I set off mid-afternoon into the Linville Gorge Wilderness near Morganton, North Carolina. Right from the trailhead I found dense groves of mountain laurel with bouquets of delicate pink flowers, as if the path were decorated for a wedding.
The sun was hot, the trail dusty and steep in places. Birds cartwheeled around me, flitting from trees to undergrowth, sometimes close enough to touch.
I love escaping like this on a work day. When I travel on assignment, I'm always looking for a bit of wildness that can be reached without a lot of hassle or planning. Sometimes it’s as simple as a city park or a public garden.
One minute I'm at my desk on the job, tense and caffeinated. The next minute I'm breathing a little easier, smelling summer, feeling the touch of spiderwebs on my face as I walk.
At first blush, places like the Linville Gorge can seem a little intimidating. The area is vast and rugged, sprawling over roughly 12,000 acres of U.S. Forest Preserve land.
On this day I hiked one of the easiest routes, with only a few steep stretches. It took me quickly into a high forest perched at the edge of the gorge that felt completely solitary.
From balconies of rock, I couldn't see any human structures. Horizon to horizon there was only wildness and sky and curtains of cliff that look like old castle walls.
There were little details too, close enough to touch. A trickle of bright cold water in a mountain stream, a black snake coiled in the sun, a Luna moth peeling itself from a cocoon.
When I stopped to catch my breath, I realized there were bees everywhere, foraging eagerly in the mountain laurel.
It was getting on toward evening when I turned back. The light was golden. As I trekked down, it was silent enough that I could hear the wind in the trees and the cheerful ruckus of Carolina chickadees flocking over the mountain.
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