Dupont Forest and for that matter, Hooker Falls has a special place in my heart because it has a special place in my history. We were living in Spartanburg South Carolina. We had been there close to 30 years. The people I worked with knew that I liked hiking, and one day, a young lady brought me the Bold magazine featuring a hiking group And thought maybe I should join it well, I took her up on it and I joined that group, we took a hike that day. It was one of these things, the little things turning into the big things. It was a cold and cloudy morning. It was rainy and the day did not look promising The hike leader came by our car and suggested that we call it off for the day and wait for sunnier skies. Well, the group of us had just started to get to know each other and we kinda looked at each other and one of the guys said hey I know where are they planning to go and I know the way, let’s just go and see what happens Well what happened was Tess and I moved to Hendersonville North Carolina... it was that hike and that day that ended up making our decision. We went to a little place little known to me called DuPont Forest. The first trail we followed, was to hooker Falls. I remember this because the kids on the group made kind of a joke about hey Hooker Falls, Hooker Falls get it 🤣🤣well we got it all right… kids 😇 The hike only took maybe an hour or  two but those two hours changed my life  in the course of the day, we went downtown Hendersonville to a little place called mass General store I looked around and I said hey you know this is a busy little town. I think it looks promising and with DuPont Forest only a few miles away. It seems like this mountain town has a lot to offer. I went home and offered the idea to my lovely wife Tess. The very first thing she said was do you wanna live in Hendersonville with all those old people??? We had been looking in Greenville. Well, I haven’t thought of it that way, but I said to her well, would you rather be the old people in a young town like Greenville or the young people in an old town like Hendersonville?  Well, we opted for Hendersonville. We’ve been here over 20 years and Dupont Forest has become part of our lifestyle…. Tess and I hiked back there many many times and when friends and family came to visit, we brought them there too… These days I’m hiking alone and on this particular day, I went specifically to videotape Hooker Falls for my series Mountain Meditations…

 I’m doing this for myself because it brings back memories and hopes and dreams we shared in our 46 years together. But I dearly hope that others… families with little kids so excited as they climb the rocks, playing hide and seek between the trees, the pet dogs ever so eager to play, young lovers in their own worlds thinking they are the first and only to know true love and older folks both looking forward and looking back… may we take pause to the see beauty that surrounds us.