Transfigurations, Friday
These pictures are all from the late show at the Grey Eagle. Ice Cream opened up for Budos Band.
Transfigurations, Thursday
For their 5 year anniversary local Asheville record shop Harvest Records put on a 3 day music festival. My sister Rebecca arranged for me to attend the shows and take pictures for the local independent newspaper the Mountain Xpress .
It was my first time ever being commissioned to take pictures and it was a great experience. These are all from the first day at one of the best places to see live music in Asheville, the Grey Eagle.
The bands playing this show, in order of appearance, were:
Floating Action from Asheville, NC
The Coathangers from Atlanta, GA
Kurt Vile from Philadelphia, PA
Tubing the Tuckaseegee
Sunday we headed west to Dillsboro and rented tubes from Tuckaseegee Outfitters to float the Tuckaseegee River. Always a good time, even slightly low water didn’t dampen the fun. Apparently Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday are the days they release more water from the upstream dam.
Downtown Asheville Thunderstorm
An afternoon thunderstorm in Asheville, North Carolina.
Rafting the Natahala
We rented a raft from the Natahala Outdoor Center without a guide. I don’t know how long that has been an option, but most of the outfitters on the Natahala seem to be providing the service nowadays. They take you 8 miles up the river and you are in charge of navigating some class 2 and one class 3 rapid.
Helen, GA
We made a brief trip over the mountain to Helen, Georgia. Having undergone a comically slow tubing run on a creek with not quite enough water in it two years ago, the Sulock’s returned to give tubing in Helen another look. Next time we will likely require more than two years before our memories are sufficiently faded to consider a return trip.
From the town’s website:
This Northeast Georgia village has a rich history linked to the Cherokee Indians and Indian burial mounds as well as early settlers who arrived to mine for gold and cut virgin timber for a thriving lumber industry in the early 1900’s. Now celebrating its thirty-fifth year as a mountain community with a touch of Bavaria.
Nothing like celebrating your rich Cherokee history by turning your town into a giant gingerbread house. Regardless of my opinion of the current state of Helen, the roaming masses on the occasionally cobble-stoned streets seemed to indicate that their alpine strategy for attracting visitors was a successful one.
Asheville, NC to Hiwassee, GA
Pictures from the drive through western North Carolina to Lake Chatuge in northeast Georgia.
Grinnell Glacier
After 5.7 miles we made it to Grinnell Glacier. The giant steep rock wall enclosing the area is called the Garden Wall, it is part of the continental divide.
If you look at the top of the wall in the 4th picture there is a notch in the Garden Wall above and to the right of Salamander Glacier. You can hike to that point from the Highline Trail. Pictures from that spot from September 2008 are here and from September 2007 here.
Josephine and Grinnell Lakes
On Sunday we camped in Many Glacier and did a hike to Grinnell Glacier. I had attempted this hike with my parents in early June a few years ago. We had to turn back a few miles from the end because there was too much snow in the higher elevation areas. This time there wasn’t any snow blocking the way.
The hike is a little under 12 miles round trip, and offers some spectacular scenery the whole way.
Glacier National Park Westside
The next day we drove up to Glacier National Park. We got there in the afternoon and being the middle of summer most of the campsites were already full so we drove out on the Inner North Fork Road to Logging Creek Campground.
There was a really excellent thunderstorm that night with a lot of thunder but not much rain. Thunder always reminds me of North Carolina.
Tubing the Blackfoot River
Hilary’s brother Justin and his friend Charlie visited us from Atlanta over the weekend. On Friday we drove a little outside of town to go tubing on the Blackfoot. The weather was hot and the water was cold.
