A Week in the Mountains

Sasha’s Cabin is tucked away near the top of a modest (3500 foot) mountain outside Fairview, about 30 minutes south of Asheville, NC, where my friend Jama and I have retreated for a week to enjoy cool nights and mornings and breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. It’s a short drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway, with its abundance of hiking trails and scenic overlooks. Today we drove north to Craggy Gardens and hiked the rugged trail lined with wild blueberry bushes, rhododendrons, ferns and moss-covered rocks, marveling at trees twisted by the severe winds that whip this mountainside.

As we picked our way along the trail, the buzz of honeybees collecting nectar from the last of the wildflowers was our only accompaniment. 

We earned a good lunch and found one in Black Mountain, a charming town that calls itself North Carolina’s Front Porch for the rocking chairs scattered along the sidewalks downtown, inviting strollers to sit a spell. 

At the Black Mountain Bistro, we enjoyed the best fried green tomatoes either of us had ever tasted, accompanied by a potato cake  that completed the comfort food plate. After an all-too-brief stroll around town (shops were closing) we found petite Tomahawk Lake, from which we could see the Seven Sisters peaks overlooking the town.

While we can’t see full sunsets from Sasha’s because of the surrounding mountains, the clouds turn lovely shades of salmon, purple and gold as evening approaches.  (The winding road to the cabin is so steep, and the driveway so treacherous, that it’s essential to make our way home before dark.) And when darkness falls, the symphony of the night critters lulls us to sleep.