I live in New Hampshire, so the Appalachians are my mountains also. They might not be tall, but they're older than your mountains. ;-)
I grew up on the east side of Mt Kearsarge (there are 2 in NH; this is the southern one). It was nothing but woods between my house and the mountain top. We hiked it pretty often; when I was young we used to go up with my mom, and at noon my dad would come out into the yard (he works at home) and wave, and we'd watch him through the binoculars. There's a fire tower on top that's fun to climb, and I've been up once or twice on the 4th of July to see the fireworks. You can see about 10 different fireworks celebrations simultaneously, all around the mountain, and they all look so tiny from up there.
The weather almost always comes from the west (unless it's a nor'easter), and we'd have 5-10 minute warning on rain by gauging the visibility of the mountain.
A few years ago we discovered an old graphite mine shaft a few miles into the woods, about halfway to the peak from our house. Nothing fancy (it is hard granite), but it goes in a hundred or so feet and branches once. Lots of bats and puddles. They tried to seal it by blasting the cliff above the entrance, but the debris didn't fill all the way up to the top of the opening, so you can still slide in.
Cheers
Nell.