Way back when I learned of a craft beer and bluegrass festival down in Asheville, NC. After visiting last year I'd wanted to go back and who wouldn't love beer and bluegrass put together? But it's a small event (as far as festivals go) and popular, so it sold out within 15 minutes. I considered getting tickets off craigslist or something but people were trying to make a profit so that wasn't working (though closer to the event I could have found some at regular price). Luckily E's other friend decided she couldn't afford it so her extra tickets became mine!
So, I took off work early on Wednesday and met up with J. to begin our drive south. We'd decided that some time in the woods was needed before Brewgrass. We made it to Roanoke Weds night and stayed at a sketchy hotel for the night. Then it was more driving until we finally made it to our campground, just south of Asheville. We had planned to hike a bit Thursday and then kayak on Friday but then it was threatening rain/rainy all day so we were not in the mood. We set up camp, got a good fire going, and cooked and drank beer all night. We made a massive pot of tomato soup, since we were silly enough to have gone tomato picking before the trip and had to eat them up. Well, campfire tomato soup is yummy. Pumpkin beer is also yummy. And it never did rain on us until after bedtime.
So best story of camping: Racoons. I think we all know that I'm smart enough not to leave food out for critters. Any camp trip to bear country should teach people how this goes. But apparently J. got complacent NOT being in bear country. So instead of locking up the leftover soup....he tied the lid on with paracord and then tied it to the picnic table! If I had known his puttering outside the tent was this craziness I would have gotten up and yelled at him. But no, I believed he was just putting everything in the truck. As you can probably imagine, we were awakened in the night by the racoons trying to get the soup.
I heard the pot clanging and thought they'd run off with the entire pot and were happily enjoying it in the woods. I didn't know yet that the pot was tied to the picnic table. Well, J. leapt out of the tent and chased the racoons away. He claims there were about 10 of them, all trying to get into the pot. But apparently he did a good job tying it shut because they could lift the lid ever so slightly and bang it but couldn't get inside. So our soup was safe. J. was quite frazzled though. I think he had nightmares about raccoons for the next two days. I've been telling him for years that they are not to be messed with, and he never believed me until this trip.
Anyway, Friday we decided to stick with hiking since we weren't sure about the water levels in the river. And it was super close to our campsite. So we did one trail that went to three waterfalls and then another trail that just went to a summit, all in Dupont National Forest.
First up, Hooker Falls. This was a super flat, easy path from the car. Nothing spectacular, but when you're that close you aren't going to skip it.
The rest of the hike was a lot of uphill. But that's what you deal with going to waterfalls. Anyway, next up, Triple Falls. Yes, they're very creative with their names in North Carolina.
And finally, High Falls (hey, I warned you about the names. 150 feet tall.
We then went a few miles down the road to the new trailhead. We stuffed ourselves with jerky, apples, and cheese (best combo of trail food ever!) and were on our way to Cedar Rock Mountain. The summit is only a few miles, then you get to wander around on rocks for a bit. This is always a fun way to hike because you often have to rely on carins to know which way to go across the rocks. You get to hope that when you get across them back to the woods there's a trail there. This wasn't too bad but we did have to back track at one point. Following voices did not work.
After hiking we ditched the wilderness and headed to our hotel in the city since that's where the weekend festivities would occur. But that's a story for later.
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