Chimney Rock Park

I woke up earlier than normal and decided to get breakfast and find Chimney Rock Park to do some hiking. It was beautiful out, but a little on the cold side. The last time I was at Chimney Rock they only had half of the trails open. I was really looking forward to doing the Cliff trail.

On my way to the park, I was experimenting with driving. All through the Blue Ridge Parkway I was able to coast along downward stretches of road. On Hwy 74A, it's a very long uphill climb to where the Eastern Continental Divide is posted. Once I hit the top of the climb, I threw Smurfette in neutral and watched the odometer. I managed to coast for 8.7 miles before having to put her back in gear! All said and done, I managed 38 mpg of a whole tank of mountain driving.

I got to Chimney Rock Park and was a little disappointed that there were more people this time (duh). Not much was different on the actual trail except for the waterfall. When I was there in December, there wasn't much of a falls. This time was beautiful. I sat down on a rock in the middle of the stream right before it drops 404 feet. With the sun shining and the water bubbling around me, it was easy to fall into a brief meditation. I wish I could have stayed there all day, but I had a 5 hour drive ahead of me to get to David's.

I hiked for about 3 hours and was completely worn out by the end of it. Unfortunately, the last leg of the last trail I did was about 8 flights of stairs back up to Chimney Rock itself. BOO!!
I dragged myself back to the car and proceeded to drive straight to Charleston. I got to David's at about 9pm and we sat up and talked for a while. His house looks AMAZING! He completely flipped it and the feel of the place is so great. Unfortunately, he had got some unpleasant news earlier in the day - but was happy to have me around, especially since I was knowledgeable on the medical issue he was diagnosed with.

Today I spent most of my time catching up on this blog and doing laundry. I found a grocery store and bought myself some lunch and then went out with some of David's friends when he got off work. It has been a very nice visit.