Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Another High Country Monday


You gotta stay on your toes up here in Boone because the days of the week really don't matter all that much when you've got a Food Guy with a flexible schedule. I spent last weekend kicking it at my lake house while the Food Guy was at a conference in Florida. From what I hear, I didn't miss anything at all by not going on this trip. Food Guy said it was flat, filled with people who never actually do anything, and boring. He did say he had a lot of fun catching up with his UGA peeps. I think he misses them a lot, but he sure seemed happy to see me when he got home, which is good. We rolled back into Boone late Sunday night, and some of his friends from Athens were staying at the house. Steven and Allison had been up here watching our house while we were gone, and they had planned to stay over on Monday. Being the gracious hosts that we are, we figured we'd better take them climbing.

Food Guy gave Greg a call and told him to forget about working during the day since it was going to be so nice outside. We met up at the hallowed halls of Edwin Duncan Monday morning, and took off for one of our favorite climbing spots: the Dump.

We rolled up there later than our usual 9 am arrival and the people tied in around 11, which is a respectable southern alpine start. It was a great day. I hung out with my doggie friend Alabama and rolled around in the leaves for a couple of hours.










Greg, Steven, and the Food Guy got some good climbing in before we had to leave. Son of White Trash and Homegrown were first on tap. Everyone got a chance to tie into the sharp end of the rope and get some lead climbing done.













Then, Greg decided to give Vodoo Child, a 5.11 with a desperate start, a try. He styled it while Alabama and I nervously watch Steven and the Food Guy spot him to the first bolt. He made it look smooth and then Steven and the Food Guy got in some extreme top-rope action in got to the top without any major problems. We got all of this done in time for Food Guy and Greg to stop back by the office, say hello to their work people, and make it appear that it was just business as usual in the Reich College of Education. I had to wonder if any of the other profs wondered why their hands were covered in chalk residue. Wait a minute, I guess that wouldn't seem weird since some of the classrooms still have actual chalk boards. Man, those guys have it figured out don't they?

Well, it's time for the Food Guy and me to go for a run before we head to the lake for Turkey Day.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Time Well Spent


I'm a pretty tired doggie right about now, but I'll try to tap out a few lines to tell y'all about our weekend before I go back to sleep. The weekend started off right on Friday morning with a trip to The Dump for a little climbing. The Food Guy woke me up at 7 and said, "Let's go, lazy dog." I looked at him like he had about 7 heads. I mean, it was COLD outside, and I couldn't think of a good reason to drag myself off the down comforter to head outside. Once he picked up the climbing pack, I changed my tune since I knew that I'd probably get to hang out with my doggie friend Alabama at the crag. Alabama and I played for a few hours while Greg and the Food Guy got some climbing in. Then, we headed down to town to meet up with Reeve and O Dog to head over to Elk Knob for a run. I was pretty tired by the time we got home Friday night, but I was psyched when I saw the Food Guy and Reeve put away their coffee cups and pick up their running shoes.

In true highland fashion we got a nice "southern alpine start" and headed over towards Linville for a run on the Profile Trail. Check out the views from this place.












It's pretty sweet, eh?









The Profile Trail isn't the greatest place to run. It's straight up for 3 miles and there are some boulder garden sections that are just plain un-runnable. But, the view is totally worth the effort.










We cruised back into town after Reeve and the Food Guy ate some killer cuban sandwiches in Foscoe. I only got dog bones, by the way. Someone should talk to the Food Guy about that. Just sayin'. Then we headed over to "The Rock" to watch App State kick the crap out of Wofford on the football field for a while. Luckily the Mountaineers got the game in hand quickly, so the Food Guy could head on home to watch the Georgia game. Auburn ended up winning, which is pretty lame, but that's OK. Bama won, so at least one of my SEC teams managed to pull out a W.

I was pretty worn out by the time the Bama game ended, which is pretty reasonable since we'd already had a pretty full weekend already. I called it a day and climbed onto the down comforter to get some sleep while the Food Guy got all of our stuff ready for the next adventure. He woke me up early again this morning, so we could head up the the Boone Fork trail for a little run. I always enjoy running up there. The trail has so much diversity. Smooth single track, Rhodi caves, boulder gardens... it's got it all. After we finished our run, we drove a little further up the Parkway to check out the view from the Linn Cove Viaduct. Not too shabby, huh?











Now, it's time for some sleep. Hope y'all have a good week.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Elk Knob Hike

Hey, everybody. The Food Guy and I have been pretty busy lately. He went to Greece and then we moved into our new house. In between we've been doing a little climbing and running. This week I helped the Food Guy build a hearth for our wood stove.

We finished just in time because it's getting cold up here in the high country. We had some snow this week. Check out this view of Snake and Rich mountains from our front porch:










Today we went up to Elk Knob with some friends and had a great hike in the snow. I love running around and playing in the snow.












The trail up to the top is really sweet. It winds its way up the mountain for just under two miles. The Food Guy are going to have to head up there to run the trail this week when the snow melts off.










The view up there is amazing. You can see peaks all the way up in Virginia from here. There are so many good hikes up here. Stay tuned for more adventures.