One of the advantages of having family in rural North Carolina is that when the mayor of Washington, D.C., threatens fines and jail time for leaving one's house on Capitol Hill, I have somewhere to escape.Driving nearly 500 miles south to the mountain town of Asheville, where I grew up, I had hoped the coronavirus hysteria might be less acute there than in Washington. The all-encompassing nature of the global pandemic hit home when I attempted to hike my favorite peak.Bearwallow Mountain is a natural bald, one of those open, grassy summits unique to the Appalachians that offer stunning views of the surrounding area. Bearwallow ascends more than 4,200 feet above Gerton, North Carolina, which is a census-designated place with a population of less than 300. Despite lying between the two tourist traps of Asheville...