On the Blue Ridge

For the first time in more than 80 years, the PGA Tour returned to the Asheville area for the inaugural Biltmore Championship Asheville at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove.

Host Jon Page spends tournament week behind the scenes, exploring what it takes to bring a PGA Tour event to Western North Carolina, and what it means for a region still recovering from Hurricane Helene to have an international spotlight.

Along the way, Jon rides along with the golf course superintendent, meets some of the more than 1,100 volunteers helping make the tournament run, and sees how organizers prepare for everything from thousands of spectators to unpredictable mountain weather. He also talks with PGA Tour players, tournament organizers, local business owners, nonprofit leaders, and visitors from across the country.

This episode also explores the tournament’s impact beyond the course, from an expected multimillion-dollar boost to the local economy to more than $625,000 raised for charities across Western North Carolina.

And, there’s a little golf. Western Carolina University graduate J.T. Poston makes a Sunday charge up the leaderboard, while Jacob Bridgeman, who grew up just across the state line in Upstate South Carolina, closes with a career-low round to become the tournament’s inaugural champion.

It’s a story about golf, tourism, community, recovery, and the enormous amount of work happening behind the scenes when the PGA Tour comes to Asheville.

Biltmore Championship Asheville
biltmorechampionship.com

The Cliffs
cliffsliving.com

Biltmore Estate
biltmore.com

Explore Asheville
exploreasheville.com

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Brent Martin is a conservationist and writer whose work has been deeply influenced by the 18th-century naturalist William Bartram.

Brent lives in Macon County, where his work has long been rooted in the landscapes of Western North Carolina. Until recently, he served as executive director of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, a nonprofit that maintains 112 miles of the Bartram Trail through North Carolina and Georgia.

Bartram was a naturalist, writer and explorer who traveled extensively through the American Southeast in the 1770s, documenting its plants, wildlife, landscapes, and people. His observations became the basis for “Bartram’s Travels.” Published in 1791, it’s a detailed account of the natural and cultural world he encountered along the way.

Brent’s latest book, “William Bartram and the Nature that Could Have Been,” draws directly from his longtime interest in Bartram. It’s due out this October from Mercer University Press.

Brent is also the author of “The Changing Blue Ridge Mountains” and a hiking guide to the Bartram Trail. In 2022, his book “George Masa’s Wild Vision” won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award, and Brent has also served as the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for the western region of North Carolina.

Later this month, Brent is helping lead Spotfin, a two-day gathering that brings together writers, artists, naturalists and makers at the Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center, a former public school in Macon County that has been transformed into a home for arts, nature, and community.

In this episode, Brent discusses his new book, including what it was like to write directly to Bartram and to wrestle with both the world he documented and the complicated legacy he left behind. We also talk about Spotfin, and what comes next for Brent now that he has retired from the Bartram Trail Conservancy and is preparing to wind down Alarka Expeditions, a nature-based touring company he has run with his wife, Angela-Faye Martin.

“William Bartram and the Nature that Could Have Been”
Buy the book via Mercer University Press
Catch Brent at book release parties at Outdoor 76 in Franklin on Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m. or at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva on Oct. 10 at 3 p.m.

Spotfin
Learn more at coweeschool.org/spotfin 

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.

Josh Kelly is the Resilient Forests Program Director for MountainTrue, an Asheville-based nonprofit that champions resilient forests, clean waters, and healthy communities across the Southern Blue Ridge.

MountainTrue and Josh are also strong advocates for keeping the Roadless Rule, a 25-year-old policy that protects some of our nation’s wildest public lands.

Adopted by the Clinton administration, the Roadless Rule aimed to preserve relatively undeveloped forests by restricting road construction and timber harvesting across a wide swath of the National Forest System.

This August, the Trump administration formally proposed repealing the rule, opening a public comment period that runs through Sept. 21. The administration argues that eliminating those restrictions would give local forest managers more flexibility to reduce wildfire risks and improve forest health.

But environmental and conservation groups are sounding alarms, arguing that repealing the rule could actually increase wildfire risk. They also warn that repeal could lead to more logging and road construction that threaten landscapes, wildlife habitat, and important watersheds.

Here in Western North Carolina, more than 150,000 acres of roadless land are protected in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests. That includes forests around beloved places like Graveyard Fields, Craggy Mountain, and South Mills River, just to name a few.

MountainTrue is urging people who oppose the repeal to take action and submit public comments on the proposal before the comment period closes.

A native of Madison County and graduate of UNC Asheville, Josh has spent much of his career working on public lands and forest conservation in Western North Carolina.

In this episode, Josh explains why he opposes repealing the Roadless Rule and walks us through some of the science around wildfire. We talk about the connection between roads and wildfire, as well as the challenges of building roads in undeveloped forests. We also discuss what Josh sees as a larger debate over the role of the Forest Service.

Josh also discusses the National Park Service’s hazardous fuel debris removal project along the Blue Ridge Parkway; plans for the Craggy Mountain National Scenic Area; what a healthy Southern Appalachian forest actually looks like; and how growing up in Madison County helped shape his relationship with these mountains.

MountainTrue
Submit a public comment about the Roadless Rule
mountaintrue.org
Follow MountainTrue on Facebook and Instagram

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Jeffrey Kaplan is the Director of Venture Asheville and CEO of Optimist Ventures, where he works to help businesses grow here in Western North Carolina.

Focused on growing the region’s startup community, Venture Asheville is an initiative of the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce. Building on that work, Venture Asheville launched a new effort called Optimist Ventures in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The program is focused on helping Western North Carolina businesses recover and grow at a time when the region is still dealing with the storm’s economic fallout.

Jeffrey joined Venture Asheville in 2018. He earned a master’s degree in entrepreneurship from the University of Florida and has worked with startups from several different angles—as a founder, educator and consultant.

In this episode, Jeffrey shares what fascinates him about entrepreneurs and what he thinks separates the good ones from the rest. We also discuss how Hurricane Helene shaped Optimist Ventures, how an offer from Poppy Popcorn helped inspire its unique funding model, and why Jeffrey believes that model can benefit entrepreneurs, investors and the broader Western North Carolina economy.

Venture Asheville
ventureasheville.com
Follow Venture Asheville on Facebook and Instagram
Follow Jeffrey Kaplan on LinkedIn

Optimist Ventures
optimistventures.co

2026 Optimist Ventures Recipients
Asheville Wellness Tours
Devil’s Foot Beverage Co.
Evolve Early Learning
The Flying Bike
Full Moon Tea Co.
Ginger’s Revenge
Habibi Village
Highlands Hydro Clean
Rockgeist Bikepack USA
Savage Supply
Spice Witch
The Village Potters Clay Center

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.

Steve Shand is the Golf Course Superintendent at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, where he’s spent more than a decade caring for its Jack Nicklaus Signature course. Jeff Tyrrell is Director of Operations at The Cliffs, helping oversee operations across the organization’s seven communities.

This September, their work will take on a much bigger stage when The Cliffs at Walnut Cove hosts the Biltmore Championship Asheville, the first PGA Tour event in Asheville in 80 years.

The tournament takes place Sept. 17-20, with Biltmore Estate and Explore Asheville serving as co-title sponsors. Explore Asheville projects the event will generate $15 million to $30 million in direct spending at local businesses, along with more than $100,000 for area nonprofits.

The Cliffs is a collection of seven private mountain and lake communities across the Carolinas, and The Cliffs at Walnut Cove sits in a valley just south of Asheville, bordered by Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

In this episode, Steve and Jeff take us behind the scenes of what it takes to transform Walnut Cove into a PGA Tour venue, from building grandstands and television compounds to preparing the course itself. We talk about the challenges of maintaining a championship golf course in the mountains (including the occasional bear that takes off with a flagstick), and what it means to showcase Western North Carolina to a national audience nearly two years after Hurricane Helene.

Biltmore Championship Asheville
biltmorechampionship.com
Follow Biltmore Championship Asheville on Facebook and Instagram

The Cliffs
The Cliffs at Walnut Cove
Follow The Cliffs on Facebook and Instagram

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.

Anna Rawlins is the Chief Marketing Officer for Eagles Nest Outfitters (ENO), an Asheville-based maker of hammocks and outdoor gear that inspires people to adventure anywhere, and relax everywhere.

Thanks to a compact design and innovative straps that can wrap around trees, ENO helped redefine the hammock from something associated primarily with the backyard into portable, lightweight gear that’s equally at home on a mountain overlook, at a campsite, or just about anywhere.

The company was founded in Florida in 1999 by the Pinholster brothers, who sold their products out of a van at music festivals and community gatherings across the Southeast. ENO later relocated to Asheville in the early 2000s, where it has remained ever since. Today, ENO products are sold by outdoor retailers around the globe. While hammocks remain at the heart of the company, the product line has expanded to include hammock accessories, stands, chairs, and other outdoor gear.

In this episode, Anna explains how Western North Carolina helped shape ENO, why hammocks have become such an enduring part of the outdoor experience, and what goes into designing and testing ENO products. We also talk about smart and safe ways to hammock, what it takes to spend a comfortable night camping in a hammock, and how she plans to celebrate National Hammock Day on July 22.

ENO
enonation.com
Follow ENO on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.

Marielle DeJong is the Donor Engagement Officer for The Pisgah Conservancy, the only nonprofit organization that is solely dedicated to supporting the Pisgah Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest.

Pisgah National Forest is one of Western North Carolina’s most treasured public lands. Millions of people come here each year to hike, camp, fish, climb, bike, and chase waterfalls. But maintaining a forest this large, and keeping it healthy, is a massive undertaking that requires far more than the U.S. Forest Service can do alone.

That’s where The Pisgah Conservancy comes in. Founded in 2015, the organization helps plan, fund, and carry out projects that protect and improve the forest for future generations.

A Brevard native, Marielle has spent much of her career helping people connect with and care for public lands. After serving as Chief Operating and Development Officer for Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, she joined The Pisgah Conservancy in 2024.

In this episode, Marielle explains how The Pisgah Conservancy works alongside the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service to care for one of the country’s busiest public lands. We discuss a years-long restoration of Graveyard Fields, including the construction of a new access trail, and explore some of the biggest challenges facing the region, from invasive species removal to habitat restoration. She also shares ways people can get involved, reflects on Hurricane Helene’s impact, and offers reasons for optimism about the future of Pisgah National Forest.

The Pisgah Conservancy
pisgahconservancy.org
Success Stories
Events
Volunteer
License Plates

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.

Ty Gilpin is a mandolinist, songwriter and singer for the band Unspoken Tradition, whose sixth studio album, “Heartwood,” is available now.

For more than a decade, Unspoken Tradition has built a reputation for bluegrass music that celebrates both the beauty of Western North Carolina and the realities of everyday life here. The band—which also includes Audie McGinnis, Zane McGinnis, Tim Gardner, and Sav Sankaran—has released multiple bluegrass chart-topping songs. “Heartwood,” their latest album from Mountain Home Music Company, is a thoughtful collection of songs old and new that explore themes of work, family, tradition, and the places we call home. It’s available now on music streaming services.

In this episode, Ty shares what drew him to the mandolin, how Unspoken Tradition creates music with an undeniable sense of place, and what the term “working-class bluegrass” means to him. We also explore the themes and stories behind several songs from the new album, and hear portions of those tracks along the way.

Unspoken Tradition
unspokentradition.com
Listen to Heartwood
Follow the band on Facebook
Follow the band on Instagram
Follow Ty on Instagram

Tracks Featured in this Episode
“Refugee"
“Company Man” (Watch a music video)
“Barbara Allen”
“All The Gold In California”
“Rhythm Of The Ridge”

On the Blue Ridge Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.

Loretta Ball is the owner and operator of The Never Ending Flower Farm in Barnardsville, North Carolina, where visitors can wander through rows of flowers to create their own, fresh-picked bouquets.

A Western North Carolina native, Loretta transformed family land into The Never Ending Flower Farm. She lives on the property with her husband, Kurt, and their two children. Now in its 10th season of you-pick flowers, the farm has become a beloved destination where visitors can wander through colorful rows of flowers framed by mountain views. Just 20 miles north of Asheville, it’s a wonderful outing for families, a gorgeous backdrop for proposals and very small weddings, and a gathering place for picnics and seasonal suppers.

In this episode, Loretta shares her earliest memories of picking wildflowers on walks to her grandmother’s house and the winding path that eventually led her to start a flower farm of her own. She discusses the joys and challenges of growing flowers in Western North Carolina, how the farm has evolved over the past decade, and what it’s like to run a business that’s constantly at the mercy of the weather.

We also talk about family and how she’s navigating life on the farm following the loss of her mother earlier this year. Along the way, Loretta explains what visitors can expect at the farm, introduces a few lesser-known flowers worth seeking out, and offers some practical gardening advice for anyone hoping to bring a little more color into their own backyard.

The Never Ending Flower Farm
theneverendingflowerfarm.com
You-Pick Updates
Follow the farm on Instagram
Follow the farm on Facebook

Theme Music
The song "Goa" was written by Lyndsay Pruett and performed by the Jon Stickley Trio.

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.

Chris and Jessica Whaley are the owners of Old Fort, North Carolina-based Whaley Farm Brewery, where Appalachian-inspired beers, local ingredients, and a resilient community helped shape the brewery’s long road to recovery after Hurricane Helene.

After many years of farming and brewing in Western North Carolina, the Whaleys opened their brewery in 2022 and specialize in Appalachian farm beers, English cask ales, and thoughtfully crafted lagers. 

Jess is a farmer who grows produce, herbs, and flowers, many of which find their way into the beers. The Whaleys also source additional ingredients, including fruit and all of their malt from local suppliers.

Chris is a studious brewer who loves classic styles, while Jess often nudges him toward experimentation. Together, they’ve built a tap list where traditional English bitters, cream ales, and pilsners coexist alongside beers featuring locally grown herbs, flowers, peaches, and even foraged mushrooms. The common thread is balance, drinkability, a disregard for flashy trends, and a strong sense of place.

By late summer of 2024, the brewery had become a gathering place for locals and visitors alike. Then Hurricane Helene arrived.

The brewery, which sits alongside Mill Creek, took on roughly three feet of water during Helene. When the floodwaters receded, they left behind about a foot of mud. While the taproom’s foundation remained intact, the concrete slab beneath the brewery had to be torn out and replaced. Recovery stretched on for months. When Whaley Farm Brewery reopened in June of 2025, the brewhouse was still under construction, and Chris was essentially brewing on a homebrew-scale system inside the taproom just to keep beer flowing. It wasn’t until February of this year that brewing operations finally returned to normal.

In this episode, Chris and Jess share their memories of Helene and the long road to reopening; the acts of kindness that sustained them during the recovery; how farming and brewing intersect at Whaley Farm Brewery; and what gives them hope for the future of Old Fort and Western North Carolina.

Whaley Farm Brewery
whaleyfarmbrewery.com
Follow the brewery on Instagram
Follow Jess on Instagram
Follow the brewery on Facebook

Learn more about On the Blue Ridge and sign up for updates at ontheblueridgepod.com.