Snowbird Backcountry Area, Nantahala National Forest

Ah Memorial Day, typically spent this holiday out on the lakes around Charlotte back when we lived in NC, but this year decided to take it to the woods.  Our friends Cortney and Chris picked the spot - we would have gone anywhere given the forecast for the weekend.  No chance of rain, sunny and mid 70's.  Now that's my kind of day.

We arrived in Robbinsville, NC and met up at the Hungry Bear.  Robbinsville is approximately 2 miles of road with gas stations, restaurants and super market.  After I blew by the Hungry Bear by accident I realized it could not be located using a GPS.  I stopped at a local gas station and to my astonishment, the natives had no idea what I was talking about.  How do you miss one of the maybe 7 restaurants in your own town?  Bizarre.

The drive in to the trail head is mostly paved, with one long stretch of gravel road that passes multiple creek side car-camping sites.  It's a beautiful drive to get there, and I rolled down the windows for the boxers to stick their heads out and enjoy the breeze.

We began our hike here, selecting the path on the left (there are two at the trailhead):

Here are our friends Chris and Cortney and a shot of Aaron and myself...

Along the trail...

Then we came to the creepy abandoned van and almost decided to camp there.  Fortunately Chris made it across the stream and informed us that an even more perfect site was situated just beyond where we had stopped.  We crossed the creek to get there.

I believe it was the most grotesque affront to "leave no trace" I've seen when we got to the site.  Someone had literally fashioned a table into the tree for cook prep and there were foils and wrappers scattered about. We did our best to pick up the debris we found, and made sure not to leave any of our own.  It does beg the question: how much of other's people's trash should you pick up?  We tried to get it all, but I resented that this was now our problem, and not the jerks who left it a mess in the first place.

Definitely enjoyed some good food and a nice camp fire.  The hand held chain saw in particular came in handy as we gathered downed logs and trees from the area.

Night 1 was cold.  Too cold to attempt the ENO hammock tent type contraption I had procured, thought we gave this a shot on day 2.

Day 2 we struck out on the trail to find a good fishing spot.  I am continually told that we can find great fish using fly rods.  I am continually disappointed when we catch no fish.  Obviously my fly fishing abilities leave something to be desired.  Here is the neat bridge we found:

Night 2 the doggies were exhausted.  This was the most exercise they had enjoyed in a while.

When we woke on Day 3, the skies were overcast and we determined it would be best to head out and back home to Nashville, to enjoy a day of Arrested Development and grilling at home before returning to work.  All in all, a great trek, great spot for camping right near the water, and a chance to catch up with old friends.

Bluegrass Underground

I heard about it from a friend at work.  "Hey did you hear about Bluegrass Underground?" he said.  "No" I replied.  "It's awesome, its this cave where they have bluegrass shows and its awesome because the acoustics are amazing and they always get top talent."

Google help me, I was online that very moment to research.  What was this magical place I wondered, and how could I procure tickets to see it?  Would it be far away?

Bluegrass Underground is a special concert series hosted in McMinnville TN's Cumberland Caverns.  In these massive caverns, which were once mined for minerals used in gunpowder, a giant room titled "The Volcano Room" can seat up to 500 people over 300 feet underground.  Acts play on selected Saturdays and tickets can be purchased online.  They first started the Bluegrass Underground series in 2008, and since then PBS radio and now PBS television will broadcast selected shows from the illustrious cavern.  You can read more about it here:

http://www.bluegrassunderground.com/

And here's a good pic:

It was a rainy Saturday this morning when we packed up and drove 90 minutes to McMinnville from Nashville, passing through Manchester en route.  When we arrived, we entered an old souvenir shop filled with various crystals and shiny stones, t shirts and magnets.  Here you can purchase a 10 dollar bag of dirt, then step outside to their customized washing station and drop your dirt into a small mesh tray.  Here is how that went...(sorry, for whatever reason can't get these videos to imbed here today!)

http://youtu.be/UMp2354fI40

As show time approached, we were told to walk through the woods to the cave entrance.  There, a guide is required by their insurance company to walk each group through the cavern and into The Volcano Room.  Along the way there are underground waterfalls and pools, stalactites and stalagmites, all lit in a ghostly pale yellow or blue or red.  Then, at the end of a long tunnel, you begin descending into The Volcano Room.  Somehow, someway, they have managed to electrically wire the entire place for sound and lighting, AND install plumbing so you have access to restrooms.  A full concession stand serves the typical concert fare, and picknick tables line the back of the room where patrons can bring in their own food and beverage spread.  The only thing not permitted is alcohol and smoking.  Not sure how they monitor the alcohol thing, because if you brought your own in a Nalgene bottle no one would ever check or know.  Suffice it to say, the show's at 1pm on a Saturday so at that point you're probably still in recovery from the previous night anyhow.

When Mountain Heart took the stage I wasn't sure what to expect having never seen them before.  I was completely blown away by their talent.  How many bands can boast a two fingered banjo player, one of the best vocalists I've EVER heard (no exaggeration) and a guitar, fiddle, bass and piano that blast through your body with such lightening fast speed it will make your head spin.  Here's a snippet:

http://youtu.be/P9Oe7BgKet0

It was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  We will definitely head back to the cave at some point.

Falls Creek Falls

Amazing weekend camping and hiking in and around Falls Creek Falls State Park in TN.  Gorgeous weather all weekend long and a heck of a way to kick off the spring camping season.  All of the waterfalls and creeks are easily accessed from scenic overlooks so it was a convenient, if not a bit lazy way to see the sights.  Here are some pics from the park.  Enjoy!

Hog Roast

Well folks, it was an eventful Saturday at the Hollar house.  Despite illness earlier this week, we had a non refundable hog on order and something had to be done.  As it was our first time attempting to smoke an entire pig, we were frothy with anticipation and excitement.  What began as a box in our bathtub (too big for our freezer):

...was soon unwrapped and this sad looking grey pig was placed on the grill:

Now the next step was smoking ole Wilbur here into a fall apart, delicious mess.  Aaron brewed up some of his famous Carolina style vinegar based sauce.  Here is the recipe:

white vinegar

apple cider vinegar

hot pepper sauce

red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

brown sugar (dissolved in vinegar stove top with the remainder of the ingredients)

This delicious sauce was injected into the pig for the ensuing 10 hour period while it smoked slowly with hickory wood and charcoal.  We got the smoker on clearance and it did us well.  Here was the (nearly) finished pig:

It was quite a feast, and we ended up saving a huge amount of pork for the coming weeks.  Nice kickoff to the first beautiful weekend we've seen in many months.

Pig Pickin

You could say we are finally coming out of hibernation.  With the move to Nashville, and the purchase of a new home, we have been busy to say the least.  But as winter thaws, we get restless and head back to the woods...or at least, the backyard.

This weekend we opted not to camp, and instead to stay home, cook a pig and watch the Final Four.  Now, when I say “cook a pig” I mean, cook an entire pig.  We ordered this 50 pound Wilbur from a local butcher about 2 weeks ago.  

The original intention was to have a blow out house warming party with all my new coworkers and Nashville friends.  We wanted to expose them to original eastern carolina BBQ.  But alas, flu and pneumonia this week struck the Hollar household with a vengeance.  In lieu of infecting all of our new friends, we opted instead to cancel the party.  Unfortunately, it was too late to cancel the pig reservation.  So...pig roast weekend it is!  I have no idea how we will possibly store all of the cooked meat in our tiny freezer, but somehow we will have to make it work.

Hog roast begins tomorrow at 8am.  Stay tuned for pics...

Nashville, Music City

A day before Thanksgiving we have much to be thankful for.  But before I pontificate on the meaning of family and good friends, here's the good news:  WE ARE MOVING TO MUSIC CITY!  TODAY!  The movers show up in a half hour or so.

Here are some things we are looking forward to in Nashville:

More to come as we contemplate purchases of whitewater kayaks (kind of like buying skii's in the summer time, should be cheap!), discover all the local hikes and music venues.  The blog is going to take a new turn I sense, as we enter the winter months.  More music, less hikes probably.  Stay tuned.

Mt. Mitchell, Revisited

Before I begin, let me just say that you will notice a conspicuous lack of video footage from the summit of Mt. Mitchell.  This is because we never made it to the summit, unfortunately, for reasons I will expound upon shortly.  I worry we have sacrificed what tiny fragment of hiking cred we may have had preceding this most difficult hike, but I can explain see, the packs were 40 pounds a piece, and we didn't get started until 4:30 and it was dark by the time we came upon the first campsite and the next morning the group was less than than motivated to pack the rest of our gear up the mountain and back down the vertical slope before dark.  Excuses...

So we got a late start, and were punished every step we took in the dark on this most treacherous trail.  Here is some footage from around the fire that night, as we were so exhausted after 3 hours of packing in that we failed to capture much of the way up the mountain.

We woke up on day 2 with a group of 6 other campers/hikers and made our way back down, taking a brief detour onto the Higgins Bald Trail and then meeting back up with the Mt. Mitchell Trail.  The Mt. Mitchell trailhead begins at the Black Mountain Campground.  You can find more info at this link:

http://www.hikewnc.info/besthikes/toecane-ranger-district/mount-mitchell

A word to would-be backpackers on this trail - the best bet for breaking this hike up is to do what we did not do, and take the first fork you see for the Higgins Bald Trail.  There is a small marker that has a red tag pointing up the hill to Mt. Mitchell.  At this junction, if you head to your left you will find several palatial camping spots before linking back up with the Mt. Mitchell trail.  If you proceed on the Mt. Mitchell trail however, it will be another mile of rough switchback hiking before you reach the first camp worthy spot, and it's a tight squeeze for more than a couple of tents.  It's also not exactly flat, as we found we were constantly awaking with our feet pushing through the nylon at the bottom of the tent.

Some commentary regarding the condition of the trail:

Day 2 was infinitely more enjoyable once we found a good car camping spot down the hill near the Black Mountain campground.  Black Mountain closes on November 1, so don't plan to camp there if you are doing a late fall hike like we were.  However, there are multiple GREAT spots just off the road proceeding past the campground on the right by the river.

We set up camp and enjoyed a late night of laughter (and fire puns, see below) and sore muscles before packing up the next morning and heading back to Raleigh.

Were we to do it again, here's how it would have gone:
Begin hike at 9am, hike leisurely to Higgins Bald Trail and camp night 1 off the trail
Leave our campsite up and get an early start morning 2, around 8am to the summit
Get back down by 2 or so and pack up, hike the rest of the way to the sites near Black Mountain campground
Enjoy a big meal involving grilled meat by the river