Wandering

Since Carole's health is pretty much back to normal I went on a one-day hike on Monday. I traveled up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and parked at Graveyard Fields where I wandered around that unusual high-elevation valley to see a couple of waterfalls and to drive up to the Shining Rock Wilderness trailheads to take some photos. After that I drove toward Looking Glass Rock to hike to the base of the cliffs where the rock climbers go to scale the mountain.

Briefly, that filled my day. I'm hoping to head back to the high country early next week. Maybe for an overnight backpacking excursion in the same general area.

Asheville and a Waterfall

After my hike up to Pilot Rock I returned to the campground and took a quick shower. Carole had arranged for us to meet up with one of her co-workers in Asheville who also happened to be spending the weekend there. We were afraid that it would take some time and co-ordination to hook up with Angel but as we pulled into a parking spot in downtown Asheville, there she was! Synchronicity in action!

We got our vehicles parked and then Carole, Andy, and Angel did some shopping while I just sat on the street and watched the crowds. Asheville is a very cool city and is packed with hippies and New Age types, so it's never boring to just watch the people go by. There's also lots of street performers working--actors, musicians, artists. We saw a guy doing wood-burning with a magnifying glass!

Our first order of the day was to head straight to our favorite pizza parlor in Asheville: The Mellow Mushroom. We really like their pies. Carole and I ordered one to share and Angel and Andy ordered one. We did not leave with a doggy bag, consuming every slice. We all highly recommend the Mellow Mushroom.

After that we walked around downtown a little more and hit up another favorite shop of ours, The Mast General Store. Then we headed back to the parking lot and retrieved our vehicles. We stashed Angel's car near the campground and then we drove over to see Looking Glass Falls on Highway 276. Angel had never seen it, and it's a great waterfall that is one of the most accessible large waterfalls in North Carolina.

We then drove up a couple of miles to Sliding Rock and took a look at that. We tried to go to the Fish Hatchery around the bend, but it was closed for the day and that meant that we were left with no other choice but to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I figured that since Angel had stood at the base of Looking Glass Rock looking up at the summit towering a thousand feet above, it would be cool to take her to an overlook one thousand feet over the summit and looking down at Looking Glass Rock. She got a kick out of that.

With that, the daylight was beginning to fade so it was time to head back to the campground. At the parking area Angel got back into her car and went back to her hotel in Asheville and we returned to our campsite.

Our favorite pizza joint, The Mellow Mushroom!

Carole and Angel.

Friendly downtown Asheville.

Steel drums!

This guy serenaded us when we dropped some money to show our appreciation for his talent.

The easily accessible Looking Glass Falls.

Angel and Carole wade in the cold water.

My son, Andy, at Looking Glass Falls.

Lots of people (and Andy) at Looking Glass Falls.

Looking down on Looking Glass Rock!

With daylight fading, it was time to rest.

North Mills River Campground

Andy, Carole and I stayed at the North Mills River Campground in western North Carolina for a couple of days. It's a National Forest facility that's administered by the Cradle of Forestry concessionaire. I've never been completely happy with how Cradle of Forestry runs our National Forest campgrounds and this trip was no different. When we arrived the campground host wasn't even present, and we had to remove garbage from our campsite (left by the previous camper). And we never did more than see the host as he was always busy staying in his mobile home or entertaining his friends.

Oh, well.

North Mills River campground is a beautiful place. The campground is situated five miles down North Mills River Road from NC 280. There's a nice Ingles Grocery if you need supplies (located at the intersection). Half of the campground is on one side of North Mills River and half is on the other side. I would recommend the half accessible by bridge as that is where the showers and nicer bathrooms are located. On the side we used there are only smelly pit toilets and a bathroom that has only urinals and no toilet! So we had to trek across the bridge and uphill to use the showers and better bathrooms.

There are no hookups so you need to fill your onboard water tanks and bring your generator. We like to boondock, so this was fine for us. We filled our 24-gallon tank and took our Honda 2000 generator. There are water spigots located throughout the campground if you need extra water.

If you like to fly-fish, this is the place for you. We saw many people who had arrived just for that. Apparently North Mills River is known for excellent trout fishing. Lots of opportunities for horeseback riding, hiking, and mountain biking. We saw many doing all of these, and I took the opportunity to hit the trails, of which there are many, many miles convenient to the campground.

Also, Asheville is less than 20 miles away, and the Blue Ridge Parkway is just up the nearest Forest Service Road (albeit via a 30-minute rocky ride).

Despite a lukewarm judgment on the campground host, we can recommend North Mills River Campground. There's plenty to offer for any camper and just about any kind of outdoorsman.

Our campsite (#4) at North Mills River.

Who doesn't like a roaring campfire?!

The view from an overlook on one of my hikes.

My son at Looking Glass Falls, a short drive from the campground.

Looking Glass Rock, from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Also not too far to drive as part of a day-time jaunt from the campground!

The bathhouse/showerhouse at the campground. Two bathrooms and two showers on either side of the building for a total of four of each.

Breakin' Da Roolz

What can I say? I had the entire gorge to myself. It was kind of scary as night fell.

Sometimes I break my own self-imposed rules when I go backpacking. One of these rules, which I interpret as part of the "leave no trace" ethic, is to not build campfires.

Generally, I do a good job of abstaining from building fires. Most of the time I can't stand to be around campfires when I'm backpacking. On a trip a couple of years ago I set up my tent in Deep Gap along the Black Mountain Crest Trail. Having been the first person to arrive in the gap, I set up my tent in what was, arguably, the best spot there. By late afternoon about half a dozen other hikers arrived and set up their tents. A pair of couples decided to build a campfire just upwind from me. So I had to suffer through about two hours of their attempts to start a fire. While they were ultimately unsuccessful, for quite a while I had to breathe their freaking smoke while they tried to get the damp wood to ignite (it had just rained rather hard just before their arrival). I could have showed them how to build a proper fire, but I didn't want one in the gap. I wanted total darkness. I did not want the trappings of fires and such ruining the wilderness experience for me.

However, this past year, I broke my own rule not to build a campfire. I had hiked down into the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. Once at the bottom of the gorge, I searched for a decent campsite and found quite a good one. Level, forested, and adjacent to the Linville River. It not only had a tremendous pre-existing fire ring, someone had built a nice bench out of stones and driftwood. So I set up there.

Pretty soon I began to realize that I seemed to have the entire gorge to myself. Not only hadn't I seen any other humans, I hadn't heard any other people. For whatever reason, I began to feel lonely. I looked at the fire ring and figured I couldn't do any more harm to the ground than had already been done, and decided to build a campfire. As I was beside the river, there was absolutely no shortage at all of tinder-dry driftwood.

In short order I had collected up huge piles of fire wood and the stuff with which to start a blaze. A few minutes later I had a good fire going, and soon I was tossing in larger and larger logs. There are times when a good fire almost seems like company.

Looking Glass Falls

There are signs ALL AROUND THIS WATERFALL telling you NOT to climb on it and FOR GOD'S SAKE NOT TO JUMP OFF OF IT! However...

A Fucking Moron Fucking Dies

Here's one of our all-time favorite campgrounds. In addition to this being a kickass campground, you are smack in the middle of the Mount Rogers Recreation Area, which is packed bottom to top with outdoor recreation. You could spend an entire summer here and still not do everything worth doing in this tiny corner of southwestern Virginia.

As if I needed one more reason.