Week 45: Morrow Mountain State Park

November 10, 2010

What a glorious day for a hike - sun shining, high 60's, and not a person in site. Just me, God, and some beautiful foliage. Couldn't ask for much more.

Just the facts:

- Morrow Mt is the largest "mountain" in Stanley country

- I hiked 6 miles from the museum to the top of Morrow Mt and back.

- I took 88 picture

- DO NOT FEED THE DEER! Seriouly, I saw 6 or 7 deer and they were not scared of me. I got as close at 15 ft before they ran off and one walked right up to my car. IT IS BAD TO FEED THE DEER!

- I saw a couple wood peckers, more squirrels than I could "shake a stick at"

- The foliage was a little past peak, but still quite lovely

- I was attacked by Multicolored Asian Lady Bugs

- I saw daddy long legs trying to kill each other - way cool

-A beautiful ending to a "peace like a river" day

Week 44: My First Dig

October 30, 2010

Today I went with the Office of State Archaeology to the Alamance Battleground for a dig. I arrived early so I watched the video of the Battle of Alamance which happened before the Civil War and American Revolution. Basically the farms raged again the government and a bunch of people got killed.

The first task I did was laying out the grid. Placing flags 1-24 and A-Y and painting the grass. Next I participated in pervenance. This is cataloging the data. Then they let me have a metal detector. I found a washer and a pop tab. They had a metal detector club there helping them. That's right, a club! There was at least 25 people with the club. Then it was back to more pervenance and then I tried my hand at metal detecting again. This time I hit the jackpot. I found a fired rifle ball. Awesome!

My big find!

No I did not find the cool button.

Then I went to a Halloween part as the Mad Hatter! Have a very merry unbirthday! To you, to you, to me, to me!

Week 43: Zip Lining in the Dark under a Full Moon - aka AWESOME

October 22, 2010

This adventure rocked! I went with a group (about 35 or so) to Richland Creek Zip Lining for a night of hanging from wire under the full moon. http://www.richlandcreekzipline.com/ We arrived to a campfire, which was much appreciated since it was a tad bit cold out. We were harnessed and then given glow necklaces, so we could be spotted in the woods. Some other folks brought glow bracelets and shared them. We received instructions and all of the hand (glow stick) signals. Up and down meant break. A circle meant keeping coming. A figure 8 meant ridiculous - translation: you a going so stupidly slow that we are laughing at you.

Then it was time to fly. They clip in your harness and you are off. Down the cable you go and you have the option of stopping yourself with you brake (gloved hand) or by using a tree. Now if you used too much brake, you could potentially not make it to the platform. At which point, the guides would laugh at you, take you picture, and you would have the pull yourself to the platform. If you were unable to do this, the guide would have to come and get you. This did happen once. Poor "A" got stuck and the guide had to go get here. And one person did use the tree for stopping. I was glad that none of that happened to me.

Now, what did happen to me is that I was laughed at a lot. And to be fair, I was laughing at myself. As those of you who know me realize, I'm short. Not quite midget short, by under 5'. The lines that you are strapped into are sometimes high. In order to be strapped onto the line, I would have to stand on my tip toes, while the guide pulled down on the cable. I don't know why this helped, but standing on one foot tiptoe seemed to give me some more height. Not only are the zip lies high, but sometime we walked across bridges to get to different platforms and you had to clip on to a cable above your head. Well, by the time we got to these bridges, the guides were quite amused by my shortness. The cables were high and I was struggling to keep my feet on the bridge. The guides decided to help me out on several occasions by pulling down on the cable, thus make the cable higher, and leaving me dangling by my harness. It was quite amusing!

This was an awesome adventure! You gotta try this!

Sorry, no pictures. It was dark and what if I would have hit a tree with my camera. Anywho, you just need to experience this one for yourself.

Week 42: Conservators' Center - Lions, Tigers, and Wild West Oh My!

October 16, 2010

This week I had a partner in crime with me, Wild West! Wild West has made other adventure appearances, mainly on the Soapstoner Wine Tours. First we had Christmas Cantata practice, then to Tasu for Sushi (yum), then out for adventure!

Wild West and I drove to Mebane, NC to the Conservators' Center for "Howl With Us." This was a twilight tour of the facitily which offers a view of over 90 rescues exotic animals. Check out the website below. All of these animals have their own stories, some of which are heartbreaking.

http://www.conservatorscenter.org/

Our tour guide was Frank, awesome guide! He should have his own comedy show! The tour was over 2 hours long and we saw a plethera of animals, some of which Wild West and I had never heard of such as a genet and a binturong. The guide fed several of the animals as we walked around. The lions, tiger, and wolves oh my downed the meat in no time. The cool thing about this tour is that you are up close and personal with the animals. My face was only feet away from a giant lion, tiger, or fox oh my. You would never get this close in a zoo.

At the end of the tour, we asked to go back and try to make the wolves howl. Frank obliged and we all starting howling. We got some yips and roughs, but only 1 howl, which was amazing.

The other neat thing, is that you can sponsor an animal. If you sponsor and animal, you can go visit it once a week or month or however often you feel like it (within reason). You can also volunteer. How cool would that be.

Disclaimer: As much as I would like to say "I'm the circus lady that sticks her head in a lions mouth." these are still wild animals. And although I may do a lot of crazy things, I'm not stupid and don't intend on trying this at home.

Make adventure #39, your next adventure. It is completey fantastic!

Week 41: Virginia Creep Trail

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Virginia Creeper Trail Bicycle Ride

The quick overview.

Got up at 5 AM to drive 4 hours to Damascus, VA. On the way, I somehow ended up on a dirt road and thought I might be taking a detour, but kept on driving. I was not lost; I never get lost. Turned out to be a beautiful scenic route and shorter than the highway that I took on the way home. I saw tons of Christmas Tree farms. Arrived and got my rented bike, met up with the group, and a van took us to Whitetop, NC to begin the trail. Road 17 miles down hill toward Damascus. The view were fabulous. Ate lunch, ate ice cream, road another 17 mile mostly flat with some uphill at the end in Abington, VA. Saw a tree house. No not a kids tree house. An adult tree house - I want one! Got to the end, saw a train. Took a van back to Damascus. Drove home arriving at 9:30 PM. Long day, my butt hurts, sleepy.

I saw a random Pepsi vending machine along the trail. The power wires were hung from trees across the yard to a trailer. Not a nice trail, but what looked like a junk yard.

The smells were magnificent. Fresh fallen leaves, creosote, apples from an orchard.

The temperature changes as you road the trail. A cool spot, a warm spot.

It was a ride for the senses.

The Virginia Creeper Tail History (just for my dad). See the following link: http://www.vacreepertrail.com/history/vacreeperhistory.htm

And just for GC and the WTG - a sign: