A Sunday Hike

Found a great blogMeanderthals: A Hiking Blog. It lists all the trails in Western NC with maps and tips and I can't wait till I have hiked them all.   This is a restaurant on Lake Lure on the way to Hickory Nut Gorge.

I really wasn't planning on a hike, I was on my way to a little town called Gerton to look at a house for sale, but since the trailhead was right there and there were some other girls and their dogs going for a hike, I decided to just do about 30 minutes just to stretch.  

It climbs fast with a lot of switchbacks.  It is a mile to the Florence Nature Preserve, which I want to see in the spring when the rhododendrons are in bloom.  There is also a trail to the gorge and to Bearwallow Mountain, both of which are longer and strenuous hikes which I am not ready for.

The town of Gerton is just a mile up the road from the trail, a little community of cabins from the '20s. Even though closer to Asheville than where I live, it is more remote, but all the trails are there and it has a real mountain feel to it.

The community consists of only a few gravel roads centered around a pond.  

This is the home I went to see, which is all of 600 sq. ft.  Always planning for the future, I was thinking wouldn't it be nice to live very small, small house, small garden, two dogs and spend my time hiking, traveling and doing fun things?  Can you tell all this renovating and cleaning is getting to me?

The house is to the right behind those bushes.  I had a panic attack as I came up the road, which was a deadend, had to back down and the dirt road was wet, I was stuck, but thank goodness I managed to get out and not take those bushes down!

This is strange.  When I got out of the car to "check out my situation", there was a dead crow in the tree hanging upside down.  Poor thing.

More homes.

This was one of my favorites.  None of the homes are on a lot of land, something I would have to get used to, but it would be low maintenance for sure. It looks like every one of these homes would need updating, though.

With the weather being so nice for January, I will be out and about again soon!