Sat 13 Apr - Asheville, NC

For our first hiking day in the Appalachian Mountains, we could not have asked for better weather. There are clear blue skies and weather forecast is for 8 to 20 degrees.

We head off after breakfast towards DuPont State Forest, about an hour south west of Asheville, on recommendation from our motel guy. However, we did a small detour first as we just had to check out a small section of Blue Ridge Parkway.

We park our car in what is called Hooker Falls Access Area inside DuPont State Forest just after 9am and start out composite hike, made up of many smaller hikes as that was the way they were presented.

Di looking happy to be on a nice forest trail hiking again.

The first of the waterfalls that we saw today. This series of waterfalls are aptly named Triple Falls.

There are definitely trout in these waters and we liked the sign as its somewhat different message.

This is the second waterfall that we encounter and in the background at the top is the covered bridge, which we later use to cross the river. Really beautiful scenery here, wouldn't you say?

Hans (the Hiker) trying to improve the scenery.

Di in front of the covered bridge.

You get some sense of the height at the top of High Falls here.

We walk part of the way to our next trail on Conservation Road, although the only traffic now would be a forest Ranger and we haven't seen any sign of one. The country road gets Hans wanting to hear music - headphones on - on a country road, going to Carolina (apologies to James Taylor).

After our short musical interlude we turn off Conservation Road to walk the Three Lakes Trail.

A really lovely track into the forest and Di sets out with gusto.

We soon decide that the lakes are wrongly named as lakes, they are really ponds or dams. We stop at a little one called "Lake Alford" which is smaller than an Olympic pool and with a rounded levee. They did have a lovely deck and bench over the water and the baby trout were happy with our morning tea crumbs.

Banana is a "Brain Food"? Is there a subliminal message in here somewhere...?

Goose and lake...

Goose and fish... Competing for muffin crumbles that we threw into the water.

The tracks within DuPont State Forest seem to be divided into hiking only or mountain biking / horse riding / hiking. We encountered these riders in one spot. The last guy had a jacket marked "Sheriff" on it.

Our third and final waterfall, Grassy Creek Falls. Lovely place to sit on a rock for a break. The water and its surrounding vegetation looked like there could be bears there, but we didn't see any.

Experimental photo that we thought turned out well.

Di sneaking away for a piece of peanut brittle.

Our final lunch spot was at Lake Imaging (Agfa owns a chunk of this forest) but we were enjoying the view so much that we did not take any photos! Highlights were a very nice deck and shelter on the edge of the pond with picnic tables so close to the water you could see the trout swim by.

Hans missed the small snake that Di saw because he was continuing walking to where we took off from to bring our car closer... (lazy Di!) while she continued to enjoy the calm beauty. Every now and then mountain bikers went by. Great way to finish the hike. 12+ Kms over little less than 4 hours including breaks.

On a country road...

We make the hour's drive back from DuPont State Forest to Asheville and our iPhone battery dies, so goodbye Google Maps for now. Oh well how hard can it be.

Not very hard as it turns out as by happy accident when we were close to our Super 8 motel we saw... ALDI. Imagine both of us seeing it and yelling ALDI at the same time and a quick right turn. Yes, we are fans and we were so happy to know ALDI have made it here. Now we will look for them. Daggy, but we had to take a photo so you could see our big cheesy smiles!

Back to the motel around 4pm and we do a couple of loads of washing and just chill out for the evening.

Good night

 

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