It's not that far, a couple hours' drive, from Person County N.C. to Patrick County, Va. But Barnie Day's journey to published author has been going on nearly four decades now. Along the way he has been a reporter, editor and newspaper publisher; retail merchant and health clinic administrator; political commentator and sage of the Blue Ridge, business executive and farmer; banker and county manager; county supervisor and state legislator. A couple of people who should know have called him "Virginia's Mark Twain."
And as many who live around Belcher Mountain's Meadows of Dan already know, he has fought through Parkinson's disease while producing some crackerjack writing in his novel "The Last Pahvant," available on amazon.com and elsewhere, and in a new work about life in Oxford, N.C. during the Civil Rights era.
Now there's a 3,000 word story on Barnie Day in the July-August issue of Carolina Alumni Review, published by the General Alumni Association at UNC Chapel Hill. Here's a link to that story: If that doesn't work, copy and paste this into your whatchamacallit: http://www.carolinaalumnireview.com/carolinaalumnireview/20120708/?pg=22&pm=2&u1=friend
That story began 10 months ago after I read a version of "Pahvant" and told Barnie what everyone who reads the book also tells him: It ought to be in print. I sent a copy to my friend Regina Oliver last October and suggested the Review write about Barnie, who graduated from UNC in 1975. She immediately agreed, enthusiastically so, and asked me to write the piece. So last November, Barnie and I started meeting early mornings for about an hour -- the length of time it takes for my arthritic hands to go from useful to seized up -- and we talked and talked on chilly mornings, and sometimes in the evenings over some Irish whiskey -- well into the new year.
We talked about life in the 1950s and 60s when he was growing up in Roxboro, about working in factories and at little newspapers, about scrabbling his way through Chapel Hill with the help of a athletic meal ticket his roommate had ("I tell people I went through Carolina on a football scholarship, it just won't mine," he likes to say), starting up a newspaper that folded not because it wasn't good, but because it was undercapitalized, and moving through a variety of jobs over the years, all the while thinking about writing the long form and telling stories people will want to read.
The editors at the Alumni Review liked the story of Barnie's career so much that they hired one of the best photographers anywhere: Steve Exum. He came up to Meadows of Dan shortly after Spring arrived and shot wonderful photos of Barnie and Debbie Day, the restored farmhouse where they live (with secret rooms below ground where, the story goes, a moonshiner and bootlegger hid his illicit wares long ago) and the writing room where Barnie turns on the lamp many mornings hours before the sun starts to brighten the rural countryside.
Oh, meant to add this one, too, of Barnie and Debbie, with Yip.
But this thing was beautiful. I ran to the house for the camera, and by the time I got back it was climbing the trunk of a tree right at the edge of the field. I could hear the raucus cries of a bird way up in a neighboring tree, and I suspect there was a nest where that snake was headed. I snapped these pictures before it disappeared into the upper reaches. When I came back for another load of limbs, I no longer heard the cries of birds. 
In 1933 there were only 297,000 acres under the administration and protection of the National Park Service. For prospective visitors, the brochure warns that:
Today, fire lookout towers have become popular hiking destinations, thanks in part to Peter Barr, author of 
Rhododendron blooms of late spring. For some of the best examples of these beautiful displays of Mother Nature, hike up to 
natural or if they were manmade. For hikers, does it really matter? Balds provide outstanding vantage points for sweeping panoramic vistas of the Appalachian Mountains. Some of the balds with the best views in the Smokies include Gregory, 
using temporary connectors on back roads and state bike routes. The trail is a showcase for North Carolina’s diverse landscape. Thru-hikers will experience mountains, rugged gorges, small Piedmont farms, coastal swamps, colonial towns, and barrier islands. It climbs both the tallest mountain peak and the highest sand dune in the Eastern United States, passes through three national parks, two national wildlife refuges, three national forests, seven state parks and three lighthouses, including the nations tallest.
named in honor of Daniel Boone. Sheltowee, meaning Big Turtle, was the name given to Boone when he was adopted into the Shawnee Indian tribe as the son of the great war chief, Blackfish. Designated as a National Recreation Trail in 1979, the Trace passes through Cave Run Lake, 
Bartram Trail: The 
Linville Gorge, also known as the Grand Canyon of the East, is one of the wildest, most rugged gorges in the eastern United States. It's also an outdoor paradise for hikers and backpackers. The entire area lies within the Pisgah National Forest, located roughly 60 miles northeast of Asheville and can be accessed via the Blue Ridge Parkway near milepost 314. The Gorge encompasses more than 12,000 acres around the Linville River, making it the third largest wilderness area in North Carolina, and one of only two wilderness gorges in the southern United States.
As you proceed north along the Appalachian Trail, hikers will pass over Round Bald and Jane Bald before reaching the summit of 6189-foot Grassy Ridge Bald. The panoramic views from the summit area are absolutely stunning. On a clear day you can see Grandfather, Beech and Sugar Mountains towards the east, and Mt. Mitchell and the Black Mountains towards the south.
Illustrated with more than 150 color photographs, Classic Hikes of North America covers a diverse range of hikes: from routes in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the Grand Canyon; from the Sierra Mountains to the Black Hills, as well as Big Bend, North Cascades National Park, the Art Loeb Trail in North Carolina, the Slate Range in the Canadian Rockies, the Long Range Traverse of Newfoundland, and more than a dozen other classics.
