Gorilla Time

To start this off, I FINALLY found my camera a couple of weeks ago (yay! because I just bought it in May). This fact complies to post on here more since I'll have fun pictures to share! With that being said...

I got to go to the Green River Narrows Race for the first time this past weekend! I've heard my guy friends talk about it for the past few years so excited was an understatement. The race is in Saluda, NC (near Asheville - love that city!) and hundreds of people flock there for this race.

The adventure all started with a Facebook chat with Cruise telling me that I should come and then Alleysun (she really spells it Allison but I don't) wanting to come visit the same weekend. SOOOO - we decided we were going to the race in a matter of about 5 minutes. Alley came over from Mississippi on Thursday and we headed up to North Carolina on Friday afternoon, only about 2 hours behind schedule. The best part was we had almost NO clue of where we were going - as in I hadn't talked with Cruise or any of the others since we had decided to go to the race. I printed off some race info, left a voicemail for Cruise, Alley plugged Saluda into the GPS, and away we went!

Cruise did call me back when we were right outside of Atlanta and confirmed we had actually guessed correctly as to where to go. Alley and I stopped at awesome Mexican resturant somewhere in northeast Georgia where she said my chipotle sauce tasted like band-aids but she liked it (okay?! - I liked it though too). We finally got off of the exit after six hours of driving and have to find our camp ground. The road down towards the camp grounds was switchbacks all the way down and unlike Alabama, North Carolina doesn't really believe in guardrails. After arriving to the camp grounds, we proceeded to quickly get lost and do a complete circle (the camp ground really wasn't that big). We then go looking for everyone that is camping there. We didn't find them. I even called for Chama (Cruise's dog - Chama is awesome) but apparently he was already in the truck for the night. The camp ground-getting-lost-and-searching-for-everyone event took about 30 minutes, so Alley and I finally gave up, parked, and went to sleep in the back of my Jeep.
The campsite where everyone was for the weekend. The two trees on the right are where we slept Friday.

Saturday morning started off lots luckier. I got out of the Jeep and spotted Chama right away. During the previous night's searching, we had definitely pulled up right beside everyone. We quickly put on multiple layers and headed to the gas station to stock up for the day. Everyone carvaned to the trail head for the 3ish mile hike-in. It was an easy hike until the very end - think a couple hundred people all trying to get down a 45-degree hill that ends at the river.

Alley and I waiting in line to go down the hill.

The race had already started by time we got to Gorilla. We actually watched Cruise and Charlie come down without realizing it was them. Robert, Alley, and I finally found a spot to watch 'Go Left'. We recoginzed Andy as he came flying past us and also got to witness some carnage that ended up with one of the competitors heading off to get sutured up.

We finally made it back to the camp grounds (remember we had that awesome hill to tackle, plus the rest of the hike out). Margie (Cruise's mom) made us dinner that included salads with FETA CHEESE! (I'm always going camping with them!) The party and awards ceremony was a few miles down the road, so we all piled in a couple vehicles and headed out for a long night.

Mark (Cruise's dad), Robert, me, and Alleysun

Hi Andy!

Cruise and me

We finally headed back to our campsite and hung out by the fire for a while. Sunday came and Alley and I packed to make the trek back to Bama, while the guys were headed to huck some falls. We said our good-byes, made a stop at the local produce stand for some A-MAZING 'Pink Lady' apples, and got back on the road!

It was an awesome adventure! Check out this random video for the race action.