December 14, 2011

the mountains

Originally published September 19, 2003

The hills are in my blood, so I enjoy going back to them every fall. I especially like Blood Mountain Cabins because it is plopped down right there on the side of the hill with a beautiful view of the mountains. I can walk about 100 yards down a path through the woods and be on the Applatchian Trail. I can walk less than a mile in the opposite direction and see three waterfalls. Or, I can sit on the porch and drink wine while I read a book and watch the chipmunks play among the rocks in the stream below me.

I am about 20 miles from civilization in all directions, but I can be in Cleveland, Helen, Blairsville or Dahlonega in thirty minutes, depending on which way I want to go. Hell, other than the Super Wal-Mart, I am MORE than twenty minutes from civilization where I live now.

The only thing I don't like about the cabins is the fact that Highway 128 makes a 180-degree semi-circle around the place on a VERY STEEP uphill grade for 18-wheel trucks in the right lane going up and a VERY STEEP downhill grade for 18-wheel trucks in the right lane going down. You can hear a lot of gear-jamming at night and early in the morning.

In some ways, that is music to my ears. I would rather hear silence, but if I've got to put up with noise, then the sound of big trucks grinding gears and cars screaming their tires on horseshoe curves on mountain roads are what I prefer to hear. I remember listening to the coal trains in the switchyard at night when I was a six year-old boy. That sound reminded me of thunder as it echoed through the mountains. I listened and nestled tighter under my quilts. It was a comforting sound. So are the sounds I hear at Blood Mountain Cabins.

I can't wait to go. I may catch the leaves just right this year.