Pisgah Showers

The bathroom showers at Pisgah Campground loop 'C' are finally completed after three years! They are quite nice and roomy.



-- Post From My iPhone

Pinkshell Azalea in fog

Extreme fog on BRP near milepost 409.

Site 114

Great site on Davidson River

Transit & Setting Up

Drizzle and rain the whole way up. Set up at Davidson River, Hemlock Loop, Site 114. Great site on the river right next to the chapel. Not many peope around, but do have several other tent campers on the loop. After setting up drove up to parkway to get "above the bad weather". As photos will show it is extremely foggy on the parkway. Things are intensely green and lots of blooms.

PNF Expedition

Check back later today (Monday) for updates for my latest expedition to Pisgah National Forest. I plan to make my base camp at Davidson River Campground with forays to Coontree Mountain, Sam Knob, Big East Fork and more with an evening trip to Devil's Courthouse to look and listen for Saw-whet Owls.

Pisgah and the Rat

I have been visiting and exploring the western North Carolina mountains for over thirty years. I have always been particularly drawn to the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Asheville. In reading about the area, I have once or twice come across a reference to "Pisgah and the Rat". While quite familiar with Mt. Pisgah, "the Rat" remained a mystery. I examined the topographic maps of the area searching for a peak or other geographical reference to the "Rat", but to no avail. I had relegated the matter to the "mystery" category, and put it somewhat out of my mind. Occasionally I would run into a local resident and inquire about "the Rat", but usually just got strange looks.

Then the other day I was reading a Google document, actually an internet scan of Margaret W. Morley's "The Carolina Mountains". In the chapter entitled "Asheville", Ms. Morley explains the following: "That beautiful form with the dome-like top, southwest of Asheville, is Mount Pisgah, and that ridge, a little bit lower and to the left of the summit, is the Rat." I then looked at a photograph I had taken from the Asheville vicinity, and there as clear as day, were Pisgah and the Rat. Mystery solved.

The rat is actually Little Pisgah Mountain, and only looks like a rat if viewed from the east or even from the northeast.