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September 1999

North Carolina - Asheboro

David Aaronson
2005-09-23 23:16:24

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are limited to whether you want your pork shredded or sliced, and whether you want it on a bun or a plate. Some of the more progressive BBQs have added chicken as a menu item however. If you're ever in the vicinity we highly recommend it, but expect to wait a while if it's anywhere near dinner time.

After Lexington we continued on to Asheville (not to be confused with Asheboro. You should also not confuse Greenville with Greensboro but who could blame you if you did) finally outdistancing the storm (or so we thought). On the radio we listened to North Carolina State's football game back in Raleigh which was described as being in 'monsoon-like conditions'. A radio announcer in a different game used the phrase 'hands like waffle-irons' which has no bearing whatsoever on this story, but we liked it anyway.

Sunday morning we drove across the border to Erwin, Tennessee to kayak the Nolichucky River. It was much colder than we'd hoped for especially as we crossed back into North Carolina to the put-in. (We actually started in NC and ended in TN). Water levels were extremely low, so we took one-person inflatable kayaks as the only craft that could manage the river at that level. As it turns out, Dennis was still haunting us, and came close enough to rain all day on the Nolichucky gorge. Because of the rains, mist hung over the gorge throughout the day and it was rare that we could even see to the top of the mountains surrounding us. At times it was like kayaking in a tunnel as the river dropped away in front of us and the mists descended from above.

Becuase of the rain, we never stopped for lunch, kayaking more or less continuously for eight hours. Because of several novice kayakers in the group and the very low water levels, we only covered nine miles in that time. Despite that there were at least a dozen challenging class III drops and long stretches of continuous class II-III whitewater. Melanie managed to leave her kayak just long enough to bruise herself (which is a mandatory trip requirement for her). There were several non-minor injuries in the group as well, which always makes the journey more exciting.

After showering (in hot water), we drove back to Asheville and the hotel. After a brief rest we went out for a very large and well deserved meal which included the largest sweet potato we've ever seen. We then attempted to partake of a beer or two at some of Asheville's fine micro-breweries but they were all either closed on Sunday night, or we got hopelessly lost trying to find them. In the end we did sample a fine local porter, but we had to buy it at a convenience store and drink it in the hotel room while watching stupid game shows. Oh well.

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