I had packed a picnic to go up on the parkway. With plenty of time, I decided to go on a hike first. After driving past mount Pisgah I ended up going up to the frying pan fire tower A short 1.5-mile round trip hike. The United States Forest Service built the 70-ft. tall tower in 1941 as a lookout for fires. It is the tallest USFS lookout tower in Western North Carolina, and it is now on the National Register of Historic Places. As I got near the peak I could hear voices from the top of the platform. But this could not be, as every time I have come up here you could climb the five flights of steps to the bottom of the platform and get an amazing view but the door to the top of the platform has been locked shut. Today was different, for the first time in my life the door to the top was open. And I pushed the door open with a loud clanging of metal and made my way onto the platform for the first time in my life. It was just as Moses had proclaimed on top of Pisgah behold the land of milk and honey. 360 degrees of milk and honey! The wind rushed through my hair bird were flying below me I was above the birds! I knew this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity but I had to have my picnic inside his room on top of the platform it was 4 walls of multi-pane windows about 10 by 10 It was a pretty steep climb back off that mountain but I hiked back down got my picnic supply and went back up. On the inside of the fire tower, I spread out a picnic blanket, Got Sox sat up. Sox is my traveling monkey companion. Made me a gin and tonic relaxed and read a chapter in my book as the sun dropped lower and lower.
Time to eat
Till around 6 pm when I got out my backpacking stove and heated up southern style corn, then toasted a bun before frying up some of the best crab cakes I have ever had the opportunity to enjoy.
I watched as the western sky seemed to catch fire and soon the room glowed with the golden light of an of a thousand Spanish mysteries.
People had shown up for the sunset but they all stayed out on the deck some brave souls even ventured up on the roof.
They were in a different time dimension than me however, my time was frozen. Yet they were still moving?
It ended up being one of the most extraordinary moments ever. Even the walk off the mountain under a moonless night with the billions of stars from the milky-way creating there own surreal glow and with a soundtrack provided by the late summer katydids Another evening I wish to remember forever
chasingperi 