Date:  Saturday, February 9th
Time:  10 am – 3 pm
Difficulty:  Strenuous (8 on a scale of 10) — 5 miles
Cost: Free but registration required

Join the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy on a hike to the breathtaking heights of Hemphill Bald in Cataloochee Ranch. Hemphill Bald, directly adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, was the first tract of land to be conserved by SAHC in the Cataloochee area in 1993. Translated from Cherokee into English, the word “Cataloochee” means “wave upon wave.” From the summit hikers will indeed be able to see wave upon wave of Blue Ridge Mountains including other SAHC-conserved properties such as the 8,000 acre Waynesville Watershed (protected in 2005); the Plott Balsam conservation easement protecting the top of Plott Balsam Mountain (2003 and 2006); the Crawford Creek conservation easements at the base of Cold Mountain (2000); and the high ridgetop properties of one of SAHC’s primary farmland focus areas: Sandy Mush, Buncombe County.

Registration has filled for this hike, if you’d like to be on the wait list email israel@appalachian.org