Some say that winter is the best time to hike - no bugs, few people and great views. Others just want to stay indoors and come out with the first bloodroot. I don't particularly like winter but I love to hike, so I bundle up.

When I lived in New Jersey, I always went north to hike, either into New York State for dayhiking or to the Catskills and Vermont for weekends. I needed crampons and snowshoes; in fact some hike leaders insisted that everybody on their hikes carry both. I even had an ice axe. But here, I don't need all this heavy equipment, just extra fleece, hat and gloves. Still, I grumble when the temperature goes below 20 degrees.

As you climb in the Blue Ridge, the average annual temperature drops about one degree for every 250-ft. increase in elevation. So even if it's comfortable at my house in Asheville at 2,250 ft., it might be miserable on top of Yellow Mountain in the Highlands.

But altitude changes gives us the great diversity of plants and animals that we enjoy in the Southern Appalachians. In terms of habitat, every 1,000 ft. of elevation is equivalent to 250 miles in latitude. So the equivalent of traveling from the Catawba River Greenway in Morganton at 1,050 ft. elev. to Mt. Mitchell at 6,684 ft. elev. would put you about 1,400 miles north of North Carolina—into central Quebec Province in Canada. And Canada is cold.