It rained heavily during the night but was barely drizzling when we started the day mining for gems. There are probably a dozen tourist gem mines in this area. We chose one recommended by our horse guide. The place was closed but the owners also ran a nearby gas station and they opened the gem mine for us.

Eric proudly shows his quartz

We sifted three large bags of sand mixed with rocks searching for precious or at least pretty stones. We found a few dozen and asked that some of the larger ones be cut into pieces suitable for mounting into jewlery. These will be mailed to us in a few weeks. It will be interesting to see if the cut gems are worth the cost of our finding them and paying to have them cut. We'll have them appraised and find out. In any case, Eric loves mining for cool stones and Missy likes getting jewelry.

From mining we intended to catch a noon whitewater rafting trip down the Nantahala River. Unfortunately, the rafting outfit we were planning on using appeared closed for the season. We traveled a bit further west and saw several other outfitters. We decided to hook up with the largest of these, the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). The center includes a few restaurants and stores and we had a wonderful meal of a portabella mushroom sandwich, veggie burger, and black bean chilli over serpa rice. The downside of using NOC was that their next excursion was at 2:00 so we had to just hang-out for an hour and a half, losing mountain biking time from the end of the day. During that time, we saw a three year-old "pocket" beagle that reminded Missy of Snoopy; the dog with whom she grew up.

There is a strictly enforced 60 pound minimum weight for the Nantahala river ride and Eric was weighed in Charlotte (at the swimming pool and Discovery Place Museum) at 59 pounds. To be on the safe side, we dressed him in his heaviest clothes. He tipped the scale at 63 pounds. The ride down the eight mile section of the Nantahala River took two and a half hours. Most of the water is level I rapids with a dozen or more level II and the Nantahala Falls (level III rapids) just before the end of the ride.

The water temperature was in the 40's but we were dressed warmly and covered with water resistant clothing provided by NOC. Our raft received a fair amount of water in it shortly after we started so our feet and footwear was underwater nearly the entire ride. We didn't notice the cold either because our feet quickly became numb or we were distracted by the exhilleration of the ride. It was a much more challenging ride than the whitewater rafting we had done a few months earlier.

Eric and Missy checking out the next set of rapids.

We rafted with another couple (Mindy and Kevin) and our guide, Andy. The latter did a marvelous job of directing the raft away from rocks and, on a few occaisions, purposely into large rocks so we would bounce off and spin away. He also led us in a few spin moves in the middle of level II rapids and a ramming action into a self-guided raft that had gotten stuck on some rocks. Andy took us through a few rapids sideways so water would wash over us (at one point he warned us that we'd take on about 1000 pounds of water in one half second--we were bailing that water out of the raft for several minutes afterwards).

We delighted in all this chicanery and didn't notice the coldness of the water that would occaisionally splash over us and always engulfed our feet. Andy surprised us by taking us down the level III Natahala Falls sideways. Mindy, who had been sitting across from Eric, bounced off her seat and into Eric as we swept down the Falls. Neither fell overboard.

Back at the cottage, Eric and Curt did a little bike riding while Missy prepared a pressure cooked meal. She finds that cooker a huge help in preparing tasty, healthy meals quickly. We turned in early anticipating an early start and another full day.

Back to Curt, Missy, and Eric Homepage	Back to All Diaries

© 1999 frantzml@juno.com