Long Day Out

Today's plan was to head out at 10 am to the NOC and spend a day in the area. Missy and I were game to run the 7 mile Nantahala River, which Jeremiah was dead set against setting paddle in again. He is still bitter from discovering way back on our first trip SE that if the river is listed as Class III, more likely it's a class II. But we thought a warm, sunny fast float could be fun. The plan was that (since we'd have the dogs with us) Jeremiah would drop us off, and then wait for us to take out at the NOC, where we'd all then try the recently built play wave. (Do you sense a big ol "however" coming up?)

However…we didn't follow plans because of the weather. Not having reception at Lost Creek, we didn't know the weather. It was very sunny, but it was 51 degrees and there was a stiff 10-15 mph wind that made for a brrrry windchill. So while Missy and I had been imagining enjoying the Class II water because it would seem refreshing in 80 degree weather, we were NOT willing to suffer a long and cold paddle unless there were some thrilling rapids. Which the Nanty does not have. So we putzed around the NOC for a bit. Tried and failed to get on their wifi. Went shopping. Jeremiah got new river shoe/boots, and I got ANOTHER belt river rope. (The first rope was tossed in the Ark river by Jeremiah in Colorado. The second was poorly tossed to Missy by me, when I was stranded out of my boat in mid-river on the Cascade River in MN). Here's hoping the third one stays with me more permanently.

Jeremiah tried to shame Missy and me into getting into our gear and trying to playboat, but we weren't having it. Not only are we less than enthusiastic about cold weather playboating, but the main feature wave was too low. See, the Nantahala is on a daily release schedule, so we thought we were golden. But I guess it too is subject to the harsh reality of a rain drought, and so the water was releasing at a lower rate. Bummer. So Jeremiah bravely suited up and put on. He battled a SUP for wave time on a skimpy wave for about 10-15 minutes. Then he gave up and got off the river. A bust of a time. Missy and I enjoyed our river-side time by teasing the friendly ducks who would come to over if you appeared to have food. Buddy and Cassie dearly wanted to meet those ducks as well, but were prevented for obvious reasons.

By now it was getting later…after 4. We still needed to find a Laundromat and get some laundry done. For once, we had some well deserved luck. Karen (our GPS), directed us to an establishment that was still in business. Missy and I got the loads started, and then left Jeremiah to monitor them while we went to Walmart in search of a bigger memory card for my phone. After laundry was done, we headed home. We had great difficulty in doing that simple task. First, there was a detour for our route. But instead of having huge signs pointing that out, there were poorly placed signs on the side of the detour street. So, if you were not a local, you wouldn't have known to look at the detour street 5 miles before the closed road came up. Grrr. Then, for some reason, Jeremiah decided not to take one of the 2 known routes to the campground, but instead thought Karen would know what she was talking about. She led us on a merry chase up and down the mountain, before finally announcing we were on Lost Creek Rd….when in fact we were at a dead end near some houses. Double Grr. That was about 40 minutes of excess driving. We finally got back at 8 pm. Felt like a frustrating, wasted day.

P.S. When we inched into reception range, all of us got notices from friends and family that a horrible thing happened in our neighborhood in Brooklyn Park. Someone had killed 3 people at the house kitty-corner from ours. This had happened a couple of days ago. Apparently there is no named suspect. Scary! Good thing we weren't there at the time.