Back on the trail after my R&R in Asheville, I spotted a turtle.

Snowbird Mountain, open on top.

Blazes along the fields.

When a log is big enough,they just cut out a chunk for a step. My camera was fogged from the rain the night before. I learned to put it in a plastic bag from that. It took ten minutes to defog in the sun later on.

Clouds over Max Patch. They'd thunder, and I ran off the peak, only to have it pass far away.

Wildflowers on Max Patch.

max Patch has a large open area. They mow it to keep it from growing over.

Unbloomed rhodos. When they bloom, the pink is almost imperceptible.

The trail had to be mowed well to keep it clear. This was a good section. Some where not cleared, and a pain to get through.

Look! Someone carved an "AT" in to the log step. In some sections, they would carve the maintaining club's acronym in to the logs.

Foliage? these red leaves sure stood out from everything else, which is green.

Rhododendron.

Rhododendron.

Rhododendron.

Rhododendron.

Rhododendron.

Some rather recent grave stones. Probably people own the land and gave an easement for the trail.

Hot Springs takes their trail maintenance seriously.

The map in the outdoor store in Hot Springs shows the 3D trail all the way in to Virginia.

No blazes, but special stones in the sidewalk. It poured all day. So I took a zero.

From the Department of Redundancy Department. What a coincidence. The French Broad River is in the French Broad River Basin.

And a muddy brown river it is.

The distances are a bit outdated, but it is a nice sign nonetheless.

Elmer's Sunnybank has a bunch of nice pots. The owner is a bit weird, but his politics are in the right place, which is a breath of fresh air in the south. Although this district did elect a Dem in '06.

Elmer's pots hang in front of his bottles. I didn't get to eat, though.

Asheville has splendid architecture.

Lots of deco. My favorite.

Fat tourists kept wandering in to my picture.

The best sunset yet was off the Scarborough's porch in Asheville.

A beauty, except for those powerlines.

The French Broad was up from the rains. I was standing on the trail taking this picture.

The rapids look fun.

Even in slightly different lighting.

And especially in a slightly longer exposure.

The French Broad and Hot Springs.

Looking back towards Max Patch from Lover's Leap.

The coffee-brown French Broad through Hot Springs.

The French Broad again, in different lighting.

For some reason, my crap camera would only focus on the foreground.

More rhodos.

A little manmade lake above a little manmade dam.

Flowers

The rafters run their buses through here, and the bridge makes life easier.

Blueberries!

Orange mushrooms on a tree.

A luna moth! Sweet.

Rich Mountain Fire Tower.

Views from Rich Mountain.

The view of the Tennessee plains to the west of the mountains.

*%*!( Horses!

Swallowtail.

Swallowtail.

I hate horses. I really do. And the idiots who ride them.

[expletive deleted]

Rhododendron, blaze, trail north.

Some of these mountain rhododendron have more pink on them. These are not them.

But these are.

The sun coming through the rhododendron leaves cast an eerie green shadow.

Ha. I rarely broke it.

Come here, Mr. Turkey.

I want to take a non-blurry picture of you.

*He kept waddling away.

This section of trail was so new the book didn't mention it. The "bad weather trail" was the old AT, and much easier than the "Exposed Ridgeline Trail," but without the views.

Rocks

The trail really traverses the westernmost reaches of the Appalachians through here, and down the slopes lies flat farmland.

Not ripe yet blueberries.

Lots of nice trail work along here, and I am glad it wasn't raining.

Dying flame azalea.

Sometimes they had these weird trail markers. I never figured out why they stuck up so far.

Pretty purple flowers.

Since I started late, my guidebook only mentioned early spring flowers, so I was left to guess. I made up a name for some flowers.

Lucky it didn't fall on the trail.

Nor do I know the species for this flower.

Oranges vines along the trail in a field.

The big butt atop Big Butt Mountain.

View.

Little tadpoles in a rapidly shrinking puddle in the trail.

The Shelton Graves are where the bodies of two Union Troops from the area are interred. They snuck home and were killed by those nice Confederates whose flag everyone has stuck to their pick-up around here.

They are kept up well.

This seems like a very steep notch, that the trail descended, and then climbed out of.

Moss.

A self-timed show across the road.

A brown eyed susan. I know that one's name even!

Daisies around a brown eyed susan.

A nice, unnamed falls.

The late-day sun illuminated the clouds.

It's blurry, yes, but you can see the gash the built for I-26.

After 25 miles, I was hungry. And no matter what that looks like, I can attest that it was damn good.

I-26 was completed recently, and the landscaping has not yet grown in. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and had almost no traffic when I crossed.

I've seen stiles. But not yet a chain-link fence.

Early day sunshine.

Possibly the best flame azalea picture.

On top of Big Bald we actually saw them mowing.

Oh, da views.

Me.

More views. They have downhill skiing here in the winter. It probably stinks, and they probably get very excited. I bet XC up on the balds would be fun, though.

More views in to North Carolina.

Brody, Tim and me.

Brody, Tim and me again. The two of them make up half of the halfrunners and study in the bluegrass program at Eastern Tennessee State.

Me and the AT.

Cliffs.

A quartz vein through the granite.

Now we begin to make up for the dearth of pretty streams in the South.

And what a nice sight it is.

They bridge everything here.

Look at the cute little mushrooms!

Brody tried to George-of-the-Jungle swing from a hanging vine. I didn't get a video in time. Needless to say, he failed miserably. And, yes, Tim is wearing sandals. For a week.

The pink of the flowers diminishes as they bloom.

Think I took enough rhododendron pictures?

The view of the Nolichucky (aka "The Chucky") from above Erwin.

Ari, meet Erwin Burrito. Not bad, either. It wasn't quite Anna's, but I sank my teeth in to at least two burritos at a funky shop in Erwin. After my first marathon, it was damn good.

Erwin Burrito. Funk in a decidedly unfunky town.

A nice old bank building in Erwin, much of which was pretty quiet.