Wonderful Asheville, NC

Our Toyota Dolphin Motorhome

2008-06-03T04:26:00.003-04:00

Last spring we got our very first motorhome. It is a Toyota Dolphin. It is small and old, but it runs good. We are in the process of doing some cosmetic work on the inside, but we have taken it on several trips so far.
Our first trip in it was to Geowoodstock 5, in Raleigh, NC. This was a great chance to meet other geocachers and get to know a little more about the game. We were very new to geocaching at the time, and learned a lot of little tricks. We also met some cachers from our area here in WNC. There were over 1000 attendees to this MEGA event. We stayed there at the fairground in the Dolphin, and I must say it sure did look cute amongst all the huge RVs. We decided to head up to Mt. Airy, NC, because we are big Andy Griffith fans. This was our second time there. We then headed up to Virginia, and hit the Blue Ridge Parkway and took this all the way home. This was a great first trip in the new RV.
Next were a couple of trips down to the Nantahala River. Some Tennessee geocachers were having some rafting events and we decided to go check this out. We had been wanting to do the rafting and this gave us a chance to do it with others. We had a great time, and enjoyed meeting all those friendly TN cachers. Thanks to them we have found a campground we will stay at as much as possible.
We also did some primitive camping in it out on Wash Creek Rd, in the Mills River area of the Pisgah Nat. Forest. No hookups, and we got a good idea of how long our water and batteries would last without hookups. A couple of days at most. But still we had a great time.
We are looking forward to many more trips in our little fishy! :)

New Orleans Geocaching Trip

2008-06-02T02:50:00.005-04:00

Back at the end of March, we took a trip to New Orleans. We had been there the year before Katrina, and decided to see what it was like now. We also wanted to pick up a few more "cached in" states on our map. First, we headed down to Pensacola, Fl and stayed the night there. We found a nice off leash dog park for Lucy to play in the water with other dogs, and she had a great time.
The next day we headed over to New Orleans. It was a pretty good drive. We got there and checked into our hotel in the French Quarter, which was way nicer than I expected. It was a little one bedroom apartment style suite, with parking underneath in the small courtyard, which was gated. We spent the rest of the day and the next day walking around the French Quarter, finding geocaches, and seeing the sites. I highly recommend the geocache "VIEW CARRE ' " (GCE02C), by Bamboozle. He is the city engineer, and the geocache is in a private area at the top of the building. He will take you on the roof and give you a walking tour and point out different areas of the city. Wow, is all I can say. What a view. Geocaching has it's perks, not just anyone gets this tour.
After we got done walking around the city, we headed out toward home. We decided to stop in Mississippi and take a rest for the night, before finishing up our trip.
I have to say that, in New Orleans, was still a wreck. You hear about all the rebuilding, but looking out into those lonely abandoned neighborhoods, you would see one or two houses either fixed or in the process of being rebuilt, but by far, not even a dent in the devastation. Where we were, the French Quarter, escaped the flood, but a mere 2 blocks over dilapidated buildings were everywhere.

Turkey Pen Backpacking Trip

2008-06-02T02:35:00.004-04:00

We did an overnight backpacking trip from Avery's Creek Rd off Hwy 276 in the Pisgah Forest to the Turkey Pen Trailhead. This trip was only about 11.5 miles, but the terrain was steep, up and down the whole way. We started on the Pressley Cove Trail to the Black Mountain Trail. We followed this up past the Turkey Pen trail to an overlook with a great view, and of course, a geocache. Then we backtracked to the Turkey Pen trail and headed down. We made camp at the Wagon Rd area, which turned out to be perfect. Not even 5 minutes after we got the tent set up, a rain shower came and lasted for about an hour. We had good cell service and I was able to look at the radar, and log in a few of the 28 total geocaches we found along our hike, while waiting on the rain to pass. The rain was perfect, because we would not have been able to have a fire without it, because everything was dry and the wind was blowing pretty good. We did this hike on April 25-26 and again this was the perfect time for this particular hike. We had come to this point, where we set up camp, from the Turkey Pen side last year picking up 10 caches that time, and couldn't wait to do the full overnighter. The only downside to this hike, is no water anywhere. We had to carry it all, which was heavy. For supper we did try out some really good backpacking food. Yum Yum.

Camping Trip/Travel

2008-06-02T01:25:00.002-04:00

We just got done with a week long camping trip to the North Mills River area, during the Memorial Day holiday. We had great weather through the weekend and a little rain the last couple of days we were there. We like the roadside primitive spots because they are so much more private, and we can let our Lucy roam around the campsite off leash. She is a great dog. She really enjoys the forest. We got a nice two room tent from Columbia, and this was our first long camping trip with it. It was great. We brought along the dutch oven and had great biscuits, cobbler, dump cake and bread. We cooked rib-eyes and chicken and burgers and dogs. We had some company over and got authentic chorizo tacos with homemade burn your mouth hot sauce. Life couldn't be better. We did a little geocaching near the parkway, off the Mountains to Sea trail and got some good walks in while we were there. The week went by so quickly, now we can't wait for our next week off next month.
We are planning to do a trip to the Nantahala Forest to a campground we like called Nelson's Nantahala Hideaway, which is a little ways off from the river, but it is a nice quiet place. We were introduced to it through geocaching last year and made 2 trips there. The events we attended were by the Tennessee Geocachers, and we think they are great people.
This year we will also be working on the NC Delorme Challenge (geocache), which in order to claim it, you have to find a geocache in each page of the Delorme Atlas for NC. So, we have a lot of traveling ahead of us. What a great way to keep busy.

Geocaching

2008-06-01T23:11:00.001-04:00

Geocaching around WNC!!! Wow, what can I say about this. There are so many geocaching opportunities here in this area. If you are looking for numbers, we have them. If you are looking for hikes with geocaches, we have them. It is hard to find a reason not to go out and find a geocache here. The only problem, is picking which ones to find. We enjoy the ones with good hikes, which is sometimes how we find a new area, that we just fall in love with. Currently, we are planning to do a new multi-cache in the area called "The Twilite Zone.... A Cache from Daylite to Dark" (GC1C0WG). This is a 5/5 cache and we are planning to make it our 555th cache found.
We got started a little over a year ago, when some friends of ours, stumbled on a cache in the woods. We got our GPS and started without looking back. We have some favorites in the area we would like to share with everyone. The first cache we found was "Highland Rock Tour" (GCV5CP). This was a blast, it has you bushwhacking between different stages to come to a huge bald with a fire tower. This is has been one of our favorite places for years, it is very nearby our home. Another of our favorites is "Post Meridian Blues" (GCW5N7). This is a night only cache, where you have to bushwhack the whole way in the dark. At the first stage you have to figure out how to open a contraption, which tells you where to go from there. When you get to the "final", you are rewarded with a wonderful view of the Pisgah Inn which is on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Do this one on a warm, clear night and you will have a hard time tearing yourself away from here. The stargazing is the best!! Another great place to go is "World's Edge" (GCQXQT). Take a high sitting car for this one. No hiking required for this one, but the view is great. I remember this place from my high school days. It definitely lives up to the name World's Edge. Here's a fun one to do in the heart of downtown Asheville "Asheville After Dark" (GCZXAJ). Here you will need some high powered flashlights to spot the trail to the final. We got some strange looks from the locals as we were walking around with our headlamps shining. How fun. If you are into waterfalls, and don't mind a pretty strenuous hike, the check out "Bradley's Bottom" (GC6A02). This was a very beautiful waterfall and a place to go for some solitude. You will find yourself climbing down a rock on a rope, and rock hopping down the river to get to this cache. This is a great place.
There are so many great caches to list, but so little time for it. Come on out to WNC to do some caching, and I am sure you won't be disappointed.

Cold Mountain

2008-06-01T22:40:00.002-04:00

On May 7, we summited Cold Mountain. What a beautiful hike. The total hike was 10 miles, round trip, with about 3,000 feet in elevation gain. It sounds like a pretty strenuous hike, but it wasn't too bad. The elevation change was gradual, and only steep in a few places. The views from the top were beautiful. We started from the Camp Daniel Boone boy scout camp, on the Art Leob trail to Deep Gap, where the Cold Mountain trail makes a left turn (at a really great camping spot) and climbs 1000 feet in the last 1.5 mile. There was only 1 good spot to refill on water along the hike, and that was at 2 miles in. So bring plenty of water for this hike.
I have to say, this was the prettiest wildflower hike I can remember. We saw Jack-in-the-Pulpit and Trillium. There were Mayapples and bluets. The azaleas were just starting to bloom, given another week they would have been beautiful.
Cold Mountain is part of the Shining Rock Wilderness area. "Congress considered the wild lands of America to be so precious—culturally and ecologically—that it legislated their protection with the 1964 Wilderness Act. This act and follow-up bills identified specific areas, such as Shining Rock, as worthy of special management requirements that are different from most other Federal lands. Wilderness is defined as “…an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” If a choice must be made between wilderness values and human use, preserving the wilderness resource is the overriding value. The guiding principle is to allow the natural processes to shape the environment. The act also required wilderness to retain “its primeval character and influence” and that it be protected and managed so it “appears to have been affected primarily by the force of nature.” You will find no trail markers along this hike, only the information board at the beginning of your hike. Also, there are no fires allowed in the wilderness area, so if you plan on camping overnight, keep this in mind.

Hello

2008-06-01T22:30:00.000-04:00

I am creating this blog to highlight some of the many wonderful things about the Asheville area of Western North Carolina, where I call home. My name is Jennifer and I live just south of Asheville, in Fletcher. There are so many great things about this area to tell everyone about. My family consists of my husband, our dog and two cats. We enjoy hiking, rv-ing, camping, geocaching, and just generally being in the great outdoors. I will try to keep this blog updated on our current activities as well as other things that might be of interest to all. Thanks for reading this blog.