Tom Burnette is a real estate investor and trains life guards for a living. He has lived most of his life and still resides on property owned by three generations of his family in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Old Fort, North Carolina. His land directly adjoins the half-million acre Pisgah National Forest. At the far end of his property Tom has a rustic cabin situated a mile and a half off the nearest paved road. It is in these remote and rugged environs that Tom has done the bulk of his research and has had many harrowing encounters.