Growing up hiking in Asheville, couple is still enthralled with WNC's wilderness wonders

I grew up picnicking up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway, north and south of Asheville. In our family’s wood-paneled station wagon, my father at the helm, we sailed the sinuous path of the parkway, taking in the endless sea of blue and green, forever mountains. Mount Mitchell, Craggy and Pisgah were our waypoints, our picnic grounds.

I was 7 when my parents wrenched my two brothers, sister and me, up from our beloved, flatter-than-flat, below-sea-level New Orleans and drove us into the highest of high mountains east of the Mississippi, that behemoth of a river we left behind. It was 1967, and because my father, a physician, was in the throes of creating a heart program at Memorial Mission Hospital, there would be no family vacations for the foreseeable future. But my parents, Nancy and Charlie Keller, rallied, and on Dad’s days off, we children were immersed into the mountain landscape and culture of Western North Carolina.

My husband’s immersion into mountain life came at a much earlier age, on the lap of his grandfather, editor and general manager of the Asheville Citizen Times (1920-54), D. Hiden Ramsey. When young Graham Ramsey crawled into Pappy’s lap and asked for stories of the olden days, D. Hiden recounted tales of his youth, hiking and camping the Craggy and Black mountains, decades before the Blue Ridge Parkway was built.

As I have written of in these pages, D. Hiden was deeply enthralled with the mountains of Western North Carolina. Because he was blinded in one eye as a child, he never drove. Thus, when the newspaperman and his wife took theirgrandsons up the Blue Ridge Parkway in their 1953 Chevy, Mary drove.

As the family headed to D. Hiden’s favorite haunts, Craggy and Mitchell, Ramsey named every single tree and shrub, every plant, and with opportune sightings, birds as well. Hobbled by illness in his later years, naturalist Ramsey’sgreatest joy was opening up his grandson’s eyes to the treasures of their mountain home.

When I was 11, I encountered an educator with a deep love of nature equal to D. Hiden’s, my seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher, local legend Steve Longenecker. Of course, I didn’t know he was a legend. I didn’t know he had pioneered Western North Carolina’s most iconic rock climbing route, The Nose, up WNC’s most stunning chunk of granite, Looking Glass Rock.

Aside from traditional assignments, like dissecting pig’s eyes and cow’s hearts, Mr. Longenecker had his junior high students go out into the woods, rope off a plot of dirt, sit and watch — for days. This close attention to the naturalworld intrigued me, but of greater impact still, was Steve’s push to get us out hiking, camping and climbing in our own backyard.

Of course, our first campsite was at the foot of Mr. Longenecker’s favorite rock, Looking Glass. But our second camping trip — with its first night at Graveyard Fields, an unexpected snowstorm overnight, Steve’s encouragementto lace up our boots the next morning, regardless, and hike five miles into the Shining Rock Wilderness for a second night — this was the semi-epic adventure that brightened my young mind to the thrill of mountain exploration, firsthand.

As for my husband, Graham, his greatest outdoor adventures occurred in his 20s, alongside childhood friend, rock climbing enthusiast and outdoor shop owner, Lloyd Hammarlund. In the 1980s, not long a climber himself, Lloyd led Graham straight up Devil’s Courthouse, a Blue Ridge Parkway landmark. It was Graham’s first climb. Today, in an effort to protect native bird species, this rocky crag with its stunning views is accessible only by hiking its backside.

While Lloyd and Graham climbed many an iconic rock in WNC, their greatest adventure unfolded atop Grandfather Mountain. Experienced winter campers, Lloyd, Graham, and friend Bill Wilke, regularly tested gear on Mount Mitchell and Grandfather for Lloyd’s outdoor shop. However, during a second night on Grandfather in January of 1985, temperatures plummeted to a record breaking 22 below, with 50-75 mph gusts.

As reported in the Asheville Citizen, the ice-covered young men struggled to save themselves and their snow-laden tent from flying off the mountain. Nevertheless, despite numb toes and fingers, Hammarlund reported, “We weredefinitely humbled, but we would love to do it again.”

On a recent hike out to Flower Gap on the Art Loeb Trail, I realized I had been hiking Shining Rock Wilderness for 50-plus years. I was dumbfounded, then quickly overcome with gratitude. My greatest joys — hiking our remarkable age-old Blue Ridge Mountains with my husband, Graham, picnicking high atop a favorite rock, reminiscing andgiving thanks to those who have led us into this resplendent wilderness.

Leslie Ann Keller is an artist and writer from Asheville. She is married to Graham Ramsey, grandson of D. Hiden Ramsey.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville couple spends lifetime hiking Blue Ridge Parkway, WNC woods