Day 3 - Hike and Raft

The day started off pretty early.  With the whole, missing money thing from yesterday, I couldn’t sleep. (for my non Facebook friends, couldn’t find my envelop with all my cash in it, made a report with the hotel, later that night remembered that I hid the cash from housekeeping and found said cash where I put it).  I’m an asshole.  Anyway, I didn’t get much sleep so I just decided to get up.  Found a little local breakfast joint on the way to my rafting adventure.  It was so good.  Breakfast is a big thing around here.  Lots of pancake houses everywhere.

Then I headed off to my hiking/rafting adventure for the day.  The directions to the rafting town took me on this very scenic road.  Luckily I was running ahead of schedule so I stopped and took some great panoramic shots.  The one above, of course, has Fiona in it.  She’s beautiful and so was the view.

My hike was up first.  I followed my guide, Amelia, just across the North Carolina border.  It was a good 5 mile out and back trail that lead to a nice little water fall.  I found out my guide just graduated from KSU and is was Lawrence, KS.  What a small world.  She said one of the rafting guides was also from Wichita and she would get me on her raft.  The hike was just perfect since I was still sore from Monday, and I had this new pain in my foot that made me think I may have broken it during one of my hikes.  It still hurts A LOT.  All my pics today were taken with my cell phone.  I didn’t know what the arrangement would be for the hike so I didn’t want to bring my good camera.

After the hike, I went back to base camp and got situated for my rafting trip.  Grimes party of 1.  They put me on a raft with a set a grandparents vacationing with their 2 young kids…yeah, kids.  They actually weren’t that bad.  Grandpa annoyed me more than the kids did.  Anyway, weight and strength to the front of the boat.  Yeah me.  So, the front of the raft also takes the brunt of the water coming over. So, it was a very wet and cold start.  There were about 4 class 4 rapids.  However, the class 4s in the eastern US are not like they are in Colorado.  I went thru class 3s in Colorado and Wyoming that were scarier than these class 4s.  It was a lot of fun and a great workout.  I got sunburned though cuz I’m too dumb for sunscreen.

Went back to the hotel and tried to take a nap.  That didn’t happen.  So, I got up, got cleaned up, and headed out for dinner.  Found a Mexican joint just around the corner.  I sat on the patio which was right on the little creek that runs thru here. There were little baby ducks in the water.  The pigeons and little birds would fly right up to your table.  Then I went to the Davey Crocket moonshine store.  I was stuffed after dinner so I just looked around.  They have lots of free samples, but I didn’t feel like drinking so I just bought a shirt and left.  I’ll probably go back for some moonshine later.  Not that I’d really drink the stuff, but I’m here and this is what they are famous for, so I should get some.  Then I went and got some chocolate covered strawberries and went back to my room.  I spend a few hours on my balcony till my neighbors came out and started smoking.  So much for my fresh air.

I’m trying to decide if I should stay one more night.  My room is available Friday night.  There is so much stuff I didn’t get to do.  Tomorrow I will probably spend just shopping around town.  I don’t know if my hip or foot can handle any more hiking, but the shopping will be hard enough with all the walking.