Asheville, North Carolina

Woo-hoo! I’m headed out early tomorrow morning for a promising long weekend get-away. I’m going backpacking on the Appalachian Trail near Asheville, North Carolina to learn herbology from Ayurvedic expert John Immel of the renowned Joyful Belly. Cool, right?

I’m a nature buff, but I’ve never been backpacking. Car camping yes, but backpacking no. I hike often, but it’s a thrill to learn a lot of new things. I hope to learn skills that allow me to go backpacking with my dog, Olivia. I will be learning how to find and identify common herbs and learn their healing benefits. (I hope to share those healing benefits with my yoga students.) I’ll learn how to  prepare wildfood and I will be doing a weekend detox with twelve strangers.

I’ve bought a super cool tent, a small shovel for proper pooping in the woods and a water filter. My borrowed large backpack is packed and ready to go!

After the weekend on the Trail, I’ll be staying in Asheville which is said to have lots of wonderful vegetarian restaurants and yoga studios.

Wish me luck! I’ll report back at the end of the trip.

Namaste,

Suzanne