The Swag

 On a 5,000 foot ridge above my home town of Waynesville is a lovely country inn called The Swag. Founded forty years ago by Dan and Deener Matthews and now owned by Annie and David Colquitt, The Swag shares its fence line with the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This is land where I camped and hiked as a child when it then belonged to Dick Moody, father of a classmate of mine, Susan Moody.

The Cataloochee Divide Trail, an ancient pre-Cherokee native trail runs on the Park side of the fence and was a favorite hiking trail when I was a teenager.

Each week The Swag has an Expert in Residence here for the pleasure of the guests. The Experts are people who know a lot about something here: bears, birds, wildflowers, music, hiking, etc.  They have me here for two or three weeks each year.  I lead hikes in the mornings and tell stories after dinner each evening. I grew up knowing every square foot of this land.

This week, Annie and David have had all of the Experts here together for a pre-season retreat.  It is a time when the staff here can practice and warm up before the paying guests arrive this weekend to open the season.  It is also a time when we can meet with one another to each see what the other does and to exchange ideas and talk about ways we have dealt with problems in the past.  

Trish and I have had a wonderful time and now look forward to our first Expert week of the season when we come back in May.