Hike Report 20201121 Allan, Coffee, Tomahawk

Report by Allan Brown

Hi there Tom. We haven’t seen you for a while. We heard that you fell and haven’t been well. But then on the hike we did Saturday, Ellen told us that both you and Marian were OK and were out walking. I was so glad to hear that.

Our “hike” on Saturday started with a stop at Dynamite Roasting to get hot chocolate and coffee. It was a beautiful day, so then we went to Lake Tomahawk, sat on the shore for a while and played with fresh-water mussel shells – the lake level is still way down. Then we walked back home. Pretty exciting, eh?

We miss you and hope you continue to get better.

Allan

November 14, 2020 Hike Report: Atossa Hike

We'll take the liberty of calling this the Atossa hike, because she was able to join us after a rather long bout with a cranky Achilles tendon. And she favored us with a few nice photos for the first time in a while.

Looks as if the hikers were Allan, Atossa, Mary Leonard, and Ellen, wandering around up at the tabernacle cemeteries

November 7, 2020 Hike Report: Oaks Plus

We walked over to the Oaks trail by Health Ridge Pharmacy. It was quite muddy in spots .

We made a Dynamite stop on the way back. Hiking were Allan, Ellen, Mary Kay, Mary Leonard and Tom.

October 31, 2020 Hike Report

Unknown

October 24, 2020 Hike Report: Rained Out Again!

October 17, 2020 Hike Report: Allan and Mary Leonard to the Moon Almost

Allan and Mary Leonard hiked all the way to Tomahawk Lake and back.

October 10, 2020 Hike Report: Rained Out

No hikers showed up at the Garden Parking lot on this rainy morning.

October 3, 2020 Hike Report: Ask Mary Kay

That's right, friends, only Mary Kay can tell you what happened on this hike.

The Moon and back?

September 26 Hike Report: Lonesome Wanderer

The hike today consisted of one lonesome wanderer who roamed throughout the farm, going up, going down, going this way, going that way, covering close to four miles altogether, and even stopping in to say hello to her vast array of farmer friends. Now, who else could that be but Ellen Farrior?

Hooray for you, our great friend Ellen!!!

September 19 Hike Report: Four Up the Hill

Four of us trudged up the hill and around a bit in the cemeteries (yes, there are six of them up there around the Tabernacle Methodist Church, according to the Strava map.) Hiking today were Allan, Mary Leonard, Ellen, and Tom.

September 12, 2020 Hike Report: Allanalone

Allan Brown braved the showery weather and apeared at the garden parking lot and waited for company, but nobody came, so he did a solo hike around our vast campus.

Congratulations, Allan, for keeping our weather-defying tradition alive.

September 5, 2020 Hike Report: Easy Labor

Take it easy on Labor Day weekend, right?

That is what we did, Mary Kay, Ellen, Allan, and Tom.

It was a nice morning and we decided just to stroll up the back way, to Gatchell and to the impressive Taylor House, where we did an about-face and headed back to the campus and then just fanned out to our individual abodes.

A nice simple convivial hike!!

Oh, by the way, the four dogs were nowhere to be seen. Their lawn was being mowed.

August 29, 2020 Hike Report: Rained out

Right, right as rain, we were rained out this morning!!!

August 22, 2020 Hike Report: Farewell Carol

We had a pretty unusual hike. We just wandered up to Carol Pickard's apartment to wish her a fond farewell as she prepared to head for Virginia with her daughter Amy. It was somewhat of an open house arrangement with various hikers and friends dropping in throughout the day.

Carol and Amy departed on Tuesday, August 25.

They will both be missed.

August 15 Hike Report: Two Locals

Just two local hikers today, Mary Kay and Tom. We met at the garden parking lot in some mighty drippy foggy weather and decided just to confine ourselves to the local premises and stay mighty close to home and dodge the showers. Mary Kay headed up to her home territory in Meadowmont and Tom stayed close to home in the lower sections.

Let's hope for a real group hike (properly distanced) next Saturday.

August 8, 2020 Hike Report: Swarming through Locust

Well, really, not much of a swarm, just Allan, Ellen, Mary Leonard and Tom.

We thought about going through the railroad side of Vets Park and The Oaks, but we thought perhaps recent rains would render those paths barely canoeable.

So we opted for the Locust Loop.

That loop takes us through the new back entrance to the farm, over to Gatchell, past the four dogs, past the Carver Center, on Cragmont to Locust street, through the little cut to Central Avenue and then to West College Street and then back to the farm via New or Old 70.

The area around Locust and Central has a variety of interesting new houses.

The weather was quite foggy when we started today but turned out to be quite nice for hiking.

Oh, by the way, the four dogs were nowhere to be seen today. Looked as if they might be out joyriding with their master/mistress/whathaveyou!!!

August 1, 2020 Hike Report: Craving for Carver

Oh, we may have been craving for the days of our far-flung automobile-assisted hiking adventures, but corona caution demanded that we settle for carving up our cravings and doing the Carver Center Loop.

We hiked up the path to nowhere to its terminus at the Deciding Rocks, whereupon we decided to forgo the cemetery and continue uphill to Tabby Church, where we enjoyed a pleasant recovery period on the picnic benches.

At that point we found ourselves craving Carver, so on we went, walking on Cragmont, which can be mildly perilous with traffic, but we encountered only a handful of cars on the stretch from Tabby to Carver.

We encountered considerable gravel washed onto the pavement during last evening's crackerjack thunderstorm.

We then returned to the farm via Blue Ridge Road, Taylor Street, past the four dogs, swinging a right on Gatchell and coming back into the farm through the back door.

The four dogs greeted us somewhat half-heartedly. One of them didn't even bother to get off the porch!

Hiking today were Allan, Mary Leonard, Mary Kay, and Tom.

July 25, 2020 Hike Report: North Fork Loop

This morning the moderate temperature prompted us to head uphill, and when we got to the end of the sidewalk to nowhere, we were so invigorated that we thought we could navigate through the cemetery without fear of the grim reaper. So on we went, and then down to the North Fork Road and around to Lion's way and through the neuro center and the vets cemetery and back to home base.

Hiking today were Carol, Allan, Ellen, Mary Kay, Mary Leonard, Nancy, and Tom.

We missed photographer Atossa, and Tom forgot to take any photos. So, here is a photo of President Donald Trump.

And here is one from Mary Kay Sapp:

July 18, 2020 Hike Report: Unbearable at Vets Cemetery

A couple of weeks ago we had bear adventures on our hike in the vets cemetery and environs.

Today we covered the same ground and found it unbearable. No signs of bears or bear police.

But it was a nice easy hike and reasonably cool, thanks to mountain shade and mountain breeze.

Taking this stroll today were Carol, Atossa, Allan, Mary Kay, and Tom.

All photo credits belong to Atossa. In regard to the last two photos below, Atossa offers this comment: “ I’m told this is thanks to a juvenile male. Allan says it’s something they do. Who knew?!!”