Way high on top of a place called White Top Mountain, I spent the entire afternoon up and away from the rest of the world. It wasn’t busy that day, and the weather up there is always different than down below. Some days it’s raining everywhere else and sunny there or the other way around. If you love to watch a storm this is the place for you. The days when it is clear you will see for miles and miles around beautiful mountains.
It has amazing sunsets. Night skies that rival those of more popular locations in the world. I once saw a sky that looked as if light and dark crashed into one another and fought it out. It wasn’t a typical sunset by any means. It was my go-to getaway. No two days there were ever the same and no two sunsets. It is excellent for cloud scrying. There are some hiking trails as well. I would often go up there and rest and meditate.
In the picture at the top, it looks like just your regular fog, but really the clouds had dropped low and moved in, and eventually, I was swallowed in clouds. I spent the entire evening sitting in the clouds and reading a book. I felt worlds away. It was so relaxing the wind was strong that day and it swayed my car gently from side to side I eventually gave in to the rocking and fell asleep. This is the place I could go to reset and listen to my thoughts.
It is a most fantastic place to fly kites. I wonder why that isn’t a thing up there in the Spring why more don’t partake and why isn’t there a kite competition of some kind. You can get some serious air up there. Kids love it. Adults love it too, I may have flown their kites myself. I saw a minimum of 10 rainbows in one day up there. Half the mountain was rainy the other half was clear. It is the place for skywatching and is a big hot spot for abnormal sightings. On a clear night, you can see the Milkyway.
It’s a big place for camping and camping is free, there is no glamping there. My dad once told a story of being up there when he was younger and encountering a black panther, mind you they say we don’t have those around here, but some of the old-timers beg to differ. We have mountain lions one of my last big hikes with my mother involved a mountain lion, that Summer had been extra dry and there was little water or food and we were hiking in a place people don’t hike much anymore. We were stalked you could hear it cry out and I knew it was planning to head us off further up ahead on the remnants of the trail we were on. We decided it was time to turn around and leave. We made it out safely though as we were driving out something hit the side of the vehicle very hard, but we never saw what it was. The funniest thing my mother said to me afterward was, “you have a bigger chance of getting struck by lightning than attacked by a mountain lion.” I laughed hysterically as I reminded her that I had been indirectly struck by lightning twice. After the last time, I drained watch batteries and demagnetized things for a few years.
Storms up there can move in fast and furious so if you find yourself there to camp, keep that in mind. It can come from seemingly out of nowhere. The rain can get heavy, the wind fierce, and the lightning is the biggest thing. It strikes often and hard. There are bears up there so keep that in mind when eating and storing food. Last Summer they had been in and around the main camping spots enough that I wasn’t comfortable wandering into the woods there alone. It’s too great of a place not to share with someone anyway. It is not too far off from the Appalachian Trail. If you don’t want to camp there are plenty of places to stay in the area and so much outdoors to enjoy.
Confessions of a Haunting Freak 