Month: June 2011

Summer is here in the valley –

Just below our cabin runs Long Hope Creek which becomes Three Top Creek across the road – where you can fish for trout until your heart’s content.

Kobe’s a ” peak bagger” – this is his second – he climbed to the summit of Three Top Mountain with us this spring. He just turned 12 but he still has a lot of energy and love to give.  The first peak he bagged was Elk Knob in Watauga County.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went on a 3-hour hike with the Nature Conservancy on their property at Bluff Mountain, not far from our cabin as the crow flies. I looked out over this rock face on my stomach but Brian stayed back.

We saw a 350-year old maple tree and a fen (swamp) in a valley above 4,000 feet. We also saw the endangered Sundew carnivorous plant in the fen. The bluff was gorgeous, with rhododenrons growing out of the rock face and waterfall cascading down the mountain.