Picnics in the mountains conjures images of, well, what you see here. People beside mountain lakes, grilling hot dogs, hamburgers, having drinks with friends, hiking on mountain trails, enjoying the sights and sounds of scenic mountain waterfalls, ponds, creeks, laughing children and more.
On this beautiful spring Sunday, Rand Soellner and his wife, Merry, joined the staff of the Sapphire, North Carolina office of Keller Williams, where Merry is one of the leading real estate brokers. Children played in Fairfield Lake, teasing local trout with breadcrumbs from hamburger buns. Savory smoke rose from the charcoal grill. Everyone brought their own custom family recipes for pea salad, whipped cream deserts, chocolate chip cookies and well-seasoned sausages. The mountain air was crisp and refreshing in the shadows and warm in the sun. A prefect day in the western North Carolina mountains, and one of the reasons so many people from Atlanta, New York, Florida, the Midwest and even Texas come to this area to buy, design and build vacation residences and permanent retirement houses.
Some folks tossed frisbees in the shallows of the lake, and a few intrepid souls took the popular trail around the lake, through the mountains, past million-year old boulders the size of houses, past Laurel Knob (the tallest sheet granite cliff face in the Eastern USA). This particular spot is rumored to be the source of spiritual emanations that are good for the soul, so say world-traveling spiritual teachers visiting our scenic community.
This trail also continues over cascading mountain creeks that become waterfalls, some about 100′ in height. The trail continues through Camp Merrie Wood and past the foundations of the burned-down old Fairfield Hotel of about a hundred years ago, then back to the beachhead where the covered picnic structure stands near the grills. It’s about an hour walk, at at the leisurely pace enjoyed by the KW/Home Architects crew, that might be around 3 to 4 miles an hour or so. One of the KW people is a retired rocket scientist and he said he thought the trail was about 4 miles long or so, and we believe him. Just the thing for working off those “dawgs” and burgers and indulgent deserts.
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tags: custom, picnics in the mountains, cashiers, highlands, lake toxaway, land, residential design, asheville, hendersonville, glenville, aspen, park city, telluride, boulder
1 Comment
Merry Soellner
9:01 am - April 16, 2012Wowee, GREAT post…I love the log home in the background of this post, too.