Swift weekend adventure

I spent a week in North Dakota, living at a hospital. My dad had surgery. After a week, he was back at home and under the expert care of my mom. I flew back to Nashville, met by Ben and our friend Brooks. They'd tied two kayaks to the top of our Rav-4 and put a small 6-foot play kayak in the trunk. Add climbing gear, camping gear, and food for three people. It was a tight squeeze, no doubt. We ate pizza on the curb, sweating just while sitting. The humidity down here is alarming. We drove a couple of hours and slept in a state park campground.

It's about a 4.5-hour drive to the Nantahala River. The fog settled just below the tips of the trees as the sun rose. As the early morning driver, I was enthralled. It was bright and lovely as we parked at the take-out of the river. We bought our passes and drove our boats to the put-in as it started to downpour. It took us a couple of hours to get our car and boats in the right spots, and it cleared up briefly in time for us to get used to the water. I was dumped in the first rapid. The cold water shocked me and I could hardly speak for the first minute, as I floated, feet downstream, butt skimming the rocks. Apparently the water in the Nantahala comes from the bottom of the dam, which keeps it frigid. So I made sure I didn't fall out again.

I wish I could have brought the camera on the river, but it wouldn't have survived. The fog covered the water, and despite there being hundreds of paddlers, you felt alone. It drizzled, but the rain was warmer than the water, which I sat in for the duration (my sit-on-top welcomed every rapid).

From there, the plan was to continue east. We stopped at a camp in the North Carolina country. Brooks worked at this adventure camp earlier this summer. We compared it to the summer camp in The Parent Trap - the programming sounded incredible. The land was gorgeous, surrounded by the Blue Ridge mountains. We cooked dinner in a shelter while it rained. We talked rock climbing with the camp director and learned North Carolina has seen record rainfall this year - more than 70 inches. The rock we wanted to climb would be soaked. The rocks we wanted to climb anywhere would be soaked. So knowing our chances were slim for the next day, we pitched a tent in one of several camp-out shelters on the camp property and we let the noisy critters put us to sleep. I finally got the pictures the next morning.

Oh the fog. Oh the mountains. They aren't as big as the west, but they're bigger than Minnesota. I will never tire of mountains.

The morning, though sunny, didn't prove any less sopping. We drove back to Bowling Green by way of Chattanooga. We ate burgers at Urban Stack and stopped at a sport climbing crag next to a waterfall. Spiders the size of quarters. We called it a scouting trip because now we know where to go and it's only 2.5 hours away. It was a crazy end to a whirlwind week, but it was great to finally get out and explore the south.