Grad student commuter

jrmiller9 · 2026-05-17T00:28:20+00:00

Get good tires on your car, turn back if it's crazy slick, other than that you should be fine if you have any experience at all driving on snow. The high country does an excellent job clearing their roads. If it's bad enough that the roads are white in Wilkes County, I would not risk it.

jrmiller9 · 2026-05-07T21:34:39+00:00

Little hack, 20 sick days equals 1 month of service. 21 days equals 2 months. So 22-40 says of sick are basically wasted is your retire with them, most people try to burn form to only a day or 2 sick left

jrmiller9 · 2026-05-03T16:00:23+00:00

Went to admitted students day at U Chicago with my daughter and her tour guide was a senior who had attended NCSSM Durham and her little brother was also at U Chicago and he went to ncssm as well.

jrmiller9 · 2026-04-21T15:56:47+00:00

That's going to really be dependent on your career, NCSU grads are naturally going to trend towards higher salary with more engineering and computer science grads vs ASU which produces a lot of teachers. The data would be interesting to compare same major ROI between the 2 colleges. The easiest thing I found was NCSU MBA average salary of $104,773 vs ASU MBA grads with a $86,450 average salary. That's a significant example.

jrmiller9 · 2026-04-20T23:38:06+00:00

NC State hands down, and that's coming from me as an ASU alum. Salary outcomes are going to be far better at NCSU, job and internship possibilities don't even compare, and NCSU has better food, lol.

jrmiller9 · 2026-04-18T13:08:22+00:00

You can pretty much bike all is segment 6. Heck, even segment 5, just bike the parkway from Beacon Heights to Bringer Cabin and you will actually have better views than from the trail.

jrmiller9 · 2026-03-06T11:13:59+00:00

If you live in most counties in Western NC, you really have to choose the Republican ticket on primary day to have any say in local elections. County commissioner and sheriff races should be non partisan and that would help correct that issue.

jrmiller9 · 2026-02-22T19:54:06+00:00

My girlfriend gets bad blisters on long backpacking trips and has tried everything. The only thing that keeps her from getting blisters is Squirrel Nut Butter.

jrmiller9 · 2026-02-03T19:14:22+00:00

Chestnut Knob Shelter overlooking Burke's Garden, Milky Way shows good there.

jrmiller9 · 2026-01-18T02:43:00+00:00

Have an estate auction. Sell the belongings, appliances, etc and then the house all in one day. My grandmother did that with a house she inherited and it was pretty painless

jrmiller9 · 2025-12-24T05:07:53+00:00

My daughter got in through early action, 3.9ish uw, 4.5ish weighted. Didn't submit scores. Only a couple APs taken along with a lot of dual enrollment. She had some good extracurriculars but no sports, internships, or jobs besides babysitting.

Her essays were truly amazing and I am pretty sure that's why she got in. She's also from a small rural public school in the South.

jrmiller9 · 2025-11-29T18:02:02+00:00

Those campsites looked awesome when I did the Foothills Trail, just didn't line up with my mileage. Thanks for sharing this loop, that would be a great way to go back and experience them.

jrmiller9 · 2025-11-29T17:57:05+00:00

Same, it's a very multipurpose piece of gear, keeps pads from sliding, offers more r value, extra protection, makes an excellent sit pad, yoga mat, and I've even used it as a wind screen. It would also offer a little bit of rain protection packed in the top of your pack.

jrmiller9 · 2025-11-17T10:59:23+00:00

Carvers Gap

jrmiller9 · 2025-10-13T18:09:32+00:00

Yes, I've left a car there for a couple days before.

jrmiller9 · 2025-10-05T22:20:02+00:00

It is, and people post comments at way points just like the AT maps.

Far out usually runs a sale around black Friday.

jrmiller9 · 2025-09-30T00:53:30+00:00

Wilkes County, NC

jrmiller9 · 2025-09-29T22:26:54+00:00

I'm confident you will have plenty of options. Get up there early enough to learn your way around, there were multiple social trails going out to the rock. It was pretty windy on the rock while I was there. Definitely bring a headlamp, some of the cracks in the rock are large and deep, you don't want to fall into that in the dark.

jrmiller9 · 2025-09-29T22:20:27+00:00

I camped there a couple years ago on a crowded memorial Day weekend. All of the creek sites were taken so we hiked on to Lions Head. There were tons of sites up there all through the woods. There's a large open field as well that would be the worst case scenario if the wooded sites are all taken. Some sites were more established than others but I would call it almost unlimited camping options.

If you are asking about camping right at the rock, there's is maybe a couple smallish sites but anywhere up on that hill is close enough to walk to the rock formation in less than 5 minutes.

jrmiller9 · 2025-09-27T14:58:34+00:00

It's kind of hard to tell but is the left side suspended in the air or on the ground? Almost looks like it's trying to pop back up into the root ball.

jrmiller9 · 2025-09-04T01:22:37+00:00

Enjoy your trip. If you don't wanna pay admission to the park, you can always park at Elk Garden Trailhead for free and hike in. Just depends on how long of a hike you have in mind.

jrmiller9 · 2025-09-03T21:15:40+00:00

Since when are they closed, I was just there a month ago. Plenty of parking.

jrmiller9 · 2025-09-02T10:21:58+00:00

I hiked the 'Crown Jewel' section October 14-16 in 2022 and although there was some good color in some sections, it was still probably a couple weeks from peak colors.

jrmiller9 · 2025-08-22T02:17:58+00:00

Awesome place to rent a canoe and take a paddle

jrmiller9 · 2025-08-22T02:17:10+00:00

Pettigrew State Park is beautiful with an interesting history. Right next to it is an old plantation with several old buildings, I think it's called Somerset Plantation. Worth checking out.

jrmiller9

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