I hike year around. Walking, especially in the woods, restores my inner calm. For various reasons, I haven’t been able to hike or walk nearly as much as normal. There have been no long hikes in the mountains, or short ones for that matter. I am lucky in that I have good local trails with lots of woods surrounding them.
Continue reading “Birds On a Winter Hike”
Purgatory Mountain, North Carolina is the location for a short story I wrote for an anthology published in August 2020. As such, this hike focused on the trail, or rather, the area that wasn’t trail. My story timeline is the Civil War, and I needed to get the lay of the land and identify places where the action in my story could take place.
Continue reading “Purgatory Mountain: the Hike and the Story”
It’s been almost four months since my last post. Sometimes life takes you in unexpected directions. As part of my unplanned journey, I spent five weeks in Durham, NC. While it was a stressful time, there were good times too. Between appointments, we were able to hike every day but two during those weeks. Durham has some wonderful trails, but they aren’t mountain trails.
Continue reading “Hiking, Writing, and COVID-19”
If you are lucky enough to live in a part of the world where poison ivy, poison oak, and other poison vines don’t grow, you should count that fact among your blessings. I doubt that this story will make any sense to you.
Continue reading “Poison Ivy”
Hiking, even a stroll through the neighborhood, is my preferred way to exercise. Today I remembered why I enjoy this activity.
Continue reading “Once Around the Block”
One Saturday, not too long ago, my hiking partners and I checked out a couple of town trails.
Continue reading “Yadkin Memorial Park”
It’s a small stump, but an important one. Continue reading “Score 1 for the Stump”
My daughter and I spent three days hiking in the Smoky Mountains, exploring a few trails I hiked in Tennessee when I was much younger. Continue reading “15 Miles”
N. R. Tucker 