Roadtrip Week 13 & 14: Boone, North Carolina
After my month stay in the Red River Gorge, I drove to Boone, North Carolina with my friend Pierre in search of gneiss boulders. I stayed in the area for two weeks, but Pierre could only stay one before having to head home to Montreal to work.
The scenery around Boone is stunning! It is filled with these wonders of nature called “trees”, something that I don’t often see being raised in the desert of Utah. =) I was there during the fall foliage and was daily amazed at the beauty of the area. This pic was taken on top of Table Rock and looks down on the Linville Gorge.
The climbing was extremely fun. I have bouldered a bit back home, but I really feel in love with bouldering once in Boone. Pictured is Erich sending M1 on the 221 Circuit.
One of the best aspects of Boone was the friendliness of the locals. It seemed that people were always looking out for me, plus I was lucky enough to meet a great climbing crew. Tilly was the first person Pierre and I met and he was such a great contact, joining us on numerous climbing days and providing us with climbing beta. Here is Tilly climbing at the Main area at Grandmother boulders.
Daniel working a superb problem at The Grandmother Boulders.
I met two sailor boys (he he …I have to write that as I have NEVER known a sailor boy) and we hung out for the weekend they were in town. The climbing was fun, the campfire HUGE and the bickering between the two amazingly hilarious! Pictured is Chris climbing at the Mushroom boulder at Blowing Rock.
I met JB in the parking lot of Table Rock where we ended up playing cards that evening and then enjoying the hike to the summit in the morn. He joined the crew of us out bouldering the next day. Here he is pictured bouldering at one of the local secret spots.
Tilly topping out a heady v2 roof on the 221 Circuit.
Pierre on the Roof of Death at Blowing Rock. The problem is aptly named as the top out has a potential fall landing on a huge boulder.
The back room of Panera soon became the “traveler hangout” as the wifi was great and the hours reasonable. Mark (on the left) and I hung out on a regular basis during the evening hours and he gave me continual great beta of things to see on my climbing rest days.
North Carolina is in the heart of the Bible belt, which means that I often found myself in Christian themed stores. This Christian theme coffee shop wasn’t really up to par with the coffee, but they were incredibly friendly with good wi-fi and late hours. Plus, they allowed me to print for free. Not too bad if one can deal with the scriptures written all over the wall and the music in the background. =)
On one of my rest days I went to the laundry mat and just happened to meet this house pet, Secal the goat. The goat was cute, but kept trying to “play” with CB, which consisted of Secal trying to head butt CB. Umm, yeah. CB wasn’t too psyched on that idea.d
And… of course… a traditional last blog post picture of CB. Here she is snuggled in the car one night. Ah, the best traveling mate ever.
Ahhh, CB is so cute I better put up two photos. Here she is in her layers of clothing at top of Table Rock. Yes, she IS wearing a bright pink sweater which is easy to spot as she runs through the woods. =)
Boone will always have a special place in my heart as it was in this destination that my road trip started to turn around. Not only were all my worries at home started to dissipate, but I learned to really love to boulder while in Boone.
Tags: boone, climbing, north carolina