SAPPHIRE VALLEY, N. C. – The well reputed and highly inviting plateau here in the Blue Ridge Mountains has always been a garden spot for visitors and residents with a bent for recreation, temperate days and nights, which helps bring about bountiful outdoor fulfillment.

The pastime here is to have a good time which is also standard for nearby Highlands, and Mountaintop Golf Club with old and new histories and cool living which everybody covets.  If you fail to enjoy yourself, that is your own fault.  The region has been described as a “temperate rain forest.”

There are permanent residents here, but for the most part this is a second home enclave.  People flock here for golf, and Sapphire has the distinction of having both a fine golf course and a ski slope.  It would not turn Mr. Ripley’s head, but this is where I learned to ski.

In 1954, the original owner, Gene Howerdd, Sr. who had settled in Augusta, bought 8500 acres of land in Sapphire Valley which included the Fairfield Inn and a lake.  Subsequently, he hired George Cobb, a University of Georgia landscape architect graduate to redesign the existing golf course.  It became the “Sapphire Valley Inn and Country Club.”   

Of course, if golf is not a priority, there are many options from fly fishing to white water rafting, hiking in mountains that are older than the Alps, Andes and Rockies.  You may underscore activities that allow you to be a homebody in the most comfortable of environments.

Last weekend, we were the guests of our neighbors, Carolyn and Charlie Callihan who upon retirement bought property here and can’t get enough of mountain living.  Spring, summer and fall have unmatched outdoor appeal, but they enjoy it here in winter when the expansive fireplace in their den, which, with an adjoining kitchen, is the centerpiece of their lives.  With a defining touch of rustic influence, you are smitten by exposed cross beams and rafters and spacious windows, which frame seductive and stirring views. 

They own 14 acres, which gives them space for absorbing the masterpieces of nature with views of mountains, flora and fauna.  However, Carolyn doesn’t get excited about the last.  There are dozens of black bears in the area, all of which she could do without.  Their Bernie doodles, Sophie and Augie, are outfitted with necklace bells to signal the bears that “we will leave you alone if you will leave us alone.”

Across a spring fed pond, Charlie has a fenced in plot where he constantly matches wits with abundant deer.  He grows a horn of plenty   year-round, including squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, carrots, and radishes.  A mushroom aficionado, he spotted a clump of black trumpet variety on the side of the road on the way to dinner one night.  Suddenly, it was “harvest” time.  We had them for breakfast the next morning along with tomatoes and cucumbers.  Dinner at the Cedar Creek Club, which has a menu that turns heads in the most attractive setting, highlighted by a porch with a view that makes fine wine “finer.” 

Carolyn, with a master’s degree in microbiology from UGA and a career with the “Environmental Protection Agency,” confirms that she is very smart by staying out of the kitchen.  Charlie, not only cooks, but he also cleans up.                                                                                                                                     

Charlie grew up until age 16 in West Virginia, hunting and fishing and cooking.  His dad took a marketing job at Blue Bird Manufacturing in Ft. Valley.  Charlie later found his way to UGA, where his kitchen expertise came in handy.  His dad told him if he joined a fraternity, he would be cut adrift financially; so, when Charlie joined the Chi Psi fraternity on Lumpkin Street, he was on his own.  Undaunted, he became the cook for his fraternity. He is as versatile in the kitchen as Paula Deen.   

He also built the fraternity a porch which meant that his room and board were covered. He became the night auditor at the Georgia Center hotel leaving him little time to finish pharmacy school, but he found a way.  

A man of clever enterprise, he is into shrubbery, flowers, hanging baskets, and an outdoor sofa under a tin roof.   When the Callihan’s choose “do nothing,” they repair to rocking chairs on the tarmac in front of a recirculating waterfall, enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.  He has been carving all his life and is into woodworking. It would be hard to find a couple more compatible with their environment.  And retirement.

There is a substantial underpinning with this story.  When you reach retirement age, it is best not to embrace a sedentary lifestyle.  Remain active and industrious, read books, eat healthy, and watch out for the black bears.