Fall Break: Asheville Trip
A couple of weekends ago was UNC's fall break. Sitterson was actually closed from Wednesday afternoon until Monday for construction. They even turned off most of the servers. Thus, us students couldn't do any work, so it was the perfect time to take a couple days off, guilt-free.
I tried to rally everybody to go to Asheville. In typical fashion, many people were interested, but then decided not to go after all. They missed out! In the end, it was just Luv, Kiran, and me.
We left Chapel Hill Wednesday (10/18) around 6pm. We ate at Olive Garden in Hickory around 9, then got to Asheville and checked in to the hotel. Then we went downtown. It was barren! Asheville has a great downtown area, but it was pretty dead that Wednesday. Maybe UNC-Asheville was closed for fall break, too. Anyway, we walked around a bit, then settled on a good bar that I had been to before, on my previous visit to Asheville last spring with B, Paul, and Nico. (I wish I could remember the name of the place.)
The bar was so awesome. The pool tables and cues were great, it wasn't too smokey, good music was playing at a reasonable volume, there were lots of craft beers on tap that I hadn't even heard of before (a huge draw), and it wasn't crowded at all. All in all, just about all you could want from a bar outing.
Thursday morning, we woke up and left the hotel. We ate lunch at Sonic (yay!), grabbed some water and granola for the hike, and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway en route to Grandfather Mountain. The parkway is a very beautiful drive, tunneling a corridor through trees and often offering great views of the mountains and valleys. The parkway actually goes very near Mount Mitchell, the tallest peak in the eastern US. Oh, and did I mention that the trees were sporting prime autumn colors?
We detoured to see Linville Gorge and Linville Falls, which were pretty. We got to Grandfather Mountain around 2-3pm. The mountain is a private park, and it cost each of us $14 to get in. We drove up the mountain to the mile-high swinging bridge. Sadly, it didn't swing that much, but it was still a cool view. We stopped by the gift store, and I got a shot glass. Then, at 4pm, we hit the trails.
And what trails they were! It wasn't too bad at first, but after a while we discovered why Grandfather Mountain is apparently called "NC's most rugged mountain". There were steep parts of the trail where we had to use a (permanent) cable to pull ourselves up. Even better, in some parts, we had to climb up ladders that were attached to the rock face. At one point, a transition from the top of a ladder to a cable made us nervous. Just uphill from there, we climbed up a ladder that didn't really have anything on its left side. We could look over our left arm and see for miles. It was crazy!
Finally, around 5, we got to one of the major peaks. It was just amazing. On one side of the ridge, clouds were moving in, and we could see a distant peak with a radio tower sticking up through the fluffy cotton of the clouds. On the other side, we saw the reds, oranges, and yellows of turning trees, a river and valley, a golf course, a big hotel on the hill...it was great.
Sadly, we had to turn around there because we were supposed to be off the trails by 6pm. When we got back to the parking lot, we were the only car in the lot. We took the opportunity to harrass the swinging bridge all by ourselves, but it still wouldn't rock much. We discovered that the steel planks of the bridge, which were wet with drizzle, were pretty slick. So, we got big running starts on the rock before the bridge, and slid as far as possible. I went the furthest, I'm proud to say. ;-)
We then headed home, stopping by Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I pointed out that we should do that more often, not just on breaks, because we could have just as easily left Friday afternoon and been back Saturday night.
The quote of the trip (from Family Guy): "Testicles. That is all."
I tried to rally everybody to go to Asheville. In typical fashion, many people were interested, but then decided not to go after all. They missed out! In the end, it was just Luv, Kiran, and me.
We left Chapel Hill Wednesday (10/18) around 6pm. We ate at Olive Garden in Hickory around 9, then got to Asheville and checked in to the hotel. Then we went downtown. It was barren! Asheville has a great downtown area, but it was pretty dead that Wednesday. Maybe UNC-Asheville was closed for fall break, too. Anyway, we walked around a bit, then settled on a good bar that I had been to before, on my previous visit to Asheville last spring with B, Paul, and Nico. (I wish I could remember the name of the place.)
The bar was so awesome. The pool tables and cues were great, it wasn't too smokey, good music was playing at a reasonable volume, there were lots of craft beers on tap that I hadn't even heard of before (a huge draw), and it wasn't crowded at all. All in all, just about all you could want from a bar outing.
Thursday morning, we woke up and left the hotel. We ate lunch at Sonic (yay!), grabbed some water and granola for the hike, and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway en route to Grandfather Mountain. The parkway is a very beautiful drive, tunneling a corridor through trees and often offering great views of the mountains and valleys. The parkway actually goes very near Mount Mitchell, the tallest peak in the eastern US. Oh, and did I mention that the trees were sporting prime autumn colors?
We detoured to see Linville Gorge and Linville Falls, which were pretty. We got to Grandfather Mountain around 2-3pm. The mountain is a private park, and it cost each of us $14 to get in. We drove up the mountain to the mile-high swinging bridge. Sadly, it didn't swing that much, but it was still a cool view. We stopped by the gift store, and I got a shot glass. Then, at 4pm, we hit the trails.
And what trails they were! It wasn't too bad at first, but after a while we discovered why Grandfather Mountain is apparently called "NC's most rugged mountain". There were steep parts of the trail where we had to use a (permanent) cable to pull ourselves up. Even better, in some parts, we had to climb up ladders that were attached to the rock face. At one point, a transition from the top of a ladder to a cable made us nervous. Just uphill from there, we climbed up a ladder that didn't really have anything on its left side. We could look over our left arm and see for miles. It was crazy!
Finally, around 5, we got to one of the major peaks. It was just amazing. On one side of the ridge, clouds were moving in, and we could see a distant peak with a radio tower sticking up through the fluffy cotton of the clouds. On the other side, we saw the reds, oranges, and yellows of turning trees, a river and valley, a golf course, a big hotel on the hill...it was great.
Sadly, we had to turn around there because we were supposed to be off the trails by 6pm. When we got back to the parking lot, we were the only car in the lot. We took the opportunity to harrass the swinging bridge all by ourselves, but it still wouldn't rock much. We discovered that the steel planks of the bridge, which were wet with drizzle, were pretty slick. So, we got big running starts on the rock before the bridge, and slid as far as possible. I went the furthest, I'm proud to say. ;-)
We then headed home, stopping by Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I pointed out that we should do that more often, not just on breaks, because we could have just as easily left Friday afternoon and been back Saturday night.
The quote of the trip (from Family Guy): "Testicles. That is all."