Down Country Roads, The Roads Less Traveled

Down Country Roads (Wilkes County NC Back dirt road)

There’s something about taking what Frost called the “road less traveled,” something reminiscent of childhood when we would take our bikes and go exploring as far as we could but still here our name called from the back porch at dusk. Sticking to the blacktop has it’s positives, but the dirt roads that ramble over vast pastures or through tangled tree-covered forests hold far more mystery than any common tar strip could every possess.

This New Hampshire mountain gal loves the adventure of taking a deliberate wrong turn with calculated randomness when venturing out for the day. Many’s the time I’ve ended up at the end of a cowpath only to find myself, literally, at the cow barn. More than once I’ve gone down a curious dirt road in my trusty Subaru wagon and found the road to Nowhere that petered off into brush. But that is half the fun of the adventure!

In my travels I have found some of my favorite roads that become a regular on my list of places to go to when someone inevitably invites me to “get lost.” This beautiful path in the outback of Wilkes County, NC is at the top of my favorites list.

As is often the case, dirt roads often are steeped with so much history one can practically see the old timers at the tumble-down homesteads along the way, or catch a scent of a moonshine still stealthily concealed nearby. Those are the very senses that are, in a way, addictive to a wandering photographer and history-lover like myself.

As an artist and photographer, I’m especially fascinated by the beauty of a mountain sunset, a sunrise at the beach, and twilight across a pastel-lighted prairie. But there’s also a kind of romance that goes with a love of mountain history and lore. Appalachia is rife with enough of this stuff to fuel this mountain girl to return again and again.