How to Use Trekking Poles
Trekking Poles. Certainly you can hike without them, and many folks do. However, if you want to save your knees for many years of hiking to come; are planning a trip that includes lots of rocky, rooty, steep terrain; or…
The Multi-Talented Common Violet
We seem to have wildflowers on the brain here at Milestone Press. This may be because Jim Parham is nearing the end of a five-year book project titled Wildflower Walks & Hikes: North Carolina Mountains, due out next year. But the other reason is…
A Brief History of Forsythia
A recent post about flowers that mark old home places in the Southern Appalachians mentioned the early spring-flowering shrub forsythia. Like daffodils, forsythia blooms are golden, making bright spots in the woods where cabins and farmsteads once stood. Like daffodils,…
Hiking Back to the Home Place
It's been a warm winter here in the Smokies. And although we expect more cold weather in March, there's reason to expect that unlike last year, it will be an early spring. The earliest spring flowers are already in evidence. Daffodils…
Whoop-te-doos & the Trials of Editing Adventure Guidebooks
Whoop-te-doo. It's a term mountain bikers use for an earth berm that's been built into a trail, usually to prevent erosion, but sometimes to slow mountain bikers down as they descend a hill—a type of speed bump, if you will. The undulation creates…
The Newest Mountain Bike Guidebook for GA & TN
It won't be long now! Jim Parham has been hard at work on Mountain Bike Trails: North Georgia Mountains & Southeast Tennessee, and it will be available April 1. While you're waiting, check out the Table of Contents and a sample…
Saying Goodbye to Jim Parham’s Classic Mountain Bike Guide Series
It's been 25 years since the very first volume of the Off the Beaten Track mountain bike guide series was published, but times have changed and now it's time to say goodbye. The last two volumes in the series will go out of print…
Closing The Door On The Fires of 2016
The year was drawing to a close. The weather for the first day of 2017 looked iffy. So December 31 seemed the perfect time to hike to the nearby Wesser Bald Fire Tower in Nantahala National Forest to survey the damage wrought…
In Praise of Our Local Bookseller
As we enter the holiday gift-giving season, it's time to shine some light on our wonderful local bookstore. This would be City Lights in downtown Sylva, NC. Over the decades, our relationship to the staff at City Lights has been multi-faceted.…
Supporting Our Local Library in Swain County, NC
Milestone Press may be an outdoor publisher, but not all our work—and not all our discoveries—happen in the great outdoors. Last weekend we participated in our local library's Read Local Book Fair, where library patrons get a chance to peruse books…