“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter...... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. ”
~John Burroughs~
I love small towns. I love everything about them. I love the fact that in a small town you can still walk to the corner market and buy a cup of coffee, homemade blueberry yogurt, and a newspaper, and know that you will see someone you know and like. I also love the mountains. I love everything about them. I love the fact that whitewater needs the mountains to exist (RVA is an anomaly). I love the fact that the wilderness occupies the heart of every mountain range in the world. And I love that mountains create the perfect setting for small towns..................Hot Springs, North Carolina is one of those perfect little towns.
Marcelle and I lived one hour south of Hot Springs, and traveling from Brevard to the small town allows you to experience a slow progression of separation from the world that we all know. By the time you reach the small bridge crossing the French Broad and enter "downtown", it is hard to even remember what worries you had just an hour before. Hot Springs is hidden deep in the mountains. So deep in fact, The Appalachian Trail travels right down main street through the center of town. The whitewater section (Section IX) of The French Broad ends as the rivah enters town, and when you're there it feels like someone hid the time as well. Everyone slows down a bit, and everyone seems to be just a bit more relaxed. The town only has one bar, and in that bar years of drunken raft customers have bought their rivah guides a beer to show their appreciation for a job well done, and years of intoxicated raft guides have spent their customers tips in search of a reason to stay "just one more season." It is the give and take of the rivah life. Spring Creek flows directly past the bar. If one were so inclined on a rainy day, they could drive to the top of the mountain, slide their boat into the headwaters of Spring Creek, and kayak down miles of beautiful, deeply hidden Class III-IV crick lines, before arriving at the bar for an evening cocktail to celebrate the days discoveries. Just paddle up to shore, hop out of your boat, walk ten feet, and enter the bar. It is a trip I highly recommend. No worries on how to get back to your car. It will be figured out......at some point. Until then, just hang in town with friends, or crash at the local raft shop. You MUST traverse 30 minutes of mountains from any direction to enter the town, and slowly curving down the mountainside reveals a picturesque small town scene that can only be found when one goes looking for the escape. I love Hot Springs, and I miss it every day.
In the Spring of 2006 Marcelle and I became weekend warriors to the town of Hot Springs. It became one of our escapes and ways to seek adventure. Hot Springs is located in the middle of Pisgah National Forest, so there are endless camping opportunities throughout the area. Exiting town and climbing the mountain heading west brings you to a crest known as Mill Ridge. The forest service road to Mill Ridge takes you to a nice open camping spot deep in the forest that Celle and I frequented. We would drive up to the raft shop on Saturday morning, run trips on the French Broad, then hang out in Hot Springs and camp on Mill Ridge, then run more trips Sunday, then drive home to Brevard Sunday evening to re-enter domestication. The evenings I spent with Marcelle on Mill Ridge are a small piece of time that made this part of my life beautiful. Marcelle made a campsite a home, and she made every experience a better experience.
“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I’d hoped to give you forever.”
~Nicholas Sparks~
Forever never happened.
If you keep climbing up the mountains beyond Spring Creek you top out at a place called Max Patch. In the winter this area is fully exposed to the western flat lands of Tennessee, and the snow piles up on the mountain top. It is a great place to find an epic snow adventure, complete with off-roading through 2 foot drifts, mysteriously quiet hikes through snow encrusted evergreens, and sprawling 360 degree views of the Smokies, Northern Balsams, French Broad Valley, and the Black Mountains. Marcelle and I headed to Max Patch for some great snow hiking when the weather allowed for it. Max Patch was always one of our favorite spots to go, and if you are ever near Hot Springs I highly recommended a drive up the mountain. I spent days with her simply strolling through some of the most beautiful snow landscapes I have ever seen, rolling down the hillside with our dog T, and simply enjoying the fact that we were able to share something together that was unique and magical. I forget sometimes how lucky we were to be living the life that we lived.
"You will leave this world with exactly what you came with. Nothing. Enjoy memories. Not materials."
~Austin Carlile~
In the Spring of 2006 Marcelle and I became weekend warriors to the town of Hot Springs. It became one of our escapes and ways to seek adventure. Hot Springs is located in the middle of Pisgah National Forest, so there are endless camping opportunities throughout the area. Exiting town and climbing the mountain heading west brings you to a crest known as Mill Ridge. The forest service road to Mill Ridge takes you to a nice open camping spot deep in the forest that Celle and I frequented. We would drive up to the raft shop on Saturday morning, run trips on the French Broad, then hang out in Hot Springs and camp on Mill Ridge, then run more trips Sunday, then drive home to Brevard Sunday evening to re-enter domestication. The evenings I spent with Marcelle on Mill Ridge are a small piece of time that made this part of my life beautiful. Marcelle made a campsite a home, and she made every experience a better experience.
“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I’d hoped to give you forever.”
~Nicholas Sparks~
Forever never happened.
If you keep climbing up the mountains beyond Spring Creek you top out at a place called Max Patch. In the winter this area is fully exposed to the western flat lands of Tennessee, and the snow piles up on the mountain top. It is a great place to find an epic snow adventure, complete with off-roading through 2 foot drifts, mysteriously quiet hikes through snow encrusted evergreens, and sprawling 360 degree views of the Smokies, Northern Balsams, French Broad Valley, and the Black Mountains. Marcelle and I headed to Max Patch for some great snow hiking when the weather allowed for it. Max Patch was always one of our favorite spots to go, and if you are ever near Hot Springs I highly recommended a drive up the mountain. I spent days with her simply strolling through some of the most beautiful snow landscapes I have ever seen, rolling down the hillside with our dog T, and simply enjoying the fact that we were able to share something together that was unique and magical. I forget sometimes how lucky we were to be living the life that we lived.
"You will leave this world with exactly what you came with. Nothing. Enjoy memories. Not materials."
~Austin Carlile~
In a previous post a mentioned that the schedule that Marcelle's job demanded was the first ripple to a spiral of events. Here is why, and this is important, so pay attention. Men are not meant to be domesticated past a certain level, a level that we as men passed sometime in the late 1950's. Our instincts tell us to seek out adventure, danger, and amongst all else, travel. (Any man that tells you different is lying.........or a little bitch) We are nomads by design, so settling down for extended periods of time is tough. Marcelle was a great partner in crime to have by my side throughout the days of WNC, but she somehow mixed that sense of adventure with an amazingly balanced side of domestication. We would play house like a normal 20's something couple during the time she was off trail and home. (I mean, we gardened for God sakes) I would go to work, come home and have dinner, spend time with friends, take walks, etc., etc., etc. Being a case manager allowed me to create my own schedule. I had a client that needed attention early in the morning, so my day would start at 6am or so. (in WNC a 6am day in February requires exposure to single digits first thing in the morning.........which sucks. I mention this because it is what I remember most about those early mornings) By doing this I worked 10 or 12 hour days a lot and still made it home at a reasonable hour, giving me a good life of domestication throughout Marcelles "off trail" time, while still putting in a full work week in four days..............then Marcelle would go back on trail, not only drastically changing the other half of her life, but changing mine as well. I would head to Hot Springs, not as a bachelor (because believe it or not at a time in my life I was faithful), but as the nomad that I described above. Three days with nothing but a tent or friends, a kayak and mountain bike, some scheduled raft trips for tips in my pockets, and endless WNC adventures...............oh, there is one more extremely important thing. Safety Meetings. Marcelle was not down with the safety meetings and I respected that, so my safety time was also managed within my "double life"................I truly lived two separate lives, both of which when viewed individually were great lives to have, but mixed together became toxic over time. This was a lesson that would not surface until we returned to RVA..............remember what I just said.
In the Spring of 2006 I was at USA Raft shop on the French Broad and the owner was there checking in on things. USA Rafting on the French Broad was a smaller outpost for the USA Raftng post on the Nolichucky, located one hour north in Tennessee. The Nolichucky was a step up from the French Broad (which is a pretty easy rivah to guide or kayak.......but still a ton of fun), and when it had water it cranked out big rides for seven straight miles. (There is a good story about the Nolichucky in the August section of The Island Chronicles) The owner told me I should come up to Erwin and take on the Noli, so I agreed. The following weekend I completed a blind check out and then ran a trip the next day.
"Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience."
~Leonardo Da Vinci~
"Avoid the precepts of those thinkers whose reasoning is not confirmed by experience."
~Leonardo Da Vinci~
The Nolichucky Outpost had a great private camp spot on the far side of the rivah just for guides to stay in and live. There was a classic Noli guide named Tennessee Jed who lived in a van down by the rivah on the property.............he had been there so long the van had acquired satellite television. Jed had a long beard, played harmonica on the rivah, and loved the Tennessee Volunteers. He was a classic whitewater rivah legend, and he and Marcelle loved each other. We called the outpost Ewok Village because it was hidden in a forest of giant trees, with tent platforms located throughout the mountain side. It would be a great alternative to our Mill Ridge camp spot on the French Broad, and waking up under the trees with the rivah running in the distance was the perfect way to start a summer day of guiding.
Marcelle joined me on the Noli a few weeks after I had begun guiding there. Guides can always bring people along on their trips when there is room (and we always make room), so Marcelle joined me for a commercial trip one weekend. Early on in the trip a guide hurt himself traversing through "On The Rocks", the first larger rapid, and couldn't continue guiding. Marcelle was already working for USA Raft at the time guiding the French Broad, so she utilized her skills and ran a truly "blind" check out trip through the gorge, saving the day for all. Yet another reason I can overly glorify her a bit more and say she is a bad ass.
“I'm not going out of my way looking for devils; but I wouldn't step out of my path to let one go by.”
~Robert E. Howard~
“I'm not going out of my way looking for devils; but I wouldn't step out of my path to let one go by.”
~Robert E. Howard~
The first year on the rivah and living in WNC was great...................as an individual I was able to live both worlds. Responsible Domestication and Reckless Bachelorhood...........and I found a way to do it in a systematic manner. I was a good boyfriend. Remember that our home in Brevard was located on the edge of Pisgah, next to a mountain range topping out at 6000 feet. Marcelle worked nights when she spent time deep in those mountains. If she had cell phone service she would call me, and sometimes I would go out and visit her. I remember once visiting her between Graveyard Fields and Black Balsam (this is deep no where WNC at about 5000 feet). It was the middle of the night and I had come to retrieve our dog T (who will receive a post all to himself later........and who was also the greatest boxer that ever walked the earth and whom worked on trail with Marcelle to protect and comfort her). We used our cell phones and blinking lights to locate each other, and then spent fifteen minutes enjoying a quick and unique moment together.........I bring this story up because these are the kinds of experiences I remember that represented our life together..........unique times.........times between two people at one certain moment in life...........times that can never be duplicated or re-lived, no matter how hard you try.
The days in WNC were colorful times lived in an environment of colorful people, endless whitewater, and a life focused on a richness of experience that overshadowed a thirst for monetary success..........so stay tuned if you enjoy the read.........because the stories only get better as the whitewater gets bigger!
“Why, darling, I don't live at all when I'm not with you.”
~Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms~
The days in WNC were colorful times lived in an environment of colorful people, endless whitewater, and a life focused on a richness of experience that overshadowed a thirst for monetary success..........so stay tuned if you enjoy the read.........because the stories only get better as the whitewater gets bigger!
“Why, darling, I don't live at all when I'm not with you.”
~Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms~
See ya on the rivah..............waters coming up, so hopefully not on a log. PEACE
To continue this adventure, click here..........................Complexity of the Double Life
To continue this adventure, click here..........................Complexity of the Double Life
