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Guest Columnists

CURRENT Guest Columnists

All Trails Lead…

Fred First lives in Floyd County, Virginia. He is a blogger, photographer, columnist, radio essayist and author of "Slow Road Home" and “What We Hold in Our Hands.”

Road to Anywhere Else

Or so Jane Hicks’ home once seemed to be. The award-winning poet and quilter lives in Blountville, Tenn., from where she coined the term “cosmic possum.”

Phil Francis

Phil Francis’ career with the National Park Service spans 34 years and includes assignments at Shenandoah, Yosemite and Great Smoky Mountains national parks and the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe, N.M...

Rx: Get Them Outside!

Rick Van Noy is the author of “A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids With Nature Through the Seasons,” and a professor of English at Radford and University in Virginia.

Is There An Appalachian Trail in Heaven?

Allen de Hart, retired from Louisburg College, is the author of the definitive hiking guidebooks for Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia.

Current Issue

Fred First compares the mountains’ pull upon us to those of nutrients, of migration, of music.

All Trails Lead…

Fred First lives in Floyd County, Virginia. He is a blogger, photographer, columnist, radio essayist and author of "Slow Road Home" and “What We Hold in Our Hands.”
Or so Jane Hicks’ home once seemed to be. The award-winning poet and quilter lives in Blountville, Tenn., from where she coined the term “cosmic possum.”

Road to Anywhere Else

Or so Jane Hicks’ home once seemed to be. The award-winning poet and quilter lives in Blountville, Tenn., from where she coined the term “cosmic possum.”
Phil Francis’ career with the National Park Service spans 34 years and includes assignments at Shenandoah, Yosemite and Great Smoky Mountains national parks and the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe, N.M. Last November, he became superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Phil Francis

Phil Francis’ career with the National Park Service spans 34 years and includes assignments at Shenandoah, Yosemite and Great Smoky Mountains national parks and the Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe, N.M...
Rick Van Noy explores the natural with son Sam and daughter Elliott.

Rx: Get Them Outside!

Rick Van Noy is the author of “A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids With Nature Through the Seasons,” and a professor of English at Radford and University in Virginia.
In addition to being the Southern mountains’ trail measurer extraordinaire, Allen de Hart in 1957 founded what Louisburg College now calls the Allen de Hart Concert Series.

Is There An Appalachian Trail in Heaven?

Allen de Hart, retired from Louisburg College, is the author of the definitive hiking guidebooks for Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia.
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Departments

Much of the Oklawaha Greenway is lined with trees.
The Good Walk

Walking Oklawaha Greenway

Located just minutes from downtown Hendersonville, North Carolina, this 3.25-mile scenic pathway winds through forests and wetlands.

May 1, 2026

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