Guest Blog by Traylor Renfro

"IT" HAS A NAME, THEREFORE IT EXISTS:

THE AMPHIBOLITE MOUNTAINS OF NORTH CAROLINA

 

"Can you see it?"

 

I wish I could count the number of times I have escorted a guest at our Ashe County, North Carolina home to the landing at the bottom of the stairway leading to the upstairs bedrooms and posed the question. Hanging there on the wall is one of those raised relief topo maps. It is a map of the Winston-Salem Quadrangle (U.S. Defense Mapping Agency). The Quadrangle encompasses approximately 5, 550 square miles, including portions of northwest N.C., southwest Virginia and northeastern Tennessee.


Mountains of Ashe County

Our home is located on the north-central edge of Ashe County; near the community of Grassy Creek which straddles the North Carolina-Virginia line. Ashe is situated around the north-south midline of the Quadrangle, about three-quarters west of the eastern edge.

Ashe lies entirely within the Blue Ridge Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The county is flanked by the Blue Ridge Range along the southeast corner and the Unaka Range along the northwestern corner. Unfolding from the northeast corner into Virginia is the high plateau of the New River.

The New River is believed to be the oldest river in North America (and one of the oldest in the world). In Ashe, the New’s headwaters consists of the two primary forks—the North Fork and the South Fork—and the many tributaries emptying into them. These two scenic forks join at the Ashe-Allegheny county line to form the New. The first 4,000 feet or so of the New meanders thru northeastern Ashe before striking out northerly to join the Kanawha River in West Virginia and ultimately the Ohio River.

"Can you see it now? It resembles the back of a warty toad."

In the southern Appalachians, the mountain ranges tend to march in ridge formations with a southwest-northeast orientation. One can hike along the high ridge lines from summit to summit often without experiencing severe changes in elevation. But there is something different in south-central Ashe—rising between the north and south forks of the New is a mountainous macrosite that strays from the typical ridge formation. Here the peaks appear randomly strewn like stars in the heavens above; like bumps on a warty toad’s back.
We have been in Ashe since 2000, and for over ten years I have repeated the same question to uncounted guests: "Can you see it?" As distinct and unique as "it" is, it never occurred to me that "it" has a name. But of course "it" must have a name because it exists.

"It has a name, therefore it exists. Now you can see the Amphibolite Mountains!"


 

Not once have I heard a resident of Ashe—old timer or new—call "it" by name. It was only by accident, while surfing the Internet that I came upon the website SummitPost.org. SummitPost is a collaborative content community focused on climbing, mountaineering, hiking and other outdoor activities. And it was there on SummtPost.org that I discovered that "it" actually has a name: the Amphibolite Mountains.

by Traylor Renfro