Chris and Hilary Wilkes and David and Carol Wilkes
The destruction from Hurricane Helene, plus recent trade imbroglios, remind us the unforeseen is always out there.
Imagine running a store decades in the same location and passing it on to a second generation and you can understand why the Wilkes family wants to celebrate their Highland Hiker’s 30th anniversary at the Crossroads.
Charles Hooper
(The business began in the 1970s, when it was founded as the Happy Hiker on Chestnut Street in Highlands—now it’s on Main—and yours truly spent blissful summers there working for Carol and David in the stockroom, or driving customers to hikes led by Jjay Joanides.)
Christine Hooper
Here’s a new publication celebrating the milestone. Highland Hiker, Cashiers, est. 1995 is a lighthearted, 24-page booklet with a brief history of today’s Highland Hiker building in Cashiers, the Hooper family’s grocery store which formerly occupied it, and the goings on since the Wilkeses first rented from Charlie Hooper until they bought the property earlier this year.
Mills Mosely, Lec Hobbs, Matthew Kelley, and Richard Cooper
Available at all Hiker locations, it features fond, humorous memories of store customers, awesome staff and the Cashiers community. It’s a charming read thanks to the graphic talents of our friends at The Laurel, who designed and printed it. And it’s free (!), though customers are encouraged to make a donation to the Cashiers Historical Society, without whom the Highland Hiker chronicle could not have been put together; CHS plays a crucial role in preserving the vibrant, beautiful Cashiers Valley.
David and Carol at Highlands Main Street location, 1993
Carol Wilkes spent months considering what to include—and which stories were so good they had to be left out. The ones that made it in are whimsical enough, from rubber duckies that mysteriously appeared in the parking-lot puddles after a heavy rain, to incantations by Kim Gruell (grandson of Raggedy Ann and Andy creator Johnny Gruell, and keeper of the family legacy) to keep the rising waters out of the building.
Grayson Keating
There’s an ode to hiking by customer Evelyn Crosby, in the voice of her favorite pair of boots: “…Home to the Valley, Yellow Mountain, and Rock/ Climbed Whiteside and Chimney/ We’ve been to the tops!”
The Highland Hiker has contributed to local conservation efforts, taken part in Christmas parades and a showhouse; outfitted generations of kids at Merrie-Woode; sponsored lectures and book signings in conjunction with the Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library; and been a point of welcome for returning seasonal visitors and residents alike. Please stop by and get your copy.
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