The Mountains Under Cover

In the shadow of COVID, western North Carolina dons masks and keeps distances (or doesn’t)

- GREG LACOUR

THE TENTS LOOK LIKE OVERSIZED TOADSTOOLS. It’s as if they sprouted overnight after a heavy rain on the campus of Western Carolina University in the town of Cullowhee, about an hour’s drive southwest of Asheville. They’re the kind of white, peaked tents commonly used for outdoor gatherings, and the university has scattered six of them throughout the 589-acre campus, with plastic folding chairs spaced 6 feet apart beneath them.

They’ve been open for study, shelter, and relaxation since the first day of classes a week ago as a way to keep too many students from congregating indoors. Now, in late August, it’s about 10:30 on a Monday morning that threatens rain, and it doesn’t appear that anyone’s using them. It’s quiet on what normally is a campus alive with new-academic-year energy and preparation for football season. But Whitmire Stadium is silent, too. Across Catamount Road in the intramural fields rests a makeshift arrangement of free weights and exercise equipment on the wet grass, overseen by campus trainers.

A few people go through their paces. I walk by on the track that surrounds the fields. I introduce myself and ask one of the trainers about the setup. His supervisor advises me, adamantly, to consult university public affairs. I thank them and walk on.