Welcome to OptOutside

OptOut!, a woman-owned small business, specializes in excursion planning, customized adventures, and women’s backpacking training and wilderness forays. We work with other locally-owned small businesses in northeast Tennessee, e.g. Iron Horse Bike Rentals, etc.; to present you with literally dozens of options for entertainment in our neck of the woods, i.e. east Tennessee, western North Carolina and southwest Virginia. WHEREVER YOU ARE, OptOut! wants to help you plan your vacation to get the most of a genuine Appalachian experience.

Customized Adventure Tours

From single to multi-day adventure tours that include your choice of hiking, biking, flyfishing, white- or calm-water rafting or kayaking. OptOut! works with first Frontiers to customize your adventure to meet the needs and desires of your particular group of friends or family members. We would love to help you introduce your kids to outdoor adventure and we will help you and yours to get outfitted properly for whatever activities you choose. No need to buy expensive equipment when you can try out good loaner gear, learn how it works, and use your own experience to help you decide what you may want to buy in the future.

Whether it is a moderately easy hike through the native hardwoods that define many of the Appalachian ecosystems, or fairly strenuous climbs to balds that cap some of our ancient ridgelines, we can help you choose local hikes with features that appeal to you. The Southern Appalachian Highlands are unlike any other mountains in the world. They are old and worn and have been above sea-level for longer than nearly any other land on earth save the Himalayas. As such, they support an unmatched diversity of floral species. Also in our mountains you will find spectacular horsehair, bridal veil, and cascading waterfalls. You will find alpine plants that thrive in their own islands above the clouds. You will find mosses and ferns that will have you understanding that indeed this is a temperate rainforest with a somewhat sultry disposition...something like what you would expect in the south.

You may desire a guide, a packed lunch, and a day pack; or a plan, gear and food for several days. You may just want a map with highlighted trails and areas. perhaps you want customized packages of literature that present you with geological, topographical, historical, botanical, and zoological information on the places that peek your curiosity. What we want to do is find out who you are so we can help you put your finger on what to do here so you won't waste precious vacation time. Tell us your level of experience, your areas of interests, and the kind of things you like to do and we'll get to work.

Excursions/Excursion Planning

First Frontiers Tours and Adventures uses OptOut! as one of its several guide services, particularly for outdoor adventures. Among other tours it offers are half- to full-day van excursions that emphasize the musical, artistic, cultural, and historic roots and current traditions of Appalachia. Choose to spend the day taking art or photography classes, visiting antique stores, museums, working mills, or art centers all within a 100 mile radious of Unicoi and Carter counties in upper East Tennessee. See First Frontiers' website for feature tours and specialty excursions or have OptOut! do your planning for you once you've expressed your program.

Women's Backpacking Training and Forays

Finally, OptOut! wants to see MORE WOMEN BACKPACKERS! Convinced that women stand to gain a great deal of knowledge, self-confidence, strength, and indeed love for life ("biophilia" to use ecologist E.O. Wilson's term) from the wilderness experience, OptOut! wants to help with the technical aspects of women's decisonis to give backpacking a try. Express your interests in this area if you'd like more information on what comprises this training and the nature of the adventures we plan to try out your new skills.

About OptOut!

Owner of OptOut! Beth "Bandakwe" McPherson, in 2003 thru-hiked the historic Appalachian Trail for her fifteith birthday. Having hiked the Tennessee portion of the AT when she was nineteen years old; the entire 2100+ mile trail was something she'd wanted to tackle for thrity years. Luckily, she got to begin her long walk on March 9, 2003 and fiished it August 14, 2003. Beth got to live her dream and now her mission in life is to encourage other people to live theirs. Whether it be kayaking, hiking, biking or just exploring a heretofore unexplored (for you) part of the world, OptOut! wants to help you become actively involved in your own personal DISCOVERY of this amazing planet.

Contact Info

Call OptOut! at 423-213-9049 or e-mail at emcpherson@mer-inc.com for more information. We look forward to putting as much energy inito helping you plan your vacation as we ould our own.....no kidding!