XXVI 
THE FORKS OF THE PIGEON RIVER 
YOU ought to go to the Forks of the Pigeon, the 
coves are so thick up there, there is scarcely 
room for the mountains." Thus the people advise, 
and to the Forks of the Pigeon, if you are wise, you 
will go, not for the reason given so much as that up 
there you will find a new and very interesting coun- 
try to explore. Besides the coves there are Cold 
Mountain, Shining Rock, the redoubtable Sam 
Knob, and Pisgah itself, which is accessible from the 
East Fork. 
For you must know that the Big Pigeon River 
starts in the most remarkable cul-de-sac in the moun- 
tains, a cul-de-sac formed partly by Pisgah Range, 
which, sweeping down in a southwesterly direction, 
meets a line of high balds coming down from the 
northwest. These two mountains ranges form, as it 
were, the prongs of a mammoth pitchfork, whose 
handle is the Tennessee Ridge reaching down nearly 
to Toxaway Mountain. At the point where the han- 
dle joins the prongs, forming, as it were, a strong 
connective, is the beautiful Tennessee Bald, its sum- 
mit covered with blue-grass and white-clover. 
The cup-shaped space between the prongs of the 
pitchfork is occupied by the nearly circular Cold 
Mountain uplift, that, at Sam Knob, its highest 
