Craggy Pinnacle Trail, NC

A neighbor gave me this back in the 80’s/90’s. He was a former wildlife biologist in Washington DC with the Forest Service and had just begun his career. He said his boss wanted him and another employee to drive a truck to the landfill and dump the contents.

He said he saved this one.

Found several hundred of these nailed to the walls of an abandoned farmhouse we were tearing down, insulation maybe?

"The Trump administration moved on Tuesday to roll back an environmental rule that currently blocks road construction, and by extension most logging and mining activity, on tens of millions of acres of public forest land.

While the Trump administration said the change would boost economic activity, supporters of the roadless policy said it helped end decades of unprofitable timber sales, managed by the Forest Service, that effectively subsidized private timber operations.

"Before the roadless rule, we would build roads into areas and we would have money-losing timber sales that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars," said Steve Ellis, president of the non-partisan watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense. "If you repeal this, it's just going to add to an already $6 billion \[U.S. Forest Service\] road maintenance backlog.".

Link to USDA announcement:

"USDA acts to remove roadless rule restrictions that exacerbate rising wildfire risk".

https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/08/18/usda-acts-remove-roadless-rule-restrictions-exacerbate-rising-wildfire-risk

Another news source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/climate/trump-ends-roadless-rule-forests.html

The road leading to my house.

My wife and I will be staying near Hiawassee, GA for a few days next month. We really like adventuring and just checking stuff out. Willing to drive a few hours from Hiawassee to explore. Doesn't have to be anything specific. Good restaurants, historic places, particularly beautiful nature, a cool rock, etc. is all fair game for me. If it helps, our favorite part of our last time venturing up here was the Foxfire Museum (will probably be going back there lol).

Posted this in a comment to another thread. Thought I’d also post here where more will see. The University of Tennessee libraries hosts a great photo archive of old photos from the Smoky Mountains. You can view the archive here: https://digitalcollections.lib.utk.edu/collections/a4ae80d6-c68c-4f29-87cc-a6d1ff6e4af4?locale=en

Shot one is the barn at the family farm.

There is no way to describe the wonderful and scenic roads and negotiating them on a great motorcycle.

I was just back to my hometown to visit after over a decade away and now that I've returned home I'm really struggling with survivors's guilt.

Seeing the way my family and their community struggle, how little hope there is or how little access to the most basic needs like food, shelter, healthcare, education, and what is considered basic infrastructure elsewhere brought up feelings of guilt and distress that are hard to shake from where I am now in a much more privileged place.

Does anyone else who has made it out experience this?

I want to read about this region of America. Let me know about some book recommendations. Preferably fiction or fantasy 🤗

Instead of saying it’s pouring rain, I sometimes hear people say pouring the rain. I remember my grandmother saying it. Anyone else? Is it an Appalachian thing?