spring is springing

i had the very special honor to welcome my dad into the narrows section of the green river gorge. the green river falls off the plateau out of the mountains of north carolina into the piedmont of south carolina. this relatively short section of river holds a very special place in my heart. to be there and introduce my dad to a place i love and have visited hundreds of times was nothing short of an honor.

dad, philly, magnolia, and myself. just above groove tube, in the sunshine:

photo by mw

philip williams in awe:

photo by mw

less than two weeks later, this great river was host to another great day in honor of a late local: jerry beckwith; a bomb down the green followed immediately by a 25 mile bike ride, known as "jerry's baddle". Check out the
race results and see how well things went for the local boys and girls.

a big shout out to robin betz the lady's winner. check out her blog at the links on the right side of the page: the "expeditionettes" who've i've labeled in the link's section as "the dirt patch girls and rubes".
here's rubes out and about scouting at the garden of the gods on the west fork of the pigeon:

photo by mw

rubes, timmy, molly. what are y'all looking at?

photo by mw

that's right. the beautiful scenery here in the blue ridge

photo by mw

sticky feets

home again, home again. jiggity jogg. more than likely a seventh generation texan who refers to the western carolina mountains as "home" is guilty of blaspheming and destined for a lone star purgatory.

photo by mw
i timed my return perfectly for a little outdoor recreation, rolling in mere hours before warm, wet temperatures brought the rivers to levels not seen in months. of four days at home, two have been logging vertical feet: a day boating the various sections of the little pigeon river on clingman's northern back and another in the grand canyon of the south east: linville gorge.

(l to r) caleb and jeb stay attentive to local master howard tidwell's detailed smoky's river beta at the lower west prong take out.

photo by mw

dusk on the linville. downstream of connelly cove, a good bit still left to descend before the get out. "let's get out of here before it gets dark"

photo by mw