Saluda, NC

Visited the mountain "cabin" of our friend Charlotte for three days of settin' and rockin' .... on the porch that is.

 

 

 

 

Toby too

 

 

And Boo Boo spotted a black bear from the back porch, and sent him running down the mountain. New name ..... bear dog:

  

  

 

 

 

too bad we didn't get the bear's picture

More later, Marilyn

Rain-ing forest

We love listening to the rain on our motorhome rooftop..... and when the real rain (patter, patter) stops..... it keeps on raining. The 'tree rain' is much different:  louder, much larger drops, and it can last for hours.  Sometimes we get fooled into thinking the real rain has stopped, because the tree rain is louder.
Anyway, I love the trees of this forest.  Yesterday we visited the educational center of the Cradle of Forestry..... the exact location in North Carolina of the first Forestry School in North America.

Fascinating story in a nutshell:
George Vanderbilt came to the Asheville area in 1888 and purchased 2000 acres of forest.  He built the Biltmore Estate family mansion, which included European style gardens and landscaping. He then purchased an additional 80,000 acres and set out to promote the new idea of "forestry" which they practiced in Europe.

Vanderbilt brought over a German Forester, Alwin Schenck, who fell in love with the forests of the surrounding area .... which were overlogged and overfarmed to a large degree.  Schenck soon gained the admiration of people interested in his methods of harvesting trees for income, while maintaining healthy forests for the future. 
At the time America had no forestry schools, so in 1898 Dr. Schenck started the Biltmore Forest School.  The Forest Service purchased the site of the original campus in 1914; and today it is called "The Cradle of Forestry in America".  It is about 14 miles from our campground. Cool place.

Another interesting fact (unsubstantiated) is that 60% of North Carolina land is either Local, State, or National Forests, Parks, or Preserves (or Native American Reservations).   On the downside of that stat (voiced by a local resident) .... is that only 30% of NC lands constitutes its tax base.
I still love the forests.

More later, Marilyn

Bl-u-u-u-e Ridges !

What more can I say ....... the Blue Ridges are just magnificent !!
How many can you count ? (ridges, that is)

 

 

 

This is from a viewpoint in the outskirts of Hendersonville, NC.

Hendersonville is just 13 miles to the northeast from our campground.

The top of this mountain was a beautifully landscaped park, with an interesting Indian Legend about it.  It is called "Jump Off Rock" because an Indian maiden jumped to her death when she discovered her beloved Indian brave had been killed.

 

More Later, Marilyn

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Nantahala Gorge

We found the white water hot spot ..... a jillion outfitters, and a jillion kayaks, and a lot of rafts ..... and one beautiful river !   This area is used for olympic training, and you can almost always see someone running the gates thru the rapids in front of the main deck of the Nantahala Outdoor Center.  Very cool place.  As a matter of fact, Charlie was almost speechless..... she just stood there saying "too cool, ..... too cool"   Needless to say, we are planning on doing a raft trip before we leave, but are thinking to wait until school starts again and the river will be less crowded.  Last year we rafted the Snake River in Grand Teton thru class 2 and 3 rapids....... I wouldn't want to do anything bigger ..... so we'll investigate.  More later.

I started this blog entry last week, but couldn't get the photos to upload..... so I'll try again.  These are photos of our trip over the mountains and up the Gorge:

 

this is one of  the main launch points upriver

 

 

 

Nantahala Outdoor Center

More later, Marilyn