How — and whether– To Pursue Adventure in the Midst of Pandemic Last week Sylvia and Brian were hiking out in the mountains of North Carolina Mountains, celebrating Brian’s birthday. We returned home to a different world than the one we left. True, the writing had been on the wall, if one had been willing to see it. Already, the […]
The Alum Cave Trail to Mt. Leconte
**We’ll soon be back from the holidays…until then, please enjoy this re-run of a post that appear in this space earlier in the year — one of the most popular trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, The Alum Cave Trail to Mt. Leconte. It’s popular for a reason! *The Alum Cave Trail to Mt. Leconte is one of […]
The Incredible Shrinking (and Late Arriving Fall) Color Show
Higher Temps and More Rain, Humidity Mean a Later Onset of Autumn How did this year’s fall color display in the Appalachian Mountains compare with those of years past? The short answer, at least when we were there to experience it, is…not that well. For the second straight year, fall colors came late to the Carolinas. Another year of record […]
There’s More to Stone Mountain State Park Than Stone (But There’s plenty of That, Too)
Stone Mountain State Park, NC What could be simpler to grasp than Stone Mountain State Park? It’s a state park with a mountain that has a lot of…well, stone in it. You gotta love simple. Of course, any mountain by definition has a bunch of stone in it. But rarely is so much of it so prominently on display. There […]
Another Unheralded Gem of the National Park System
Teddy Roosevelt National Park *This post continues the mining of old photographs taken in the pre-digital era. We therefore apologize in advance that the quality of the pictures is not quite up to the usual standards. Today we’re again going back into the vault, to the days when photographs were printed on paper, phones didn’t have cameras unless you worked […]
Where Was Our First Hike Together? Believe It Or Not…
Hemmed in Hollow, Arkansas Yep, dang ole’ Arkansas *This post continues the mining of old photographs taken in the pre-digital era. We therefore apologize in advance that the quality of the pictures is not quite up to the usual standards. Also note that our description of the falls was accurate for the time we visited, which was in 2005, things […]
Looking to Get Off the Beaten Path? Try the Lone Star State
Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas Looking for a great American National Park experience? Our suggestion is to look off the beaten path. As far as the outdoor recreation community is concerned, that perfectly describes the dang ole Great State of Texas. No one thinks of Texas as being a hiking mecca. But in our opinion, trans-Pecos Texas […]
Let’s Give Thanks for the Outdoors!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! One of the things that Sylvia and I both feel most thankful about is that we have the ability to move around, enjoy the outdoors and be active. We also are thankful we live in a country where so many people feel as passionately about the outdoors as we do! As we give thanks (and […]
King Charles Town
Charleston, SC Part II After visiting Fort Moultrie Sylvia made Brian swear not to visit any more forts or historical sites for the remainder of the trip. Brian grudgingly agreed. However, this would not really be possible since Charleston — Travel and Leisure Magazine’s ‘World’s Best City” in 2016 — basically is one gigantic historical site. With apologies to the […]
A Weekend of Coastal Fortification in Charleston, SC
Charleston, South Carolina ***Though BecauseItzThere is mostly a hiking blog, from time to time we will showcase travel of other sorts here, especially when it related to the outdoors, nature and history. As we’ve been hitting the mountains a lot lately, including two weeks of it in Europe, it was only a matter of time before Sylvia shouted “Enough” and […]
An Unexpected Blast From the Past
The Golden State, back in our Golden Age I was recently rooting through some of my old photographs from the pre-digital and early digital age…the days when you still had to get pictures ‘developed’ before you could see them. I must admit I have no nostalgia for this age whatsoever. My purpose was to dig up so old pictures from […]