Art Loeb and Perry's Palooza Palace!!

It all started on a fateful evening at the Asheville Brewing Company. With good company, great pizza and beer the conversation undoubtedly turned to trail running. Jon spoke of his desire to run the Art Loeb having yet to run the entire 30 some miles if you don't get lost. I, of course, said, "Hey, me too!" and then it all began. In a few short sentences it turned out we were going to be running the Art Loeb in 6 days that couldn't go by fast enough.

The goal was to meet at the start and run the entire trail ending at the Daniel Boone Boy Scout Camp where delicious food would be cooked around a fire in a nice warm cabin. The only thing standing in the way was a lovely 31 miles and 9500' feet of vertical elevation gain.

The air was nice and crisp in the morning, but with a beautiful day and perfect weather forecasted we knew this run would more than suffice the deep burning desire to be on the trail this weekend. We donned the headlamps, let the dogs free and off we went. It seems our legs weren't even warm before we hit the first hill climb but we knew once the sun rose we would already have a view.

Mile after mile we continued on enjoying the gorgeous views, solitude from the chaotic life below and the great company along for the journey. Though the run was gorgeous we did complain plenty with a trail covered in ice and cut from erosion but our spirits remained high knowing we had the trail mostly to ourselves.

Roughly 9 hours later, we happily stood in the shadow of Cold Mountain as we enjoyed the delicious warmth a cold, crisp Cold Mountain Winter Ale offered as we recapped the epic journey.

Thanks to Melissa for the shuttle and everyone for joining in on the great weekend journey. See you on the next one!