Take me home...

Things have been looking a little grim lately, what with all the Wal-mart and the late nights and now a pending sinus infection. Granted, the sinus infection is pretty much right on schedule, making this the third time in 5 years that I have enjoyed the mind-numbing blinding pain and discomfort in February or March.

In another long-standing personal tradition, while alone in unfamiliar settings I went exploring today without a map down some country roads and found a lovely mountain to hike. I've wandered to the highest point in the hills of Alabama, climbed Stone Mountain Georgia, hiked the Catskills and circled the Finger Lakes in New York while on similar work trips, and today I hiked to the top of a random mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains here in North Carolina.

Actually, I tried to climb Mt. Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi, but the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed in that direction. So I turned around and headed in the other direction towards the Great Smoky Mountains, hoping instead to reach the highest point on the entire highway, but it was closed in that direction too. I am unclear why the closures - it's been dry enough here that there or brushfires raging, so I'm ruling out snow, rain, downed trees, landslides, and the like. But who knows, despite being in the 50s, I was seeing ice in the shadows (and one gimongous person-sized icicle hanging in a tunnel waiting to decapitate an unwary bicyclist), so the ground is still clearly butt-cold.

Anyway, I climbed Mt. Pisgah which is over a mile high, but at 5721 ft, is still 963 ft lower than Mt. Mitchell. Oh well. Cold Mountain was nextdoor, so I got to imagine Jude Law in Civil War rags emerging from the woods. And it was still a stunning view from the top -- one I'd like to see when the rhododendrons or dogwoods are in bloom, perhaps. I'll share pictures once the crazy pain between my eye sockets subsides some.

In other news, just as the Alabama country roads were littered with armadillo roadkill, smattering the roads in North Carolina are so many raccoon remains that it boggles the mind.