On New Year’s Day, 1984, my wife and I moved from eastern North Carolina to the mountainous western end of the state, where Becky had gotten a job as a librarian at Western Carolina University, in Cullowhee. I went with a master’s degree in English, and with my eye on earning a PhD, then teaching. We thought we’d try mountain living for a couple of years. Those mountains are where we still live.
One reason we stayed is because of Slickrock Expeditions. I had worked as a backpacking and canoeing guide years earlier in New York’s Adirondacks, and now, with the Blue Ridge Mountains right outside our door, I decided to try guiding again. My thought was that I could run wilderness trips in the summer, teach college English the rest of the year. I began to explore the trails and rivers in the area, and in 1985 I led my first trips in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness, part of the Nantahala National Forest. I called them Slickrock Expeditions. Eventually the Expeditions became my career, and I ended up running trips in many parts of the country. Hand in hand with guiding, I started to write outdoor articles for Wildlife in North Carolina, Paddler, Canoe&Kayak, and other magazines, as well as trip reports for friends.
In 2014, having guided more than 450 trips, I said goodbye to long-time clients, sold my gear and closed up shop. But I did not stop exploring the wilds. In fact, Becky and I live in the wilds—in a house we built up Moses Creek, six miles south of Cullowhee. Trails radiate from our yard into the surrounding forest, and when I’m not off canoeing new rivers, I hike them daily.
I did not stop writing about the wilds either. This blog is a continuation of that.
