There was never a clear trail to here.
But, with such a rich mixture of people against the background of an ol' Appalachian culture,
the landscape was always inviting me to take the next step.
New River Valley near Piney Creek, NC Nov. 1979
I have been told that if a 19 year old wanted to track out & do what I did 32 years ago along the banks of the New River, there would be no place to do it. I believe it. The farming culture, such a big part of what all I learned in those early years, was hanging by a thread when I arrived in 1977. Now the last of the holdouts are long retired - the land, sold off to city mice, is no longer grazed - leaving it brambled, briared, and off limits to us friendly trespassers.