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Asheville Citizen Times Appalachian Trail thru-hikers – the intrepid outdoor adventurers who attempt a one-shot, end-to-end hike of the 2,190-mile trail from Georgia to Maine each year – should postpone their journeys until next year. So says the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages and maintains the mighty trail, which runs through 14 states, including nearly 96 miles in North Carolina, because the deadly COVID-19 pandemic continues to make long-distance hikes unsafe. Morgan Sommerville, ATC regional director, said most of the 4,000 or so hikers who begin a thru-hi...

They say hindsight is 2020 and that is definitely true as we’re all eager to put this disaster of a year in the dumpster and light it on fire.  While many of us remember way back in January feeling like 2020 would be our year — we just couldn’t predict it would be our year of high unemployment, isolation, fear, sickness and uncertainties.  All we can hope for now is that 2021 will bring an end to this pandemic and that we’ve all learned some hard lessons we can take along with us in this uncertain future.  But before we move on, The Smoky Mountain News once again takes a look back...

Dallas, Texas-based artist Trina Merry, 40, created the portraits during the pandemic She traveled with models to US national parks including Mount Rainier, Yellowstone, and Grand Tetons She spent an hour and a half painting each subject to blend into the background and then shot photographs 'During the lockdowns, people have spent more time outdoors and in nature. And the more that we encounter nature, the more we want to care for it,' she said