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Music.

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Casual Climbers, the podcast by and for beginning hikers and those who may not

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quite be physically ready to tackle the Appalachian Trail.

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I'm your host, Donna Padrick, and alongside me is my husband and adventure buddy, Roy. Hi, Donna. Hi, Roy.

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So in this podcast, we try to provide you with information, tips,

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and tricks on how to get into hiking in the Blue Ridge area.

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We will cover some of the hundreds of trails in the various parks and areas

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of the region, and hopefully entertain you a little bit along the way.

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We're two middle-aged, not in the very best shape hikers. 100% not in the best shape.

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But we do love the outdoors, and we want to share our experiences with you.

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In this week's episode, Donna, we discuss a nice waterfall trail along the Blue

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Ridge Parkway, the Graveyard Fields Loop Trail.

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We'll also have a fun fact segment about the nearby by Pisgah Astronomical Research

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Institute, and Donna will review her favorite hiking boots, the Keene's Pyrenees.

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What do you say, Donna? Let's get into it. Let's go.

1:18

So here's the Graveyard Fields Loop Trail by the numbers.

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The trail itself, at least the route that we took, is 3.31 miles loop.

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But the reason it's that long is because there's two spurs that come off of it.

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The Graveyard Fields Loop itself is only 1.3 miles, but the Upper Falls Spur,

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which will take you to the Upper Falls, is two miles there and back.

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So one mile up, one mile back. The time it took us was two hours

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and 47 minutes. Of that, an hour and 32 minutes was actual moving time.

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The lowest point was 4,900 feet, and the highest point was 5,150 feet.

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So you can see it's only a 250 foot elevation change

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but it felt like more on the upper falls

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spur and the friendliness of this

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trail it was not friendly at all it was rocky and rooty throughout many stream

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crossings sometimes 10 20 feet wide sometimes a few inches deep and it was very

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very muddy wet and mucky Yes.

2:30

Now, are you adding in the lower falls as well?

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That we did at the beginning. The distance includes it. But the Lower Falls Spur is .15 miles.

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Yeah. So, I mean, it's very short. Right. So, listeners, if you want to just

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go to the Lower Falls, which is way less effort and really a beautiful.

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It's a much better falls. It's a much better falls than the Upper Falls. Yeah. And just not work at all really to get there.

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I mean, there's stairs that you go down. 70 steps.

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There is 70 steps getting from the trail down to the bottom of the waterfall.

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Right. So getting back up those steps, well, getting down or up those steps

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for some people with mobility issues could be, you know, but there's some little

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landings and there was one bench at one of the landings.

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That's the only bench I saw all day yesterday.

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On the entire area. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean. There's some at the parking area.

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So I should start by saying this. The trailhead is at the Graveyard Fields Overlook, right on the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile post 218.

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Now, if you're driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, which Donna and I try to do every chance we get. Right.

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It's spectacular. The Blue Ridge Parkway is, I think, one of America's most

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incredible national treasures. Right.

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So any chance we get to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we jump at it.

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And so the Graveyard Fields Overlook, and you'll see all the photos on our photos page of our website,

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which is casualclimbers.podbean.com there you'll also see the trail map and

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you'll see what we're talking about it's kind of hard to describe verbally but

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once you look at the map you'll be like oh yeah okay i see the loop and then

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there's this long trail that spurs off of it.

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But so that's where it starts there at the at the overview there

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are bathrooms and benches yeah they're at the

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at the parking area those bathrooms that

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were glorified porta potty kind of

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bathrooms they're not they're not full running water there's

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no sinks to wash your hands you can't you can't flush the toilets it's

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just but it's a place to go it is a place covered in private and yeah i found

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it to be pretty clean did you as far as as far as porta potty bathrooms go yeah

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i mean the one i went in wasn't it i mean there was flies in there and well

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yeah so i i I picked the dud one, I guess, but, but there was toilet paper and, you know, so.

5:03

If you have to go. If you have to go. It's better than not having anything there,

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like some of the trails that we go on. I, I don't wear a mask, like, you know how we got used to wearing masks through COVID, but.

5:14

If I had had a mask to wear in that bathroom, I would put it on.

5:17

Yeah. I mean, since it is basically a permanent porta potty situation.

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Yeah. Doesn't smell great in there.

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But again, if you have to go. If you have to go, it's there.

5:30

It's way better than nothing. Yeah. Yeah.

5:32

So the loop itself, let's start by talking about Graveyard Fields loop.

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We should probably tell people why it's called Graveyard Fields.

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So they're not 100% certain. What happened?

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But sometime in the 1800s it

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was either a storm or a fire that

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happened but a lot of

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the trees like a big section of this forest was

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just decimated yeah and so

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there were tree stumps that were left and they

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started growing moss and lichen and so they look like tombstones

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right and it was like this for many many years the forest

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has now completely recovered it's yeah

6:14

fully grown there's no signs of any tree stumps or anything

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there yeah the name is kind of now today feels like a misnomer it does feel

6:22

like a misnomer it's beautiful lush and green yeah on there yeah i mean there's

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some open kind of open areas but not like the stories for how that place got

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got its name Right, right. So the loop itself is fairly simple, honestly.

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I found the loop to be the easiest part. It's still rocky, rooty,

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and muddy, but... There's a few little boardwalk areas.

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Yeah, a number of boardwalk areas that wind through. And we should say this too.

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We saw a lot of rotten and torn up boards on some of these boardwalks.

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You can tell they're very old. I think the park service is trying to keep up

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with replacing boards because there's some new boards.

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We saw some new boards, yeah, but there were still a lot of broken ones.

7:08

Yes. A lot of broken ones. So just be careful when you're walking on these, guys.

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What I like to do is I'll either, if the walkway has a center seam board in

7:18

addition to the two side boards that are part of the frame, I'll walk either in the center.

7:23

And you can tell because there'll be nails in the middle. So basically try to

7:27

walk along the line where the nails are because that's extra supported.

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That's what I typically try to do. But there were a lot. There were a lot of

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these areas going over marshes, going over streams.

7:39

And it was busy yesterday. Yeah. There was a ton of people on the trail.

7:44

No. We get up early and try and get on the trail early.

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And when we first got there, it wasn't. 9.40 when we got there.

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Okay. It wasn't too crazy busy. But as the day progressed, I was kind of surprised at how busy it got.

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I was too, honestly. But I guess it's a lot of people driving the parkway,

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stopping. And this is Memorial Day weekend. It was a Friday.

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So we try and go on Friday, not Saturday or Sunday, just because those days are more popular. Yeah.

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But it's Memorial Day weekend. So I'm guessing a lot of people are trying to

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take this weekend and get a good jump. You know. Get out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the Lower Falls Spur,

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let's just talk about this and get this one out of the way, is beautiful.

8:26

Beautiful it's very short spur you know

8:29

you navigate the 70 steps and it's not all in

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one line they're yes you know they're it winds around

8:35

yes it feels like i don't remember any roots or rocks having to climb over anything

8:42

or really any mud to step in or anything like that not in that area yeah that

8:48

was that was definitely the easy you know check this off our list of things to do and it was great.

8:54

Yeah, I mean, if you're driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway and you want a quick...

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Get out, stretch your legs, see a waterfall. Yeah. It would take you, gosh.

9:02

Five, 10. 15 minutes maybe from the parking area to the lower falls waterfall.

9:07

In fact, last October when we did drive the Blue Ridge Parkway,

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we stopped not knowing really anything about this.

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We stopped in that parking area and just.

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We went down to the, when you go down to the main area, and it's beautiful because

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there's rhododendron thickets that you walk through in the first part of the trail.

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It's kind of magical. It's gorgeous. And rhododendrons are starting to come

9:30

out now up there. So it was really nice.

9:32

But then it takes you out to this big area where the river.

9:37

That's where you filled up your water bladder. It is, yeah. Where the river's

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coming down from the upper falls and getting ready to hit the lower falls.

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And it's moving. That water is moving. And there's a boardwalk that goes over the river. So you don't have to worry about that.

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Once you go over the boardwalk, it winds around to the right.

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To get to lower falls. To get to lower falls. Yeah and this is a short walk like five minutes

9:59

and it's not bad you'll get to those stairs the

10:02

stairs looked a little intimidating to me

10:05

because they're pretty steep actually yeah they are steep

10:08

but it was no problem getting down and getting no we we got down and up without

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any issue yeah and it's man that that waterfall view down there is so nice it

10:18

really is so nice you can climb over rocks down there and get you know closer

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to the water yeah yeah you can get you can get down in the water, unlike,

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I think, Upper Falls, where you don't get close at all.

10:30

Yeah, you can, down in the Lower Falls, you can definitely get in there. Yeah.

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So then we come back up and we continue our way along the loop.

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And so this is when it starts getting muddy, mucky.

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Rocks and rooty. Rocks and rooty. So as it goes through, about halfway through the loop,

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The spur going to Upper Falls is there, and it's marked there. Right.

10:55

That is basically the last time you will get any trail markings all the way

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up to the top. For Upper Falls. Yes.

11:02

This is a big thing that we, if you're going to do the Upper Falls loop.

11:07

Do Commute or? Do Commute or All Trails. Bring an app because.

11:12

And download the trail before you get out there and don't have internet access.

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Because you will get lost. Yes. There were lots and lots of people on the trail that when we were coming back

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as the trail was. We were like, which way to go? Which way to go?

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And I had to stop probably, gosh, what would you say?

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Every hundred feet to look because it's really hard to describe this.

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But as you get onto the Upper Falls Spur, the trail becomes much, much, much less wide.

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It's very primitive. and then there's like little forks and trails that go off

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to the left and to the right and there's no markings at all.

11:56

There's no trailblazes. We saw laminated paper in two spots that said Upper Falls this way,

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but that was only in two spots. I had to stop. We backtracked a few times. Well, I think one of the signs said,

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this is not the way because it looked like it was the way and I'm sure a lot

12:14

of people thought that's the way. Enough to have to put a piece of paper down it yeah but it really should be

12:20

more than it i don't even know if it was laminated piece of paper i think it

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was a piece of paper that was in like a, plastic sleeve it might have been yeah i didn't look too close with

12:30

the rock with a rock holding it yeah yeah it's for

12:34

for as popular as this was and we saw a ton of people yeah on the upper falls

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spur it is tremendously difficult to navigate we would a hundred percent have

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gotten lost if we didn't have the app yeah hundred percent because there were

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several times where I was going off and my app said, turn around.

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You may have missed the turning. Please check your map. And I was like, oh, what?

12:59

This clearly looked like this was the way to go. Yeah, because sometimes the

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path looks more wide, more worn, more traveled.

13:06

It was really funny because your app one time told us to make a U-turn when we could.

13:12

We're walking. We can literally make a U-turn anytime.

13:16

It was crazy. It was really, really nuts. And then it just got so muddy.

13:22

And some of the mud was deep in portions. Yes. Your foot went down in a hole. Oh, my goodness.

13:27

And thankfully, you had your keens on, which you're going to talk about in your review.

13:31

Yes. And my foot went down in several spots into the mud.

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Another reason to bring at least one hiking pole and test mud when you see it.

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Test to see how far down it goes. That was a lesson learned for yesterday.

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We both brought poles. you had one and I had I had one in my hand and then one

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attached to my backpack and once we got.

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Up toward the end of Upper Falls and it started climbing, I really needed it there.

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And that, man, if the trail was not unmarked, not marked well below,

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once you start your climb up to the falls, it's even less marked. Right.

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There were several spots where it honestly feels like you're just climbing over

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rocks that have, that nobody's ever been on. Right.

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It's just completely no trail. There's no trail.

14:23

There's no walking area. And there's these little skinny little paths that you

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can tell that you can because you can kind of hear the water off to your left.

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And there's these little trails that are off to the water. I think that people

14:35

have made because they we didn't take those little trails because you had your

14:40

app and we knew which way we were supposed to go. But I'm guessing that there may be little areas where you can put your feet

14:48

in the water or whatever. Yeah. So there was that one spot. So we got up to where the app took us,

14:53

and that took us to the top of the falls. And we get there, and I'm like, this is very underwhelming.

14:59

Because it's not like a waterfall like you'd think a traditional waterfall.

15:03

It's absolutely not like Rainbow Falls or Cascading Falls. Pinnacle Mountain Falls. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

15:08

It's just kind of moves quickly down a sloped rock.

15:13

Right. I mean, it's impressive. It's nice. but it's not like the waterfalls

15:18

at Lower Falls on this same trail.

15:21

It's not like that at all. But sometimes when you get so high that you're almost

15:26

like above or you're at the top of the waterfall, sometimes that's not the best view of the waterfall.

15:32

So we looked down and we saw some people down below us at Upper Falls.

15:36

And so we climbed down to where they were and we got a better view.

15:40

It was a better view. Still not great. Honestly, it was very challenging. I was sweating a lot from just on that Upper Falls Spurs,

15:52

really mainly starting at the point where you started climbing.

15:56

I was huffing and puffing. Yeah, we were pretty gross at the end. That's one of the reasons why we went

16:00

into the bathroom is to change our shirts. Change and and i i i will say this listeners in my opinion the upper falls is

16:10

not worth it it's not a spectacular view the trail is exceptionally difficult not only to navigate.

16:18

But to find. I was so amazed when I saw this man with his little kid,

16:25

maybe a four-year-old little kid up there.

16:28

Yeah, he was not happy either. That little kid was complaining the whole time.

16:31

Well, he had a Captain America t-shirt on, and I was like, you go.

16:36

You being a little Captain America. And we saw several dogs.

16:42

We did. But dogs are- Dogs can get anything. Yeah. They're animals. Yeah.

16:47

Absolutely no chihuahuas or little dogs or anything like that.

16:51

We saw, you know, Aussies and like bigger dogs. Bigger dogs, yeah.

16:54

I mean, small dogs could probably get through it. I don't know.

16:57

I really don't. No. I don't know. You'd be picking up that little dog to get over some of those boulders.

17:02

In which case, you need to be hanging on to something as you're getting over

17:07

those boulders yourself if you're an unfit hiker.

17:10

Yeah. Yeah, no kidding. And what surprised me the most, and I guess I shouldn't

17:15

be surprised since it's a trail right off the Blue Ridge Parkway,

17:19

the number of people that were taking the Upper Falls Spur that had white shoes on.

17:27

Or sandals. Or sandals. Oh, my goodness. There was one lady who was doing her best.

17:32

And this was very early on in the Spur. It only got worse from there.

17:36

I heard you say that. She was tiptoeing around on rocks to get over this one

17:42

spot of a stream, which was not, by any stretch of the imagination,

17:48

one of the dirtier, wetter, more challenging areas.

17:52

And she had these white Nikes on, and I was like, it's only going to get worse.

17:56

It's only going to get worse. I can't your my Merrill hiking shoes and your

18:04

Keens were filthy yeah when we left this I can't imagine white shoes coming out of there unscathed.

18:11

Unless you just stop and say, nope, and turn around and go back.

18:15

You'd have to stop really early. Yeah. Yeah.

18:17

So ultimately, though, I didn't like the Upper Falls Spur.

18:22

I didn't like how primitive the trail itself was.

18:27

Yeah. There was these moments where you feel like the brush,

18:34

the greenery on either side of you is brushing your shoulders. It's like a deer trail.

18:39

It feels very much like a deer trail. If you take the right one,

18:43

Lord knows you could go off and be lost in the mountains forever.

18:46

Yeah. Oh, and there's signs too about bears. Yes.

18:51

And I actually read after the fact that they have a lot of white-tailed deer.

18:58

So there's a lot of berry bushes on this trail.

19:02

And when the berries are in season, that's when you're going to encounter more wildlife on this trail.

19:08

We saw more blackberries.

19:11

The bushes. Blackberry plants. Yes. That were flowering. So they're going to

19:15

have blackberries soon. Right. On this trail, then we have on any trail up to this point that we've done.

19:22

I read that there was blackberries, blueberries, and oh my gosh,

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there was like a third berry.

19:29

I can't remember what it was. I don't remember which one. We saw both. Gooseberries?

19:32

I don't know. Maybe. We saw both blueberry bushes and- Blackberry.

19:37

And blackberry bushes. A ton of blackberry bushes.

19:39

Yeah. Man. And- I'd say in a month, let's go back with an empty backpack.

19:45

We're going to be picking. I don't know. I don't know because that's when you're

19:48

going to run into the bears, right? Maybe. Yeah. I think they tend to stay away. As busy as that trail is.

19:55

Then again, as busy as it is, people are going to be picking as they go on. Oh, yeah. Maybe.

20:00

But yeah, overall, I would not do the Upper Falls again.

20:06

Challenging. Difficult to find where you're going. almost impossible if you

20:11

don't have the app or people telling you. Right.

20:13

Mucky muddy the scramble up the rocks to get to the top of the waterfall and

20:19

then in my opinion a very meh waterfall a very disappointing one.

20:23

I was like I can't believe we just spent.

20:27

Like the hour and 32 minutes that we were in motion, an hour of that was on the spur.

20:33

We spent an hour and a lot of that was stopping and catching our breath.

20:38

And I would say too, I would say that the graveyard fields loop was also,

20:45

I mean, I'm glad I did it once, but it was also underwhelming to me.

20:50

The best part of the whole day was the lower falls. Yeah.

20:54

Which you can get to in 15 minutes max. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree.

20:58

If we drive the Blue Ridge Parkway again in fall, which I hope we do, that'll be a stop.

21:03

Yeah. We'll just stop there. To go to the lower falls. Yep, that's it.

21:07

And maybe have lunch or something. Right. So we kind of have to break down the difficulty into the two different

21:14

areas, the graveyard fields loop itself, and then the upper fall spur.

21:19

How would you rate the difficulty of the graveyard fields loop itself?

21:23

Break a sweat? the graveyard feels loop

21:26

itself was not difficult it was

21:29

a piece of cake yeah i don't because you could i don't

21:32

feel like there was elevation change there was some roots

21:35

some rocks some mud but there was also some boardwalk and

21:39

not a lot of elevation change if any i think overall it probably was a piece

21:45

of cake yeah that would be just a lot the loop itself was probably a piece of

21:49

cake I still would do it with hiking shoes or tennis shoes that you're not afraid

21:54

to get dirty because you're going to get a mucky and muddy.

21:57

Yeah. If you get tennis shoes to wear on this hike, just make sure that they're

21:59

mud colored. Yeah. Very good.

22:03

But then the upper falls loop, I think easily break a sweat.

22:08

Maybe feel the burn. Maybe feel the burn. Just because of how challenging it

22:12

was to scramble up the rocks. Mm hmm. But yeah, I'm always amazed when I because I was second guessing myself.

22:20

I was sweating. I was having difficulty. And then I see that kid and I'm like, am I just a wuss?

22:27

What's going on here? Like I told you yesterday, that kid is five years old. Yeah. We have.

22:33

Almost 50 years on him. So let him get to where he's got 50 years of life beaten

22:41

down on him and see if he does as well as we do.

22:44

Maybe. I hope he does. I hope he does better. I hope he does too. Yeah.

22:48

All right, good. So now we're going to talk about the Astronomical Research Institute.

22:54

So Roy, you know how there's a Roswell, New Mexico? Yep.

22:57

Well, in North Carolina. I love that place. I want to go there one day.

23:01

Yeah, I do too. I do too. So in North Carolina, there is a Rosman,

23:05

North Carolina, and there's this place called the Pisgah Astronomical Research

23:11

Institute or PERI for short. Nice. Yes.

23:15

Yeah. So it's this nonprofit astronomical observatory located in the Pisgah National Forest.

23:21

Not far from where we were. Not far from where we were. Yeah. Yeah.

23:24

So Perry is there to inspire everyone from students to scientists to discover their next big thing.

23:32

What about alien people?

23:35

Because I want to go and ask if they've seen aliens.

23:38

I absolutely kind of want to. I looked up, you know, if they have access to

23:46

information about aliens, it's not available on the internet.

23:50

Net but maybe if we talk to them you know like in person

23:53

we might get more ask hey what kind of crazy stuff have

23:55

you seen up there i will say that you know

23:58

how i like to chase rabbit holes i stopped myself from

24:01

chasing a rabbit hole did you i did your rabbit holes though i fun they are

24:05

fun but i did look up and there are a lot of ufos and alien encounter kind of

24:11

things in the mountains of north carolina oh yeah yeah like on our blue ridge

24:17

parkway drive the guy talks about there There were some mountains like Black Mountain,

24:20

I think is one of them where there's tons of UFO sightings. Yeah. Tons of them. Yeah.

24:25

Yeah. Right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yeah. Yeah.

24:29

So the PERI, the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, they specialize in STEM education.

24:38

And they offer space camps and learning experience for educators and students at all levels.

24:43

So for those of you who don't know, STEM is science, technology,

24:46

engineering, and mathematics. Thank you. Thank you for that.

24:49

So they're all about enabling new discoveries and exploration in the field of

24:53

astronomy and space science.

24:56

Nice. Yeah. Yeah, they operate multiple radio telescopes and operate,

25:01

okay, so they operate multiple radio telescopes and optical telescopes for research and teaching.

25:08

Okay. So they're pretty great. Yeah. And I love educational things.

25:14

So do I. Yeah. So do I. So they're there to encourage enthusiasm,

25:18

confidence, and problem-solving skills during their space camps.

25:21

But you can also, you don't have to go to their space camp.

25:24

You can just go visit. it but you do have to

25:27

contact them and make an appointment to yeah

25:30

i'm guessing it's probably not manned all the time right because it's

25:33

a non-profit right right but the building the facility it used to be a nasa

25:39

facility it used to be called the rosman satellite tracking station and it was

25:44

originally established in 1962 wow yeah it was part of the worldwide spacecraft

25:50

Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network.

25:52

And it was an important communications link for the Gemini and Apollo space programs.

25:57

Wow. Yeah. How exciting. Yes. Roots in the space race right here. Uh-huh. Right in the Pisgah National Forest. Yeah, that's crazy.

26:06

So the facility got transferred to the National Security Agency, the NSA, in 1981.

26:13

Uh-oh. Became a spy system. The name changed to Rosamund Research Station.

26:16

I think that's when, like, you know, the aliens and stuff like that.

26:20

Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, anytime you have a secret government organization

26:24

like NSA take over something, people start to think the worst.

26:29

Or the best. I mean, what if they're nice aliens, right? Yeah.

26:33

Yeah, well, I mean, I choose to believe that.

26:37

So regardless of where you sit on whether or not aliens exist or have visited Earth, listeners,

26:44

it's hard to refute, given the vastness of the universe and the quadrillions

26:52

of planets there are, that even a fraction of them, a tiny fraction,

26:56

are capable of supporting life.

26:59

It's hard to believe that there isn't other species out there, right?

27:05

Whether or not they've come to earth, I don't know, but, but I,

27:09

I'm pretty certain that they exist out there.

27:11

And it's also stands to reason that they would, at least some of them would

27:16

be advanced enough to have interstellar travel.

27:19

And so if they have interstellar travel, they have the capability of massive

27:24

military capabilities. You know, I'm sure if they have interstellar travel,

27:29

they have at least nuclear or even bigger weapons.

27:33

So the fact that we haven't been attacked probably means that if aliens have

27:37

visited, they're not hostile. Right. They're nice. Yeah. I mean, and maybe they're even related to Bigfoot.

27:44

Probably. Yeah. Maybe Bigfoot is an alien. For sure. Yeah. Yeah.

27:49

So after some years of this Rosamond Research Station, nothing was going on there.

27:58

The government, they wanted to dismantle the facility.

28:03

So this small group of scientists and businessmen formed a not-for-profit foundation

28:07

that acquired the site in 1999.

28:10

So that's when it became this observatory and it has a staff of astronomers

28:16

and engineers and other scientists, professional people that just for the love of the craft, right?

28:24

Nice. So I'm guessing if it was in the NSA in the 70s and 80s,

28:30

if it was part of the NSA, they were probably tracking Russians and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

28:36

It became, yeah, it got transferred to the NSA in 1981. Oh, 81. Okay. Yeah.

28:42

So yeah, definitely. That was still Cold War. Mm-hmm. So.

28:45

Yeah. So on Christmas Eve of 2024, wait, no, not 2024.

28:53

That's this year. Yeah, Christmas Eve of, oh, I'll have to look up the date

28:58

again because I wrote the date down wrong. But Christmas Eve, it might have been 2022.

29:02

I don't know. I don't know when it was. Christmas Eve sometime. Christmas Eve sometime. A couple of guys who were up to no good.

29:07

Started making trouble in the neighborhood. Mm-hmm. Broke into the Institute. Oh.

29:12

It's a collection of about 100 meteorites valued at at least $80,000.

29:18

And with specimens weighing up to 80 pounds, that was stolen.

29:22

That's awful. Yeah, along with about $100,000 worth of TVs, monitors,

29:26

projectors, microscopes, and other scientific equipment.

29:30

People gonna people. Yeah, yeah.

29:34

Why, though? But why, though? That's a good question. But why,

29:37

though? Yeah. I mean, beyond the monetary value of the meteorites.

29:42

Why? If you're a kid and you want to see something that was in space,

29:46

this was a perfect place for you to go for free.

29:49

To look at something that was in space and you got some a-hole taking it.

29:53

Well, thankfully, you can, so much of the stolen property, including the meteorite

29:59

collection, was recovered within a week. That's great.

30:01

Yeah. That's great. So happy ending there.

30:04

Although it said much of, I kind of wonder, you know.

30:07

Some got stolen. I mean, some got hidden away.

30:12

Rehoused, I guess, somewhere. I don't know. So PERI hosts research and study programs with Furman University,

30:18

Clemson University, Virginia Tech, South Carolina State University, and Duke University.

30:23

The PERI site has hosted several professional astronomy meetings,

30:26

including the Small Radio Telescope Conference in August 2001,

30:30

the Gamma Ray Burst Today and Tomorrow Conference in August 2002,

30:34

which Gamma Ray, I didn't know that there was a Gamma Ray Burst Today and Tomorrow Conference.

30:39

Is that like, like I want to, I want to picture the Incredible Hulk.

30:44

Going to that yeah probably that's probably what happened

30:47

gamma ray burst from the sun yeah yeah and the workshop on a national plan for

30:53

preserving astronomical photographic plates was hosted in november 2007 so these

31:01

photographic plates i think that they were.

31:06

They were how we used to collect information

31:10

store information that's how they yeah actually

31:13

recorded the photograph was on these plates because film would

31:17

burn up okay so they had to use these i didn't fully

31:20

understand that these plates were the primary recording medium for

31:23

astronomy data from the late 19th century until the

31:26

1980s it's estimated that over 2 million

31:29

of the plates are held in astronomy facilities around

31:33

the world and are in jeopardy of being destroyed because of

31:36

a lack of storage facilities oh no yeah so

31:39

that's i wonder if they could it transfer the information

31:42

i know like like how we

31:45

used to take a vcr yeah tape

31:49

and make it into a dvd yeah or you know an mp mp4 or whatever whenever yeah

31:55

i wonder well hopefully they are i would think that they're they would be digitizing

32:01

that stuff but you still want the you know the historical significance of these

32:05

plates is important sure yeah yeah i don't yeah Yeah,

32:09

I don't know how many of these plates exist,

32:11

but yeah, if there's a storage issue, then I'm sure it's a lot.

32:16

I would think so, yeah. Yeah.

32:20

So Perry also hosts several educational opportunities, including the Duke University

32:25

Talent Identification Program. So they're looking for people. Science talent, I'm guessing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

32:33

And they sponsor astronomy educational programs using the portable star lab planetarium.

32:41

Planetarium. Planetarium. Nice.

32:44

So how do people get to get a tour of this place? How do they get there?

32:50

Okay, so the address is 1 Perry Drive, P-A-R-I Drive, Rosman,

32:55

North Carolina, 28772. and the phone number is 828-862-5554.

33:03

You can also contact them through email at info at perry.edu.

33:09

Okay, so you can call or email and ask for an appointment and then go check

33:14

it out. We're going to have to do that. They actually have a calendar too online that you can look at.

33:18

Oh, nice, on their website? Yeah. Okay.

33:21

So the principal radio research instruments at PERI are two 26-meter radio telescopes

33:27

and a 4.6-meter radio telescope named SMILEY.

33:32

And I've got a little picture of SMILEY. Oh, that's funny.

33:35

They have this big radio telescope with a smiling face on it. That's pretty great.

33:42

These are massive telescopes, people. You should check out the website and look at it. Oh, yeah.

33:46

SMILEY was given its face around 1982 as a greeting to overflying foreign surveillance satellites.

33:54

Oh, that's funny. So the government put it on there just to say,

33:58

we know you're looking, guys. What's up? Oh, that's very funny. Yeah, yeah.

34:05

You wouldn't think the NSA would have a sense of humor, but...

34:08

Somebody. Somebody did. Somebody with the power to make a smiley face on a...

34:15

Yeah. Right. On a satellite. That's pretty great. Yeah. Well,

34:19

thanks, Donna. That was a good fun fact. Yeah. So today I'm going to review my Keen Pyrenees waterproof hiking boots for ladies.

34:27

You love those boots. I love these boots. And they look good.

34:30

You look cute in them. I'll put that out there.

34:33

Well, thank you. That matters. That is a factor.

34:36

It may not be the biggest factor when you're traipsing through mud and hiking

34:40

in the mountains, but it is a factor. Is it a factor? Mm-hmm. Okay. Uh-huh. So these boots, I bought them in 2022,

34:49

and they've been amazing. I wore them in the snow and ice in Colorado that winter, and their non-slip

34:55

ability on ice was wonderful.

34:58

You've never slipped on a trail when you've worn these? I think very,

35:02

very slightly slipped on a rock yesterday, just because a boulder.

35:06

It was a boulder around the waterfall, just a little bit. And I think that was

35:09

just gravity pulling me down. I don't know if there is anything I could have

35:13

been wearing that I just slid just a tiny bit.

35:17

I see you in these things and you mountain goat all around.

35:19

I do mountain goat on them. Yeah. So yeah, out here hiking in North Carolina,

35:23

it's been rainy and a lot of these trails are full of mud and you can't always

35:28

tell how deep the mud is, which is another reason to bring your hiking pole.

35:32

Was the case yesterday. Yeah. So yeah, the mud yesterday, it was the real deal. Not to mention water levels

35:40

on the streams that you're crossing are pretty high.

35:43

Yeah, there were several streams that we crossed that you had to step in the water. Yeah.

35:47

And it was two, three inches deep. You could kind of tell what rock you're supposed to step on, but...

35:53

I don't know. It's underwater. Yeah. Yeah. So these boots are waterproof and

35:59

mudproof and they're comfy. So they have been put through the ringer. They have been tested and tested and tested.

36:06

It may still hold up. I don't see any signs of wear on them.

36:09

Yeah. You've put miles and miles and miles on these things. I really have. Yeah.

36:13

So I'm becoming more and more serious about minimalism.

36:19

And these boots are my keepers which says a lot okay so i have i'm really trying

36:27

not to own stuff that i don't use not not to just store stuff but these are

36:32

something that even for a minimalist,

36:35

they're they're amazing you typically grab these over

36:38

your hiking shoes you have merrill hiking shoes which

36:41

is the brand that i i like to wear and you grab these

36:44

over there why why do you grab had these over your hiking shoes so

36:47

i i wore my and my hiking shoes are waterproof too and i wore them last last

36:52

week but the hiking shoes you just stepping in water you have it'll go over

37:01

yeah it'll go right over the lip yeah so and and it did a little bit last last week yeah me too so,

37:07

the boots are just i can see why even in the summer even when it's hot i can

37:13

see why people People would choose to wear hiking boots.

37:16

And you just kind of slouch your hiking socks down and wear shorts with them.

37:19

And then they're really cute. No, you look great in them. Now, these boots go just above the ankle.

37:26

How are they for ankle support? They were good. I was afraid that I wouldn't have that range of motion with my ankle.

37:37

But I just didn't tie the laces as tight as I possibly could have.

37:42

And so I got a little bit of support for my ankle, but I also was able to move

37:46

to climb and do all this. So you got a little bit of freedom of movement. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

37:51

Yeah. I had zero problem with them. I will say that they come with two sets of shoelaces.

38:00

And whenever I've seen them advertised, I always see them advertised with the

38:04

lavender laces, which I really love the look of that.

38:08

But I've never worn the lavender laces with my shoes because I like to match

38:12

and I don't own anything else that's lavender but I think that,

38:18

If you have a lavender, purple, whatever outfit or, you know, pastels.

38:24

Yeah, they're kind of pinkish lavender. Yeah, we typically wear earthy stuff.

38:28

Exactly. Earthy colors. I mean, I wear my blue hiking pants almost every single time.

38:32

But you typically wear greens and browns. And navy blue. Yeah. Yeah.

38:38

So, yeah, it's just not one of my colors that I reach for.

38:41

But, you know, one of these days, maybe I'll be all risque and have my shoelaces

38:46

not match with the rest of my outfit. I would caution you against that because if your shoelaces don't match the rest

38:53

of your outfit, the earth might crumble on itself.

38:56

Well, just a few mud puddles and these beautiful lavender laces. That's very fair.

39:04

That's very fair. Might not be so pretty lavender, but yeah.

39:08

So the other color of laces that come with these boots, the color is called

39:14

safari, which is kind of- Yeah, brown.

39:17

Brown. like light brown i don't know why though just call it brown i

39:20

mean safari safari is not even a color i

39:23

it's they're ladies boots i

39:26

guess you've got to be fancy with the color names so safari and

39:30

i think oh what is it is that the lavender color even called is it not called

39:37

lavender it's is it some other nonsense name it's called it's called lavender

39:44

but it's like English garden lavender or something like that. Oh God.

39:48

All right. Just call it purple. It's light purple. Okay.

39:52

So you can buy these pretty much anywhere, but you found what you think is the

39:57

best deal. Where is it? Bass Pro Shop.

40:00

Bass Pro Shop has them for $126.98.

40:04

Which is significantly cheaper than what you paid for. Yeah.

40:07

Yes. Because they're about $170 normally.

40:11

And what I think is amazing is that these are still on

40:14

the market these particular boots this way yeah

40:17

shoes typically have a like a year-long life

40:20

cycle before they move on to the next latest greatest

40:23

thing and keen's well the company they

40:26

have a lot of hiking boots hiking gear

40:29

hiking shoes hiking blah blah blah blah but they've kept

40:33

this model that says something if it's got staying

40:36

power right I mean you love them yeah they do look

40:39

great so yeah so check out

40:43

Bass Pro Shops of course you can get them on Amazon you can get them at REI

40:46

you can get them at the Keen website directly yeah yeah but for for Donna's

40:52

tip of the day if you're looking for Keen Pyrenees hiking boots go to Bass Pro

40:58

Shops online you can get in there they probably have a men's version of this too.

41:03

I would think so, probably. I mean, honestly, though...

41:06

They don't look girly at all. So if I wore them, I don't think anybody would give me a second look.

41:11

Unless they had the lavender laces. I'm going to put the lavender laces when

41:15

I go on. You're going to get a second look. I want to be a pretty, pretty hiker.

41:20

As I'm sweating through the... I might have to get a lavender hiking shirt.

41:27

Oh, and try them out? Yeah. Okay, well, great. So Keen Pyrenees, you'd recommend them? Oh, yeah, 100%.

41:34

So that's the show this week, folks. Folks, we talked about the Graveyard Fields

41:37

Loop Trail with the Upper Falls Spur. Don't recommend it.

41:42

We also talked about the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute.

41:50

Harry. P-A-R-I. And Donna reviewed her favorite hiking boots,

41:54

the Keen Pyrenees, which you can get pretty much anywhere, but she gave you

41:59

a really good tip to get them at Bass Pro Shops for about $50 off.

42:02

Unless you can find them at a better price. Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

42:05

I'm sure you can find them at retail stores too, REI, stuff like that.

42:09

So overall, Donna, would you recommend the graveyard? The lower falls.

42:15

Okay, I would also recommend the graveyard field loop trail to the lower falls

42:21

and back up. Don't do the whole loop. And certainly, I don't think that the upper falls spur is worth the effort.

42:27

But stop at the parking lot and just go down, even if you just go down and back.

42:32

Oh, just to the first place where the water crosses? Yes. It's amazing. Yes. It's amazing.

42:37

Absolutely. Just a little walk through. Yeah. If you're going to do that,

42:40

go the extra five minutes to the lower falls. It's not that bad.

42:44

But yeah, I'm with you. Unless you don't feel like walking up 70 stairs.

42:48

Because once you walk down, you got to walk back up. That's fair. That's fair.

42:50

I'd recommend it. Just that part. I really wouldn't recommend going upper falls.

42:55

Besides being just incredibly difficult to navigate.

42:59

Gate it's it's underwhelming for waterfalls

43:02

but the view from the overlook itself

43:05

at the top at the time where the parking lot

43:08

is is gorgeous so i you will never hear me not recommend the blue ridge parkway

43:13

that i will always recommend it so if you're in that area mile post 418 graveyard

43:19

fields overlook and the trailhead starts right there there's permanent porta

43:24

potties there as a bathroom.

43:26

But, you know, there's three of them and if you got to go, you got to,

43:29

you know, it's a good place to go.

43:32

Ish. Good-ish place to go. Thanks so much for listening.

43:36

Please subscribe to us in whatever podcast app you use and be sure to leave

43:39

us a review. That's how our show grows. Feel free to check out our trail photos at casualclimbers.podbean.com and if

43:46

you have a question, comment, or just want to drop us a line,

43:49

you can reach us at casualclimberspodcast at gmail.com.

43:54

We will see you out on the trails. Okay, so that's the show.

43:57

But Donna, before we cut out, We have to make an appointment to go to Perry. Yes.

44:04

So that we can see what kind of UFO evidence they have there.

44:09

I want to go to the planetarium. Yeah. And I want to see Smiley.

44:13

Yeah. See Smiley, the smiling radio telescope.

44:17

Yeah. Yeah, that'd be pretty great. I'm sure he's got some stories about UFOs

44:21

too. Mm-hmm. All right, guys. We'll see you on the trail.

44:23

Music.