In the final months of 2016, parts of western North Carolina were in flames. It took weeks for firefighters to control the wildfires that raged through the dry woods. Many people evacuated thier homes, still more were on alert and…
It took outdoor writer Jim Parham eight years to produce his latest guidebook, Wildflower Walks & Hikes: North Carolina Mountains. Perhaps that's because the region covers a lot of territory: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Blue Ridge Parkway, DuPont State Forest,…
During January in the Blue Ridge, the year is still too new for blooming wildflowers. I’ve seen a few naturalized cultivated flowers showing their faces early—for instance, on a walk around Lake Junaluska last week a friend and I spied…
It's snowing all over the Southeast today, from the Smokies to Springer Mountain. But in our office, we're going over the final drafts of a new guidebook for spring. After 8 years of research, field work, and documentation, Jim Parham's…
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-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…
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…
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…
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…
When mountain biking first came on the scene in the southeastern United States back in the late 1980's, people could ride their bikes on almost any trail. Seeing a cyclist on a “foot-only” trail was a novelty for most people. As…