The Mountain Air Property Owners' Association  just sponsored the first annual 5 K run up Mountain Air.  You might want to sign up for next year's run!  It is open to anyone.   It was a big success.

The video to preview the road for the race also shows you the main road, Mountain Air Drive, up the mountain, all the way to the runway and Mountain Air Village at the top.  The Heritage Ridge Villas are about half way up this drive of 3 miles.  You can see in the video that the drive up the mountain is on a well paved and easy to drive road, with only gentle curves, not harrowing switchbacks.  

The Heritage Ridge Villas are an easy 35 minute, 4 lane expressway drive, from Asheville.  The final drive up the mountain is shown here.  Unlike many other mountain communities, Mountain Air is close to Asheville, but at an altitude that brings cooler temperatures, with an easy drive to and up the mountain. When it is 85 degrees in Asheville in the summer, our temperatures are below 75 degrees because of our altitude.  Our fall weather is beautiful and mild.  Today, at night, it is 65 degrees on my outside porch.  

​Enjoy this video drive up our mountain, especially the views at the end.  Remember that the Heritage Ridge Villas are only half way up the mountain, rather close to the entry gate.  You can see how you gain altitude as you drive up the mountain.  Come for a visit.

The weather has been gorgeous here at Mountain Air.  The past several days have been comfortably warm and sunny.  Some of us have been hiking on the glorious trails here.  Below is a view from the first look out on Jump Off Trail.  Simply drive over to Timber Sky.  Download the hiking trail map on this website, or get one from the Outdoor Discovery Center.  There is a trail head over in Timber Sky, that takes you to a gentle trail along the top ridge of Mountain Air.  You arrive at a lovely lookout, where this picture was taken.  Then, you can continue on up a steeper trail, to an even higher lookout if you wish.  The first part of the jump-off trail is gentle and easy, even for beginners.

Many Mountain Air residents saw the partial eclipse from Mountain Air, and others traveled to nearby places to experience the total eclipse.  Mountain Air's Outdoor Discovery Center chartered a bus and took a large group to Clemson University.  Louise and Steve coincidentally also stopped at Clemson University on their drive up to Mountain Air from Key Largo, FL.  It turned dark, and the cicadas started chirping.  
 

© Louise Lindsay 2017

No, this was not taken at Mountain Air.  Most years I am at Mountain Air for the Perseid meteor showers in mid-August.  Kat, our naturalist, always has a great program on the runway at the top of the mountain.  It's a great place to view the meteors.  But this year, I am still in Key Largo.  It is also a great place to view the meteor shower.  The streaks here are star trails, as this image was created from tons of images stacked together, taken over 40 minutes.  The stars move and create these beautiful star trails.  The horizontal streak across the image toward the bottom may be  a plane that crossed my path, rather than a meteor.  But maybe it's a meteor.  

​The meteor showers are still active tomorrow night, 8/13/17.  Be sure to look up at the sky if you are awake at night.  

A homeowner, Carol, sent us this beautiful image.  How lucky we are!  We get to wake up every morning to this long range mountain view from our condos.  And then we are only a 35 minute drive to nearby Asheville, and yet we are in the high mountains, with more altitude and the lovely coolness that comes with it.  On mornings like this one in the image, we are also gifted with glorious views of cloud inversions, drifting through the mountain ranges.  In this image, and from our living areas, bedrooms, and back porches, we get to look out on the glorious Black Mountain range.  Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak (6,684') in the Eastern U.S. is part of this amazing range.  And then, more gifts.  We are only a 10 min. drive to our lovely local village, Burnsville, where there is ample shopping,  and all the artists and crafts you could want.

Sallie sent in this picture of the beautiful rime ice that formed around the Heritage Ridge Villas and all of Mountain Air.  She also sent in some older pictures of past snow.  She got to see the rime ice, but left before this recent snow came through.   Those of you staying at Mountain Air hopefully enjoyed the beautiful snow.  Some of us are in Florida enjoying sunshine!  But we miss the beautiful snow and rime ice also.  One picture of the "storm" rolling in to Key Largo is below.  The water is usually Caribbean blue, not muddy brown, and still, not full of white caps and waves.  When snow or heavy weather hits NC, Florida usually feels a tiny echo of the storm.

​Key Largo, FL, today, with our windy storm, left, and on a more typical day, right.