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canyonwalkerBlue Ridge Trip '24 #14
Blowing Rock, NC - Wed, 4 Sep 2024. 12pm
We're taking a take-it-easy day on our vacation today. "Wait," you might ask, "Isn't ‘taking it easy’ what vacations are supposed to be about?" Haha, not ours. Ours are typically go-go-go with activity. And we've been go-go-go for the past 4 days, starting with leaving home well before dawn on Saturday up through driving hundreds of miles last night after going on a full hike in the mountains.
So, today we're hundreds of miles away from where we were yesterday. We're staying at a hotel in Boone, NC now for last night and the next 4 nights.
"Boone?" you might ask. "Is that like ‘In the boonies’ or the boondocks?" Yes, because it's a town of about 20,000— small by my California standards— in the Blue Ridge mountains. But also no, because it's named for famed American pioneer Daniel Boone. And despite its smaller official population the town punches above its weight because it's a college town. Appalachian State University, part of the UNC system, is there and enrolls almost 20,000 students.
This morning we slept in a bit after a late night and long day yesterday. That's part of why today has become a taking-it-easy day. The other part is that we didn't do enough planning ahead of time on exactly what to do once we're in Boone. Oh, we know we want to go hiking in the mountains. At waterfalls. And there are plenty of them here. And we even researched lots of hiking trails. But we didn't cue up a list of them like we did for the previous few days in Virginia. So this morning we started doing that. And along the way we realized we don't really have the energy for another aggressive day of hiking today.
Our plan so far for the day has been simple: Get lunch. 😅 We drove to the town of Blowing Rock, about 7 miles from Boone, as there's a canyon hike starting right here in town we could do after we eat lunch. We thought that maybe lunch would help us perk up. Haha, no. We're still feeling fatigued. And now we've got a bit of food coma, too. 😂
Blowing Rock, NC is a small tourist town named for a striking rock ridge on the edge of town. The town itself is perched atop this mountain ridge, at elev. 3,500-3,600'. Below the ridge the land drops away 1,500' into a river valley. Because of the shape and orientation of the ridge, wind currents blow into the ridge and create strong updrafts. Light objects thrown off the ridge may fly back up. Native legend says that when a young man was told he'd have to leave his lover because their two tribes were going to fight, he was distraught and threw himself off the cliff. She prayed for him to be brought back to her, and the gods answered her prayer with a gust of wind that blew him back up the cliff before he could die from the fall.
Blowing Rock, NC - Wed, 4 Sep 2024. 12pm
We're taking a take-it-easy day on our vacation today. "Wait," you might ask, "Isn't ‘taking it easy’ what vacations are supposed to be about?" Haha, not ours. Ours are typically go-go-go with activity. And we've been go-go-go for the past 4 days, starting with leaving home well before dawn on Saturday up through driving hundreds of miles last night after going on a full hike in the mountains.
So, today we're hundreds of miles away from where we were yesterday. We're staying at a hotel in Boone, NC now for last night and the next 4 nights.
"Boone?" you might ask. "Is that like ‘In the boonies’ or the boondocks?" Yes, because it's a town of about 20,000— small by my California standards— in the Blue Ridge mountains. But also no, because it's named for famed American pioneer Daniel Boone. And despite its smaller official population the town punches above its weight because it's a college town. Appalachian State University, part of the UNC system, is there and enrolls almost 20,000 students.
This morning we slept in a bit after a late night and long day yesterday. That's part of why today has become a taking-it-easy day. The other part is that we didn't do enough planning ahead of time on exactly what to do once we're in Boone. Oh, we know we want to go hiking in the mountains. At waterfalls. And there are plenty of them here. And we even researched lots of hiking trails. But we didn't cue up a list of them like we did for the previous few days in Virginia. So this morning we started doing that. And along the way we realized we don't really have the energy for another aggressive day of hiking today.
Our plan so far for the day has been simple: Get lunch. 😅 We drove to the town of Blowing Rock, about 7 miles from Boone, as there's a canyon hike starting right here in town we could do after we eat lunch. We thought that maybe lunch would help us perk up. Haha, no. We're still feeling fatigued. And now we've got a bit of food coma, too. 😂
Blowing Rock, NC is a small tourist town named for a striking rock ridge on the edge of town. The town itself is perched atop this mountain ridge, at elev. 3,500-3,600'. Below the ridge the land drops away 1,500' into a river valley. Because of the shape and orientation of the ridge, wind currents blow into the ridge and create strong updrafts. Light objects thrown off the ridge may fly back up. Native legend says that when a young man was told he'd have to leave his lover because their two tribes were going to fight, he was distraught and threw himself off the cliff. She prayed for him to be brought back to her, and the gods answered her prayer with a gust of wind that blew him back up the cliff before he could die from the fall.
