A Thursday event to mark the opening of a new trail, climbing area and conserved acreage in the Hickory Nut Gorge marked years of hard work that is helping to realize the lofty dreams of one dedicated landowner, conservationist and rock climber.

That man is John Myers, who has partnered with Conserving Carolina for more than a decade to help protect the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge. From bushwhacking trails to cutting deals, he's worked to make it accessible for hikers and climbers to enjoy.

The ribbon cutting Thursday marked the opening of the recently completed Wildcat Rock Trail, the recent completion of a Conserving Carolina easement on 38 acres on the slopes of Little Bearwallow Mountain, and the official and formal opening of a rock and ice climbing area at Little Bearwallow Falls, dedicated to John Myers.

Myers, a landowner and conservationist, was thanked continuously during Thursday’s program for his years of hard work and his ability to dream big and to keep working on those dreams until they become a reality.

It was Myers who made all three projects possible, along with his wife, Jane Lawson, according to Peter Barr, Conserving Carolina trails coordinator. “John was truly the catalyst for all of these projects and many of them took some time, and they weren’t easy," he added.

Barr, along with other Conserving Carolina staff and members of the Carolina Climbers Coalition and more, thanked Myers for his contributions to conservation and recreation efforts in the Hickory Nut Gorge and for continuing to believe the ambitious projects were possible, even when their completion didn’t seem so likely.

Wildcat Rock Trail

Construction of the complicated and expensive Wildcat Rock Trail began at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014. It took nearly four years to finish the sustainable, public three-mile trail.

After the first mile, the trail comes out at Bearwallow Falls, then travels another half mile to a mile to Wildcat Rock. It then continues another mile up to the meadows at the top of Little Bearwallow Mountain, Barr explained, saying it offers everything from a day hike to something longer.

The next project will be to connect that to the top of Bearwallow Mountain itself, he said, with a goal to eventually create a looping trail system that circumnavigates the community of Gerton.

“This one, three-mile trail is really exciting, but what it means for the connectivity in the future is the even bigger deal,” Barr said. “What it is really doing is kind of seeing through a vision that John had many, many years ago, which was a connected trail system entirely through the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge, connecting this conserved land from property to property, from peak to peak, past waterfalls, through pastures, past cliffs that you can climb up.”

Rock, ice climbing area

The climbing area, which offers a rock climbing and uniquely stable Southeastern ice climbing venue, was named in honor of Myers, “for his vision and contributions to conservation and recreation in the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge and Western North Carolina."

Myers has been climbing since he was a teen. Stories shared Thursday tell of a man who went on many climbing adventures to share with people the untapped climbing potential in North Carolina. He had a hand in helping the Carolina Climbers Coalition make one of the largest purchases ever by a climbers' group, the $250,000 purchase of the Laurel Knob at Panthertown Valley.

Former president of the CCC Sean Coburn described Laurel Knob as "this hallowed place that only a few people had ever climbed," the biggest cliff in eastern America at 1,200 feet tall.

"John figured out who owned the place and the legend is that he actually brought the lady flowers," Coburn said. "And he masterfully cut a deal for a quarter-million bucks, and here I am, president of the CCC, and I've got like 20 bucks in our bank account."

But the group sold bumper stickers, T-shirts and memberships, eventually raising the sum, he said.

Conservation easement

Coburn said the Hickory Nut Gorge, where he's been recreating since 1980, is just as much an outdoor paradise as a biodiversity paradise, and Little Bearwallow Mountain is an amazing place.

He first met Myers in 2003, he said, and they shortly became climbing partners. They did many new routes on the north side of Rumbling Bald, learning it like the backs of their hands. Soon they started getting involved with the planning of the Chimney Rock State Park. Coburn commended Myers' on his ability to find lots to buy and strike deals.

"All I can say, John, is thank you" Coburn said. "You've been my friend, my partner, my mentor, and you have done so much for the climbing community; I can't think of anybody who's done more."

Twenty-five years ago in Henderson County, there was almost no land protected through conservation easements, said N.C. Rep. Chuck McGrady. The organization known now as Conserving Carolina is one of the most highly producing land trusts around.

“The conservation easement piece is huge. The trail piece is also really huge,” he said. “My experience has been, we sort of get little pieces of macaroni and you sort of begin to stick them together and before you know it, you’ve got spaghetti, and that’s what trail work has done.”

McGrady also spoke to the importance of conservation and recreational opportunities like these. He said the more amenities like those that exist for the thousands of families that come into the area every year, the better it is for the local economy.

“This is something that is wildly sustainable,” not just environmentally but economically, McGrady said. He noted the area’s continual addition of recreational businesses, breweries and other ventures “because of these special places.”

N.C. Rep. John Ager said he and Jane Lawson have been friends since the 70s. After she married John Myers, he came to speak with them about a vision he had for the property that’s now Laughing Waters Retreat Center and Hickory Nut Forest.

“John just had this vision that sort of made my heart leap. He said, ‘I’m willing to talk to neighbors, I’m going to make this happen,’” Ager said. “I said, ‘Man, I don’t know, this is a big vision, I don’t know if you’ll be able to pull this off or not.’ But here we are. I am just honored to be amongst this group.”

"Really we're here to sort of celebrate the Hickory Nut Gorge Hall of Fame and we're inducting these wonderful people," he said.

Ager announced the Dec. 20 closing on another 161 acres of land owned by a man that Ager was first introduced to in 2004 through Myers’s work.

"I'm a big believer that you can't just save a piece of land, you have to save a piece of land and somehow bring life to it," he said. "John and Jane have brought life not only to their land but to the land all around them, and that's what's really going to preserve it; thank you very much."

Ryan Lubbers, with Hickory Nut Forest and Friends of Chimney Rock State Park, said he met John about 10 years ago, coming to the area with the Hickory Nut Forest project. "The way I understood it, it was going to be a small community with naturally built homes, with renewable resources; there's an organic orchard, and on top of that, there was going to be land conservation, and that really ticked all my boxes."

He walked the land with John and Jane, and Myers told him to come back and think about it. Every time he came back, he fell more in love with the place. In talking with Myers, he said, he decided that was where he wanted to be, and has lived there for 10 years now.

"It didn't always seem like a sure thing around here," Lubbers said, noting that when he first got there, the economy was in freefall. "Talk about uncertainty, talk about fear, talk about not knowing where to go, and John would always come back to his vision and to his intentions."

Myers had a way of being able to re-center and "manage all those worries that are the killers of dreams," Lubbers said, something that helped him stay strong and focused. And now, those dreams that Myers had are coming to fruition with Conserving Carolina's trail easement and the protection in perpetuity of the summit of Little Bearwallow.

"My reaction is one of being overwhelmed and in awe, really," Lawson said, of reaching Thursday's milestone.

John Myers and Jane Lawson were both born in the same Ohio town and kept in touch since being friends in high school, Lawson said. She first made it to Western North Carolina in 1976, and Myers in 1998.

Myers had worked in New York and New Jersey protecting land and brought that expertise with him when he came, she said. He put it to work by advocating for the Hickory Nut Gorge shortly thereafter, buying land in 2004.

"We are so happy to be a part of the regional effort to protect the precious environment of Hickory Nut Gorge," Lawson wrote in an email to the Times-News. "Not only are we passionate about the protection of the land, but we also value public access to its majestic beauty.

"We hope that the Wildcat Rock trail and the newly dedicated John Myers' climbing area will add to the enjoyment of the Upper Gorge and be an inspiration to others to be active in the conservation of land as well."