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 Dot's Chocolate Angel Pie |
Up here in the northwest territories, it’s so high that the river
flows north, unlike any major river in the nation. When 1740s surveyors
kept stretching boundaries westward, they thought they’d reached
a strange branch of the Mississippi here. Colonial Gov. Gabriel Johnston
called it something “nobody ever drempt of before.” Today,
the New River is an American Heritage River.
It is a dreamy place. The Roaring River flows through Roaring Gap because the wind and water actually roar. Indians say “watauga” here, or “beautiful water.” At Grandfather Mountain, a swinging bridge lifts you into it all. At Beech and Sugar and Appalachian, you ski or otherwise tumble down the highest slopes in eastern America. At Linville, you’re in the wildest gorge.Something in the air or water here causes people to throw 56-pound weights 16 feet straight up at the Highland Games, and race woolly worms in Banner Elk in October, and celebrate Christmas trees in West Jefferson in mid-summer. Maybe it’s the famous apples or the cheese. Or the amazing rhododendrons.
The High Country stays with you. When you stand at the Blowing Rock, whatever memento you toss toward the beautiful water valley blows back your way.