Local Authors:Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads

By Matt Young. All photos courtesy of Carolyn Sakowksi.

All Over, NC –  Carolyn Sakowski has published an updated version of the Touring the Western North Carolina Backroads (John F. Blair, publisher) guidebook.

A Short Drive From Cary

It’s a short drive from Cary to the hills, and but a true lesson in North Carolina history and beauty. To follow this guidebook is to forego the highways and explore the hidden treasures of western North Carolina.

The book serves as a great way to get the inside scoop on the western part of the The Old North State, and takes you on little travelled, but historically significant sites and forgotten but beautiful scenery.

Among the 21 “tours” in the book:

– The grave of Junaluska, the Cherokee chief who saved Andrew Jackson’s life at the Battle of Horsehoe Bend (only to regret it when Jackson ordered the ouster of the Cherokees)

– Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest containing 300 year old trees

-Morgantown’s Upper Creek Falls with 100 feet of falls

-The stunning drive along the Cherohala Skyway from Robbinsville to Tellico Plains (TN)

-Site honoring Dr. John Brinkley (the “Goat-gland King” – you’ ll have to read the book to hear the details on this one)

 

Carolyn

The author is a North Carolina native, and studied at Appalachian State (Masters in History). She attests that she drove 4,000 miles to research and write this book.  She lives in Winston-Salem.

Carolyn Sakowski will be in Raleigh on Wednesday, Sept. 21 signing books at Quail Ridge Books on Wade Avenue.