Mountain Getaways says.....

Rick and Joyce

When Rick and Joyce Schlapkohl (dentist and watercolor artist respectively) began an early search for a mountain retirement site back in the late 1970s, they had in mind some modest little lot with a view upon which Rick would build a contemporary cabin, with a woodworking hobby shop for himself and a many-windowed studio for ]oyce.

But what the mind seeks may not at all be what the heart discovers. In other words, Rick and Joyce fell in love....with 35 mountain acres, including a half-mile of Pigeon River frontage.

The property also included a couple of dirt-floored log cabins (one with a detached cookhouse), a one-room, hand-hewn log schoolhouse and a small, 1930s rock-foundation cottage badly in need of repair. They had no idea what they were going to do with all this, but they named the place Rivermont. And on long weekend getaways, holidays and vacations, they began living in the most habitable of the cabins while they restored and built others of hand-hewn logs salvaged from old log homes in Tennessee and North Carolina.

As the cabins were restored, renovated, enlarged, plumbed, wired, windowed and floored, Rivermont sort of "evolved" into a place to share. Friends were invited. Others called and asked for an invitation. Friends of friends called and asked for an invitation. So a perfect couple was found for resident managers and moved into the biggest stone foundation cottage. Rates were established. Cabins were furnished in country comfort from rocking chair porches to "Little House on the Prairie" sleeping lofts for children; decorated with handmade quilts, woven rugs, mountain crafts and original art; modernized with VCRs and microwave ovens and cozied with stacks of wood for big stone fireplaces. And Rivermont became the best-kept secret, year-round getaway in Haywood County, North Carolina.

Just try to find it by asking someone even a couple of miles down the road: "Can you tell me how to get to Rivermont?" you'll probably get a response like, "Rivermont? Never heard of it. Must be some little town over yonder in Buncombe County. You go on back to your next right.... " It's right there, nestled in the river bend on NC 215, about ten miles from Waynesville. Thirty-five acres of woodlands, mountain trails and splendid views. Periwinkle and fern-bordered springs. A pond populated with ducks and fish. A game room in a weathered barn. Split rail fences and stone walls, winding driveways, dogwood and hernlock, hillsides of wildflowers above a dahlia-adorned, sunlit lawn.

And for contemplation, benches beside the Pigeon River's clear, clean, waters. Or for watching the children play, listening to shrieks of delight from the little ones wading the shallows or the bigger ones in the ole swimmin' hole. For listening to the song of birds and the song of the river.

Rivermont now has seven guest cottages scattered about its river-fronted mountainside. But Rivermont is not just for lodging-it is a place for loving and enjoying, from misty morn to moonlit evenings. So it is available for weekly retreats or longer. Rates are disarmingly modest for accommodations for two to six- Rusty Hoffland Mountain Getaways