"A concise guide to the Pisgah District of western North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest. Describes 20 day-hiking routes, 12 overnight hikes, and 29 mountain bike rides with trail details, maps, driving directions and GPS coordinates for 18 trailheads, and user rules and regulations. Includes a section on 22 waterfalls and how to get to them"--
Around 1919, George Weston left New York to return to his boyhood home in the Arden-Fletcher area of Western North Carolina. The US government had recently established Pisgah National Forest by purchasing 80,000 acres from Edith, George Vanderbilt's widow; lands deserted by logging companies; and other tracts. While superintendent of farms at the Biltmore Estate, Weston had admired those mountainous landscapes. About two miles from Mount Pisgah and a mile from Vanderbilt's private Buck Spring Lodge, Weston constructed Pisgah Inn on property leased from the US Forest Service. Visitors came from across the country and around the world to stay and dine at Pisgah Inn. By the 1940s, the construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway brought drastic changes across the narrow, isolated Pisgah ridgeline. Today, a more modern 1960s lodge welcomes guests to its grand views and preserves the history, charm, and natural setting of the original Pisgah Inn.
Over 80,000 of woodland acres became the home of America's first forestry school and the heart of the East's first national forest formed under the Weeks Act. When George Vanderbilt constructed the Biltmore House, he hired forester Gifford Pinchot and, later, Dr. Carl A. Schenck to manage his forests. Now comprising more than 500,000 acres, Pisgah National Forest holds a vast history and breathtaking natural scenery. The forest sits in the heart of the southern Appalachians and includes Linville Gorge, Catawba Falls, Wilson Creek Wild and Scenic River, Roan Mountain, Max Patch, Shining Rock Wilderness and Mount Pisgah. Author and naturalist Marci Spencer treks through the human, political and natural history that has formed Pisgah National Forest.
Eileen Ramsay was at the centre of a unique period in yachting history, and this wonderful book, featuring her classic photography, celebrates an extraordinary woman and her extraordinary subjects.Eileen's heyday was between 1957 and 1970 - a time when eccentrics ruled, records were there for the setting, and women weren't often to be found behind the lens. But Eileen established herself as one of the greatest yachting photographers of her time, taking famous portraits of such sailing icons as Sir Francis Chichester, Eric Tabarly, Olympians like Rodney Pattisson and Keith Musto, and historic pictures from the first OSTAR (Observer Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race). She was the only photographer Sir Francis Chichester allowed on his Gypsy Moth yachts, and managed to photograph the notorious charmers Uffa Fox and Max Aitken.Her unique archive records the explosive growth in dinghy and offshore sailing during the post-war years, and includes pictures of the first Enterprises, Mirrors, Ospreys, Optimists and the first America's Cup 12 metres Sceptre and Evaine.This beautiful book features:- the post-war explosion in dinghy sailing- the growth of offshore racing- the pioneering days of the OSTAR race and solo circumnavigations- the 12 metre class and the America's Cup- post-war powerboat racing- iconic cruising yachtsmen as well as sailing eccentricsThere are also wonderful personal tributes to Eileen throughout by sailing personalities such as Vernon Stratton, Keith Musto and Uffa Fox.
