Live(ish) from WNC

Well I'm on the road sweet road. Been so since Saturday. I'm sitting in the oskar blues brewery in Brevard, NC. The bar tender has been kind enough to let me set up and finish my paper for my summer class and use their internets to do so. It helps to have great beer and have a feeling of the mountains and Colorado.

I'm starting this with the knowledge of having a break to do the brewery tour and get a bite to eat. I'm taking a day off from activity because I knew after a day of MTB and hiking I was pushing my luck with my right arm. My right arm I THINK is doing well not the mind searing pain of a few (now) months ago. I was able to do the RH loop at Tsali (appox 14 miles) with no problem. The exception being that I got caught in a huge down pour that rivaled anything I encountered on Guam. In fact there has been so much rain on sunday and monday I have considered doing this:

I've done that in the past with about the same result. I'll stop here for the brew tour. Be back in a few.

So this is back in a few. Did the tour of the Oskar Blues brewery at Brevard NC.  Often I'm like this in life:

Right now I'm about to stand up in a chair and clap and yell until my hands bleed. I've toured a few breweries in the past but this by far shows the Colorado attitude I left behind years ago. I'm usually outwardly reserved right now I'm about to jump out of my skin!

We'll leave that for another post the tour and all. I'll make it simple I'm impressed. It would not be a stretch to see me moving up this way in the future.  it's fucking better than the ATL by a long shot.

So lets get to the last few days.

I left the ATL like a jail break. In fact my leaving so fast has left me at a loss in some spots and cost me nearly 50 bucks. I forgot my North Carolina atlas and my various guides to the area. This has left me floundering at certain points. Last night would be a great case in point.

Leaving GSMNP I knew I wanted to get to pisgah national forest from the park. My landmark was the very opulent and dare I say amazing ingles in Mills river NC. Which I thought was in Hendersonville.

Insert face palm

In this day and age you should never get 'lost' with GPS yet I did. I got to the ingles in hendersonville no prob. Trouble it was not the one I needed. So I GPS the ingles in Pisgah national forest. That sent me an 90 minutes away in a horrible down pour in the totally wrong direction.

I blame noone except myself. I did not double check anything and besides I did not have my trusty NC road atlas with me. I damn near ended up in Boone NC before I caught my mistake. In my defense I was exhausted after spending over 8 hrs hiking part of the AT in GSMNP over some fairly rough terrain. I admit I was not thinking clearly. My right knee was  hurting I ran out of water and I had a small fall onto my right arm which shook me a little.

I wound up a long ways away from where I needed to be at nearly 2300 at night (11pm for you regular types out there) I was almost in newland NC. I was angry and embarrassed with myself. I knew where I needed to be and that because of the nature and weather of the area I wanted to be in the mountain roads maybe blocked by blow down and snags.

Once I caught my mistake I retraced my route and ended back up where I intended in the first place. Which was only 20 minutes from my original fuck up. I went up the familiar forest service road beside the said awesome Mills River ingles. Seriously I could live in that place. At 0100 (1am) I was up on the mountain looking for a parking spot. Which is a challenge because all the good spots are taken and the better one are blocked by the snags and road debris further up the FS road.

I ended up saying "Fuck It" and parking in front of a forest service gate where I should not park in the first place. I could have cared less. my FS sin was not noticed and after a very restful 8 hrs sleep awoke to a dry morning.

I have "poached" sleeping sites for the last two nights. Tsali was great because noone checked the lot on a end of the weekend night and I got left in peace. I should have stayed in the tsali area and parked down by the water.

Anywho I ended up in a ok spot and tonight I'll try to find a place that is semi-level so I can at least turn on the lights that I bought that I wanted to go with my yeti 150. the yeti 150 was bought because I wanted power to run my electronics and maybe a fan when it got balls hot in the bed of the truck. The portable fan works AMAZING and keeps me VERY comfy through the night not draining the yeti 150 past 60 %. Gone are the worries of a dead battery to the truck in the AM.

I have spent my day at the oskar blues brewery (Brevard) to wrap up a paper for my summer class respond to posts for that class. I also made in roads into maybe getting into the brewing industry in the future since I have a decent since back ground and don't care about leaving the medical industry much any more.

The riding and hiking out here has been great despite the weather. I plan on going into dupont forest on thursday giving my body an extra day of rest. The people here are wonderful esp to a curmudgeon like me. Money is tight I figure I can prob make it back to ATL after the weekend if need be. I have enough food. As with all dirt bags on the road gas is always a concern.

Here are some pics from the road. I apologize from the lack of photos I tend to want to live the moment rather than record it:

More to follow I gotta bail get some food in me at the truck and find a spot to sleep in tonight. Thanks for reading.