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        Begin Your Adventure With App Sherpa

Welcome to the Appalachian Sherpa blog site! This is the first blog post for this site. We invite you to visit this blog regularly as we expect to post and update at least twice per week. We plan to give you the reader invaluable information for our area. That area is primarily Ashe County North Carolina, but we will certainly discuss and post about locations, activities and events outside of Ashe County throughout the southern Appalachian Mountains. We will be posting weather conditions and expectations, fishing/boating/water reports and recommendations for outdoor activities. We will share information about the local farmer’s market, current offerings by local businesses, etc. Also, we plan to highlight local businesses and offerings by featuring them as the topic in at least one weekly post. Stay tuned for that and check regularly as we hope that there may be some discounts and special offers included!!

Now a word about who we are. Here at Appalachian Sherpa, we are all natives of Ashe County. That doesn’t make us better or worse than anyone else but it does make us knowledgeable about this region. Our staff range in age from 28 to 59!  Outside of each staff member’s time away to colleges and universities, we have lived all of our lives here in Ashe. Posts will be authored and presented by all members of the staff. We will let each introduce themselves as their time comes to share. My name is John and the oldest of the crew. My experiences are going to help me focus primarily on outdoor activities. I’ve been an avid hunter, fisherman, hiker and farmer since I was old enough to wade through the creeks, grass and woods. I deeply love where I live and given the opportunity to live anywhere else, wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve travelled to 43 of the 50 US states and have hiked, fished, hunted and camped in some unbelievably beautiful places and would love to do them again, but make no mistake, the southern Appalachian Mountains are uniquely special. If you have not visited with us before, then you really should! If you pay a visit, I really think you’ll understand what I mean. These mountains are alive!!  There is abundant wildlife and a bubbling spring in the head of every “holler.”  One of my planned posts for the future is an account of the number of species I witnessed one morning while sitting in a tree. The variety of birds alone is amazing. Also, the people are special. I interact with many tourists and visitors to our area and without fail the vast majority describe the locals with words like- friendly, generous, kind, genuine. Movies and media unfortunately have painted mountain people as ignorant and stupid. Nothing could be farther from true. Having worked and studied with people from all around the nation and from various parts of the world, the sharpest, most intelligent and savvy people I’ve known are from right here in the hollows of the Appalachians. More importantly, they’re decent and trustworthy.

So what is there to do there in them hills, you might ask. Visit and enjoy some of the finest musicians. Partake in food at its best. Take wild trout and smallmouth bass with a fly rod on a warm summer evening. Kick back in a kayak as you float lazily along in one of the oldest and cleanest rivers in the world. Hike long trails that give unreal vistas of and from 4000-6000+ foot mountains. See the life cycle of and choose for your own the greatest Christmas tree in the world, the fraser fir.  There’s more but for now, I’ll stop. We welcome you here digitally and we will welcome you here physically as well. If you have questions or just want to talk, give us a call and/or send us an email. Thanks for your time and check back in a few days for an update on life in the hills!