Chapter 4 of "Finding Heart Ridge" : Up Into the clouds

We weren't finished with the cute, little town of Tryon, NC.  We walked through the downtown and enjoyed lunch outside, looked at some antique shops.  We admired the statue of the famous Jazz singer, Nina Simone, who was from this town.  We could see ourselves living here.  

About 8 miles from downtown Tryon, we found another  property.  Just a short 8 miles. . . .up and around.  It was at the top of a nearby mountain. 

Although you can't tell from this map, this 100 acre lot sits at the top of Hogback Mountain.  The yellow line here is the boarder of South Carolina.  And at the start of the property is a place to park for the Palmetto Trail.  

To get to the main houses of the property, you pass by a caretakers log cabin then drive for 1 mile.  

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So already, there were 3 recently built cabins there.  There was also an orchard and small barn.  The property was mostly wooded and the views---OH My--The VIEWS!  The property description claimed you could see 3 States and many other mountains from the Carolinas from there.   

I loved it!  My husband was a little hesitant, but I persisted.  The main house would work as not only where we'd live, but also be used as a main gathering space.  The other house could be split into more living space, and we'd have to build a couple other cabins.  It was quiet and simply breathtaking.  With 100 acres, we thought we could find another level spot for fields and eventually build a lake.  We thought with the location and potential land usage, this could really work.  

We were so excited to share this place and see what others thought, so we invited a couple of our couple friends.  We left our builder friend alone, after all, this was fairly new construction. It was probably fine. The seller was very eager to sell.  He wanted out before Christmas!  Bring any offer. 
We met our friends in the town of Tryon for pizza lunch.  They were driving together and followed us up the mountain to this potential retreat place.
It was a rainy October day, but we were still hoping that the fall foliage would be gorgeous.  And on our way up the mountain, it was.  On these steep, windy roads, you got steered right to the edge of some sweeping views of the mountains in all of their glory.  Having been used to traveling to our mountain cabin in Brevard, the drive didn't bother us, however, when we arrived to the top of Hogback mountain to look at the houses, our friends seemed rather pale.   One commented that if we had retreats here, she would never come!  
Well we thought that once they saw the beautiful views from a safe distance on a screened in porch, they might feel differently.   The problem was, once we reached a certain height up this mountain on this rainy day, we were literally in the clouds.  You could see nothing but clouds.  
We wondered if this was often the state of these houses in the clouds.  If it was, then, you might as well not bother making the trip to the top of the mountain.  
This would not be Heart Ridge.