The photo of the day was shot Saturday, October 15th at the Woolly Worm Festival
First allow me to share the inspiration for this Autumn, Fall Color, two-plus week rewind. My mom just turned 89 years old and she’s pretty much bedridden. She is also suffering from dementia, but thankfully only for any kind of recent memory – like whether or not she just ate lunch and if so, what was it? I speak with her almost daily and over the last month, every conversation ends up at “Mikey, is the Woolly Worm Festival coming up soon?”
Mom is a HUGE fan of the mountains and of Autumn and the Woolly Worm Festival has always been a favorite of hers. (I get it honestly…)
We have plans to get her out of the house for a short drive near her home, but getting up to the mountains and around is a task of monumental proportions these days. So I promised her I would compile the best of Autumn, post it and share it with her.
…so without further ado…this is for YOU, mom and any of our readers who can’t make it up this season. HINT: There’s a Woolly Worm racing under her name, below.
This has been a crazy Autumn for me. Business has been particularly crazy, good, volatile, different, and challenging. That would probably sum up every business across the land these days. However, it seems like I went from enjoying lazy, warm days on Watauga Lake with my G-Dock friends and then BOOM, here we are already fast-tracked past all of the fall festivals and now I wake up Wednesday morning to snow and snow flurries across much of our coverage area. (Matt Laws shared that news the other day. Read and see some snowy photos.)
But HOLD ON JUST A MINUTE, PLEASE!
Usually by now I will have already written a post about how the acorns have covered my decks and yard (some say a signal of a harsh winter to come). Although I have read some Facebook posts that claimed a larger than usual acorn crop – not so much in my yard in the beautiful, rural climbs of Sleepy Hollow, Foscoe, Seven Devils.
Also, typically by now I would have shared NOAA’s 2022-2023 Winter Forecast where they say there is a 75% chance of La Niña during the Northern Hemisphere winter (December-February) 2022-23, with a 54% chance for ENSO-neutral in February-April 2023. As an experienced snow-sports and winter-weather writer with 27 years of experience I could write a novella on why none of that matters – really. Sure, this is predicted to be the third La Niña winter in a row and TYPICALLY that means less snow, and warmer-than-usual temperatures.
However, the LAST TWO La Niña Winters STILL produced 95.5″ to 111.7″ of snow for places like Snowshoe, Canaan Valley, Timberline Mountain and Wisp Resorts. Beech Mountain saw 78″ of snow during the 2020-2021 ski and snowboarding season and that was YEAR ONE of this run of three straight La Niña winters. That 78″ was just two inches short of a normal winter. Throw in PLENTY of cold air for our talented snowmaking crews across the region and you have a recipe for PLENTY of skiable/ridable terrain for this season. So for all of you gloomers and doomers who are predicting a winter of meh – I’m here to tell you we’ll get plenty of white stuff to keep us excited and engaged – and more than enough cold nights for our best-in-the-country snowmaking crews to keep the slopes covered in snow.
We will post more 2022-2023 Winter Forecast predictions with our own, Meteorogist, Brad Panovich. We’ll also hear from Joe Stevens’ with his compilation of winter forecasts from five or six weather gurus from around the region. We’ll definitely look forward to those and I can’t wait to read them, but like NOAA’s forecast, they will all share much the same data and admit to the fact that while there is a 50-75% chance of accuracy – there is a 25-50% chance they’ll get it wrong.
In other words, it is going to do what it’s going to do and our ski area, riverboat gamblers know how to wrestle with whatever weather conditions they are given and make the most out of it for all of us – their fans.
I think there is a 100% chance we will have a fun, profitable winter.
…and NOW, BACK TO MY AUTUMN REWIND…
As I look out of my window, while writing this post – it is BEAUTIFUL. Yes, fall colors have now peaked at any location above 3500′ in elevation. However, there is STILL a ton of gorgeous, fall color to be enjoyed as is evidenced by a quick tour of Resort Cams MOUNTAIN CAMS
By the way, while touring, I just saw the lift construction crews putting the top on the Oma’s Meadow lift at Sugar. Check it out.
SO SIT BACK AND LET ME TAKE YOU (AND MOM) ON A DIGITAL NOMAD REWIND OF THE LAST TWO WEEKS…
October 7th: A DAY OF GOOF AT SUGAR MOUNTAIN GOLF
There is no typo in that sub-title. We played “goof”. I, and twelve members of our Appnet crew took a day off; played hooky from work, for a team building day. Just FYI, there are twenty-one of us on staff these days, however with various members working remote these days from Florida, Texas and all over the Tarheel state…we ended up with thirteen on the course – many for which this was their first time ever with a golf club in their hands.
We divided up into four teams, and armed with some special “rules of golf for the day” we played. Thanks to Tom Mcauliffe · Director Of Golf at Sugar mountain golf club, we enjoyed some awesome eats and adult beverages out on the deck overlooking the course – and then headed out for nine holes. The team building was awesome, even if the golf wasn’t, but the winning team – headed by SkiSoutheast’s Kenny Griffin and Matt Laws, combined with Ian Dodgen – took the win with a one-under par round and they won by two strokes over MY team…and only four strokes was the difference from first place to fourth.
The day could not have been more beautiful as the fall colors were already on awesome display. You can see that via the video below. (Perhaps Matt or some of the team can post some of the golf shots as well. Here are a couple)
Here is a video from the drone…
October 7th: WHAT GOES UP, MUST COME DOWN
After some good times on the course, my crew headed across Hwy 184 in Banner Elk to the Wilderness Run Mountain Coaster. This place is owned and operated by my good friends and fellow Gdock members at Watauga Lake – Tara and Eric Bechard. With the assistance of a German design company called Wiegand, the coaster is their work and vision. We had a blast, and while this video might be a bit long, it will give you a sense of what you are in store for if you come and visit this fun, Banner Elk attraction.
Editor’s Warning – I squealed like a little girl and I might have let out one bit of profanity. You try not to. Whew, what a ride.
NEXT UP ON OUR FALL REWIND…
October 8th and 9th: SUGAR MOUNTAIN OKTOBERFEST
This is an ANNUAL favorite of mine. This year’s Autumn colors were on great display. Gunther and Kim had made a couple of tweaks to the layout this year. They moved all of the craft show vendors down away from the base lodge, but honestly it was an awesome move as they are the first thing you see when you arrive and walk up. The area is paved, which was great – and even better still for those wet days like we’ve seen so many times during Oktoberfest.
We spent too much money – no REALLY, we did – and then headed in to meet up with some friends and take in some brews and German fare. We arrived earlier than usual, found rock-star parking and enjoyed the day.
Check it out
…AND THEN THERE IS ALWAYS THE POPULAR SCENIC CHAIR LIFT RIDE AT SUGAR MOUNTAIN
No visit to Sugar Mountain’s Oktoberfest is complete without a chairlift ride to the top and back. The lift line was llllooooonnnnnggggg, but thanks to the super-fast, 6 person lift, we were seated in only a few minutes. I’ll let you decide if the wait was worth it. (It was.)
*** I cut the trip UP the mountain to shorten the video. Check out the gorgeous color…and some colorful conversation.
…OUR FALL COLOR REWIND ENDS WITH THE WOOLLY WORM FESTIVAL
First, a huge shout out and thanks to Jason DeWitt, Mary Jo Brubaker and the entire crew and volunteers from the Avery / Banner Elk Chamber. They were gracious to have me up on stage and promote SkiSoutheast.com and ResortCams.com. Thanks again!
I’ve attended every Woolly Worm Festival since 1996 and this was the most attendance I have experienced or witnessed and there’s been some huge crowds in the past. I was at the festival early, and I had to park roughly a mile away. The weather could not have been better AND the fall-colors were AT PEAK in Banner Elk, so everything aligned perfectly.
As I mentioned earlier, my niece, Isabella Walker, from Lexington, South Carolina raced “Blondine” (named after my mom), and she was flying and in contention for much of the race until a worm named “Worming” kicked in the turbo and won her race. It was still tons and fun and we recorded fans of “Blondine” urging her on.
The video below captures some of that Saturday, Woolly Worm ambience….
HOW ABOUT A VIEW OF THE WOOLLY WORM FESTIVAL FROM THE AIR?
NEXT UP is the RESULTS of the Woolly Worm Races…and the Winter Prognostication
Thanks to the Avery Journal for the photo usage. Credit Lily Kinkaid for the photo.
Emma Denton from Gastonia was the owner of this year’s winning worm, “Porta Potty.”
Porta Potty was prepared to give the weather prediction. Adam Binder held up the champion worm while Shawn Stricklen held the microphone for Burleson as he examined the worm.
EDITOR’S TIMEOUT:
Seems like every year as I walk around the High Country, I see these predominately black with dark brown woolly worms everywhere. Then SOMEHOW the damn worm that wins the race challenges even the most honest of us to FIND some dark enough bands to wring out a decent prediction. I saw Porta Potty closeup and wrangling any kind of good, winter prediction out of that worm was a work of art by Burleson! We have got to find a way to do some quick switcharoo, when these things are over, to stack the cards more in our favor. Hell, “Blondine” would have been a better, representative. Burleson had to make up some black hairs to pull out a decent winter prediction.
Burleson’s reading of Porta Potty was as follows:
Weeks 1-4: Black, below average temperatures and snow
Weeks 5-9: Brown, average temperatures
Weeks 10-11: Light Brown, above average temperatures
Week 12: Fleck, below average temperatures and frost or light snow
Week 13: Black, below average temperatures and snow
I’m kind of liking the fact that Porta Potty is predicting that about half the middle of Winter will be above average temps and a lack of snow. So the reverse jinx is on!
Believe it or not, I had more to share, but I’ll put an end to this, longest post EVER! More to come soon.
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