ROUGHIN' IT!

JJ: Well, now that I've posted over 25 pictures, I suppose I should remind you to check out the Archive section on the right to see all the month's posts at once.

OJ is writing up the weekend's escapades and I apologize for the mix up and interruptions on the page, but she is taking her own time to tell the story so I'm dropping in my own little side blurbs in between... Just hunt around for all the parts of the story in this month and between the words and pictures it should come together easily enough.

A couple of notes on the falls we found, however, we do plan on going back to at least Schoolhouse Falls as it was much nicer then I display it here... it was just that we were so wet by the time we got there the camera equip was soaked and we didn't have anyway to clean it up, etc. Supposedly you can photo from behind the falls as well as profiling it from the banks... Next time. Also there is a camp spot on a sand bar in front, which would just be groovy. OH! And next time we'll have a new tent show off! WHOO HOO! The North Face Rock 22! And Stace will be happy when I dismantle it from the living room...

Before I forget I want to thank my good friend Josh for the gift of the tripod.. without it we would not have crossed the many swollen streams as easily. "Chance favors a prepared mind".

AND ISN'T THAT CAMPGROUND SOMETHING?? I didn't take any pictures of the RVs but we're talking the ones that transform.. you know, the sides balloon out, the roof pops up, satellite dishes, satellite networking... I kept wanting to ask how they got those behemoths back there down that tiny gravel road.

Ok, back to the couch and MOVIE NIGHT!!

Be safe and well.

Whitewater Falls. Very nice!

Whitewater Falls closer look

bug shot

Can anyone tell us what this is??

Stacey practicing her footing (which she got a LOT of this trip)

Stacey likes this one.

whiteowl shot

Whiteowl shot

Stacey's MARVELOUS leaf shot!

Whiteowl shot

Looking Glass again

The Riverbend RV Resort & Campground in Lake Toxaway

Following the White Rabbit... er.. squirrel. See him? left of lower middle

Ah, our quaint little spot in the creek bend

ROUGHIN IT!

a better size shot of the outdoor kitchen

Gary caught a rainbow trout for me

The kitchen is to the left and the RVs are to my right with the admin office behind me. When we go back we plan on staying in that converted cabin you see there...

inside the gazebo at night.. yes, that's a TV

the coffee bar between the gazebo and kitchen

Ah.. nothing like a full morning of hiking in the rain

Panthertown Valley National Forest is known for the tannic acid leeching from the soil, creating this coppery color in the water.

crossing the swollen river with the help of the trusty tri-pod

Schoolhouse Falls..

Dry Falls, eh? Not so much this time..

Throwing in some folk for scale

Behind Dry Falls

Who knew that saliva is the inexepnsive special effect EVER!

Stace at Dry Falls

concluding our lil trip

The Maize Maze

On the 21st a coworker and I played hookey for a few hours to join some other people we work with to run around in a cornfield. It was pretty interesting and turned out to be rather fun. Too bad we had to go back to work while the others went home... The maze is a yearly event constructed on a Scottish farm just outside Huntersville.

I'll get more details (sorry, I don't remember) and update this post with it.

The corn was tall, the people were nice and the challenge was tough. We finished in approximately an hour and 40 minutes... 20 minutes slower then the record. Darn it. I knew I should have taken control of the map much sooner.

A bunch of people I work with, divided into four teams

Everyone grabs a team marker

Will hoofing our flag

This way or that way?

This looks familiar...

Pieces of the puzzle were stashed in twelve different mailboxes

There were water stops, luckily

getting near the end? No? Only halfway?

A couple of Cabo pictures

Unless you are new to our little venting spot here you know that Cabo Fish Taco is one of our very most favorite places. Here are a couple of shots that I took the other night after the Invisible Children benefit.

op hours

A decent shot of the inside of my favorite place: Cabo Fish Taco

Where the white squirrel led....

So we sat in the drive of the River's Bend campground taking random pictures of the trees hoping to catch what we thought was a sighting equal to that of Bigfoot possibly...the white/albino squirrel. As we continued down, we saw a cute little campground on a creek and crossed over a bridge into a Cocoon-like RV campground and then we met Gary, the campground manager, who invited us to Thanksgiving....in September. It seems that since the campground closes at the end of October, the couples that have been camping there for years have staggered the holidays accordingly. And we showed up in time for a turkey dinner!

So after a quick trip over to Looking Glass Falls in Pisgah for some more picture taking, we came back to our little camp and sat down for a yummy turkey dinner complete with three different stuffings. We have strayed so far from our sparse and rugged survivalist camping....but we enjoyed every minute of it. But we did survive the tour in the four wheel drive John Deere golf cart thing driven by Gary - granted we were only going over relatively flat terrain at a top speed of 25 mph but there was some fear of tipping. We also found our dream gazebo, complete with a log fireplace and mounted TV. We're trying to figure out how to blend it with our brick house but I think once we start populating our yard with the cute bear sculptures made by a guy using a chainsaw, we'll be able to pull off rustic.

The evening was going well and the tent was set up by the creek and we settled in for a nice evening. I read a little while Justin took night pictures and then we settled into the tent for the night. This will become important later - we left our boots outside the tent, something we never do. Ever. So later in the night, say around 1 a.m., when we heard the loud pit-pat of rain on the tent, and realized that rain was seeping in, and I had visions of a Readers' Digest story telling of the freak flash flood that the young couple managed to survive as they camped out on a creek, well, then we realized that our boots were soaking wet. And as the inside of the tent got more wet and the creek water kept rising and the rain got louder hitting the tent, we decided to just sleep in the car. All snuggled and comfy in a Focus....yeah....that's comfort. And guess when it stopped raining?? Mother Nature is evil.

Oh, and the squirrels....white squirrels brought over from Europe.....we have no idea why....poor gray squirrels don't stand a chance.

More tomorrow....it's getting late....maybe Justin will post some pics to tide you over (hint hint)...

A weekend away

So I logged on to look at the blog and noticed that our profile picture was, well, a picture of Justin. Hint taken. I'll write more.

So after a week of pure misery, Justin and I decided we needed a fun weekend in the mountains. Just the thought of camping/hiking makes us both happy and Justin's a ten year old at Christmas every time he gets to play with his gear. So while I went out for a friend's bday dinner Friday night, Justin got us all packed up and ready to go. We dropped the rather disgruntled pug off at the vets and assured him that he'd be much happier with a bed and people to hug him (pugs are really not what one would call rugged). It's also worth noting that Justin actually used a present that I got him - a book on North Carolina waterfalls complete with maps and descriptions -it's nice that the book won't be joining the tranquility fountain and mini zen garden on the re-gift shelf!

We started off with an easy one, Whitewater Falls, that had an easy access path and a great view. Unfortunately you couldn't get too close (although we did see a trailhead that was blocked off) but Justin did get some great shots. But then being the outdoorsy folk that we are, we decided to step it up a notch and head to White Owl Falls. Okay, the trail difficulty was only a five but it wasn't paved like the first path, so we were getting rougher. Kevin Adams, the author of the waterfall book, is not the greatest at giving directions, so we spent some time driving up and down 281 looking for a service road and then spent some time walking up and down along side the road, looking for a trailhead. And it was fun when we found it, working our way through the woods, kind of guessing where we were going until we could hear the rushing of the falls and climbing our way down. White Owl Fall was beautiful and secluded - we spent quite a bit of time climbing around and taking photos and playing around.

Once we hiked back up, we were near some other waterfalls but the directions were vague and we needed to start thinking about getting to a campsite. So we headed to Gorges State Park (where we camped in November) to see about available sites but along the way it was becoming obvious that I was not feeling well enough to pack out. I could probably have made it the 2.7 miles downhill but coming back up was another problem. So we were a little indecisive and started to head back towards Pisgah when on a whim, Justin decided to check out River's End, a RV hookup and campsite area outside of Lake Toxaway. I'm not sure why we headed down that way but our first sign that we were in an unusual spot was the white squirrel. And I'll leave you to wonder about that....it's getting late....I'll finish tomorrow.....I promise.....

Misc. pictures about town

JJ: These are just some pictures taken recently that I thought were semi interesting. I've discovered a way to list more entries on the initial page here so hopefully that will help catch you up on what has been going on with us. If you get to the bottom of the page and still are seeing new stuff, then make sure to click the Archive section on the right as they are listed by month and have everything that has been submitted.

Be safe and well.

This is what happens when you set the leg of your tripod on a fireant hill.. they may be carpenter ants, but either way these lil guys pack a punch.

Outside the Blumenthal Performing Arts Hall