A Great Retreat

My personal retreat was excellent, and needed. I wish I had an interactive map where I could highlight everywhere I went, but I don't, so I will have to tell you. I love the mountains, and I was surprised by just how beautiful the Appalachians were. From my memory, I always thought they weren't that impressive compared to the Rockies or Sierra Nevadas, but they are so lush and green and moist and cool. It brings more variety to mountains. If they were in the tropics, it would be a rain forest. I might put up some pictures when I get them developed.

Before the trip, I found a DeLorme Atlas and gazetteer for the state of Tennessee, and it showed east North Carolina. These maps take the state and list all the backroads and trails, so it is really handy for getting away from everything. This combined with my State Farm atlas that has tremendous detail meant I was able to really get away from it all.

I packed up a cooler, put my back seats down, and threw my air mattress in the car. My plan was to get lost and pray a lot, enjoy the music of nature, to camp in my car, and mostly, to not have much of a plan. It was so relaxing to be on my own schedule. I also took along a few select CD's that really encourage my heart, my autoharp (which was invented in the Appalachians, so I had to play it there), my Bible (of course) and a couple of books that I didn't get to reading.

I did take some pictures, which I haven't developed yet, but will hopefully post at some point. Here's where I went: Follow along if you choose, but make sure you have some great maps. I will include town names for your sake. If reading about road numbers really bore you, skip to where I sum up the trip.

Day 1:
I took Highway 22 south out of Martin, TN to get to Interstate 40 to Nashville. The only reason I went through Nashville was I wanted to see my friends Mark and Logan at the coffee shop they work at. I did, and it was refreshing, both the mocha and Mark and Logan (I'm still praying for your new undertaking :).

From Nashville I took I-24 East (it goes southeast) to Murpheesboro where I got off on US 70S to McMinnville.

Then I took TN 30 through Spencer, Pikeville, Dayton, Decatur, Athens, and into Etowah. On the way I passed by a church that had a sign saying, "Jesus wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts." It made me laugh. It was out in the country, and I recalled later that I saw the sign on another blog of someone who collects interesting church signs. A cool coincidence.

Out of Etowah I took county road 139 into Cherokee National Forest. It was there I got off road on Forest Road 297. This is a one lane dirt road right that climbs the mountains. Secluded enough that I had grass in the center of the trail scraping the bottom of my car. At the start of this road, I saw no other car for about 12 hours. Excellent!

297 dead ends at the peak of Starr Mountain at a lookout that looks over Etowah and beyond. After enjoying the view I turned around and took Forest Road 220 to FR 44. It was almost a 4x4 trail, so of course my Subaru excelled on it.

44 after winding around for about 4 hours comes into CR 315. From there I crossed over the Hiwassee River and went through Reliance, then got back off the pavement on FR 103. It took that to FR 23 and drove it back by the river, and I camped out at the base of a hiking trail.

Day 2:
The next day I took this road FR 66 and through a couple of unnamed trails got my way back to TN 68. I took that north to Tellico Plains, and from there I hit the very beautiful Cherohala Scenic Parkway into North Carolina and followed it to Robbinsville, NC.

I followed NC 129 to US 74/19, went north for a bit, than got off on Wayah Road, which is paved but has no number. I took that to a little dirt road which runs by a river that I can't find the name to, but it empties out of the Nantahala Lake. I stopped and played in the river for a couple of hours, reading on a rock and wading through the water. It was only 4 ft at its deepest, but slippery and rocky, which is why I fell in a couple times, but I was able to save my Bible, keys, and wallet from being in there for more than a 1/2 second :).

I took Wayah into Franklin, NC where I hit US 64/NC 28 which follows the Calasaja River which has a couple beautiful waterfalls. I took that to Highland, missed a turn, ended up on a beautiful backway drive to High Hampton, went to Cashiers, back to Highland on US 64, than went south on NC 28.

I went on 28 through the corner of Georgia and into South Carolina, which I hadn't ever been in before. With that I have now been in the 48 continental states. I took 28 to SC 183 and went east over Lake Keowee. I then turned right on SC 133 through Six Mile. I wanted to go this way because the guy I order my autoharp strings from lives in this small town. He owns Autoharp Works which can be found at . I never saw the building and his business wasn't listed locally, so I went on to Clemson just to see the campus. I did, then I went back through Six Mile via 137, got back on 183 east, than took US 178 north to Brevard, NC.

After going through Brevard on US 64, I turned north on US 276 into the Pisgah National Forest. This time it was Friday, and finding a secluded spot was much tougher as a lot of people were camping out. I ended up passing all the good forest roads hoping to find a good spot and went into Cruso, went north on NC 215 to I-40 east into Asheville. I then took I-36 east (even though I-36 runs almost exclusively north and south. It is a mess up in the Interstate systems as listed in Wikipedia) I found a NC DeLorme Atlas at a gas station in Skyland, and realized there was a nice forest road off the Blue Ridge Parkway. So I went north on US 25 to the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed south. There was no turn off and I was tired, so I ended up camping out in the parking lot, which was away from the road a bit, where the Pisgah Nature Trail begins.

Day 3:
I woke up to someone who pulled into the parking lot blasting their radio. When they got out of their car one of them commented about "Who sleeps in their car?" The answer is me. And I love it. So I went back to US 276 South a little ways to a forest road. I pulled off the road into this cool path right between a row of trees and hiked the short path (about 1/3 of a mile) where it came out by a creek. This was a serene place, except for the gnats. So I stayed about a couple hours reading, praying, and just listening to the creek and the birds. Then went back to my car and played my autoharp for a bit.

Upon leaving that spot, I went east through the North Mills River campground and made my way back to I-26 and took that back to Asheville. I continued north on US 22/25/70 through Weaverville to NC 197 where I went east through Barnardsville. After that, the road turned into a very wide and curvy gravel road. It was wide enough, when I could see around a corner, I played a little rally racing and sped into the corners. If I spun, I wasn't going to hit anything. I slid around a few corners, but I didn't fishtail much at all. Besides, when I punched the gas, the all wheel drive straightened the car right back out. It was a blast!! And I wouold never drive like that with you in the car. It turned back to pavement around Pensacola and I followed the road to Burnsville.

Here I turned east on US 19 to Spruce Hill, then went south on 226 and hit the Blue Ridge Parkway. I took that to Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, and hiked up to the summit. It was the next best thing to clear: foggy and drizzly. You could see the clouds move over the mountains and reveal a little more as it wisped out of the way of one range only to hide another peak. And it was a lovely 55 degrees.

Leaving Mt. Mitchell, I continued down the parkway. After crossing over NC 215, I hit some rain. Because of this, for about 45 miles, every turn I made seemed to reveal more rock face on the side of the road that had waterfalls cascading down it. It was some of the most continuous beauty I have ever seen. It never got old. I'm guessing the rain was why they shut down the last section, because I had to exit onto US 74/441 and take that to Cherokee, NC.

So I took US 441 into the Smokies and was now in get home mode, besides, it was about 7:00 PM CST when I started through them and I had to be at Parkway in the morning. So I zipped through the Smokies (figuratively) having already seen my mountains and having my fill of curves. I went around Gatlinburg (yea, they built a bypass) and unfortunately through Pigeon Forge and Sevierville (Once beautiful little town, now ugly and over-busy bastions of consummerism). I took TN 66 to I-40, headed west, set cruise at 75, and made it to my driveway at 1:00 AM with only one gas stop in Dickson.

What it was most of all was refreshing. Most of the time I had the windows down in the cool air and the music off, just enjoying God's beauty. Between this I would put on a great CD and sing loud and with a smile. I didn't sleep much, and I didn't really need to, because my soul was getting a rest, and that's what needed it more than anything else. It had been awhile since I really prayed for a long time about everything, and this trip helped get my prayer life back on track. Ok, go ahead and read through all the travel details if you skipped to this, because I put a lot more information about what I saw. Just ignore the numbers. That is for my sake so I remember where I went, and if you are a map nerd like me.

The whole trip was about 1,600 miles, but I got about 30 miles to the gallon (gas doesn't go as fast in a low RPM 2nd and 3rd gear apparently). I did somehow manage to throw a rock through one of my foglights. It even busted through the plastic grid and shattered the glass cover. It knocked the tip off the light, but the filament still worked until I hit the rain. It was worth it. When I saw that I had done it (I have no idea when or where, I saw it at a stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway), I think I said, "Cool!"

But the important thing is it got me in the right frame of mind to start at Parkway. My first Sunday was relaxing, and I am now very excited about what can happen. The fear has subsided, I am thinking clearly, and most of all I am relaxed, which means I can be myself, be honest, and not try to impress people. I am much more impressive that way anyway.

--The part written yesterday was to Derek Webb "Mockingbird" which I also listened to on the trip during my "repent" segment. I always need to call my own heart to repentance. The part today was written to Mr. Mister-"Welcome to the Real World." It will be proofread to Dire Straits-"Brothers in Arms" and I probably still owe my brother for when I lost his tape of that album back when I was in high school. Let me know, I'll stay good on what I owe you.