Last Trail

Before I headed into town for lunch, I took a short stroll down an easy section of the Art Loeb Trail.  I've since learned that the trail goes a long way, and that you can utilize one stretch to get to Looking Glass Rock, so there's a plan for future years.  But this year I was running out of time, and I reached the trail quite by accident.  I discovered it after finally locating a swinging bridge that has called to me for years:

 Although it's located just off the highway, there's no marker on the road.  I had glimpsed it thorugh the woods several trips ago, and often stopped back at the site (when I could find it) just to daydream about following where it led, but I'd never gotten any farther than that.

The trail follows the river for a short way, and then turns into the woods, where it is well marked:   It's an easy walk on a relatively flat and smooth path, at least for the mile or so that I covered.  I ran into only one other couple, with a very large German shepherd so astonished to see me that it stopped dead in its tracks.  "I'm supposed to be the one who's afraid," I told it, before it bounded back to its owners.

The beauty of the streams of the North Carolina mountains is breathtaking.  I especially love the shallow areas, where the multi-colored rocks shimmer just below the surface of the water: 

And I love the glint of the sun on stretches of river.  My final view of the river, as I trod back over the swinging bridge, was something to carry back to the farmland of the midwest:

Walked: 1 mile.