The Standing Indian Loop, Day II The second day dawned crisp and sunny through the newly budding trees of Beech Gap; the night had proven to be nowhere near as cold as the previous one. Sylvia reported no issues with her ‘manos’ and was generally in better spirits, the lingering effects of her fall having passed on like bad weather. […]
West to go South to go North
The Standing Indian Loop: Day I We arrived at Standing Indian Campground just after 5 pm on Thursday….though we had another 30 mins or so delay as we had to backtrack into Franklin to stop at an ATM machine (we had forgotten to bring cash.) If you stage out of this campground, remember to bring it. The camp host warned […]
The Cold Equations
The Standing Indian Loop: Preparations and Decisions Gen. Dwight Eisenhower once said that before a battle, preparations are everything; but once a battle is joined, preparations mean nothing. So it goes with hiking. Good preparation is absolutely essential for a multi-day hike, and most hikes that fail do so because the hiker was poorly prepared. But the trick is knowing […]
The Hundredth Mile Wilderness: The Standing Indian Loop via the AT
The Standing Indian Loop Three Day Backpacking Adventure *We have added the Standing Indian Loop to our list of Best Hikes in the Southern Appalachians. The SIL is a surprisingly straightforward two or three-day backpacking adventure on the Appalachian Trail and adjacent side trails, located entirely within North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest. We loved the wilderness character of the hikes […]