Thursday, May 19, 2011

June 2011 Highlander Trek is Art Loeb!

We lead off with the new Migrant Highlander creed!
"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, and in water, there is bacteria." -David Auerbach (2002)

More details to come, but we have now decided on our June 2011 Migrant Highlander trek....the Art Loeb Trail in the Pisgah National Forest about an hour south of Asheville!

We'll start with the somewhat obvious tour of the Highland Brewing Company in Asheville, NC...after all, they did name the beer after us, right?! And maybe we'll have to sample a few more of the local breweries just to make sure that our brewery is, in fact, the best as we suspect.







Then it's off to the Pisgah National Forest via the Blue Ridge Parkway out of Asheville, NC to our loop in what has been described as the greatest and most scenic group of balds east of the Mississippi.




Due to both logging and a series of wildfires more than a century ago, the Shining Rock Wilderness Area we're going through has multiple 360 degree vista views in every direction. We'll go ridge hopping through the Black Balsam Mountain Balds at 6000+ feet elevation and approach Cold Mountain (yes, that Cold Mountain...let the Come Back to Me Enman jokes begin!)





The Pisgah open camping rule will be a new experience for the Highlanders, as we've always been where there are designated campsites. About 20 miles of ridgelines and waterfalls...can't wait.