Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2013 - 34

courtsey dawsonville moonshine

WhiTe liGhTninG has ReTuRneD To
DaWsonville, Ga., The ToWn ThaT
ClaiMs To Be “The Moonshine
CapiTal of The WoRlD.”

Above: Dawsonville
Moonshine uses original
family recipes.
Center and right: The
Rocky Gap Casino in
Western Maryland offers
558 slot machines in its
new $35-million casino.

2013 and was named a National Recreation Trail.
The mountain, located on the North Carolina/South
Carolina border near Gastonia, N.C., was the site of
a pivotal victory for the Patriots during the
Revolutionary War in 1780. The “Overmountain
Men,” American frontiersmen from west of the Blue
Ridge in Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina,
marched several days over snowy mountains to defeat
Major Patrick Ferguson’s continental troops. The
7.5-mile greenway trail leads from the city of Kings
Mountain to Crowders Mountain State Park, Kings
Mountain State Park, and Kings Mountain National
Military Park.
kmgatewaytrails.org

Who’s Got the Cheese? The new Western North
Carolina Cheese Trail makes for a foodie’s dream road
trip, meandering over scenic mountain back roads to
nearly a dozen farmstead cheesemakers. With caveaged bleus and goudas, creamy chevres, fetas, tommas, even chocolate goat cheese truffles, North
Carolina’s trail is clearly the Southern leader in artisanal cheeses. Made from the milk of goats, cows and
sheep raised sustainably on small family farms, these
cheeses are prized by some of the region’s finest restaurants as well as discerning individuals and
Williams-Sonoma stores. The trail extends from
Union Grove to Robbinsville, occasionally crisscross34 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

ing the Blue Ridge Music Trail and North Carolina
Wine Trails.
wnccheesetrail.org

West Virginia
You won’t see any tracks on West Virginia’s newest
trail. The Upper Cheat River Water opened its family-friendly waters in June as an official 40-mile paddling trail between Hendricks and Rowlesburg. Its
Class I-II waters pass Civil War sites, historic villages,
a stone arch viaduct, a WWI Museum, and scenic
areas of the Monongahela National Forest as the river
winds through Tucker and Preston counties. The
clear, wide, shallow Cheat is the longest uncontrolled
river in the East and is an excellent place to swim or
fish for trout.
cheatriverwatertrail.org

Ready, set, fire! A new sporting clays target field
opened in early summer at Canaan Valley Resort
State Park to give visitors to West Virginia’s famed
high valley another sport. The range offers clay
pigeon shooting from various posts with 12 gauge or
20 gauge shotguns. The trap can be set for an easy
bird flight path for beginning shooters or on a more
challenging wobble for the more advanced. Paintball
is also offered for groups who want to experience the

http://www.wnccheesetrail.org http://www.kmgatewaytrails.org http://www.cheatriverwatertrail.org http://BlueRidgeCountry.com

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2013

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