DuPont Forest & Downtown Asheville

This morning we left the hotel and rode an easy 30 miles to DuPont State Forest.  It was a real nice ride, nothing too crazy road-wise.  We sorted out the bikes.  One of my concerns when planning for the trip was when we walked away from the bikes, whatever we left wasn't really secure.  One of the methods I planned to employ was covering the bike.  That helps for sure.  I also packed most of my valuables in a backpack that goes inside my dry duffel.  That and my tank bag hold all of my most valuable items.  So I took those two things with me when we left for the hike.  I put the dry duffel on the seat, and ran a lock through the handle of the dry duffel, which now contained my motocross boots and my jacket.  When seat space isn't an issue, that duffel can hold a LOT!  I also put the cover and alarm on the bike.  I felt pretty secure with that, especially since I would be carrying my packpack and tank bag.  Here's how the bike looked before I put the cover on it:

We stopped in the visitor's office and there was a nice old lady working there who grew up in Glen Ellyn.  We chatted for a bit and then I asked her if I could leave my backpack, tank bag, and jacket there with her while we hiked.  She said that I could, and that was really awesome because hiking around while I carried all that crap would have been BRUTAL.

We hiked a few miles, visiting both Triple Falls and High Falls.  We met and talked to several people along the path.  Everyone was nice.  We also found this little dude warming himself on the rocks:

The Rhododendron bushes were in bloom also:

Here are some photos, followed by videos of Triple Falls:

We also hiked up to High Falls.  Here's a couple of pictures/video of High Falls:

And while we were at DuPont, we met a family from the Chicago area and they were taking pictures that mimicked one of the scenes from the Hunger Games movie, which was partially shot at the DuPont Forest.  Brian and I thought it would be pretty funny to re-enact the same scene..  This is an extremely gay photo....Hahahaha.....but pretty funny.

We packed up and left DuPont, with our rain suits on as we weren't sure if it was going rain or not.  The rain gear is HOT, so that part really sucks, but you just never know when it's going to start raining in the mountains up here.  It was a 40 mile ride to downtown Asheville, where Brian wanted to hang out for a bit and see a craft brewery called "Wicked Weed".   

With some of the strange directions that the GPS had given me (especially when it told me to ride essentially right up the side of the mountain yesterday!), I decide to ignore it a bit and just follow the road that I thought took us right back downtown.  Well, I got us off track by a few miles, but really not too bad.  Haha.  We rolled into downtown Ashville, and quickly realized that it was all metered parking.....which we found a spot that we shared that was a few doors down from "Wicked Weed".  Here's Brian standing outside, and a couple of pictures from inside.  The food was great, and Bian said the beer was quite good, too.

Our waitress:

After eating at the Wicked Weed, we walked around downtown Asheville.  It's a real hippie scene.  Lots of people wandering in the streets.  Everyone's tattood, and I'm not sure what the hell some of these vendors are selling.....like this dude:

We walked around downtown a bit, before leaving around 5pm and hit some traffic.  The ride to our next hotel in Marion was about 40 miles and was a great stretch of road.  It was the first time we opted NOT to put our rain gear on "just in case", because it's so freakin' HOT.  So naturally, we got about 20 miles into our ride and it felt CERTAIN that it was going to rain.  I put the hammer down and rode most of the way back at 65-70mph.  We beat the rain, checked in, and the nice girl at the front desk let us leave the bikes right out front under the shelter.  We showered, and then walked 2 miles to a Mexican restaurant.  It was a long walk (along the highway) after a long day of riding and walking.   It felt like it might rain, but we risked it.  The place was good!  When we were getting up to leave, we noticed that it was POURING outside!  We talked to one of the girls working there and she said that there is indeed a taxi service in Marion.  Who knew?   It was a $7 fare, so with a $3 tip it cost us each $5 to not have to walk back a mile and a half in the rain.

That's basically the story of the day.   Tomorrow we're on to Blue Ridge Parkway for our last real day down here.....