spaceport Camden gets licensed for spaceport activities, the county will pay a total of $4.8 million for the property. “It’s the worst possible site for a commercial spaceport,” said Kevin Lang, whose family owns property on Little Cumberland Island. “It endangers people, wildlife, property, and public lands.” The site is bordered by Todd B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

Creek to the north, a tributary of the nearby Satilla River, and intracoastal marshland to the east. One slice of property not included in the potential sale is a 56-acre Superfund hazardous industrial waste landfill on the border of Todd Creek. Union Carbide is required to clean up that tract before it can sell it. Cleanup is estimated to cost $500 million, so it is not included in this sale. With all of this contamination on a site surrounded by water, environmentalists worry the construction and rocket launches will cause severe water contamination. “We have no idea,” Desrosiers said about the impact the site’s contamination could have on nearby waterways. “There have been no studies on vibrations, extreme heat, fuel spills, and other potential impacts that happen regularly at rocket launch facilities. How will construction affect the existing contamination on that site? None of these concerns are addressed in the Environmental Impact Statement, and Camden County isn’t talking about them. These are huge concerns—especially because of the hazardous waste landfill that is on the site now, that sits right on the bank of Todd Creek. And that bank is eroding. And so with vibrations, and continued disruption, thanks to the spaceport, that site will continue to get worse over time.”

EXPLOSIONS EVERY TWO YEARS The FAA typically defines a “blast zone”, or area within full impact zone of a rocket launch as a two-mile radius around a launch pad. The hazardous waste landfill is 1,000 feet from the bank of Todd Creek, and 1.6 miles from the proposed launch pad. The Satilla River channel is 1.2 miles from the launch pad. According to the Environmental Impact Statement, a launch pad has to be 10,600 feet away from any boundary on the site. At the Spaceport Camden site, 10,600 feet stretches well into the marsh. “What they’re doing is they’re assuming the public waters are basically okay for them to have an explosion in,” Desrosiers said. But rockets at Spaceport Camden would launch over state waters, not offshore federal waters, like at most other spaceports, such as Cape Canaveral in Florida or Wallops in Virginia. Plus, G O O U TA N D P L AY

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EXOS | EJA

Bridge crossings, sunsets with colors so rich it drips from the s k y, dinner w i t h c hipmunk s . T he lit tle things. T he E xos/Eja features uncompromised durabilit y in an u l t r a l i g h t p a c k a g e t h a t d e f i e s b e l i e f. The only way to discover wondrous moments is to get out there and find them. So grab your friends, pack your gear and make it happen.

C U M B E R L A N D I S L A N D N AT I O N A L S E A S H O R E W O U L D BE CLOSED UP TO 12 TIMES A YEAR IF A PROPOSED S PA C E P O R T I S B U I L T N E A R B Y. H I K E R S , V I S I T O R S , AND RESIDENTS WOULD NOT BE PROTECTED FROM ROCKET EXPLOSIONS OR MALFUNCTIONS, WHICH O C C U R O N AV E R A G E E V E R Y T W O Y E A R S . STEVE WEINKLE

this spaceport is for private companies to launch. The Environmental Impact Statement puts the failure rate of rockets at 2.5 to 6 percent, including at launch and any potential planned on-site landings. That means there would likely be one to three explosions of rockets every two years. “If the explosion happens on the pad or just after launch, which is when most of them happen, it will definitely affect the marsh. The fuel spills that occur, the debris, the shrapnel, anything that comes off the rocket is going directly into the marsh and the Satilla River,” she said. Despite the treatment of the marsh as “undeveloped buffer,” any fuel spill or debris would affect the slow-moving marsh to a much higher degree than the ocean. “The marsh will hang on to the contamination a lot longer than the beach, for example. The other thing is the marsh tends to be the nursery ground for a lot of shellfish and marine mammals and those babies and younger organisms are the most vulnerable, which is why they are born 20

in the marsh and not the ocean. So to have the type of contamination that could potentially occur here affecting the most vulnerable species in the food chain, it's just a bad recipe for disaster,” Desrosiers said.

LOOK OUT BELOW Typically, spaceports have downrange hazard or exclusion areas that vary in width from 12 miles to 25 miles extending offshore. By law, these areas must be clear of people during a launch in order to achieve the FAAmandated casualty expectation of one in one-million per launch. The draft Environmental Impact Statement for Spaceport Camden includes diagrams that indicate only a 5-mile-wide hazard or exclusion corridor. And Camden County is seeking to skirt the FAA law by deeming all residents, hikers, and campers within the hazard zone as “authorized persons". This seems to be an attempt to eliminate the need for evacuation, which is problematic because of a Georgia state law prohibiting forced evacuation of private property owners from their homes for the benefit of

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

private industry. What this means is that visitors to Cumberland Island National Seashore would unknowingly be deemed authorized persons for a private spaceport, and their lives could be threatened by any explosions that occur over the island. Cumberland Island and Little Cumberland Island also have hundreds of residents who would unwittingly be jeopardized by every rocket launch. Jim Renner, a Little Cumberland Island property owner and a geologist who has worked in environmental permitting for a wide range of municipal and industrial projects, wrote to the FAA requesting an explanation of why he and his family would be considered “authorized personnel” during a launch. FAA Environmental Specialist Stacey Zee responded via email, saying authorized personnel was not an FAA term. According to Zee, “A launch operator could not conduct a licensed launch from Camden if the risk to any member of the public, including those who remain on Cumberland Island and Little Cumberland Island, did not meet this requirement. A launch operator who intends to conduct launches from Camden may need to identify closure areas to meet this requirement.” Some are speculating that the term originated from Spaceport Camden project consultant Andrew Nelson. Most recently, Nelson was the Chief Operating Officer of Spaceflight company XCor Aerospace, which filed for bankruptcy in November 2017 . XCor sold millions of dollars' worth of advance tickets for its space plane, despite never actually having a space plane. XCor promised to create dozens of high paying jobs in its contract with Midland, Texas. The jobs never materialized. The $10 million that Midland paid XCor to relocate there is gone—along with all of the money paid by those who purchased space plane tickets. Spaceport Camden would launch 12 times a year, with 12 scheduled test launches, which would each normally require evacuation of campers and residents of Cumberland Island and Little Cumberland Island. Spaceport Camden Project Lead and Camden County manager Steve Howard and representatives for the Federal Aviation Administration did not respond to request for comment. “Camden County’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

noticeably lacks significant discussion of impacts to residents, private property, commercial fishing, businesses, ecosystems, and visitors to Cumberland Island National Seashore,” said Renner. “It does not critically examine whether multiple closures of land, sea, and air hazard zones will have any negative impacts. What happens if 40,000 pounds of kerosene are dumped into the salt marsh? What if fiery debris lands on Cumberland Island? None of these negative impacts are even considered.” “Camden County’s draft environmental impact statement is astonishing in its lack of concrete information,” continues Renner. “There are numerous places where conditions and conclusions are asserted without any supporting analysis. There are numerous statements to the effect of, ‘Oh yeah, we need to do a study of that before we start.’ This is the time for those studies!” The National Park Service has voiced concerns about the spaceport, citing concerns about “closures that will restrict visitor access, impacts to natural resources, and potential threats to visitor safety.” When former Cumberland Island superintendent Fred Boyles was asked what worried him most about the future of Cumberland Island, his answer was clear: the spaceport. "The spaceport is the biggest threat ever to Cumberland Island and all who care about it,” said Boyles. Many conservation organizations—including the National Parks Conservation Association, 100 Miles, Georgia ForestWatch, Coastal Georgia Audubon Society, and Wild Cumberland—are also opposed to the spaceport and alarmed by Camden County’s environmental impact statement. With so much information missing from the environmental impact statement, local resident Steve Weinkle filed dozens of public records requests to assemble a mass of information about the spaceport at spaceportfacts.org. Weinkle has also spearheaded a grassroots campaign to protect Cumberland Island from the spaceport at protectcumberlandisland.org. Said Weinkle, “We need for everyone who values this remarkable place to let their voices be heard." —The public comment period on the Camden Spaceport has been extended to June 14. Visit the link below to submit comments for review. bit.ly/2pbU1dW G O O U TA N D P L AY

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GUI Old Favorites and New Faces 10 BANDS TO CATCH AT BLUE RIDGE FESTIVALS BY JEDD FERRIS

It’s been a decade and a half since BRO started covering regional festivals. Accordingly, here’s a look at some of our favorite artists who have ascended from side stage upstarts to prime time headliners, as well as newer acts on the rise. O L D C R OW M E D I C I N E S H O W

Back in 2004 Old Crow Medicine Show released its breakout album, O.C.M.S., which contains the ubiquitous singalong “Wagon Wheel” among the riveting set of high-octane oldtime romps and heartfelt country rambles. The acoustic outfit was an early force in a revivalist movement that yielded many young bands that infused traditional string-band music with rock energy. While trends flare and fizzle, Old Crow has remained a steady favorite among its hardcore fan base and, despite line-up shuffles, continued to write songs that always feel relevant in the present tense of Americana. The band’s April-released album, Volunteer, was produced by hothanded Nashville studio workhorse Dave Cobb. Breakneck boot-stompers like “Flicker and Shine” and “Shout Mountain Music” prove the stringbusters haven’t lost velocity, while the honky tonk swagger of “Dixie Avenue” will fit right in on big Southern stages this summer. The sextet is making the festival rounds this year, performing at DelFest, Papa Joe’s BanjoBQ, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, FloydFest, and the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion. K I N D R E D S P I R I T: Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, a shaggy hard-plucking outfit from Wisconsin, delivers a similar front-porch rawness that will please fans of Old Crow. The group is touring behind new album The Ode, the first

release from the Infamous Stringdusters’ new label, Tape Time Records. The hardtouring crew will appear at DelFest, Hoopla, and FloydFest. JA S O N I S B E L L

When BRO published its first festival guide 15 years ago, Isbell was working the circuit as a member of Drive-By Truckers. The story of his departure from the band amidst alcohol dependency and his redemptive rise through sobriety has been well told, and now, after notching multiple Grammys for his recent solo work, Isbell is a roots music hero continuing to cement his place as one of Nashville’s most authentic voices. By touring relentlessly with his backing band the 400 Unit, which on the best nights includes his wife Amanda Shires, Isbell has also developed a tight, dynamic live show that emphasizes his honest lyrics through just the right mix of rock, soul, and twang. Festival appearances: Papa Joe’s BanjoBQ, Gears and Guitars Festival, Sloss Fest, Forecastle Festival, and FloydFest. K I N D R E D S P I R I T: Kentucky tunesmith Tyler Childers continues to sell out increasingly larger venues behind his Sturgill Simpson-produced record Purgatory. Festival season will be an optimal time to catch him, as he heads to some of the region’s biggest bashes including Bonnaroo, Hoopla, and FloydFest.

M AV I S S TA P L E S

Gospel and soul icon Mavis Staples has continued her late-career comeback, releasing her third straight Jeff Tweedy-produced album, If All I Was Was Black, last fall. Full of heartfelt, activist sentiments that recall Staples’ efforts during the Civil Rights movement, the record

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW DANNY CLINCH

delivers a sweet-spot combination of the singer’s golden voice and the gritty alt-country that Tweedy has perfected and contorted throughout his own career. At 78, Staples has a hearty slate of tour dates ahead of her this summer. In addition to regional shows this month in Charlottesville, Va., Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta, Ga., she’ll also perform at Bonnaroo in June. K I N D R E D S P I R I T: The hair-raising vocals of husband-and-wife duo Michael Trotter and Tonya Blount-Trotter propel the burgeoning gospel-folk group the War and Treaty. Known for delivering fiery performances with foot-stomping tent-revival fervor, the band will get crowds moving this summer at Shaky Knees Festival, Papa Joe’s BanjoBQ, Bonnaroo, Red Wing Roots Music Festival, and Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion.

FIRST AID KIT

Six years ago this Swedish sister duo turned heads in the roots world with the sweetly harmonized “Emmylou,” a melodic folk tune that affectionately named-dropped country music legends. A few years later Klara and Johanna Soderberg brought that song’s namesake, Emmylou Harris, to tears when they sang a version of her iconic “Red Dirt Girl” at an awards ceremony. The siblings, now well established and making records for Columbia, have expanded their sound on the January-released Ruins, which angrily comments on the recent revelations of systemic sexual assault and harassment through the distorted punk stomper “You Are the Problem Here.” Catch them at Bonnaroo.

K I N D R E D S P I R I T: Nashville’s Caitlyn Smith has penned tunes for Meghan Trainor, Lady Antebellum, Dolly Parton, and Garth Brooks, but earlier this year the songwriter for the stars decided it was time for her own turn in the spotlight. Throughout the new record, Starfire, Smith shares her way with words through her own powerful voice, poignantly singing about the emptiness of chasing Music City dreams in “This Town is Killing Me.” Performing at the Lockn’ Festival.

JAC K W H I T E

After a three-year break from the road, Jack White is back at it, touring behind the ambitious new album Boarding House Reach. Throughout the effort, the former White Stripe’s garage roots are still in the mix, but he takes them on a wild ride into retro funk, dramatic rock, and electro chaos. White always puts together interesting backing bands, so these songs should be smoking live at festivals like Shaky Knees. K I N D R E D S P I R I T: The best parts of 70s rock have been reborn in rising band Greta Van Fleet. Led Zeppelin comparisons have been abundant for the young Michigan quartet, and it’s easy to hear why. Guitarist Jake Kiszka has Jimmy Page’s shredding blues riffs down pat, while his twin brother Josh has a wailing howl that makes him sound like the spawn of Robert Plant. Despite the similarities, Greta Van Fleet doesn’t come off like a tribute act; instead they possess an authentic ability to reboot a sound many people have been missing. Festival spots: Shaky Knees, Carolina Rebellion, Hangout Music Festival, and FloydFest.

M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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FeGUIDE 2018

FESTIVAL ESSENTIALS THE BEST GEAR FOR BIG BASHES IN THE BLUE RIDGE B Y G R A H A M AV E R I L L

ust off your hula hoops and Chacos—it’s festival season. For the next few months, we’ll gather in celebration of good music, food, sports and culture. The South has some of the best outdoor festivals in the country, from the highly curated lineup at Highwater in Charleston, South Carolina, to the mega spectacle that is Bonnaroo. And if you want to maximize your festival enjoyment, you’re going to need the right gear. So we talked with Tim Grotenhuis, executive director of Asheville’s Mountain Sports Festival, which is celebrating its 18th year this May, about what to pack and what to leave at home. “Remember that festivals are group experiences,” Grotenhuis says. “You’re not in your own backyard, so you need to think about how your gear will impact other people’s experience. So, bringing a hacky sack is fine, but a hard baseball to throw around? Not so good. A sun hat is great, but an umbrella is rude.” Grotenhuis’ advice for gearing up: pack what you need to be comfortable, but keep it low profile. Here are the gear essentials that will enhance your festival experience, whether you’re camping overnight or hitting a single-day event.

REI DRYPOINT GTX ACTIVE $250

This jacket was built for the backcountry, but all of the properties that make it essential for a hike make it handy at a festival too. It’s incredibly light and breathable, thanks to Gore-Tex’s new Active 3 layer, so you won’t mind wearing it even in the summer in the South.

GOAL ZERO FLIP 10 $25

What’s the point of going to a festy if you don’t get the Instagram post because of a dead phone? This battery pack holds a single charge for your phone and is just a little bigger than your lip balm, so you definitely have space for this in your fanny pack.

EPIC WIPES $13 4-pack

Maybe you’re camping and there’s no shower, or maybe you just danced all day in the hot sun and want to feel fresh. Epic Wipes are 16 times bigger than a wet wipe, so you can give yourself a head to toe cleaning on the go.

PLATYPUS DUOLOCK SOFTBOTTLE $14

Platy’s new soft bottle is made from bomber BPA-free plastic with a lid that’s guaranteed not to spill, and a handy carabiner attachment point. Fill it up when you need it, pack it away when you don’t.

DRINKTANKS INSULATED CUP $25

Ditch the plastic cups and bring a single vessel that will serve you from morning coffee to late night beers. This vacuum-insulated cup preserves the temp of your bevy, no matter how hot it is outside.

OTTER BOX TROOPER $300

A cooler is a must if you’re camping, but hauling a massive Yeti might not be an option. Enter Otter Box’s new Trooper, which has enough space for 50 cans and can be carried as a backpack. And will keep ice for up to 72 hours.

THERM-A-REST UNO CHAIR $90

EAGLES NEST ISLANDER LED BLANKET $70

The Islander is a super lightweight blanket that packs down to nothing, and shakes clean. It’s a festival essential, and this version also has a string of LED lights around the edges, which is key when you want to find the spot you staked down after the sun sets.

Most festivals have height limits on chairs. The Uno sits low to the ground, staying well within height regulations, packs into a slim disc and also converts into a side table, which can be handy if you’re camping.

M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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FeGUIDE 2018 Best of the Fests

15 YEARS OF BLUE RIDGE FESTIVALS BY JEDD FERRIS

BRO published our first annual Festival Guide back in 2004, and through the years we’ve witnessed major changes in the landscape of large-scale outdoor bashes. New festivals keep popping up across the country as an increasingly integral and influential part of the music industry. That means more competition among event promoters to book the right bands, who rely on fests for big pay days. This has resulted in higher ticket prices for attendees, who are in turn being more selective. All of this has led many to ask if our current golden age of festivals has created a bubble getting ready to burst. With that in mind, this year we’re honoring the events that have stood the test of time. Within our annual guide of more than 100 Blue Ridge festivals, we’ve highlighted galas that have been thriving for a decade and a half or more, offering authentic experiences in music, craft beer, art, and adventure.

Best River Party

FRENCH BROAD RIVER FESTIVAL HOT SPRINGS, N.C.

M AY 4 - 6

French Broad River Festival was started more than two decades ago by a group of local western North Carolina boaters with great taste in music. In its 20-plus years, the paddler party has remained one of the region’s favorite low-key fests, staying relatively intimate at the Hot Springs Campground but featuring an impressive line-up of roots music and plenty of chances to play on the river. Best of all, it’s a party with a purpose: Through the years the fest has raised boatloads of cash for river access protector American Whitewater and a handful of other local charities. This year, catch sets by the Travelin’ McCourys, Jeff Austin Band, Billy Strings, Sol Driven Train, and Dangermuffin. Also, grab some friends for the French Broad River Raft Race, a nine-mile, class I-IV run that boasts distinction as the biggest mass start raft race in the South. FRENCHBROADRIVERFESTIVAL.COM

SPRINGDIG B E R K E L E Y S P R I N G S , W.V A .

M AY 4 - 6

Groove into spring with this fun little fest that takes place at Sleepy Creek on the Potomac. Acts on the bill include Keller Williams, Jeff Austin Band, and Dead Winter Carpenters. SLEEPYCREEKPRESENTS.COM

SHAKORI HILLS GRASSROOTS FESTIVAL OF MUSIC AND DANCE

CHEAT RIVER FESTIVAL

SILK HOPE, N.C.

This big annual waterfront party is filled with arts, boating, bluegrass, food, and fun, all to support the Cheat River watershed. Paddle in the Downriver Race, run a 5K, and catch tunes by Strung Like a Horse and Fletcher’s Grove. CHEATFEST.ORG

M AY 3 - 6

Located on a 75-acre farm near the main cities of the North Carolina Triangle, Shakori Hills assembles an impressive line-up of roots acts for a long weekend of family-friendly fun. Headliners include Steve Earle and the Dukes, Rising Appalachia, Chicano Batman, and Ibibio Sound Machine. A fall version also takes place October 4-7. SHAKORIHILLSGRASSROOTS.ORG

BEALE STREET MUSIC FESTIVAL MEMPHIS, TENN.

M AY 4 - 5

“We’re paddlers who are athletes, not athletes who are paddlers, so we really have to throw down hard when we get the chance.”

M AY 4 - 6

Sounds ring through the streets of this historic musical city. This year Beale Street’s line-up features sets by Jack White, Queens of the Stone Age, Odesza, and Erykah Badu. MEMPHISINMAY.ORG

SHAKY KNEES MUSIC FESTIVAL AT L A N TA , G A .

A L B R I G H T, W.V A .

M AY 4 - 6

The Atlanta indie rock throwdown at Central Park hosts big names including Jack White, The National, David Byrne, Fleet Foxes, and War on Drugs. SHAKYKNEESFESTIVAL.COM

— Two-time national champion canoeist Sam Davis, Festival Guide 2005

CAROLINA REBELLION CONCORD, N.C.

M AY 4 - 6

For those who love to rock, this three-day festival at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Rock City Campgrounds will feature fist-pumping sets from Alice in Chains, Muse, Godsmack, Queens of the Stone Age, and many more. CAROLINAREBELLION.COM M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

TRONDOSSA MUSIC + ARTS FESTIVAL

MOOGFEST

CHARLESTON, S.C.

DURHAM, N.C.

M AY 5 - 6

Widespread Panic, Sturgill Simpson, Margo Price, and Moon Taxi lead the bill at this brand new festival at Riverfront Park. TRONDOSSA.COM

Best Multi-Cultural Experience LEAF FESTIVAL

B L A C K M O U N TA I N , N . C .

M AY 1 0 - 1 3

Tucked within western North Carolina’s scenic Camp Rockmont, this familyfriendly fest, celebrating 23 years in 2018, features one of the most diverse arrays of artistic offerings of any outdoor gala in the region, including live music from around the world, dance workshops, healing arts, and much more. At LEAF, well-known headliners like Ani Difranco, Rising Appalachia, and Snarky Puppy will play alongside African roots artists, Celtic singers, and representatives of many other cultures. Beyond the tunes, LEAF is designed to be interactive, with more than 50 healing arts workshops on a range of topics from yoga and holistic health to rolfing and ancient earth skills. The fest also features diverse global cuisine, a wide selection of artisan goods, and a popular poetry slam and provides a ton of fun for kids centered around eight different activity-filled Family Adventure Villages. In addition to the festival’s annual fall return to Camp Rockmont (October 18-21), organizers will also host LEAF Downtown AVL at Asheville’s Pack Square Park on August 3-4. THELEAF.ORG

SHAKY BEATS MUSIC FESTIVAL AT L A N TA , G A .

M AY 1 1 - 1 3

EDM and hip-hop sounds will be blaring throughout Atlanta’s picturesque Central Park. Topping the bill: Marshmello, Zedd, Kygo, Ludacris, and Excision. SHAKYBEATSFESTIVAL.COM

NORTH CAROLINA BREWERS AND MUSIC FESTIVAL HUNTERSVILLE, N.C.

M AY 1 1 - 1 2

High-energy bluegrass bands will be picking and nearly three-dozen inventive craft breweries will be pouring at this popular event on Huntersville’s historic Rural Hill. Acts on the bill: Leftover Salmon, Chatham County Line, Acoustic Syndicate, and Larry Keel Experience. NCBREWSMUSIC.COM

AIKEN BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL AIKEN, S.C.

M AY 1 1 - 1 2

Aiken continues to up the ante at this annual progressive bluegrass bash. This year catch soaring string jams from Greensky Bluegrass, Leftover Salmon, Billy Strings, and many more. AIKENBLUEGRASSFESTIVAL.ORG

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B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

M AY 1 7 - 2 0

The many innovations and lasting influences of sonic pioneer Bob Moog are honored at this festival in Durham featuring SOPHIE, Jenny Hval, Jamila Woods, and LCD Soundsystem’s Gavin Rayna Russom. MOOGFEST.COM

GETTYSBURG BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL G E T T Y S B U R G , PA .

M AY 1 7 - 2 0

This serious bluegrass festival celebrates its 76th running with Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, the Cleverlys, and Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen. GETTYSBURGBLUEGRASS.COM

DOMINION RIVERROCK R I C H M O N D, VA .

M AY 1 8 - 2 0

Held on the banks of the James River in downtown Richmond, Riverrock is a huge outdoor sports and music festival featuring plenty of opportunities to play and groove. Run the James River Scramble 10K, demo a SUP board, and catch sets by the Wood Brothers and the Marcus King Band. DOMINIONRIVERROCK.COM

Best Trail Fest TRAIL DAYS

DA M A S C U S , VA .

M AY 1 8 - 2 0

Every year since 1987, the sleepy southwestern Virginia town of Damascus has hosted a big reunion for Appalachian Trail thru-hikers and a wild party for everyone who loves the outdoors. Thousands of hikers, past and present, descend on Trail Town, U.S.A. to trade trail stories, wear crazy costumes and march in a parade, get goofy in a talent show, soak each other with water guns, check out a variety of gear booths, and get rowdy at the campgrounds in the evenings. The fest also features talks and presentations by A.T. legends of yesteryear, live music from regional roots acts, and plenty of displays of Trail Magic—with locals providing food and gear repairs for current hikers. If you need a break from the crowds, you can always hit the trails. From Damascus there are plenty of paths that wind through the surrounding Mountain Rogers National Recreation Area, including the A.T., the Iron Mountain Trail, and the family-friendly Virginia Creeper Trail. TRAILDAYS.US

HANGOUT MUSIC FESTIVAL GULF SHORES, ALA.

M AY 1 8 - 2 0

Where else can you feel the sand between your toes, as you bob your head along to the sounds of Kendrick Lamar, the Chainsmokers, the Killers, and Halsey? HANGOUTMUSICFEST.COM G O O U TA N D P L AY

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

Foster the People

Jason Isbell & the 400 unit

Old Crow Medicine Show

Gov't Mule

The Infamous Stringdusters

Leftover Salmon

ZZ Ward

Tyler Childers

Hiss Golden Messeger

Greta Van Fleet

Keller Williams� Petty Grass feat The Hillbenders

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

Antibalas

Nicki Bluhm

Langhorne Slim

The Lil Smokies

Nikki Lane

Horseshoes & Hand Grenades

The Steel Wheels

NO BS! Brass Band

The Mother Hips�

Son Little

Devon Gilfillian

LINDSAY LOU • KALETA & SUPER YAMBA BAND • SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND • MR. JENNINGS • SOUTH HILL BANKS • DHARMA BOMBS • MAPACHE THE NATIONAL RESERVE • THE NATIVE HOWL • THE BROADCAST • ERIN & THE WILDFIRE • TRAVIS MEADOWS • MAMA SAID STRING BAND • CHE APALACHE THE HARMED BROTHERS • FIRESIDE COLLECTIVE • SOL SEARCHERS • BLUE MULE • THE FLOORBOARDS • MY RADIO • BLACK MOUNTAIN REVIVAL DEAD RECKONING • OMEGAWOLFE • MORGAN WADE & THE STEPBROTHERS • LOS CHUPACABRAS • GOTE • JORDAN HARMAN BAND • THE JAM • MAD IGUANAS

The 4th Annual

“The hikers, they’re good people. I enjoy seeing the friendliness that they have for each other.” —The late Creed Jones, former mayor of Damascus, Va., on Trail Days, Festival Guide 2007

Grey & Mofro, and Robert Randolph & the Family Band. ROOSTERWALK.COM

PAPA JOE'S BANJOBQUE MUSIC FESTIVAL E VA N S , G A .

M AY 2 5 - 2 6

This growing festival features a serious BBQ cook-off, an impressive line-up of VIRGINIA BEER FESTIVAL craft beer, and killer tunes from Jason N O R F O L K , VA . M AY 1 9 Isbell & the 400 Unit, Old Crow Medicine Tasty libations will be flowing on the Show, and the Infamous Stringdusters— waterfront setting of Town Point Park in all to honor the late Joe Pond and his downtown Norfolk. Pace yourself as you loves of ‘cue and bluegrass. enjoy 150 beers and ciders from Virginia BANJOBQUE.COM and beyond. FESTEVENTS.ORG

DR. RALPH STANLEY'S 48TH ANNUAL HILLS OF HOME FESTIVAL

september 21-23, 2018 ! junebug retro resort

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

DELFEST

CUMBERLAND, MD.

M AY 2 4 - 2 7

DelFest honors living bluegrass legend C O E B U R N , VA . M AY 2 4 - 2 6 Del McCoury—once a member of genre A Memorial Day weekend tradition, founder Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys— Ralph Stanley II leads his legendary late whose band headlines the festival in the father’s band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, scenic Potomac River Valley of western at this bluegrass festival at the Stanley Maryland, with help from a generationold home place in southwest Virginia. spanning line-up of top-notch pickers. DRRALPHSTANLEYFESTIVAL.COM This year the roster includes Old Crow Medicine Show, Greensky Bluegrass, ROOSTERWALK MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL and Richard Thompson. An intriguing A X TO N , VA . M AY 2 4 - 2 7 addition this year is a set called the This intimate rootsy bash held on an Bluegrass Congress, which features an idyllic farm near Martinsville features a all-star cast, including the host band, top-notch line-up of national acts in a David Grisman, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, and Jerry Douglas. It’s sure to setting that’s right for the whole family. Bands this year: The Wood Brothers, JJ be a clusterpluck for the ages. DELFEST.COM

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Best Urban Adventure Fest MOUNTAIN SPORTS FESTIVAL ASHEVILLE, N.C.

M AY 2 5 - 2 7

Props to the Mountain Sports Festival for evolving and thriving since its inception 18 years ago. This long-standing free fest in Asheville has changed its programming through the years, but it always features an impressive variety of mountain sports activities—from endurance races to fun fringe comps. This year’s full slate includes a 20K relay, a downriver race in the French Broad, a half-century cycling ride, disc golf, a beer mile, and much more. Attendees can also browse goods from gear vendors, dance to live music, and enjoy kids' activities at the festival’s central area at Carrier Park. MOUNTAINSPORTSFESTIVAL.COM

LONG CREEK MUSIC FESTIVAL LONG CREEK, S.C.

M AY 2 5 - 2 7

If you like low-key music festivals, escape to South Carolina’s Sumter National Forest and catch tunes at the Chattooga River Resort & Campground. Jams from Eric Gales, Charlie Wooten Project, and People’s Blues of Richmond support the mighty Chattooga River. LONGCREEKFEST.COM

OLE TIME FIDDLER’S & BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL UNION GROVE, N.C.

M AY 2 5 - 2 7

Approaching its 95th year, the longest running fiddler’s convention in North America will once again feature the most authentic pickers in the mountains. FIDDLERSGROVE.COM

WHITE SQUIRREL FESTIVAL B R E VA R D, N . C .

M AY 2 5 - 2 7

This fun street festival in Brevard will feature live tunes from Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, Songs from the Road Band, and Fireside Collective, as well as a parade and 10K/5K run. WHITESQUIRRELFESTIVAL.COM

VIRGINIA TRAIL FESTIVAL S TO K E S V I L L E , VA .

M AY 2 5 - 2 8

Mountain bikers from around the region come together for a big hang at Stokesville Campground throughout a long weekend that includes some epic rides during the day and kicking back by campfires with fat tireloving friends at night. MTNTOURING.COM

GEARS AND GUITARS FESTIVAL WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.

M AY 2 5 - 2 8

Held in conjunction with the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic, this growing festival features four days of music and family fun at Bailey Park. Bands on the bill include Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Cold War Kids, and Blues Traveler. GEARSANDGUITARSFEST.COM

Best Traditional Bluegrass Bash GRAVES MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL OF MUSIC S Y R I A , VA .

M AY 3 1 – J U N E 2

For the past quarter century fans of the High Lonesome Sound have flocked to Graves Mountain Lodge, set near Shenandoah National Park, to enjoy a packed line-up of worldclass pickers. This annual event offers a peaceful festival experience—the chance to sit and watch some of the best in bluegrass on a stage near a flowing creek with the Virginia Blue Ridge in the background. This year catch sets from the Steeldrivers, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice, Blue Mafia, and Molly Tuttle. GRAVESMOUNTAIN.COM

MOUNTAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL O A K H I L L , W.V A .

NELSONVILLE, OHIO

ACE Adventure Resort hosts a fest that mixes music and adventure, pairing a deep roster of jam bands with access to world-class whitewater and a top-notch trail network in West Virginia’s New River Gorge. Pedal, paddle, and listen to sounds from a stacked line-up that includes Umphrey’s McGee, Big Something, Aqueous, and Perpetual Groove.

M AY 3 1 – J U N E 3

With big names and small-town charm, this festival takes place in the hills of southeast Ohio on the campus of Hocking College. Bands: George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, the Decemberists, and Ani DiFranco. NELSONVILLEFEST.ORG

SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA CHARLESTON, S.C.

M AY 2 5 – J U N E 1 0

Late spring is a great time to be in Charleston, as the Spoleto Festival fills the historic city’s theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with a variety of music, dance, theater, and visual arts. SPOLETOUSA.ORG

BEER CITY FESTIVAL ASHEVILLE, N.C.

M AY 3 1 – J U N E 2

MOUNTAINMUSICFESTWV.COM

NELSONVILLE MUSIC FESTIVAL

JUNE 2

The culminating event of Asheville Beer Week (May 25-June 2; avlbeerweek. com), this festival at Roger McGuire Green features a couple thousand craft beer fans tasting the goods from 30 breweries while soaking up some great local music. BEERCITYFESTIVAL.COM

THE ROOTS PICNIC P H I L A D E L P H I A , PA .

JUNE 2

Head to the Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing for this one-day party

M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

7TH ANNUAL

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B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

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MONDO ROOTS CULTURAL ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL C L AY T O N , N . C .

JUNE 2

“Come for the art, stay for the music” is the call to action at this day of fun in downtown Clayton. MONDOROOTS.COM

CAROLINA COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.

JUNE 7-10

Luke Bryan, Toby Keith, and Zac Brown Band lead this huge country bash on the beach. CAROLINACOUNTRYMUSICFEST.COM

Best Trend-Setting Mega Fest

BONNAROO MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL MANCHESTER, TENN.

JUNE 7-10

Bonnaroo gets credit as a pace setter for the current explosion of multi-band mega fests that still continue to pop up across North America and beyond. In 2002 the festival’s founders booked a bunch of jam bands and bet that tens of thousands of music fans would travel to a 700-acre farm in the middle of Tennessee for a long, hot musical marathon. They were right, and although the fest’s line-ups have wildly evolved through the years, it still attracts a loyal tribe to one of the country’s most eclectic, high-profile music extravaganzas. This year the festival is covering everything from hip-hop and electronica to indie rock and Americana. Top billing goes to Muse, Eminem, the Killers, Bon Iver, Bassnectar, Future, and Sturgill Simpson. BONNAROO.COM

COLD MOUNTAIN MUSIC FESTIVAL AT LAKE LOGAN CANTON, N.C.

JUNE 8-9

Now expanded to two days, this fest features a rock solid line-up of tunes on a gorgeous 300-acre property surrounded by the Shining Rock Wilderness. Catch sets by Mandolin Orange, Shovels & Rope, the Steel Wheels, River Whyless, and the Jon Stickley Trio. COLDMOUNTAINMUSIC.ORG

THE CROOKED ROAD’S MOUNTAINS OF MUSIC HOMECOMING SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA

JUNE 8-16

Appalachian roots run deep at this nine-day celebration of bluegrass and traditional mountain music, which features more than 25 concerts and 70 cultural experiences around southwest Virginia. MTNSOFMUSIC.COM

HOUSTONFEST G A L A X , VA .

JUNE 8-9

Big-time names in bluegrass perform at this growing festival at Felt’s Park that was created to honor the late Houston Caldwell. Acts include the Del McCoury Band, Flatt Lonesome, and Blue Highway. HOUSTONFESTGALAX.COM

IPA JAMBEEREE C R O Z E T, V A .

JUNE 9

Starr Hill Brewery hosts this fest that will feature the best in hoppy brews from Virginia. This year the brewery is also adding a second festival in Roanoke on June 16. STARRHILL.COM

SUMMER

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

W.C. HANDY BLUES & BARBECUE FESTIVAL H E N D E R S O N , K Y.

JUNE 13-16

Grab a plate, then groove to some of the best blues artists in the country at this festival that’s been jumping for more than a quarter century. Delbert McClinton, Sugaray Rayford, Davey Knowles, and many more will take the stage at the scenic Audubon Mill Park on the Ohio River. HANDYBLUES.ORG

BEECH MOUNTAIN RESORT SUMMER CONCERT SERIES B E E C H M O U N TA I N , N . C .

JUNE 16

Head to the High Country for some of the best in progressive string band music this summer. The series will feature shows by the Wood Brothers (June 16), Trampled by Turtles (July 14), and Yonder Mountain String Band (August 11). BEECHMOUNTAINRESORT.COM

JUNE 16

A new festival created as an extension of the U.S. National Whitewater Center’s popular Brew Stash Bash, Sol Fest still features plenty of delicious craft beer, as well as live tunes, yoga, and multiple water and trail races. USNWC.ORG

SIERRA NEVADA BEER CAMP MILLS RIVER, N.C.

JUNE 16

It doesn’t get much more fun than day camp for beer-loving adults. Sip special Sierra Nevada beers created just for the event then challenge your friends to rounds of keg bowling, human foosball, and Strider bike cyclocross. SIERRANEVADA.COM/BEERCAMP-MILLSRIVER

FIREFLY GATHERING LEICESTER, N.C.

THE SISTERHOOD BAND

JUNE 21-24

Taking place just outside of Asheville, the largest primitive skills gathering in the country features a long weekend of outdoor discovery. At Firefly you can connect with your natural surroundings through classes and workshops in

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hosted by live hip-hop masters and Tonight Show house band the Roots. Additional acts include Dave Chappelle, Lil Uzi Vert, Dirty Projectors, and the Diplomats.

JUN 22

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homesteading, survivalism, plant identification, and much more.

FESTIVAL FOR THE ENO

FIREFLYGATHERING.ORG

This annual event at Durham City Park features over 70 bands on four stages, along with great food and art—a big celebration of the great Eno River. Lineup TBA. ENORIVER.ORG

BAYOU BOOGALOO MUSIC & CAJUN FOOD FESTIVAL N O R F O L K , VA .

JUNE 22-24

Get a taste of New Orleans on the Norfolk waterfront. Enjoy your fill of crawdads, jambalaya, po’ boys, and beignets, as well as some of the best bands coming out of the Crescent City, including the Funky Meters. FESTEVENTS.ORG

HOPS IN THE HILLS CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL MARYVILLE, TENN.

JUNE 22-23

Craft breweries from the South and beyond will be pouring their finest liquids at this annual festival in Maryville. HOPSINTHEHILLS.COM

FUNHOUSE FEST W I L L I A M S B U R G , VA .

JUNE 22-23

Virginia piano man Bruce Hornsby hosts a hometown gala at the Lawn of the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg with help from Alison Krauss, Amos Lee, and the Wood Brothers. FUNHOUSEFEST.COM

ROMP: BLUEGRASS ROOTS & BRANCHES FESTIVAL O W E N S B O R O , K Y.

JUNE 27-30

ROMP bridges generations of bluegrass musicians, mixing seasoned veterans like Alison Krauss and Ricky Skaggs with progressive string favorites including Leftover Salmon and Billy Strings. ROMPFEST.COM

BACK HOME APPALACHIAN ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.VA.

JUNE 29 – JULY 1

A big-time bluegrass hoedown anchors three days of good times in the Mountain State. Catch sets by the Del McCoury Band, David Grisman, the Steeldrivers, and Billy Strings. BACKHOMEFESTIVAL.COM

WILDWOOD REVIVAL AT H E N S , G A .

J U N E 2 9 – J U LY 1

The hipness of Athens retreats to the countryside of 30-acre Cloverleaf Farm for a laid-back, intimate festival that features national indie roots acts playing in an open-air barn along with an artisan market, local beer and food, and even a Sunday morning Wiffle ball game. WILDWOODREVIVAL.COM

AVERY COUNTY WINE & BEER FESTIVAL BANNER ELK, N.C.

JUNE 30

Taste the best of the High Country and surrounding areas at Sorrento’s Dining Complex in Banner Elk. AVERYCOUNTY.COM

DURHAM, N.C.

J U LY 4 A N D 7

YONDERVILLE MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL R I X E Y V I L L E , VA .

J U LY 6 - 7

This growing festival features a mixture of electronica and jam acts at Verdun Adventure Bound. Catch sets by the Widdler, Of The Trees, Funk You, and Broccoli Samurai. FACEBOOK.COM/YONDERVILLEFEST

MASTER MUSICIANS FESTIVAL S O M E R S E T, K Y.

J U LY 1 3 - 1 4

This roots music bash—blending Americana, bluegrass, country, and indie folk—turns 25 this year. Lineup includes John Prine, Amanda Shires, JD McPherson, the Felice Brothers, and many more. MASTERMUSICIANSFESTIVAL.ORG

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CAMP BISCO S C R A N T O N , PA .

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at watermelon Park

J U LY 1 2 - 1 4

The Disco Biscuits host this multi-band electronica rager at Montage Mountain. Additional acts: Bassnectar, Excision, Tipper, Lotus, and STS9. CAMPBISCO.COM

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PASTURE PALOOZA MUSIC & ART FESTIVAL B E R RY V I L L E , VA .

J U LY 1 2 - 1 5

Roots rock and jam bands dominate this low-key fest in the scenic countryside of northern Virginia. Line-up TBA. PASTUREPALOOZA.COM

FORECASTLE FESTIVAL L O U I S V I L L E , K Y.

J U LY 1 3 - 1 5

Forecastle has grown to become one of the premiere music festivals in the country, taking place every summer at Louisville’s scenic 85-acre Waterfront Park. Top national acts are featured alongside some of the city’s best cultural offerings, including an impressive bourbon showcase. Bands: Arcade Fire, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, War on Drugs, and Father John Misty. FORECASTLEFEST.COM

SLOSS FESTIVAL BIRMINGHAM, AL.

J U LY 1 4 - 1 5

Birmingham gets its own big band bash downtown at the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. Headliners: Arcade Fire, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, and Griz. SLOSSFEST.COM

THE PEACH MUSIC FESTIVAL S C R A N T O N , PA .

J U LY 1 9 - 2 2

Jams will be plentiful at this festival, initially started by the Allman Brothers M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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Band, that takes place annually at Montage Mountain. Fittingly, the event will feature one of the recently announced comeback appearances by former Brother Dickey Betts. Additional acts on the bill include the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and his Terrapin Family Band, Umphrey’s McGee, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and Gov’t Mule. THEPEACHMUSICFESTIVAL.COM

ASHEVILLE YOGA FESTIVAL

ARTSCAPE

DOAH FEST

B A LT I M O R E , M D .

J U LY 2 0 - 2 2

Over 400,000 people regularly attend Artscape, America’s largest free arts festival. Situated in downtown Baltimore, the fest spans 12 city blocks and features an array of exhibits in fine art, music, dance, theater, and film. ARTSCAPE.ORG

ASHEVILLE, N.C.

J U LY 2 6 - 2 9

Extend your body and expand your mind at this event in downtown Asheville that features expert instructors and experienced teachers leading classes and workshops, along with a schedule of live music and outdoor activities like hiking and SUP Yoga. ASHEVILLEYOGAFESTIVAL.COM

L U R AY, V A .

J U LY 2 6 - 2 9

This relaxed festival on the Shenandoah River features a range of roots acts, including the reggae sounds of See-I, Cheick Hamala Diabate, and Black Masala. DOAHFEST.COM

VIRGINIA HIGHLANDS FESTIVAL A B I N G D O N , VA .

J U LY 2 7 – A U G U S T 5

10 straight days, creativity comes Best Independent Music Variety For alive in Abingdon with events focusing FLOYDFEST on music, photography, F LOY D, VA . J U LY 2 5 - 2 9 visual and performing “Festivals like FloydFest FloydFest was started arts, antiques, are the saviors of the music back in 2002 as a way and much more. scene as we know it. There’s to showcase the unique VAHIGHLANDSFESTIVAL.ORG a lot of very good music that arts community and never sees the light of day progressive lifestyle SOULSHINE FARM on the radio. Whenever you in Floyd, Va., a small MUSIC FESTIVAL go to this festival you end up Blue Ridge town that’s G R E E N M O U N TA I N , N . C . liking 12 news bands that you fostered creatives in AUGUST 9-11 had never heard of before.” the South for the last This intimate camping half-century. At first, fest along the Toe River — Jeb Puryear, Donna the Buffalo, the festival, which sits features favorites in Festival Guide 2009 outside of town on an bluegrass, jam and 80-acre mountain plateau funk playing in a family-friendly setting. just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, drew Acts include Love Canon and Town modest crowds, but as word spread Mountain. SOULSHINEFARMFEST.COM about the carefully curated music line-up, attendance started to swell. In BURNING CAN its first year the festival featured Doc B R E VA R D, N . C . AUGUST 10-12 Watson and the African Showboyz and Oskar Blues celebrates craft beer in a ever since organizers have continued can at this three-day festival, which takes to bridge Appalachian traditions with place at the brewery’s REEB Ranch, a the melting pot of roots music from scenic property on the edge of Pisgah around the rest of the world. While National Forest near Brevard. Enjoy the the event has certainly grown, the goods from 50 breweries, as well as live independent spirit remains intact. music, and organized running and biking “We’ve gotten national attention, events. OSKARBLUES.COM but we’ve never wanted to be mainstream,” Kris Hodges, one of the SMITH RIVER FEST founders, explained in BRO’s 2015 A X TO N , VA . AUGUST 11 festival guide. “With FloydFest we’ve Experience the best of the Smith River tried to forge our own path.” with a full day of paddling, fishing, This year’s line-up is heavy running, and biking, along with vendor on Americana with the festival’s booths, live music, and fun for the whole eight stages featuring Old Crow family. The fest takes place at the Smith Medicine Show, Jason Isbell & the River Sports Complex near Martinsville. 400 Unit, Gov’t Mule, the Infamous VISITMARTINSVILLE.COM Stringdusters, and Hiss Golden Messenger. Set in a location that’s THE BIG WHAT FESTIVAL ripe for recreation the festival also PITTSBORO, N.C. AUGUST 16-18 offers a nice variety of adventure North Carolina’s Big Something hosts a programming, including mountain three-day, multi-band blowout at Shakori biking, paddling, trail running, and disc Hills Community Arts Center. golf. FLOYDFEST.COM THEBIGWHAT.COM M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

HOT AUGUST MUSIC FESTIVAL

JAM IN THE TREES

COCKEYSVILLE, MD.

B L A C K M O U N TA I N , N . C .

AUGUST 18

Chances are it will be hot outside and onstage at this one-day fest just north of Baltimore; featuring an impressive line-up of jam rock, funk, and Americana that includes the Revivalists, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, and the Marcus King Band. HOTAUGUSTMUSICFESTIVAL.COM

RIVERFEST ASHEVILLE, N.C.

Party on the banks of the French Broad River with local tunes and brews, all for a good cause, as proceeds benefit the watershed’s nonprofit advocate, RiverLink. Organizers also host the accompanying RiverMusic concert series throughout the summer (June 8, July 6, September 7). RIVERLINK.ORG

LOCKN’ MUSIC FESTIVAL A R R I N G TO N , VA

Pisgah Brewing Company is the place to be for this two-day progressive string and roots bash in Black Mountain. Acts include the Travelin’ McCourys, Jerry Douglas Band, Shooter Jennings, and Elizabeth Cook. JAMINTHETREES.COM

MEET THE MOUNTAINS FESTIVAL J O H N S O N C I T Y, T E N N .

AUGUST 18

AUGUST 23-26

The country’s premiere jam marathon returns for its sixth straight year, blowing it out with two nights and four sets of Dead and Company, as well as Widespread Panic, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Umphrey’s McGee, Sheryl Crow, and many more. LOCKNFESTIVAL.COM

FRONT PORCH FEST AUGUST 24-25

AUGUST 24-25

The motto of this new festival is “Adventure for Everybody,” and that includes exploring the best of northeast Tennessee by boat, bike, or boot. Details are still coming together, but so far this fest is promising activities and entertainment at Founders Park in downtown Johnson City, as well as adventures in the surrounding mountains. MTMFEST.COM

FLOYD YOGA JAM F L O Y D C O U N T Y, V A .

AUGUST 30 –

SEPTEMBER 2

Approaching its seventh year, the Floyd Yoga Jam is a four-day celebration of yoga, art, and music. This year’s eclectic line-up includes Oddisee & Good Company, Phoebe Hunt & the Gatherers, and Dangermuffin. FLOYDYOGAJAM.NET

S T U A R T, V A .

be announced but expect a wide array of authentic sounds from bluegrass and jazz to zydeco, blues and world music.

AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 2

This low-key music and camping fest takes place on the picturesque Spirit Haven Farm in Patrick County.

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MOUNTAIN SONG FESTIVAL

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B R E VA R D, N . C .

APPALOOSA FESTIVAL F R O N T R O YA L , V A .

AUGUST 31 -

SEPTEMBER 2

Celtic-minded string outfit Scythian hosts this three-day roots music festival in Front Royal. APPALOOSAFESTIVAL.COM

ABINGDON MAIN STREET BUSKERFEST A B I N G D O N , VA .

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MOON RIVER MUSIC FESTIVAL C H AT TA N O O G A , T E N N .

HOPSCOTCH FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 6-8

An eclectic mix of indie rock and experimental acts converge in downtown Raleigh for this annual festival.

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S U M M E R S V I L L E , W.V A .

NORTH CAROLINA FOLK FESTIVAL GREENSBORO, N.C.

SEPTEMBER 8-9

Tennessee tunesmith Drew Holcomb is moving his annual home-state festival from Memphis to Coolidge Park in Chattanooga’s scenic North Shore District. Holcomb and his band the Neighbors will perform, alongside headliners the Avett Brothers, the Head and the Heart, and Trampled by Turtles.

SEPTEMBER 1

Street performers of all stripes are the main event at this festival in downtown Abingdon. MAINSTREETBUSKERFEST.COM

RALEIGH, N.C.

SEPTEMBER 7-9

Hosted by hometown favorites the Steep Canyon Rangers, this festival features a weekend of spectacular bluegrass at the Brevard Music Center’s open-air auditorium.

SEPTEMBER 7-9

As the National Folk festival moves along after its scheduled stint in Greensboro, the tradition will be continued with this new event. The line-up is still to

GAULEY FEST SEPTEMBER 13-16

Started back in 1983 to celebrate the derailment of a dam project that would have disrupted flows of the mighty Gauley, this event brings together class V whitewater runs, live music, and boater shenanigans as the largest paddling festival in the world. In addition to plenty of river time,

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Last year, 54% of American workers didn’t use all of their vacation time. It’s time to Crush Friday and come play in the Alleghany Highlands: • Explore the Alleghany Highlands Blueway • Enjoy live music • Ride some of the best mountain bike trails in Virginia • Sample great food and craft beer

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Proceeds to benefit the Artisans Center of Virginia

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WATERMELON PARK FEST

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This small Americana gathering in Berryville features some serious sounds along the scenic Shenandoah River. This year’s lineup includes Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Marty Stuart, Bela Fleck, and Molly Tuttle. WATERMELONPARKFEST.COM

WA FEST SEPTEMBER 14-16

N E W C A S T L E , VA .

Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing, an adventure camp and retreat center near Roanoke, is the site of this emerging festival that features a range of roots music from bluegrass to alt-country, local food, and plenty of opportunities for outdoor playtime. WILDERNESS-ADVENTURE.COM/WA-FEST

Best Pioneering Beer Festival BREWGRASS FESTIVAL ASHEVILLE, N.C.

SEPTEMBER 15

Long before the current craft boom and the growth of its host city into a thriving beer mecca, Brewgrass was bringing independent breweries together for this annual celebration. Despite being surrounded by a growing number of beer bashes, this fest continues to hold court as a regional original, bringing 50 craft breweries together to pour their best liquids for a large crowd at Asheville’s Memorial Stadium. The full day of drinking is enhanced by a well-curated line-up of progressive bluegrass. Bands still to be announced. BREWGRASSFESTIVAL.COM

B E R RY V I L L E , VA .

SEPTEMBER 20-22

CAROLINA FALL WILKESBORO, N.C

SEPTEMBER 21-22

The Kruger Brothers host this emerging Americana festival in downtown Wilkesboro. In addition to headlining sets by the fest founders, catch the Steel Wheels, the Roosevelts, Fireside Collective, and many more. CAROLINAINTHEFALL.ORG

Best Roots Revival

BRISTOL RHYTHM AND ROOTS REUNION B R I S TO L , T E N N . / VA .

SEPTEMBER 21-23

Known as the true Birthplace of Country Music, Bristol is a small Southern city where the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers made some of their first recordings in the 1920s. Every fall the border town on the Tennessee/Virginia line celebrates the lineage of root music through

a lively street gala that incorporates artists from many generations. This annual fest features a range of acts from national headliners to regional upstarts to down home Appalachian pickers playing along the bustling main drag of State Street on 20 stages— outdoors and inside theaters and bars. This year the festival will feature sets from Old Crow Medicine Show, Taj Mahal, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, the Marcus King Band, and many more. BIRTHPLACEOFCOUNTRYMUSIC.ORG/FESTIVAL

ASHEVILLE VAN LIFE RALLY ASHEVILLE, N.C.

SEPTEMBER 21-23

Celebrate the culture of van life at the June Bug Retro Resort, located 15 minutes outside of Asheville in Weaverville. The two-night campout will include live music, food trucks, a kids’ area, and plenty of space to enjoy the variety of adventure vehicles. ASHEVILLEVANLIFE.COM

FLOW FEST CHARLOTTE, N.C.

SEPTEMBER 22

Head to the U.S. National Whitewater Center for a long day of yoga, live tunes, and wine and kombucha tasting. This festival also features a trail race, climbing comp, and SUP yoga on the Catawba River. USNWC.ORG

WORLD CHICKEN FESTIVAL L O N D O N , K Y.

SEPTEMBER 27-30

Approaching 30 years of celebrating a Southern culinary staple, country music and delicious fried chicken dominate this thriving Kentucky festival. CHICKENFESTIVAL.COM

HOOPLA R O S E L A N D, VA .

SEPTEMBER 28-30

Surrounded by scenic ridgelines in the central Virginia Blue Ridge, Devils Backbone Brewing Company Basecamp Brewpub and Meadows is the place to be for a long weekend of live music and camping, as well as plenty of delicious craft beers and organized runs and rides. This year’s line-up includes Tyler Childers, Rayland Baxter, Larry Keel, and many more. DBBREWINGCOMPANY.COM

WIDE OPEN BLUEGRASS RALEIGH, N.C.

SEPTEMBER 28-29

Always full of High Lonesome heroes, this two-day festival closes the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass Week in downtown Raleigh. Lineup still TBD. WIDEOPENBLUEGRASS.COM

GRAHAM PARSONS GUITAR PULL & TRIBUTE FESTIVAL W AY C R O S S , G A .

SEPTEMBER 28-29

True country fans should not miss this tribute to one of the genre’s greatest

M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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songwriters. The spirit of the late legend will be revived with performances by the Kentucky Headhunters, Firefall, and many more. STGDFEST.COM

THE FESTY EXPERIENCE A R R I N G TO N , VA .

OCTOBER 5-7

This annual festival, at the expansive Infinity Downs in Arrington, about a half hour south of Charlottesville, always features an impressive roster of roots music acts (line-up TBD). In addition to the tunes, expect an experience full of local food, craft beer, and plenty of outdoor action, including the Blue Ridge Burn, the annual 10K/5K trail race hosted by Blue Ridge Outdoors. THEFESTY.COM

seasoned athletes alike. At night, enjoy great food and music by the river. RIVERROCKSCHATTANOOGA.COM

FLOATLIFE FEST ASHEVILLE, N.C.

OCTOBER 11-14

Returning for a second year, this festival hosted by Southern Raft Supply is a fun time for Onewheel riders of all levels, featuring races, comps, music, and more. FLOATLIFEFEST.COM

GO OUTSIDE FESTIVAL R OA N O K E , VA .

OCTOBER 12-14

Some of the best in bluegrass show up to pick at this lauded festival that takes place at Ross’ Landing. Best part—it’s completely free. Look for the line-up to be announced in late summer.

The abundance of recreation opportunities in the Roanoke Valley are spotlighted at this annual fest, which turns River’s Edge Sports Complex into a mountain sports playground filled with running, biking, climbing, slacklining, paddling, and fishing. In addition to onsite activities, the event features a dozen races and comps, including a half-marathon, beer relay, kid’s bike race, and disc golf tournament.

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3 SISTERS BLUEGRASS MUSIC FESTIVAL C H AT TA N O O G A , T E N N .

OCTOBER 5-6

RIVERROCKS C H AT TA N O O G A , T E N N .

THE MOONSHINER’S BALL OCTOBER 5-21

Celebrating the best of Chattanooga, this fest features mountain biking, trail running, paddling races, hikes, and outdoor activities for novices and

M T V E R N O N , K Y.

OCTOBER 12-14

Now five years running, this fest always features an interesting mix of bluegrass, indie folk and alt-country. Moving to the fall this year, the backwoods bash is

M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

also relocating to a new home, the Rockcastle Riverside campground and concert venue in the Daniel Boone National Forest. Line-up TBA. THEMOONSHINERSBALL.COM

29th Annual

RICHMOND FOLK FESTIVAL R I C H M O N D, VA .

SEPTEMBER 27-30, 2018

IN DOWNTOWN LONDON, KENTUCKY

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OCTOBER 12-14

Celebrate the rich roots of American culture through music, dance, storytelling, and food at this yearly Richmond staple born out of this city’s previous reign as the host of the National Folk Festival. Lineup and events TBA. RICHMONDFOLKFESTIVAL.ORG

SIERRA NEVADA OKTOBERFEST MILLS RIVER, N.C.

OCTOBER 13

Find your lederhosen and get ready to party with festbier, feasting, and dancing at Sierra Nevada in Mills River. SIERRANEVADA.COM

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B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

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Come to the High Country for some family fun in Banner Elk at this street festival featuring live music, craft and food vendors, and the annual woolly worm race. WOOLLYWORM.COM

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Best Southern Institution MERLEFEST TBD, 2019

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BRO’s Festival Guide comes out days after this festival finishes every year, but we’d be remiss not to mention this longstanding institution that’s beloved by acoustic music fans around the world. 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 roster featured Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Johnson, and Robert Earl Keen. MERLEFEST.ORG “We had 5,000 people show up to the first one...People come from all over the world, because it’s a tribute to someone special. We actually thought it would be a onetime thing, but it did so well the first year we decided to try it again. The next year attendance doubled. I wonder how it got this big sometimes, but then I remember Merle had thousands of friends. He was a fine young man.” —The late Doc Watson, on Merlefest, which he started in 1988 as a tribute his son Eddy Merle Watson.

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It has been said that the Clinch River is haunted by many spirits of yesteryear, with legends of busted stills and revenuers claiming victory during the bootleg era. Today you can experience the Spirits of the Clinch and taste the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best beers and wines!

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Come get lost and find yourself 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

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Athletes and spectators alike love these annual competitions in the Alleghany Highlands. Pristine lakes and rivers and courses with stunning mountain views make these scenic races Uniquely Alleghany.

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SUMMER TRAVEL IN SHENANDOAH COUNTY S P E C I A L A DV E RT I S I N G S E C T I O N

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COMING HOME REDISCOVERING MY HOMETOWN OF BERRYVILLE, VIRGINIA MACSON MCGUIGAN

n hour and a half west of our nation’s capital is the rural community of Berryville, Va., population 4,304. A seemingly idyllic oasis among the northern Virginia sprawl, Berryville has all of the ingredients to be an outdoor recreation hub—the Appalachian Trail and Shenandoah River are both just minutes from downtown. So what’s missing? I went home to find out. I always take the back roads when I’m home. My favorite is Lockes Mill. It begins at the end of Chilly Hollow, where pavement turns to gravel, and meanders along the bucolic banks of the Shenandoah River. In high school, my friends and I would pile into one car and cruise its dusty length for no other reason than to watch the valley fly past our windows. It’s a beautiful drive any time of year. In the summer, tubers can be seen floating downstream in pods, all legs and cold beer, basking in the dappled sunlight streaming through the canopy. When the leaves have fallen and the summer crowds abate, the sycamore trees stand guard alone, their watchful white trunks bowing over the river. The last time I drove Lockes Mill, it was an unusually mild winter day, the kind of crisp warmth that hinted spring was on its way. The sun was just beginning to dip beyond the horizon. As I passed by Watermelon Park, a bride-to-be looked up from her photo shoot. Out of reflex, I waved, and she returned the greeting with a smile that said I don’t know you, but I’m sure I do. That’s how it is in my hometown of Berryville, Virginia: everyone knows everyone. It feels deeply familiar here, a timelessness that transcends my own family’s relatively short history living in Clarke County. Case in point: over

30% of the county is located within five National Register historic districts. From battlefields to plantation estates and pastureland fenced in by centuries-old limestone walls, the county is a living, breathing chapter of an American history textbook. During the Civil War, the county was considered the “Bread Basket of the Confederacy.” The likes of George Washington and “the Gray Ghost” John Mosby made their way through here. After the war, wheat plantations turned to apple orchards and sprawling horse and cattle farms. I grew up on one of the latter, a 400-acre thoroughbred horse farm smack dab in the middle of the county. It was here at the northern tip of the Shenandoah Valley that I first came to know and love the outdoors. And while the county’s farmland obviously provides fertile ground for fostering a love of nature, there’s plenty more in the way of natural resources, too— namely the Shenandoah River and the Appalachian Trail—that perfectly position Berryville to be a leading outdoor town. Except, it’s not. Not yet, at least. BACK TO THE FUTURE

Stacey Ellis was born and raised in Clarke County. We met for the first time back in February on her family’s property, Oak Heart Farm, situated just outside of Berryville. As we walked along the quiet fields in the shadow of the mountains, Ellis told me how she convinced her husband to return to her hometown for a slower pace of life. They now raise their two boys just three miles from Ellis’ childhood home. “I love the fact that my kids have the same librarian that I did,” says Ellis. “I appreciate that I can take my kids down by the river and ride bikes on a

gravel road. I feel kinda lucky in that sense.” During the school year, Ellis is an Associate Professor and Program Lead of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Lord Fairfax Community College. In her hiking course, Ellis takes the class on day hikes and overnighters that are within the county or nearby, and says the majority of her students are unaware of the recreational amenities available in their own backyards. Given that local resources for recreation have expanded in recent years, the disconnect is surprising. In 2013, Shenandoah University purchased and preserved 195 acres along the Shenandoah River. Previously a golf course, the Shenandoah River Campus at Cool Spring Battlefield now serves as an outdoor classroom and offers easily accessible walking and biking trails for the public. Not long after the opening of Cool Spring, area mountain bikers secured access to the neighboring 1,400-acre Rolling Ridge Study Retreat. The 12mile Perimeter Trail is now the only technical riding within county limits. And in 2015, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy officially recognized Berryville as an Appalachian Trail Community. Situated just seven miles east of town, the white blaze runs for 22 miles through the county, including the 13-mile “Roller Coaster” section. Despite these developments, not much has changed about Berryville since I lived there. Even Ellis sees little difference between the Berryville she knew as a child and the Berryville her kids know now, which is part of its charm. There’s a new high school (finally), a roundabout, a Greek place where the Tastee Freez used to be.

BY JESS DADDIO

But compared to its neighbor Loudoun County, which has consistently ranked as one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, Clarke County feels remarkably stuck in time. Part of that is intentional says William Steinmetz, a local realtor and member of the town’s planning commission. Back in the 1980s, the county adopted Sliding Scale Zoning, which essentially concentrated growth in the town and limited development in the rural areas of the county. In effect, that zoning allowed Clarke County to maintain its open spaces, even while the rest of northern Virginia erupted in D.C. sprawl. Additionally, the county has long prioritized conservation. Not including the Appalachian Trail, over 27,000 acres (that’s one-quarter of the county) are currently protected in conservation easements. “Geographically it can’t be ignored,” says Steinmetz. “It’s a really unique place that somebody started planning long before anybody was paying attention to that. It’s a reasonable distance from Washington, D.C., but we’re close to I-81, we’re on the river, there’s a mountain range that runs through the county, and there’s intentional open space but still a robust downtown that chooses to incorporate all of that into its identity.” By all appearances, Berryville should be leading the way when it comes to bolstering an outdoor recreation economy. The town already has trail and river access, low-traffic country roads ideal for road cycling, a thriving arts scene headed by the Barns of Rose Hill, and killer bluegrass festivals like Watermelon Park Festival and Pasturepalooza. Located at the crossroads of routes 7 and 340, it’s easy to get to. There are three wineries and a number of quality restaurants. So what

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is keeping Berryville in the proverbial dark? “This town walks into the future backwards,” says local and A.T. section hiker Lee Sheaffer. “It’s always looking behind them and a lot of that is good. You don’t want to change the quality of the community. But there are certain things that could be enhanced that are not going to change that quality and might actually help economically.” Throughout his own Appalachian Trail experience, Sheaffer has passed through many towns that, when it comes to trail hospitality, are doing it right. Places like Waynesboro, Glasgow, and Damascus, Va., aren’t just conveniently located on or near the trail; they’re actively improving amenities for hikers to make the entire experience feel more welcoming. Even Front Royal, Va., just down the road from Berryville provides hiker boxes and shuttles to and from the trailhead. “It would be advantageous to the town to really embrace the longdistance thru hikers,” says Sheaffer. “In Waynesboro, everything is really spread out. It’s almost a mile from where they put you up in a campsite to all of the businesses. In Berryville, if we can figure out somewhere to put these hikers up, everything you need is within 100 yards of where the center of town is: the post office, grocery store, laundromat, doctor. It would kinda be a no-brainer for people to come in and resupply.” What Berryville is missing is affordable lodging. There are a few Airbnbs and bed and breakfasts, but not many. In 2013, a hotel feasibility study was completed, and support seems to be building behind the development of a small hotel. As far as camping, Rose Hill Park on East Main Street seems like the obvious place to let thru hikers crash, but opponents say allowing hikers to camp in town will increase vagrancy. That’s not been Sheaffer’s experience. Even if problems do arise, he says, the economic benefits would far outweigh the challenges. “Talk to the Winks over at the Horsehoe Curve Restaurant [near the Appalachian Trail]. They know that dirty hikers come in with cash in hand. And here’s the thing—yes, they might smell and they might be dirty, but first off, they want a shower as bad as you want them to take one, and secondly, most hikers are newly graduated or newly retired. They have money and are willing to spend it for a certain amount of comfort.” 58

THE TIMES, ARE THEY A-CHANGIN’?

Even more so than the county’s Sliding Scale Zoning, what’s keeping Berryville seemingly unchanged is the pervading sentiment that life is good, simple, and sweet. The influx of people moving to town from Ashburn, Leesburg, and Purcellville come specifically for that easygoing pace. Change, however well intentioned, could threaten that. “The crown jewel of Clarke County is its country roads and the road cycling experience,” says Frederick County Park and Stewardship Planner Jon Turkel, “but improving that comes with its own balance of challenges. You want to promote things to benefit from them but at the same time, you want to be careful that you don’t change the character in a way that would alter the interest or appeal of whatever that experience happens to be. It’s always a fine line between getting people to come and feeling like maybe there are too many people around.” On any given summer day, the adverse effects of overuse can be seen in no better place than Lockes Mill, my beloved backroad. The Shenandoah River only has three access points in the county and one of those is Lockes Landing. Not only is the boat launch at Lockes Landing the smallest of the three, it’s also the most popular. “I think people are recognizing the river is a great place to go but it turns negative when people are parking alongside the road,” says Clarke County Natural Resource Planner Alison Teetor. “It’s pretty overcrowded on the weekends and it is getting worse.” The resulting tension, here and at other heavily used access points like the Appalachian Trail parking lot at Snickers Gap, pits private landowners against outdoor enthusiasts. That, in and of itself, can stall progress. The hope, says farmer and author Forrest Pritchard, is that the community can come together behind not just outdoor recreation but tourism in general to help diversify the county’s economy. “If farmers have the wisdom to view this objectively, it might not necessarily be in their interest to bring in more folks but what it would benefit is our local tax dollars,” says Pritchard. “Clarke County is not some mining town out in the middle of remote Idaho. It’s ideally set up for tourism. I kinda consider Clarke like grandma’s dusty pearls sitting in her jewelry box. We know what we’ve got, we’ve appreciated it, but we’re still waiting to be fully discovered. When you find grandma’s vintage jewelry from the ‘20s, it suddenly comes back in style.”

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

Pritchard is part of a growing movement in Clarke County to meld the old with the new. Smithfield Farm has been in his family for seven generations, and in the past two decades, Pritchard has singlehandedly changed the farm from commodity based agriculture to a sustainable grass-finished livestock operation that direct markets all of its food. During the season, Pritchard leads farm tours. He sees agritourism as a viable, alternative means of income for farms throughout the county. At the end of the day, Berryville needs more Pritchards to not only champion the potential but to then roll up their sleeves and make it happen. It’s easier said than done. Those who were born and raised and stayed in Clarke County might be like Mark Timberlake, who took over the family cattle farm some 20 years ago. Timberlake majored in outdoor recreation and was a raft guide and video boater on the New and Gauley Rivers throughout the ‘90s, but when he and his wife Michelle moved back to his father’s farm, all of that took a backseat to running a cattle operation. “The first 10 years were really hard for me to get this thing up and going,” he says. “It took a lot of time working to get the farm where it needed to be, but raising our kids here in Clarke County on a 500-acre cattle farm, I can’t see any other place I’d want to be.” Michelle agrees that as far as quality of life, Clarke County has it all. Both Mark and Michelle are mountain bikers now and enjoy the local trail at Rolling Ridge. She says compared to other small town recreation hubs like Davis, W.Va., Berryville ranks right up there with the rest as far as amenities. What it needs is to keep momentum rolling forward. “I see so much potential of what could be done,” she says. “I think it will come, it’s just going to take the younger people not just demanding it but making it happen.” T H E M A K I N G O F A M O U N TA I N T O W N

Dig deeper into any small town success story and it’s clear the common denominator isn’t just the close proximity to rivers and mountains. It’s the selfless work of passionate people. Take Franklin, N.C., for example. Back in 2010, when Outdoor 76 coowners Cory McCall and Rob Gasbarro opened up their outdoor outfitter and taproom, Franklin’s Main Street was B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

boarded up. Nobody thought they would make it through the year. Today, Franklin supports a thriving outdoors community comprised of tourists, locals, and those dirty Appalachian Trail thru hikers. There’s a budding restaurant scene and two breweries (in a town of 3,500). The town won our Top Towns contest two years in a row in 2015 and 2016. And at the heart of it all are Cory, Rob, Outdoor 76, and their hallmark race The Naturalist 25K and 50K. About a half-hour’s drive north of Berryville, the college town of Shepherdstown, W.Va., has experienced similar success in the realm of outdoor tourism. Overlooking a bend of the Potomac River right at the Maryland - West Virginia border, the town of approximately 2,000 has always had a youthful vibe to it, thanks to the presence of Shepherd University. But with the exception of the cyclists touring the C&O Canal, outdoor recreation played very little role in the town’s identity. Then, between 2008 and 2009, two outdoor stores came to town that reshaped the local community: Shepherdstown Peddle & Paddle and Two Rivers Treads. With the support of these two shops and the creation of Freedom’s Run, an annual running race that funds numerous trail projects, Shepherdstown’s local outdoor community blossomed. For Eddie Sampson, owner of Shepherdstown Peddle & Paddle, the longevity of his business (which will celebrate its 11th anniversary this year) had everything to do with supporting locals first. “For the most part, people living in a community don’t want others coming into their town because it gets crowded out, but when people start to realize that added amenities improve their quality of life every day and should be shared, it’s possible to get everyone on the same page,” says Sampson. “It can work for everyone. This is how small towns survive these days.” For Two Rivers Treads owner and local doctor Mark Cucuzzella, serving the local community meant more than just providing a place for runners to buy shoes. It meant organizing group runs, providing free-of-charge seminars on nutrition and diabetes reversal, and even offering cooking classes to help West Virginia address some of its most serious health issues. It also meant relocating his business out of Shepherdstown to the nearby town of Ranson, a suburb of G O O U TA N D P L AY

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

Charles Town. Unlike Shepherdstown and Charles Town, Ranson lacked a lot of the resources its sister cities had. It was like “the poor steptown” in Jefferson County, says Cucuzzella. But over the past few years, the town has made many drastic improvements to its walkability by revitalizing sidewalks and adding streetlights. A multiuse trail connecting Charles Town and Ranson has already been approved and received funding. Cucuzzella’s shop is one of the pillar retail businesses in Ranson’s downtown sector. When he goes out for a run, whether that’s in Ranson or in Shepherdstown, he’s rarely the only runner out there, and that, he says, is the first indication that a community is well on its way to becoming a mountain town. “You’ve got to have playgrounds and walkable safe streets,” says Cucuzzella. “That’s your first step. You don’t need a national or state park, because even if you had that a mile away, if you gotta get in the car and drive there, it loses its impact because the kids that will need that experience most don’t have a car. Sure, it’s great to have a Harpers Ferry or an Antietam nearby, but an outdoor town can be one that just gets people outside.”

MICHELLE AND HER HUSBAND MARK TIMBERLAKE RIDING AT R O L L I N G R I D G E N E A R T H E SHENANDOAH RIVER CAMPUS AT C O O L S P R I N G B AT T L E F I E L D .

KEVIN WETZEL

By Cucuzzella’s reasoning, maybe Berryville isn’t so far behind after all. Sure, there aren’t any cycling events like there used to be. There’s no brewery in town to make thirsty hikers linger longer. There’s no outfitter or bike shop or guiding service. But what Berryville lacks in these it makes up for with a remarkable pride in sense of place that is every bit as centered on the outdoors as all of the Boulders and Ashevilles of the world. And perhaps, like Forrest Pritchard’s grandma’s set of forgotten pearls, Berryville is quietly shining in its own little corner, waiting to be discovered.

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M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

THE HUNT FOR

ERIC RUDOLPH TWENTY YEARS AGO, THE BIGGEST MANHUNT IN HISTORY TOOK PLACE IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA FOR THE OLYMPIC PARK AND ABORTION CLINIC BOMBER. BY KIM DINAN

On July 27, 1996, Eric Rudolph bombed the summer Olympics in Atlanta. Over the next eighteen months a string of other bombings followed. Authorities finally closed in on Rudolph, but before they could nab him, he fled into North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest. In the end, his manhunt cost millions and set off a culture clash that reverberated throughout the mountains and beyond.

EXTREMIST ADOLESCENCE

By the time that Rudolph disappeared into the Nantahala National Forest on January 30, 1998, he knew the woods well. But he wasn’t a native North Carolina boy. Rudolph was born in Homestead, Florida, a flat savannah popping with palm trees, a landscape void of the forested ridgelines and plunging gorges he would one day call home. According to Rolling Stone, Rudolph’s parents, Robert and

Patricia, met in Manhattan. They were 1960s optimists and followers of Dorothy Day, a social activist who ran soup kitchens and led demonstrations against the Vietnam War. The couple soon left New York and set their sights on the Sunshine State. Robert got a job with Trans World Airlines and they had six kids. Religion was a major part of their lives. All in all, the family lived a pretty typical existence until 1981 when Robert died from cancer. After that, Patricia had the responsibility of raising all those kids on her own and it tested her faith. “I was mad at God,” she told Rolling Stone. “[God] didn’t heal Bob. Didn’t do anything.” Some people point to this moment in time as Rudolph’s extremists beginnings, noting that the family may have blamed the federal powersthat-be for not green-lighting an experimental treatment that could have saved his life. Rudolph was 15, an impressionable age, and surely affected by his father’s death. Shortly after the family lost its patriarch, Patricia packed up the kids and moved to 6 acres in Nantahala, North Carolina. The family lived off the grid, growing food and herbs and raising goats, ducks and chickens. They built

a water system that did not require electricity. Rudolph spent a lot of time outside and a lot of time with his neighbor, Thomas Wayne Branham, a man of radical politics who considered himself to be free of the confines of state and local laws. When Rudolph was 17, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided Branham’s home. According to Rolling Stone, they found a submachine gun, a short-barreled shotgun, two M-16 conversion kits, four sticks of dynamite, electric blasting caps and manuals about bombs and other unconventional warfare devices. Branham was outraged at what he saw as a major invasion of privacy. The Rudolphs were pissed about it too. By this point Eric had dropped out of high school and Patricia was home schooling him. She’s quoted as saying, “I taught [my kids] to be creative thinkers. [To] not accept the status quo, always question.” Even so, later that year, at the encouragement of Branham, she packed Eric up and moved him and his little brother to Schell City, Mo., where Dan Gayman, a leader in the Church of Israel and follower of the anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic Christian Identity Movement, maintained a compound. They lasted four months

before retreating back home to the mountains of North Carolina. It’s unclear what Eric Rudolph gleaned from the experience, but for her part, Patricia described that time period by saying, “everybody makes mistakes.” After that, Eric earned his GED and attended a few semesters of college at Western Carolina University. When he dropped out of college he joined the Army and served with the 101st Airborne Division. At Fort Campbell in Kentucky, he learned how to handle explosives. But his time in the military was cut short when he was discharged for using marijuana. Once again, Rudolph came back to the Nantahala Mountains. He lived alone and supported himself doing carpentry jobs in the region. He didn’t use credit cards or bank accounts because he believed that authorities would track him through his card number. In 1996 he toyed with the idea of leaving North Carolina, lamenting the fact that the mountains were becoming too populated. According to Rolling Stone, he also believed that the bigwigs in Washington D.C. were plotting to provoke a national catastrophe and use it as a reason to declare martial law. Their end game, thought Rudolph, was to throw all Christians, including

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himself, into concentration camps. He left Nantahala but didn’t go far, renting a trailer 30 miles down the road in Murphy. A few months later, bombs began exploding across the south.

A BOMB GOES OFF

In July 1996, athletes from around the world converged in Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the Olympic summer games. A few years earlier, the International Olympic Committee had voted to separate the winter and summer games, holding them in alternating years, and this was the first time the summer games were to be held on their own. At the opening ceremony, Celine Dion crooned the official Olympic theme song called “The Power of the Dream,” and Gladys Knight belted “Georgia on my Mind.” An entertainment showcase called “Welcome to the World,” featured bouncing cheerleaders, 2-step marching bands, and Chevy pickup trucks meant to demonstrate to the world the weekend football culture of the South. It’s doubtful that Rudolph, who was likely still 120 miles away in Murphy, saw any of this. According to The New York Times, about midway through the summer

games, on July 27, 1996, someone called 911 in Atlanta. “There is a bomb in Centennial Park,” said the caller. “You have 30 minutes.” A security guard discovered the explosive hidden inside an abandoned backpack and began evacuating the area. Still, the bomb exploded, spewing nails and shrapnel into the crowd. A 44-year-old woman named Alice Hawthorne was killed and over 100 others were injured. Authorities suspected the security guard—no one yet knew the name Eric Robert Rudolph. Six months later, on January 16, 1997, bombs exploded in Atlanta once again. This time, two bombs detonated outside of the Northside Family Planning Services clinic, a health care provider that performed abortions. No one was killed in the bombing, but 4 people were injured. On February 21, 1997, another bomb went off. This time the target was the Otherside Lounge, a gay nightclub in Atlanta. The blast injured 4 people, and a second bomb exploded while being handled by police robots. Rudolph’s final bomb detonated a year and a half after the Atlanta Olympics outside of the New Woman

All Women Health Care Center in Birmingham, Alabama—a clinic that also provided abortions. This time, an off-duty police officer was killed in the blast and a nurse severely injured. Unlike in bombings past, this time a vigilant bystander saw a man walking away from the chaos and tracked him back to his truck, taking note of his North Carolina license plate. The next day, news organizations began receiving anonymous letters crediting the Virginia-based Christian anti-abortion terrorist group Army of God with the bombings. The New York Times reported that the letters warned that “anyone in or around facilities that murder children may become victims of retribution.” The letters also said, “death to the New World Order.” But by the time the letters began arriving at media outlets, federal agents were closing in on Rudolph. Unaware that he had been identified, Rudolph spent his day renting a movie and grabbing a meal at Burger King. Bill Hughes was the Mayor of Murphy from 1997-2017 and remembers the time well. The frustration in his voice mounts as he recounts the events around the day that Rudolph went missing. “Our sheriff at the time was Jack

Thompson,” explains Hughes. “When the FBI called him he said, ‘I know where [Rudolph] lives and I’ve got a plan. We’re going to surround the trailer so he can’t get out.’” But the FBI had other plans. “They said, ‘Absolutely not. You wait until we get there,’” remembers Hughes. “Well, it took them three hours to get to Atlanta. By the time they got with the sheriff and got out to Rudolph’s place, he was gone.” When federal and local authorities arrived at Rudolph’s trailer, they found the door swinging open and the lights on. They surmised that he had managed to grab a month’s worth of food—raisins, green beans, and trail mix, before bolting. His truck was found abandoned in the woods about a week later by two raccoon hunters. Rudolph was definitely gone. And he remained gone for a very long time.

THE MANHUNT

Under a robin’s egg sky, I drive to the town of Murphy, North Carolina, hoping to dig through a file of newspaper clippings preserved at the Murphy Public Library. My route from Asheville leads me through the Nantahala National Forest, where Rudolph lived before moving to

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Murphy. Nantahala is a Cherokee word that means “land of the noonday sun,” but the hemlock, oak, pine and rhododendron are so thick beyond my windshield that it’s a wonder the light in these woods can reach the ground at all. I drive past Andrews High School, where Rudolph sometimes sat in a tidy mountaintop camp only 200 yards away, a spot that provided him a birds-eye-view of town. A few minutes later, I pass the Western Carolina Regional Airport, where, as Bill Hughes tells it, a Learjet carrying a man with a briefcase would land just about every week while Rudolph was on the run. Twenty minutes later, I arrive in Murphy, the town where Rudolph was living when he disappeared, and park my car behind the modest public library. Inside, the librarian hands me a fat manila folder and sits down to chat. She didn’t live in Murphy when Rudolph was on the lam, but she did come to town for vacation one year and remembers when the Armory was used as FBI headquarters and helicopters roamed the sky searching for Rudolph. “We still have his library card,” she tells me. He’d come in sometimes to borrow books before he disappeared into the forest. They have a copy of the book Rudolph wrote from behind bars, too, called Between the Lines of Drift: Memoirs of a Militant. It was self-published and distributed online by Army of God, the organization that first sent those letters claiming responsibility for the bombings. But the Murphy Public Library bought their copy directly from Rudolph’s own mother. The librarian tells me that Rudolph describes in his memoir how he would steal books from the Book Mobile they used to have parked out back, right there in the middle of town. What I’m looking for I don’t quite know. The folder contains articles clipped from the Asheville CitizenTimes and the Atlanta JournalConstitution and printed from The New York Times. They document the days after Rudolph’s capture, when the media descended upon the tiny hamlet and Murphy, North Carolina became the center of the world. But before that day, there were five years that preceded it. Five years where the FBI scoured the

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Nantahala National Forest with bloodhounds, electronic motion detectors, and heat-sensing helicopters. They set up listing posts with cameras and hired local scouts to tromp through the woods with gridded maps. They named Eric Robert Rudolph to their Most Wanted List and put a $1,000,000 price tag on his head. That’s when the bounty hunters came crashing into town, determined to make a fortune off of finding Rudolph. From the very beginning, there seemed to be a rift between the federal authorities and the locals who knew the area well. In 1998, Chris West, who at the time was the assistant police chief of Andrews, told the Citizen-Times, “The FBI is keeping it pretty hush. We could have given them help with the terrain, shown them spots they need to check out—caves, caverns, old mountain homes. But they haven’t asked us.” Doug Franklin was living in Nantahala during the manhunt years. He didn’t know Rudolph, but they shared the same occupation. At the time, Franklin was doing carpentry work in Andrews, and each day as he commuted to and from work, he’d drive by a spot on the side of the road where the FBI had a small command center. “It seemed to me like a farce more than anything else,” Franklin said. “They had coffee pots set up on the side of the road, and you’d see them sitting or standing there and their uniforms were perfectly clean. No dirt on it, just a clean uniform. So that told me that they hadn’t been very far out in the woods looking for him.” It’s probably not a far stretch to assume that many people in town viewed the FBI with a skeptical eye. They were seen as city slickers who swooped into the mountains without any real knowledge of the terrain they were working with. “I felt like the government was just using it as a training exercise more than anything else,” says Franklin. “Maybe using it to get more publicity and get more funding.” At the same time, the FBI did not try to hide the fact that they believed that many of the locals sympathized with Rudolph and may have even been helping him evade capture. Kelly Bryant lives in a little community called Marble that sits halfway between Andrews and Murphy. Back in the 90s she worked at a gas station in the area, and Rudolph would come in from time to time. After his escape, she assumed people were helping him. “I assumed that’s the only way he could stay alive in the woods that long. But that’s just me,” she says. When I asked her if she ever worried that Rudolph might come out of the woods and hurt someone, she replies, “Honestly that never crossed my mind. I figured he would stay in hiding for as long as he could.” I can find no current or historical expression of fear from anyone discussing Eric Rudolph. On my drive into town, I passed a smattering of pro-life billboards, and it’s no secret the way politics lean in most small, Southern towns. I wonder if the lack of fear M AY 2 0 1 8 / B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M

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came from knowing that a small town with conservative values would never be Rudolph’s target. He was just their extremist in the woods. Bill Hughes is adamant that Rudolph never received any outside help. “I said from the beginning Eric Robert Rudolph was a lone wolf. He was the kind of person who felt like if more than one person knows something, it’s no longer a secret.” Until the day of his capture, the last confirmed sighting of Eric Rudolph was on July 7, 1998, when he showed up at health food store owner George Nordmann’s house in Andrews and asked for help. Nordmann says he declined to help, but he didn’t report the encounter until two days later when Rudolph stole his truck and 75 pounds of food. Police recovered Nordmann’s vehicle abandoned at a trailhead, but by then, Rudolph had disappeared into the woods again. Hughes said that occasionally they would hear of a cabin or summer home being broken into, but nothing was ever destroyed. “Things would be taken like soap, toothpaste, underwear, socks, a heavy jacket— something like that,” says Hughes. “They suspected that was Rudolph.” Meanwhile, authorities continued to comb the mountains around Murphy. An FBI Scout who shared his story with me on the condition of anonymity said that he was hired because of his familiarity with the area. “The FBI made it known that they were looking for people with local knowledge of the terrain,” he said. They hunted all around the Nantahala National Forest within a 45-minute drive of Wesser, North Carolina. “Much of the terrain was rugged and remote,” he said, “but some was near houses. We spent a fair bit of time observing within four miles of his last known habitation.” Each week the scout and his team, 66

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who were assigned aliases and called by those names, would receive a map with grids to search. At the end of the week, they’d meet with FBI agents in their black Suburbans at a rendezvous point and report anything questionable they had seen. Then they were paid in cash. When I asked the scout if he received any special training to hunt for Rudolph, he said that it was easy to prepare. “We all knew how to read maps, we knew the terrain, we were all outdoorsmen and women, and we didn’t mind being uncomfortable in any weather. It was often cold and there was a lot of snow. Most of us did not have weapons— maybe a knife. It was fun.” But all of that manpower led to nothing. By 2000, the search had been scaled back. By the spring of 2002 there were only a dozen agents on the case. A year later, there were only two agents in Asheville coordinating a team of paid scouts. There was speculation that Rudolph had died somewhere out there in the dense, wet woods. The FBI spent five years and a reported $24 million searching for Rudolph and turned up emptyhanded. Then on May 31, 2003, a 21-year-old rookie with the Murphy Police Department named Jeffrey Postell caught a man dumpster diving behind the Save-a-Lot in the middle of the night. When asked his name, the man said he was Jerry Wilson of Ohio. “I didn’t have a clue who he was,” Postell later told MSNBC. Without even knowing it, Postell had just apprehended one of the most wanted men in America.

BROUGHT TO JUSTICE

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initially mistook for a weapon. When he pulled his gun, the man peacefully surrendered. Confronted back at the station, Rudolph quickly owned up to his identity. “You know it’s interesting,” Hughes tells me, “when Postell had him in the back of the car he mumbled something like, “I’m glad it’s over. I’m tired of running.” After five years and one of the nation’s most costly manhunts, the whole thing ended in an anticlimactic whimper. When he was arrested, Rudolph was wearing a blue work shirt and pants, running shoes, and a camouflage jacket. His hair was cropped short and he had a mustache. His fingernails were clean. Though he’d dropped 30 or 40 pounds, the fact that he wasn’t a wild-haired, rag-wearing vagrant added to the speculation that he’d had help along the way. Once again, the media descended upon Murphy. “Suddenly there were snipers on top of every building,” remembers Hughes. “The courthouse and jail were cordoned off. There were TV trucks everywhere. After his arrest, I counted 26 satellite trucks in Murphy. The joke was the reporters had to wear arm bands to keep from interviewing

each other.” Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a statement saying, “American law enforcement’s unyielding efforts to capture Eric Robert Rudolph have been rewarded. Working with law enforcement nationwide, the FBI always gets their man.” It was a boastful pat on the back that must have had many in Murphy rolling their eyes. After his arrest, details began to emerge about Rudolph’s years on the run. “He had two locations,” says Hughes. “He had one here on the mountain close to Murphy where he could keep watch on FBI movements every day. And he had a camp near Fires Creek.” It was here in the Fires Creek area that authorities found a campsite hidden deep in the woods. It was scattered with deer hides, wild turkey remains, a high-powered rifle, and food containers that Rudolph may have hung from the trees to keep the animals away. Authorities also found plywood, roofing paper, books, and cooking supplies. At the time, the Sheriff of Clay County, Tony Woody, was quoted as saying, “you could walk within 10 feet of it and never see it.” From prison, Rudolph began writing letters to his mother describing how

he managed to survive in the woods for so long. He told stories of raiding dumpsters at McDonalds and the grocery store. Sometimes he’d dig through the dumpster at the movie theater for popcorn. He’d pluck food from gardens and pilfer grain from silos, transporting it all in a truck he stole from a used car lot. Back at camp, he would boil the grains and then pound them into pancakes and fry them. He told his jailers that he lived off of nuts, berries, wild turkey, bear and salamanders that he swallowed whole like sushi. In that version of the story, Rudolph paints himself as a survivalist. But from the stories he tells his mother, it sounds as though Rudolph spent much of his time lurking in the shadows on the edge of society, living off the excess of the community. Today, Eric Rudolph spends 22.5 hours alone in an 80-foot concrete cell. He’ll spend the rest of his life in prison without the chance of parole after pleading guilty to all of the charges he was accused of in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. As a part of the deal, he also agreed to show the FBI where he had hidden 250 pounds of dynamite in the forest. He was sent to ADX Florence Supermax

federal prison in Colorado, and it is there where he will spend the rest of his days. Through it all, Rudolph denied having any help surviving in the woods. The FBI eventually accepted the theory that he acted alone.

CULTURE CLASH

Bill Hughes was angry then, and it still gets his guff now, that some of the media portrayed the town of Murphy as a backwoods dot on the map filled with townies that ideologically supported Eric Rudolph. “They painted a picture of us being illiterate hillbillies down here—just a little two-bit, sawmill, every other building a church sort of thing,” says Hughes. “They said we were able to identify with Rudolph and were sympathetic to him, which was totally false.” Yet newspapers of the time reported that residents printed bumper stickers that said “Run, Rudolph, Run,” and wore t-shirts that read “1998 Hide and Seek Champion Eric Rudolph.” After his arrest, the local coffee shop served “Captured Cappuccinos” and a sign posted outside of town read “Pray for Eric Rudolph.” The Christian Science Monitor ran a story claiming that Rudolph autographed his “Wanted” posters for sheriff’s

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deputies after his arrest. It’s easy to see how the whole thing could have felt like a three-ring circus for residents that were used to living in sleepy little Murphy, that their actions were good-natured and simply meant to poke fun at all of the hoopla. But Rudolph wasn’t a funny guy, and many construed those actions as a distasteful expression of support for the bomber. Dig through the papers of the time and you’ll see that dynamic play out on a wider stage. Letters to the editors of papers in Asheville and Atlanta illustrate how some viewed Rudolph as a folk hero. One letter to the Citizen-Times dated June 14, 2003 encouraged the FBI and the courts to have compassion towards the “dear souls” who may have been helping Rudolph hide. The author of the letter wondered if investigators would find that people aiding Rudolph were just “merely a product of their Appalachian upbringin’ where folk learn to take care of one another,” adding that perhaps helping those in need is “the very nature of the natives of Western North Carolina.” Another letter to the Citizen-Times states flatly, “If I had lived in Murphy, I would have helped him.”

But an opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that ran the same week reminded readers that “eluding capture in the wilds of North Carolina doesn’t make Rudolph a folk hero.” And when an author from North Carolina wrote a sentimental and sympathetic op-ed in The New York Times called “Why We Fed the Bomber,” responses published a week later pushed back. “Let me be clear,” came one letter from Raleigh, “overwhelmingly, the people of North Carolina believe Eric Rudolph to be a bigoted and cowardly killer.” The years have passed in Murphy and the name Eric Robert Rudolph is no longer on the tip of anyone’s tongue. “He’s faded into memory,” says Kelly Bryant. “Unless there is an anniversary or someone makes a point of bringing it up, he isn’t talked about anymore.” “I haven’t heard anything about him in years,” says Doug Franklin. “I assume he’s still in prison, but I don’t even know.” E R I C R U D O L P H B O M B E D C E N T E N N I A L PA R K I N D O W N T O W N AT L A N T A D U R I N G T H E O L Y M P I C GAMES IN 1996, KILLING ONE WOMAN AND INJURING 100 OTHERS.

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For 100 years, summer camps have been a mainstay of western North Carolina’s culture. There are over 50 residential summer camps spread among four counties— Transylvania, Henderson, Buncombe, and Jackson—making western North Carolina the most concentrated summer camp area in the world. So what impact have summer camps had on the region? We asked some of North Carolina’s outdoor industry leaders to find out.

IN COLLEGE, AMY ALLISON WAS LOST. BORN AND raised in the Louisiana bayou, Allison wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but so far as she could tell, the College of Charleston didn’t have it. One day, when she was studying for a test in the library, Allison came across a pamphlet that listed summer camps in the area. On a whim, she applied for a camp counselor position at Camp Kahdalea in Brevard, N.C. She was accepted, and after three years of going to school in Charleston and working in Brevard during the summers, she left Charleston for good. “It was this random thing that definitely changed my life and put me on a different path,” says Allison, now the Marketing Team Manager for Eagles Nest Outfitters (ENO). “Summer camp was the gateway to put me on a track that I knew I wanted to be on but didn’t know how to start.” Allison eventually finished school at Brevard College. When she finally left her job at Camp Kahdalea after two years of working there full-time, she got a job with Leave No Trace and, later, Landmark Learning. In addition to her full-time gig at ENO, she’s also Chair of the Outdoor Gear Builders of Western North Carolina, an organization comprised of 27 outdoor brands located in her backyard. If you hang around western North Carolina’s outdoor industry long enough, eventually, you’ll hear a story similar to Allison’s: a child or young adult discovers the outdoors through summer camp, either as a camper or counselor, and their world pivots 180 degrees. That’s how it happened for Bunny Johns. A competitive swimmer in high school, Johns didn’t have much lined up after graduation. She earned a little money on the side waiting tables in Atlanta, but then she got a call saying she was no longer needed. Almost as soon as she had lost that job, a friend called to offer her another one: teaching swimming at Camp MerrieWoode in Sapphire, N.C. Without hesitation, Johns signed on. Founded in 1919, Camp MerrieWoode is a residential summer camp for girls. When Johns showed up to camp in 1959, Merrie-Woode offered one of the most robust canoeing programs in the region. Through its Captains Program, Johns learned to canoe, and for the next five summers, she never once returned to teach swimming. She became head of the boat dock and taught hundreds of girls to paddle. Simultaneously, Johns’ paddling career

skyrocketed. In 1964 during her last summer at camp, Johns and a handful of camp staff made the first successful descent of section three on the Chattooga. A few years later, she was also on the first descent of the West Fork of the Tuckasegee. “All of this was new to women at that time,” Johns says. “I mean, it was new for me. I’d been in high school, played basketball, been on the swimming team, but this had a huge impact on me. It’s why I am where I am today and why my life took the course that it did. Camp Merrie-Woode has been the basis for the arc of what has been the rest of my life.” In 2017, Johns was inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame for her influence on the sport of kayaking. Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, Johns won a number of gold medals at the Open Boat and Wildwater Nationals and World Championships. From 1976-2000, she taught canoeing and kayaking through the American Canoe Association while serving as Department Head, Vice President, and eventually President of the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). Aside from developing a love of whitewater, Johns says working at a summer camp taught her how to work with people of all ages and all backgrounds, a skill she might not have learned otherwise. “I had never been much of a babysitter,” she says. Now in her late 70s, Johns still hikes and paddles. She even advises Merrie-Woode to a certain extent. She recognizes that summer camps are unobtainable experiences for many middle class and lower income families, but she says there’s no doubt that for those who are fortunate enough to attend or even work at a camp, the lasting impact is tremendous. “The camps in western North Carolina have put out a diaspora of kids from all over that have more of an appreciation for the outdoors. That camps have continued through so many generations means there must be something to it.”

The Summer Camp Economy Back in 2011, North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Youth Camp Association (NCYCA) discovered that that “something to it” went well beyond anecdotal observations. The joint study found that residential summer camps poured $365 million back into those four counties’ economies. The 50 summer camps studied additionally created

more than 10,000 full-time jobs and $33 million in tax revenues. The first time NCYCA studied western North Carolina’s summer camp economic impact was back in 1999, when even the camps themselves had little idea as to just how important their establishments were. That year, NCYCA looked at only 40 summer camps, but it was clear even then that their contributions to the local economy were substantial: $96.2 million to be exact. While only 10% of summer camp staff are hired to work full-time, there are hundreds of seasonal positions available every year. According to the 2011 economic impact study, women make up the majority of the seasonal staff at 69% with 72% of part-time camp jobs held by young people between the ages of 16 and 29. Rockbrook Summer Camp for Girls Whitewater Director Leland Davis says that those jobs have helped churn out industry leaders for decades. “If you’re talking to somebody who teaches or guides paddling around here, you’re almost guaranteed to find out that they did summer camp at some point,” he says. “There’s a zillion jobs for that so it’s really common for people to try working at camps at some point or another.” If they’re anything like Davis, chances are they’ll continue working outdoors in some capacity. As a child, Davis was a camper at Camp Arrowhead, now called Camp Glen Arden. He later worked his way through the ranks as a junior counselor, counselor, and program manager. After living on the road for a decade as a full-time kayaker, Davis returned to the camp industry in 2012 to run Rockbrook’s whitewater program. This year marks his 28th season working at a summer camp in North Carolina. “I would argue that a college-aged person who goes to work for a camp and really puts their heart into it will get more out of that than any kind of corporate internship. They’ll be more prepared to tackle the world in front of them because there are fun times and there are difficult times and you kinda learn how to work through both of those.” So says Fritz Orr III, the grandson to Fritz Orr, Sr., longtime owner of Camp Merrie-Woode. From the day he was born, Orr was involved in North Carolina’s camp scene. His grandfather and Frank Bell, Sr., founder of Camp Mondamin in Tuxedo, N.C., were old camp buddies from Camp Toccoa in Georgia. The Orr family ran Camp

Merrie-Woode until 1978, the year the camp became a non-profit. As a teenager whose parents ran a girls’ camp, Orr kept busy by helping build the very boats Bunny Johns and her staff would use on trips. A master paddler himself who accompanied then Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter on that historic descent of the Chattooga in 1974, Orr later went on to compete both in wildwater and open canoe. During the early 1990s, he raced at 28 world championships and, as he says, “put a few national championships in my back pocket.” Orr has been front and center for all of kayaking’s most notable developments: first in the ‘70s when kayaking made its debut at the Olympics and the film Deliverance hit screens nationwide, and again during the ‘90s when the playboating revolution changed the sport forever. For years, Orr worked with Dagger to develop numerous boats, most notably the RPM. To this day, he continues to hand build canoe paddles (which made him a finalist in the 2010 Garden and Gun Made in the South awards) and teach canoeing at Camp High Rock. Everything he’s ever done in life, Orr credits to summer camps. He says the longstanding success of western North Carolina’s summer camps isn’t about location or programming, although both of those are certainly exceptional. He says it’s the level of competency displayed by camp staff that really makes a summer camp great. “I think today a lot of people would be pretty impressed with the professionalism that is involved in a lot of the Southeast’s camps,” he says. “The bar that the directors and the full-time staff hold up is very, very high. There are a lot of moving parts to get right, and there are a lot of camps here getting it right.” That’s something Landmark Learning founder Justin Padgett has also witnessed, especially within the past decade. When Padgett started Landmark Learning in 1996, camps were one of the organization’s main clients. Over the years, he’s been impressed to see the commitment western North Carolina’s camps have made toward building competent staff in-house and credits that to the camps’ high staff retention rates. “A camp professional is more of a professional,” he says. “You need a deeper and stronger resume than you used to. You have to be better than just a good person to be hired at these camps. You have to have the skills to

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back it up.” Padgett and his wife Mairi also went to summer camp, though not in western North Carolina. Both of their children go to summer camp—this year, their daughter will be attending her third summer at Camp Green Cove while their son will be heading to Camp Mondamin for the first time. Padgett thinks it’s this tradition—of parents going to summer camp and then sending their kids to summer camp, and so on and so forth—that has absolutely turned western North Carolina into a major player in the outdoor industry. “The camps are strategically integral in the whole development of our economy in western North Carolina,” he says. “It was really the camps that started it. Outward Bound wasn’t even here until 1965. They weren’t even around when Camp Mondamin was rocking the house. Camps were the ones creating these trip leaders and putting up routes at Looking Glass and figuring out these waterways. Now they’re a lobbying power. They’re talking to lawmakers and legislators saying look at these numbers, look at this employment, look at the economic development in an area that is generally economically

depressed.” North Carolina isn’t ignorant of the fact that the state’s outdoor industry is an economic machine supporting over a quarter-million jobs. Earlier this year, the state hired an Outdoor Industry Recruitment Director for the sole purpose of promoting and attracting outdoor industry businesses. But arguably more important than bringing in the big bucks, summer camps have proven instrumental in another facet of North Carolina’s outdoor landscape: conservation.

Keeping WNC Green Representative Chuck McGrady was executive director of NCYCA at the time of the 2011 summer camp economic impact report. The former owner of Falling Creek Camp in Zirconia, N.C., McGrady is also a republican, camp advocate, and staunch conservationist. He’s reached across the aisle on a wide range of issues, from coal ash to beer bills, and helped bring major outdoor initiatives, like the protection of DuPont State Recreational Forest, come to fruition. McGrady acknowledges that his own time as a camper at Camp Sequoyah was fundamental in instilling the value of

the area’s outdoor resources. He’s made it his life’s work to keep those resources the same as he experienced them all those years ago. “People wonder why Henderson County is as green as it is. There are two reasons: one is that we have a strong agricultural economy, but the other piece of it that people don’t know is these summer camps that are scattered all over the place, sometimes sitting on several thousand acres. Those lands are not developed. They’re kept just for mountain biking and backpacking. There are huge parts of the county that are preserved by the summer camps.” For areas of western North Carolina not protected by summer camps, it’s former campers and camp staff who are doing the legwork now to defend those places most in danger. The Nature Conservancy’s North Carolina State Director Katherine Skinner is one of those tireless champions. An alumna of Camp Green Cove, Skinner says the camp left such an impression on the value of nature that many of the camp’s out-of-state alumni will donate significant sums of money to The Nature Conservancy’s North Carolina efforts. “The Blue Ridge Mountains are very

special, and we’re lucky to have them,” she says. “We need to keep them the way they are. When I went to summer camp, it never dawned on me that they would ever be anything but the way they are, and now I see the trouble they are in.” In the early 1990s, Skinner headed efforts to purchase a stretch of the Green River from Duke Power Company. It was the section Camp Green Cove used to teach campers to paddle. The Nature Conservancy also protected the headwaters of the Tuckaseegee River, another important river site used by many camps in the region. It’s clear that summer camp taught Skinner and many others one very fundamental theory that has been cited by environmentalists since the dawn of Thoreau: you can’t love what you don’t know. For Skinner and her fellow camp compadres, they know western North Carolina’s rivers and forests inside and out, and they remain ready to rally in their defense.

Coming Full Circle At their core, summer camps are laboratories for self-discovery, creativity, and resiliency. Numerous studies out of the American Camp

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Association have proven that summer camp experiences increase self-esteem, conflict management, leadership, and independence in children. In addition to the environmental awareness camp instilled in Skinner, her years at Camp Green Cove also showed the potential women specifically could achieve. Skinner was a camper in the 1960s and ‘70s, a time when women were just starting to elbow their way to positions of authority. “I didn’t know what I was looking at at that age, but looking back on it, you saw women running things at Green Cove. Women were not in leadership positions in the town I grew up in or generally in the outside world,” she says. “My generation sorta broke through that but still, you were encouraged to learn, but in subtle ways you were shown your place. You weren’t shown your place in summer camp. You were taught that the world is your oyster and you are a pearl and you could do whatever you set your mind to do.” Watershed Dry Bags founder Eric Revels similarly picked up on that limitless possibility when he was a camper at Camp Mondamin. As a child growing up in New Orleans’ French Quarter, Revels had no idea what lay beyond the city until he arrived in western North Carolina with Robert Danos, his childhood friend and now Director of Camp Mondamin. “It was a life-changing thing for me,” he says. “People ask how I got into whitewater kayaking and starting a paddling gear company being from New Orleans, and it’s absolutely my time at Camp Mondamin. The camp experience changed my entire career and my entire life. I don’t know what I would have done without it.” In fact, Revels can pinpoint the exact moment at camp when his worldly views about the future were turned upside down. He was on an overnight paddling trip on the Chattooga River with John Dockendorf, who later founded Adventure Treks and Camp Pinnacle. Everyone was sitting in a circle, discussing their futures, when Revels was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. "I think I’ll be a doctor, maybe a lawyer," Revels said. They make good money. In reality, Revels didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. Dockendorf, who likely sensed that, told him passion, not money, was more important. And that was it, the moment a lightbulb went off in Revels’ head.

“That really got me thinking,” he says. “It was the first time anyone said something like that to me. Your mentors at camp, they’re like gods to you. They’re only college kids but from the perspective of a 10- or 12-year-old, you totally look up to them.” One of those larger-than-life mentors for Revels was Lecky Haller, a Baltimore-bred Olympian. Haller, who had also gone to Camp Mondamin and later worked as a counselor there, played lacrosse for 16 years throughout high school and college, competing at the highest level possible. He eventually switched to competitive canoeing, the basics of which he had learned all those years ago at Camp Mondamin. He and his brother Fritz won the world championships in tandem canoe in 1983, which launched Haller into a 20year career of competitive paddling. In all, Haller won nine medals at the World Cup stage, four medals at World Championships, and twice represented the U.S. in tandem canoe slalom at the 1992 and 2000 Olympics. So when he showed up to paddle with the Mondamin campers, it was no wonder he was granted legend status. Despite all the medals, Haller, who now directs the Asheville School’s athletics department and still teaches paddling at Camp Mondamin, thinks the most important thing camp ever taught him was the reward of the activity, not the podium. “The reward was what you did, the trips you took,” he says. “There were no awards or ribbons and that’s still the way it is at Camp Mondamin. That’s a pretty good lesson. You don’t need something outside of that, something dangling in front of you. The adventure is the reward.” Haller, like Leland Davis and Fritz Orr and Bunny Johns, have come full circle in their respective summer camp careers: first as camper, then counselor, now consultants and program directors at the very camps they once enjoyed. That’s how it goes here—forever friendships are formed, life-altering memories are made, and those blissful three months of the year live on generation after generation. “The camps don’t seem to change that much,” says Haller. “Camp Mondamin has been in the same family for three generations. My memories of it are the same now as they were back then. I’m fortunate to be able to live those same things and to take these kids on the same trips I took 50 years ago. It’s cool that way to be able to

show them what I saw.” It’s family weekend at Camp Mondamin, the last family weekend the camp will ever host. Eric Revels and his family are posted up on Lake Summit’s shores. His son, then only five years old, wants to be just like his dad. He wants to be a kayaker. But per Mondamin rules, any camper who wants to kayak must be able to swim for 30 minutes. Revels’ son is too young to be a camper yet, so he only has to swim for 10 minutes. But still, at age five, swimming continuously for 10 minutes is no small feat. His son tries, and fails, once, twice, three times. He staggers out of the water, clearly downtrodden but not yet defeated. Revels agrees to swim with him on his fourth try. The father-son duo wade back out in the water and begin to swim. Suddenly, the sky clouds over. Rain begins to fall in heavy sheets. “At this point he is just grittin’ it out, practically crying. We’re in this downpour swimming around in circles. And finally he passed it on his fourth try. I was so stoked. That’s what that camp is all about. Here’s an obstacle, overcome it, but you have to find what’s within you to do it.”

A Y O U N G E R I C R E V E L S D U R I N G H I S D AY S A S A C A M P M O N D A M I N C A M P E R , W H I C H L AT E R I N S P I R E D T H E C R E AT I O N O F H I S C O M PA N Y WAT E R S H E D D R Y B A G S .

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LAST WORD

THE HELLBENDER PARADOX LOCALS AND RURAL FOLKS KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT THE OUTDOORS THAN WE OFTEN ASSUME B Y WA L L Y S M I T H

"I GUESS YOU COULD SAY WE SPENT OUR YOUTH ON THIS RIVER." A trio of fishermen are leading me down an abandoned railbed in Virginia's Guest River Gorge, talking about waterdogs. Or, more appropriately, we're talking about hellbenders, a giant salamander native to Appalachian streams like this one. The group of anglers, all of them at least twenty years my senior, has joined me to share their experiences with these monstrous salamanders, known by locals under the waterdog name. We pass through a tunnel above the river as one of them continues. "At night, we would see waterdogs as we were gigging fish. Most of the time we'd turn 'em loose, but some of the boys would kill 'em." Hellbenders are a mountain river's ultimate conversation piece. Growing over two feet in length, hellbenders spend almost their entire lives under rocks on the river bottom, feeding on crayfish and other aquatic creatures that live nearby. Despite being ancient—hellbenders are descendants of a lineage that dates back over 100 million years—the species is also in trouble, declining at a frightening rate as a result of water pollution and a bizarre appearance that can lead some to mistakenly view the harmless amphibian as a threat. Their weirdness has also elevated hellbenders to rockstar status in Appalachian folklore. Hellbendercentric short films abound on social media, while road races, microbreweries, and burrito joints all bear the hellbender name. For a critter with such a firm hold on our culture, it would be easy to assume that we have learned all there is to know about them. But here in the most rural corners of coal country, the status of our largest native amphibian is a mystery. It's a problem that extends beyond hellbenders. Take a peek at a nationwide map of scientific collections—the currency biologists 80

HELLBENDERS ARE FOUND IN LARGER, BOULDER-STREWN STREAMS A C R O S S T H E A P PA L A C H I A N R E G I O N

use to verify where wildlife species live—and the Blue Ridge lights up like a Christmas tree, thanks to centuries of researchers crawling through our rivers and woods. Look closer, though, and you'll notice something different: well-traveled places like the Smokies and our national forests are covered in scientific records, while the coalfields to their west sit relatively empty. There are plenty of reasons for those differences. The coalfields have fewer public lands that researchers can access, and biologists tend to be creatures of habit, often returning to the same places year after year for their work. It also might be tempting to write off the coalfields as an environmental wasteland due to devastating practices like mountaintop removal, but that would be a mistake. The region's environmental issues are real, of course, but they obscure a sort of biological lost world that's been overlooked in the hollers that lie in between. It's this lack of understanding that has brought me to the Guest River with that group of anglers. There are nearly 1,000 miles of waterways in this part of Virginia that have never been surveyed by herpetologists—streams that may or may not hold hellbenders—and it would be impossible for any single research

B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S / M AY 2 0 1 8

team to cover them all. So over the past several years, I’ve tried a different approach. What if I asked the people who have lived on those rivers their entire lives what they've seen? The result has been a window into a forgotten chapter of our environmental history. During that hike along the Guest, for example, one man tells me about how he encountered hellbenders frequently as a child, only to see their numbers decline as surface mining moved into his community. Another, fighting back tears, talks about the pain he felt watching his favorite fishing hole flood in the 1960s following the construction of a downstream dam. On another occasion, a student researcher and I set up a booth at a nearby town's outdoor festival, where the only spot available for us sat next to a traveling professional wrestling troupe. Between the piledrivers and sleeper holds happening next door, a woman told us about how she grew up killing hellbenders out of fear, only to learn to love the creatures later in life. Now she teaches her grandkids to safely remove fishhooks when the giant trout they've snagged turns out to be a waterdog. Chatting about wildlife is a simple proposition, but it's all too often missing in the way scientists like myself engage B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S

with the outdoors. We might be able to supervise a field survey or give an educational seminar in our sleep, but what can we learn when we accept that we're not always the experts? My epiphany for how important that question can be came on a blisteringly hot afternoon last June. For years, anglers had told me there were hellbenders in a stream that plunged off of a nearby mountain, but I'd ignored them. The creek was too steep and small, I'd said, assuming that they had either seen something else or were just pulling one over on me. I never paid a visit to see if they were right. But as I led a college class down a trail along the stream that afternoon, the students asked if they could jump in to cool off before our ride home. I told them to go ahead, and before long I heard a shout. "You've got to come see this!" a student yelled. "What is this thing?!" Cradled in his hands was a young hellbender—the first one ever recorded from that watershed. It wasn't really the first giant salamander anyone had ever seen there. Those anglers had been scaring them up for years. But the real lesson that stream had been hiding is that our mountains' treasures are often right in front of us. To find them, all we have to do is look—and listen. G O O U TA N D P L AY

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TRAVEL DESTINATION

5 EPIC ADVENTURES

in Virginia's Blue Ridge

VISITVBR

2. MOUNTAIN BIKE AT CARVINS COVE

1. HIKE VIRGINIA’S TRIPLE CROWN

“Extreme” and “epic” are common adjectives in our daily speech. We strive to conquer the highest peaks, pedal the steepest singletracks, and do it faster and better than those who came before us. To you we say, welcome to Virginia’s Blue Ridge! Adrenaline junkies bent on one-upmanship will thrive on and around the mountains surrounding Roanoke, voted a Best Trail Town, Top Adventure Town, and Best Mountain Town. Head to Virginia’s Blue Ridge to create an epic outdoor adventure. Check out the Outdoor Adventure section of V I S I T V B R . C O M to begin planning your epic Blue Ridge Day.

While the Appalachian Trail is a bucket list item unto itself, Virginia’s Triple Crown is another. Pair the two together for an unforgettable 32-mile loop in Virginia’s Blue Ridge. A steep and not simple 2.3 miles from Route 311 delivers willing hikers to Dragon’s Tooth. The jagged quartzite jutting 35 feet into the air is the geologic formation you’re bound for. Climb on up and enjoy the view. From Dragon’s Tooth, it’s a 7.5-mile hike to reach the McAfee Knob parking lot. Continue another 4.4 miles to reach the wide open view that awaits at the Knob. There are two shelters between Dragon’s Tooth and McAfee Knob to set up camp for the night. Tinker Cliffs is 5.5 miles on the Appalachian Trail from McAfee Knob and two additional shelters are available between the destinations.

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More than 60 miles of trails weave through Carvins Cove Natural Area Reserve, but thrill seekers are most interested in just under five miles of those 60: Rattlin’ Run and The Gauntlet. These two trails are rated “Extremely Difficult,” which means only a talented two-wheeler like yourself should speed, hop, and climb along these weaving, rocky paths.

4. FLY FISH ON THE ROANOKE RIVER

The Roanoke River is teeming with varieties of bass, trout and more. Bigger sport-sized fish are found closer to Smith Mountain Lake where the river widens and runs deeper. Expect to pull in catfish and striped bass in this portion of the river. The banks of the Roanoke River Gorge near Rutrough Point in Explore Park are another great spot to put in.

3. HIKE THE PEAKS OF OTTER – SHARP TOP & FLAT TOP MOUNTAINS

The two toughest trails at Peaks of Otter are Sharp Top and Flat Top Mountains. Located at milepost 86 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Peaks are known for their outstanding views, as well as their difficulty. To conquer both, allow a full day and be ready for more than 1,600 feet of elevation gain along the nearly 10 miles of trails.

5. CYCLE THE BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY

A 70-mile out-and-back from Mill Mountain in Roanoke (milepost 120) to Peaks of Otter (milepost 86) is both stunning and serious. The route offers steep climbs, thrilling downhill sections, and stunning views from all angles.

F I N D M O R E G R E AT B LU EB LU R IEDR IGDEG ETORUAV EO L RIST E N E R AGROIOEUSTAAT O UE RTID OEO SD. C ORMS TDO N DB P LLU AYE R I D G E B LU DG OR UT OO