Author: vargocity

Endless Summer

Lauren is BACK! After three long months, she has returned from the Phiippines and has been finding her way back into American Life. Over this long Labor Day Weekend I whisked her away to North Carolina for some solitude (with me), rest, and romance as we celebrated our 4th anniversary and her return before she heads back to work tomorrow.

First, we headed out to the Shining Rock Wilderness. This hike and camping site, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Graveyard Fields, came highly recommended to us by Ben and Katy. We followed Ben’s excellent directions to a secluded hilltop site at around 6,000 ft. The best thing about this place are the views. You follow ridge lines and can see for miles in all directions thanks to previous fires that ran through the region. The other great thing about the place is the abundance of wild blueberries. We were late in the season but still managed to find a few spots with enough berries to have a harvest. The weather varied but all-in-all was great. Very still, clear, and nearly perfect the first night – cooling off and getting a bit windy up on the knobs for the second night and our last morning. The hike out really felt like fall and it was great to be back in western NC to experience it.

We hiked out on Saturday morning and took the Blue Ridge Parkway into Asheville where we had two nights at Louisa’s Porch, a home-stay place in the historic Montford neighborhood. Before we could even check in we had to head over to the Asheville Yoga Center for a class we had booked. It was a class for partnered yoga and Thai massage (pictures) that was part of a weekend-long workshop to benefit a local food bank. On Sunday we strolled around town, sampled a few local brews and stumbled on to the Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival. It was a fun and colorful event; all of the food booths were the street versions of local restaurants, and many people wore costumes and makeup. There was also a bicycle joust and tricycle races. As always Asheville left us captivated, gorged, looking forward to the next visit.

Northern Michigan

The weather up in northern Michigan was much nicer than last year when Matt and I went up there. we got to enjoy the water without wetsuits and could sit outside in shorts and such. One thing I got to do this time that I had not done before was to take a trip out on the water in the kayak. One still morning I paddled over to the University of Michigan’s Biological Station property and sat for awhile. I listened to a odd sound that I couldn’t figure out until I moved in for a closer look. Earlier, when I first made it over to that side, I spotted a group of about five or six deer taking a dip in the lake. The quiet and still of the water are nice but I would like to learn more about the proper way to paddle. BTW… click on the picture to see more of the weekend.

Weekends

Just about every weekend that I have been in town this summer I have been out of town. Fourth of July I headed up to Jack’s River in the Cohutta Wilderness to hang out with Ben, Katy and Adam. We went swimming at Jack’s River Falls and hiked out crossing the river so many times we lost count. The week after that I headed up to Panther Creek with Nick to go swimming with the dogs for a day. After that it was up to Rabun with Sam, Rupe and Dave for Hambidge’s Annual Hoot n’nanny.I fired some pottery and helped with the festival cleanup.

Next weekend it was off to Panthertown, NC with Chad, Katy, Ben and Ariel. We found a trail that took us by Pothole Falls where you can jump into a seemingly bottomless pothole and cram at least 5 people into a much smaller pothole in the middle of the river. We found a shelter just before a huge storm and visited a huge granite face at night to see a nearly full moon. The next day we went to Gorges State Park and swam at Pot of Gold. There you can sit behind a waterfall and tell secrets in audible seclusion.

This past weekend I went north with Derek and Woody. We were going to try and hit Tallulah Gorge State Park, but it started to rain on the way there and we turned it into a Wild and Scenic River tour stopping first at Gorges again and then heading to Bull Sluice on the Chattooga. At Gorges you can access the Horsepasture River. We made it Turtleback Falls which is a great rock slide that drops you into a great pool. It is really fun and we were lucky enough to have the place to ourselves for about a half an hour before about 20 other people showed up. It stormed in the middle of the day. We waited out the storm in the car and at Manrique’s and then headed to Bull Sluice. This rapid sits on the Chattooga. It’s popular with kayakers and rafting groups but you can also jump in and swim and get shot down the river.

Feeling like I had been ignoring the dogs for awhile I took them up to Allatoona Dam on Sunday to go hiking and swimming. This used to be a weekly off-leash dog hike but it has dissolved and now there are few people there. Most dogs are still off-leash despite the warnings from the guy at the gate. There are a couple spots for the dogs to hop in the lake and swim if they are brave enough. This weekend I am heading to Burt Lake in northern (lower peninsula) Michigan. More swimming and outdoor fun awaits.

Oh Yeah!!!!

This was in my inbox today, look who’s following me now.

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Heat Waves

The recent heat waves in cities along the Atlantic Coast coincides closely with the publication of some work that I was doing with my advisor and the Urban Climate Lab. The article was featured in Envionmnetal Health Perspectives and I disappointingly received only an acknowledgement. My advisor has been featured in a number of other outlets including interviews on the Weather Channel. For the paper we investigated the association between how spread out cities’ patterns of develoipment are and the trend of annual extreme heat days over the last 50 years.

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Weather Channel 1
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USA Today
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Business Week
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CNN opinion piece