August’s blue moon (second in a month) rises over the mountains near Asheville, N.C., on Aug. 31. (Sam Cook photo)
I was in the Asheville, N.C., area for the past few days attending a wedding. While my family and I were there, we were able to hike in the mountains near Asheville. We hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail to a 5,516-foot “peak” called Big Bald. The peak offered a spectacular 360-degree view.
The photo above was taken at dinner one evening, from a deck at the restaurant looking east over the layers of mountains in the distance. The full moon had risen over the mountains. It was the second full moon in August. The second of two moons in the same month is called a “blue moon.”
My wife, Phyllis, and I had been in the Asheville area about 40 years ago and hiked to a remote lodge in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The country is gorgeous, with the repeated folds of the mountains.
It was fun to hike at least a little bit (very little) of the Appalachian Trail, which runs 2,174 miles from Georgia to Maine. Hiking there gave me greater appreciation for hikers, called “thru-hikers,” who hike the entire distance in one summer. If you do the math, a hiker would have to average more than 21 miles a day for 100 days to complete the trail.
Here are a few other photos from atop or on the way to Big Bald:
My son, Grant, feeling free on the edge of Big Bald. (Sam Cook photo)
Hiking through a meadow along the Appalachian Trail. (Sam Cook photo)
Layers of mountains recede in the haze from atop Big Bald. (Sam Cook photo)
Climbing to Big Bald near Asheville, N.C.
