By Bob Heafner © 1983-2012

"Never take the main roads, they're the future with their stores, offices and service stations. Always travel the backroads. You can see the future tomorrow but backroads are the past and someday they may be gone. On backroads you can see old weathered barns with wagons and horse drawn hayrakes. There are meadows fenced with old chestnut rails and creeks that bubble and cascade over rocks that have never known polution. There's a part of our heritage on our backroads that no pen or camera will ever capture. There are cows wading in a creek, sharing a 'deep hole' with native trout. You may have to stop occasionally to let a mother grouse herd her little ones across the road or a deer might stop grazing in a roadside meadow long enough to watch you go by. The old timer you'll pass will throw up his hand and if you've got time, he'll stop and talk 'a spell.'

You'll not get anywhere in a hurry on a backroad, but only the future's in a hurry. Backroads are part of the past and what they offer most is time, time to enjoy the present and get a glimpse of times gone by."

Each month The Mountain Laurel featured a self-guided BACKROAD tour of out of the way places of beauty in the Blue Ridge. So often, visitors to the Blue Ridge Mountains only travel the Blue Ridge Parkway or Interstate highways and never get to see the really pretty places that are hidden away on mountain backroads. As residents who love and appreciate a stream gurgling through a glade or a deer standing in a roadside meadow or an old weathered barn tucked away in a mountain hollow, our BACKROAD column allowed us to share our favorite places with you.