09.02.08
Posted in Road Trip, kayaking, recreation, travel, vacation at 9:55 pm by heidihoho7
So the morning shed light on just how wonderful the cabin was (despite that evil driveway). The sun shone in on us and we were able to fully appreciate the lovely waterfall in the front yard and front porch overlooking it and the valley (pics in the previous post). We weren’t able to stick around to enjoy it for long as we had to get on the river!
Our river for the day was the French Broad. Many of us hadn’t paddled it before so it was going to be a fun day, especially with the much warmer water and the toasty day. The river is located about an hour and half north and east of Sylva but still in and around the Smoky Mountains. Every area we go to is more of the same, wonderfully green mountains (really very large hills) with very fun windy roads where i try to make folks sick with my driving haha. The putin is located in the small town of Hot Springs which also happens to be right by the AT (the nanty is also right off the AT) so we’ve been seeing a lot of through hikers which is kind of cool thinking about what they are attempting (and reminding me of Weeks).
(pat and his PB & DB which i was converted to after trying although i even added honey- PBHDP- mmm pickles!)
Our paddle was full of playspots for surfing and the usual stern squirts and bow stall fun. We ended up with a bit of a quandry as we got to what we thought was the half way point at 4pm. We’d been on the water for a few hours and we started to wonder just how much further we had to go. We asked a raft guide bus driver and he said we had 4-5 miles yet, which was suprising to us and made a few folks nervous. We decided to keep paddling and just push hard to make sure we were defintely off the river before sunset. We did hit a bit of a flat patch but since we were paddling so fast it went fairly quickly. All the rapids seemed fairly straight forward alhtough we did sneak the last one (a class IV). We made it to the takeout at about 6:00 so we really had nothing to worry about it!
Larry B had to take off for home to get back to his family, and we all were getting hungry so we decided to head to a cute restaurant we’d seen on the way to the river. I was driving up the windy mountain roads when all of a sudden i felt a strong stinging pain in my back, and i assumed i was stung by something. After making sure i didn’t drive us off the road, i had Diana and Steve check my back and put on Benadryl to the sting point as i tried not to kill us – as i was still driving during this whole process. After 10 minutes (of some more stinging) we arrive at GRITS (Girls Raised In The South) where we’d planned on having dinner. As I got out of my car i found the culprit to my pain – a wasp was crawling around my seat (still alive). I let him go – i didn’t hold it against him seeing as i how i probably sat back on him in the first place. The restaurant was supposed to close at 8 and we were lucky enough that they stayed open to serve us, so we got to enjoy some good southern cooking including yummy sweet tea, okra and friend green tomatoes! After a food coma induced drive back to Sylva, we put in our nightly hike up the driveway. Due to the late hour, most of us passed out within minutes for another good nights rest.
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Posted in Road Trip, kayaking, recreation, travel at 9:51 pm by heidihoho7
So we ended up leaving for the trip on thursday night and made some good time. We were lucky enough to have an offer for an overnight stop in Kentucky so at 2am we rolled into Pat’s in-laws and passed out for 4 hours. After a groggy wake up call, we drove on for a few more hours. We got to North Carolina and the Nantahala river – our destination for the day, only an hour or so after we told our friends we’d be there (sorry Larrys!).
After all that driving we were definitely ready to get moving and get on the river. We were about to be woken up pretty quickly – the Nantahala is dam released and the water comes from the bottom of the dam so its COLD (about 45 degrees). Our group enjoyed a nice easy paddle, enjoying the views and playing wherever possible while rolling as little as possible due to the chilly water. For many of us this was the first real river we’d paddled in long time, and for Bob this was the first non beginner trip besides his visits to East Race, so it was a great warm up for most of the group.
The hardest rapid (Nantahala Falls) was at the very end and it provided some good opportunities to practice our rolls. Some of us (ok me – see picture to see where NOT to go haha) missed the line and I decided this was a great time to practice hitting lines so i ran it 2 more times, I finally hit the line i wanted on the last run. That rapid ended the run so we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the NOC restaurant River’s End (try the sherpa meals they are great!) which has a wonderful view of the river.
We said goodbye to Larry S and headed off to find the cabin we’d be staying in the next 3 nights just outside Sylva, NC. We wind our way up a mountain road following the directions we were given to find our cabin. I was a little worried about the creek crossing, but that ended up being the easy part about getting to the cabin. I was in the lead (aka guinea pig) and it didn’t bode well when my first attempt at getting up the mountain road failed miserably. We reread the instructions and made sure we got a good run at the hill (imagine at least 8% grade with all pea gravel and a drop on one side with a creek just a foot off the road). Once again my trusty prius proved it always thinks it knows best. My problem was that my car could tell i was losing traction and would cut my engine power (to presumably gain traction again) but that meant we lost all momentum and ability to get up the mountain driveway. After many failed attempts (and me completely losing it) we finally decided to let Larry B and Pat attempt to get up the drive. Their vehicles apparently don’t think they know best and allowed them to make it up the hill. We ended up loading up larry’s element to get all of our stuff to the cabin. I admittedly broke down during this whole process and was mad at my car and the stupid driveway so it took me a while to calm down but eventually all was well… we all were so tired that we all went to bed fairly quickly.
The first picture is looking down at my prius from the cabin driveway and the second is of the cabin itself.
it was a great workout walking up and down each day! You can also see the creek we had to drive over in the background.
The rest of the pics are of the wonderful waterfall that was basically in our front yard.
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Posted in Road Trip, kayaking, recreation, travel at 9:41 pm by heidihoho7
As for most people, Labor Day weekend means a long weekend of family and friends. This year for the two of us it also means being 7 states apart. Bela is off to Colorado for Andy’s bachelor Party and I am headed south to go kayaking with my friends (the usual paddle crew from chicago whitewater).
Bela’s group has rented a big cabin up in the rocky mountains – that just so happens to have a hot tub and swimming pool! So the guys are going to live it up by climbing and hiking during the day and then relaxing in leisure in the evenings with Boulder just a few minutes away for entertainment.
Our group which included Diana, Steve, Pat, Bob, Susan and myself all drove down and met up with our old paddle friends Larry B and Larry S that live nearby (TN). We also rentd a mountain cabin (ours in the smoky mountains). Although it does not have the hot tub or swimming pool, we do have a wonderful little waterfall in the front yard. Our plan is to kayak everyday with our old friends and then enjoy big dinners in the area and retire to our cabin for a much needed good nights rest.
I’ll see if i can get Bela to write up about his travels, but these few entries will be from our southern epic adventure!
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