Weekend Fun with Mike

12/29-12/30 2018

After Sherri and I finished the Boone Fork Trail we went towards Boone NC so I could meet up with Mike. He bought tickets to a house concert in Boone. These people booked a band called Folk Soul Revival and sold $20 tickets for their living room. They sold 53 tickets. We found a hotel in Boone about a mile from the house. The show started at 8pm we got there about 730. They had chips dip fruit sangria and water in their kitchen and other people brought stuff.

I don’t know if he made any money on this but a very interesting idea. They were sold out. The show was from 8-10. The band seamed to think it was as unusual as I did. It was a first for them too. The house was perfect for it because all the rooms were huge.

After the show we got something to eat went back to the motel and I slept like a rock. When I woke up Mike was gone riding around Boone. We checked out and headed towards Elk Falls. I’ve been wanting to go to this one. It was 40 minutes away and it wasn’t likely I would be back up this way. It was out in the middle of nowhere way down a long dirt road. It wasn’t a park but in the summers it’s very crowded.

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Mike was up top taking pics from here. He supposed to be afraid of heights but he stood right there. This spot made me super nervous!

From the top it is very high. There is a ton of water going over it. The picture above shows the round rock that crazy people run and jump off of! The bottom is like a whirl pool and there are signs everywhere warning that people have died here. There was a news story tacked to a pole about a death by a professional Jumper.

We took the trail to the base of the falls. This is where you get the full effect of the falls. Super powerful!

We took some more pics and went back up to the car. We headed towards Spruce Pine which was 26 miles away. This took us through beautiful country following the Toe River. There was a brewery/lodge Mike wanted to stop at but it was closed for the winter. It was in Plumtree NC. Definitely some place to come back too.

I thinks it’s now the Blind Squirrel Brewery. We are in Spruce Pine and decided to go to the top of Hawksbill in the Linville Gorge.

We got to the trail head. I assured Mike it was easier than Crowders Mountain. We started up the 1 mile trail. He had to rest a couple of times since he isn’t used to hiking.

We made it to the top and he loved it. I swear it’s the best view in the Gorge. I met a guy up there who was camping. He said he was a gorge rat named Doc.

Mike wanted to stay and see the sunset that really looked promising. There were some others that came up there to do the same. While we were sitting there a huge buzzard came and landed right by us. I was trying to get a pic of him flying so i got a couple good pics!

I was video taping him at the end waiting for him to take off and my phone died! Just then another buzzard came up from below and tagged him and I missed it!

The sunset was promising then it started to cloud up. It was still very awesome!

We decided to head back down before it got to dark. We got to the bottom just as it was completely dark. I’d like to come back during a full moon. Hawksbill is one of my new favorite places!