Time for one last summer escape before the “school year” begins! William’s music highlight of the year, for the past many years, is a musicians gathering in Clifftop, WV. As with all large gatherings of people this year, it was canceled, but a (much) smaller group decided to find a way to make some music happen in the mountains. David Strickland found a great spot in Maggie Valley, NC (near Waynesville) called Hawthorn Haven (http://hawthornhaven.com). The “haven” has two lodges, a cabin with two suites and chicken coops, a chapel and a lot of room to explore. We stayed in the bottom suite of the cabin and had a nice space for the family situated close to the main lodge where several musicians stayed (or camped in the outside yard area). 

The weather compared to Jacksonville was heavenly- from mid 60s to 80s, at the max. While much of the weekend revolved around music, we took the boys on a few hikes – some around the property, one up on the blue ridge mountain parkway (Richland balsam loop) and on a longer / 3mile hike (Purchase Knob) where we saw an incredible variety of mushrooms. The boys helped gather blackberries for a cobbler that we made (and shared) that evening!

We also had our first family horse adventure with John at Panther Creek — bit off the beaten path and not a place to go if you appreciate a lot of instructional help, but the horses were solid and extremely familiar with the route – the boys both loved. Shepherd rose Spirit and Rawls rode Cinnamon – the horses were brothers, a year apart and took great care of our boys, especially the initially reticent Rawls.  

At the end of the day, Rawls shares his thoughts:

Great area to explore – and perfect time of year to be in western NC.