Toxaway Fall < Blue Ridge Parkway < Bumcombe County 24Aug21

The call of the falls ~ we hiked to midway @ Toxaway Falls before departing our cool condo for phase two, Asheville food & brew.

We drove up the Davidson River valley from Brevard to the Blue Ridge Parkway for our "long cut" to Asheville. Tons of damage from Fred up the Davidson but there were still plenty of fly fishermen on the river - I fished here on our last visit but not this time. We acquired the ridge line at ~5Kft elevation on the Blue Ridge Parkway - cool road which a team of road bikers was using - when I met them at the Pisgah Natl Forest lodge they were 35mi and 4800ft into the ride; it was downhill from there to Asheville.

After descending to Asheville we hit the very good White Duck Taco spot we'd learned of from our foodie tour here previously. Awesome again.

A benefit of any visit to western NC, especially Asheville, is the chance to visit the great breweries. And so we did ~ on our first afternoon we walked to the "South Slope" area and hit the spectacular Burial Brewery. This is my favorite thus far in NC ~ great American IPAs with great names. I've had three 1/2 pint pours so far (The Wretched Pit Of Identity, Precipice Of Self-Immolation & To Wear Their Bones Across My Shoulder) and there are 4 more to perhaps try, all were excellent and served in their funky multipurpose property. There are no tastes offered here in Asheville, a blue dot in rural NC. We moved on to Green Man where I tried the hazy IPA, which was good. Kevin appreciated the more refined nature of the spot with great merch, nice indoor seating, cool wall art, etc.. Finally we ate and tasted again at Bhramari, a kitchy cool quasi-Indian brewery and eatery. Kala and I split the two hazy IPAs ~ both of which were good. My take on day one is that there is Burial and then "others," unfortunately distribution is just to GA, NC and NY thus far. We have 30+ from among to sample (we won't do them all but we'll try several more). When passing Green Man again at night it was jam night (the lady in white on fiddle was stellar).

 

We learned "Ticket To Ride" from Norsworthys and I was fortunate to post the largest score they'd ever seen in my 2nd sitting. Really fun game at which being lucky, but recognizing your good fortune as a strategy, is needed.

Dupont State Recreational Forest 23Aug21

We are in Transylvania Co of NC; this county has more waterfalls per sq mi than any spot in the US. And with the recent storm Fred we are assured they are all running hot. Today we let out for DuPont St Forest (pretentious name but whatever). The plan featured the most filmed and viewed falls in the country perhaps, Triple Falls, and it was awesome. The day was super hot and super muggy, as down-mountain NC can surely be in summer, but the mtns were usually less so, not today. We hiked to High Falls, Triple Falls, and Hooker Falls on very solid trails and among quite a few other patrons. The deadfall was obvious along the rivers but the trails were not wet or sketchy in anyway. I did get the honor of driving the Subie from the upper to lower parking lot when I offered the team a chance to have me pick them up at the lower lot... NP. The plan and hike and falls and family were awesome.

 

When in NC... we hit a great cafe I found on the way down to the local country club for an hour of pickleball in 100° and 100% water. Food was gr8 then Norsworthys thumped our mountain asses but we were still standing and they had some issues... another 8 games and we'd have had them where we want them. Post debacle, I encouraged the team to take a brewery tour in Brevard (yeah, the place with the killer music school, after Julliard and Berklee) while here. We hit Brevard Brewing for lagers and the new eastern hub for Oskar Blues! OB was not the opulence of SN yesterday but huge and a great vibe ~ reppin' CO like it should be. Awesome.

The day is not over but the team is down for naps.

North Carolina Haps With Norsworthy's 21Aug21-22Aug21

We boarded the Southwest C19 pod donning masks for a 3 hour flight east to Raleigh-Durham. Karla & Kevin both stayed up late to pick us up @ RDU @ 1am... then stayed awake to debrief for a bit; good friends, err family.

 

We arose to do some day drinking at Bottle Mix and pick up some local IPAs (for Kala & me). Nice place with mixed can 6 pack deals AND taps for a dozen brews... I chose a tasty Burial hazy with some long name. We did Mexican at Driftwood for lunch. We had evening plans beginning with the very good Italian spot Mother & Sons near DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center) where we enjoyed great pasta dishes and a fine Sangiovese. We then saw the awesome show from Brit Floyd, an excellent Pink Floyd tribute band, with lasers and video and a 9 piece band. I'd never heard of them but the show was really good and the sound was decent at DPAC.

After returning to the estate in N Raleigh I cracked open some of the DDH IPAs purchased: a Benchtop Robot Squirrel and an Anchorage Beached.

Sunday we headed for Lake Toxaway (yep - real name) in the western mountains of NC. On the way @ Black Mtn we dined at Ole Guadalupe on a nice stream; I began to think these guys were fixated on Mexican, but Kala had asked for some so all's fair. We also stopped at Sierra Nevada's eastern brewery in Fletcher, NC. OMG the place was gorgeous and huge and packed and playing live music in a fabulous back yard. Hazy Little Thing was OK, but the spot was over the top.

We arrived in the mountains and immediately sought waterfalls. Kevin is a waterfall aficionado and mapped out a couple of days of waterfall hikes. In fact the first falls, Toxaway, were immediately adjacent to and visible & heard from our condo! This afternoon's hike yielded a very cool set of falls near the top of the mountains. Storm Fred had very recently laid waste to the area with flooding and downed trees so we hiked on a sketchy AF trail abutting the Broad French river to a great set of waterfalls called French Broad and Mill Shoals and then Rooster Tail and Bird. The French Broad was raging ~ the storm had even brought down a van!