Our Trip to Northwest Nebraska and the Black Hills Region

[fortel]

Part One
This is my first trip report on the forum so bear with me if I do something boneheaded … my wife would suggest that it wouldn’t be the first time that has happened.
To start let me define the trip as it was planned. This was an exploration of northwest Nebraska and the Black Hills/Badlands region. While I would have loved for it to be the kind of trip where you leave the pavement, air down, shift into 4wd and explore for days before reversing that order, it was a family trip that was intended to mix history of the area, iconic landmarks, and as much off pavement driving as I could fit (or sneak) in. My son absolutely loves history so many of the stops were included to fuel that desire to learn. One thing we didn’t know at the time was how the heavy rains would change some of our plans.


The truck was ready. It would not be this clean for the rest of the trip.


I had put on a set of KO2s a couple of weeks back. I have always been a fan of the original KOs and the KO2s did not disappoint. The trip was 2,600 miles and change so I got a pretty good feel for how the KO2s are going to behave. The on-road manners are great with no discernable road noise at highway speeds. Where things got a little muddy the staggered side lugs offered extra bite. My perception is that the new tread cleared mud a little better than the KO although it is still not a mud terrain tire by any means. Based on this trip I’m a fan of the new design. We’ll see how they do as they wear.


Day one and we rolled out of Jefferson City about 4:00 am in a light rain headed for Kansas City. Day one was mostly about windshield time to get us close to our target area so we rolled through KC and up I-29 to Iowa. We crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska City, then on to Lincoln and Grand Island. From here we picked up NE-2, the Sandhills Journey Scenic Byway, and slowed the pace down some. I have wanted to see the Nebraska Sandhills for some time and the region was more spectacular than I expected. The Sandhills cover roughly 20,000 square miles and it’s the largest sand dune formation in the western hemisphere. Another neat aspect is that the Sandhills sit on one of the largest aquifers in the world, the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides the moisture that allows the dunes to be covered and stabilized by grasses and other native plants. The 1 billion acre-feet of ground water comes above the surface at the base of many of the dunes, so there are thousands of lakes and wetlands scattered between the grassy hills. Roverrocks has done some in-depth trips to the area and his reports and great photos are here
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/133946-Autumn-in-the-Nebraska-Sandhills
and here
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...-Wheeling-The-Nebraska-Sandhills-in-June-2014


We took time near Halsey to drive up to the Scott Lookout Tower in the Nebraska National Forest. The NNF is the largest hand-planted forest in the country and offers a nice contrast to the Sandhills surrounding it. Not long after this stop we saw the first pronghorns of the trip. We continued to follow NE-2 all the way into Alliance for the first night’s stop.


Day two was planned to be an easy day since all we had to do was make Rapid City by night time. We couldn’t be in Alliance and not stop by Carhenge just north of town. If you are close by you should go, really, it’s a lot of fun.



It was early and we had the place to ourselves. I’ve always been a fan of the creativity and freedom of such roadside oddities and Carhenge did not disappoint. It was built in 1987 and consists of vintage American-made cars assembled into a replica of Stonehenge, along with other car-based sculptures scattered around.


They even threw in a little nod to the Expo crowd, although it looks like the bed needs a little work.


And the RTT on this one needs a new canvas for sure.

To be continued ...

 

[fortel]

Part Two



From Carhenge, we worked our way up to Fort Robinson State Park near Crawford, at one time a key military post. From the Indian Wars till after World War II, there is a lot of history at Fort Robinson, and its location nestled between the buttes is spectacular. This is where Crazy Horse was killed in 1879. In 1885, the 9th Cavalry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, was stationed at Fort Robinson. The Fort continued to be used up until 1947 by the Army for things such as a cavalry remount station, a K-9 dog training center, and a POW camp.


After a brief tour of the museum, which used to be the Post’s HQ building, we walked over to the stables. These guys were about as chilled out as could be.


We took the Jeep tour the park offers up to the top of the buttes. Along the way we saw the first bison of the trip but couldn’t locate the bighorn sheep that hang out near the top of the buttes. The only thing cooler would be if they had let me drive my Frontier on the road up to the top.

Once back to the truck we headed to lunch at the High Plains Homestead near Toadstool Geologic Park. With all of the rain that had been falling, once we left pavement we had to negotiate quite a few road-wide mud holes. This was where I first noticed the extra bite the staggered side lugs of the KO2s provided. I understand this road can get pretty nasty after a lot of rain but it had dried just enough from a couple of sunny days to make the trip in.

The Homestead is one of those places that seem to exist only due to someone’s personal vision. The owner was a blast to visit with and we really enjoyed the lunch time stop. I asked him how he ended up at the end of a dirt road in the Nebraska panhandle when he had been born in Minnesota and all he said jokingly was that it involved a red-headed hooker and a lawyer. My 14-year-old son thought that was pretty funny although I’m not sure he understood the implied meaning. Who knows what the real story is but it was a great lunch and I would recommend it if you are in the area. The menu had the first “Words To Live By” seen on the trip. On the back of the menu contained in the Code of the West was this little gem – “It is troubling, but certain, that if you were born an idiot, you will die an idiot.” Who’s to argue?


After lunch we went up to Toadstool Geologic Park. This was a great recommendation for the trip. The park doesn’t seem to get as much recognition as some of the other area attractions but it is well worth the stop. It’s like a mini version of the Badlands right in the middle of the Oglala National Grasslands.




It felt a lot like the set of some space movie. I kept looking for Counselor Deanna Troi but she didn’t show.


E.T. made an appearance though.

From Toadstool we crossed into South Dakota and had time to go tour the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. Its pretty interesting to hear the story of how such a concentration of fossils, at least 60 mammoths known to date, ended up in one place and how lucky that it was literally saved from the bulldozers when the first tusk was exposed during a construction project in 1974.
Afterwards we jumped over to Highway 79 and finished the run up to Rapid City. Since this wasn’t a camping trip, we picked Rapid City as a base since it didn’t add much driving time to each day’s activities but saved a ridiculous amount of money on the lodging rates compared to basing out of Custer.

More on the way ...

 

[fortel]

Part Three

Remember the mention of all the rain? At the time day three, Monday, looked like the best day to do the hike to Harney Peak, the highest point east of the Rockies at 7,242 feet, since rain chances increased as the week went on. We chose to hike Trail 9 from Sylvan Lake for a couple of reasons, but mostly because its only 3.5 miles to the top which gave us plenty of time to hang out and enjoy the view before heading back down.


The Black Hills and surrounding areas are fighting another outbreak of the mountain pine beetle and the hike up gave us a chance to see how serious the damage is. There is a major effort to thin the forests since that is the best management tool for controlling the spread. Custer State Park is aggressively thinning forest within their park boundaries and as a result is in better shape than the national forest lands around them but there is still a lot of work to be done to limit the damage. My understanding is that 100% of the total acreage in the Black Elk Wilderness has been affected by tree mortality.

The hike up also provided entertainment by way of a wedding party that was hiking up for a noontime wedding at the lookout tower on top of Harney. Just above the junction with Trail 4 we caught up to the bride, her hair in curlers and her wedding dress in a garment bag slung over her shoulder, working her way to the peak. I got a photo but won’t share since I didn’t get a model release signed.


We made the top about the time my wife’s tolerance for the steep trail up was running thin. The stone lookout tower is pretty cool and the views are awesome. I understand that all the stone that was used in construction was hauled to the top from lower on the mountain. The tower was completed in 1938 by the CCC and was manned as a fire lookout tower. In 1967 the tower stopped being manned and it has reverted now to largely the outer shell of stone and a stairway/catwalk to get you up where you can see out the window openings at the top.



There is a lot of room on top of Harney to roam around. An unexpected feature was the small reservoir made by damming up a depression on top to collect rainwater.


We had lunch with an audience of a dozen or more chipmunks looking for a handout. We then headed down to drive the Needles Parkway since traffic seemed to be pretty light with it being a weekday.


Looking back at the tower on the way down. The wedding party was gathering on the terrace – hopefully the groom showed up, he hadn’t made it up when we left the top on our way down.


We took time to walk around Sylvan Lake once we got back to the trailhead. Beetle damage is present there also but it’s cool how the rocks form the lakeshore on one side.


This is the tightest tunnel on the Needles Highway, 8 feet 4 inches wide and 12 feet high. This placed gets jammed with traffic but we got lucky and only had a few vehicles around when we were there. A Custer State Park employee told us they have had fights break out between people who meet in the middle of the tunnel and neither will back out and give the right-of-way. Tour buses go through this thing – you can Google images that show just inches of clearance on all sides. I can’t imagine what it would be like during the Sturgis rally.

It had been a long day so we headed back up to Rapid City once we got to the southern end of the Needles drive. Hit up Firehouse Brewery for brews/supper that night. The beer was so-so but the cheesecake was really good.

To be continued ...

 

[fortel]

Part Four

Day four we decided to make the run west to Devils Tower since it looked like the best day left in the week to beat the rain. We had yet to drive on interstate in South Dakota so I was surprised to see the 80 mph speed limit. The drive over was interesting watching the terrain change while looking for that first glimpse of the Tower.


My wife really wanted to see prairie dogs. She was convinced they were pretty rare and we would be lucky to even see one in the distance. I tried to tell her, I really did, but she wouldn’t believe me. She even asked the NPS entrance gate lady if she thought we would be lucky enough to see one. Well, if you’ve ever been to Devils Tower you know around the first turn after the entrance station the little critters are everywhere, some with tunnel entrances butting up against the asphalt of the road. The wife was a happy camper at that point … not so much later in the trip when she saw all the signs at the Badlands about them carrying the plague.


A shout out to three national treasures – Devils Tower, Eagle Scouts, and of course ExPo!


Its funny how you can have a perceived scale of something based on photos and then reality ends up being much different. While the Grand Canyon always looked huge in photos, every time I’ve been there I am amazed at how much bigger it looks in reality. Same with Devil’s Tower, its much larger than I thought it would be. I’ve still got to rent Close Encounters for my son to watch so he can understand the mashed potato reference. Walking the loop trail around the base gave a unique perspective that I don’t often see represented in photos.


These neon lichens were wild, not sure I’ve seen such intense color in lichen before.


The way the light plays against the tower as you move around the different sides is really interesting. There was a distinctive greenish tint from this view.


In the center crack of the photo are the remnants of the wooden ladder built in 1893 that was used in the early days of climbing the tower. Folks back then must have been nuts, who knows what they would have done if duct tape had been around. I understand that people continued to climb the tower using the ladder until 1927. Makes modern climbing equipment look, well, modern. I was disappointed to see how many climbing parties were on the tower that day ignoring the voluntary climbing ban for the month of June, which is spiritually significant to the Native American population which regard the Tower as a sacred site.


By basing in Rapid City, the return from Devils Tower made it logical to drop down off I-90 and head to Cement Ridge lookout at 6,647 feet. The lookout tower was built about the same time as the one on Harney Peak. The views were as outstanding as were promised.


It was too early for lunch and we could not get too close to the lookout tower due to a crew replacing the roof, but it was nice to take in the long views from up top.


Some of you probably know where this barn is not far from Cement Ridge. It’s roofed with ??? Looks like barrel or drum ends in some way but not sure about the disks in the center of each. The property was posted so I didn’t cross the fence for a better look. Please share if you know what they are, I’d love to know. They do seem to be pretty effective shingles.
We headed down by Roughlock Falls to Spearfish Canyon where we ate lunch at the Latchstring Restaurant. The sandwiches were very good. From there we headed to Rochford.


There’s plenty of color outside the “Small of America”, billed as the smallest mall in the country. Not sure about that fact but it was a fun stop and my son had fun searching their $2.00 a book library and picking up several for the drive home. We then headed to Mystic. In all honesty I pushed too hard this day to drive a bunch of back roads and had to endure the burnout from the wife and son. They had a point I’ll admit. I need to do better when it comes to this.

Stay tuned ...

 

[fortel]

Part Five

Day five was all about less time in the truck and building the day around my son’s interest in history. The rain generally was falling at night at this point and the forecast was holding so we headed to all the big rock heads on the mountains.



Where Devils Tower seemed larger in life than it did in photos, Mt. Rushmore was just the opposite, seeming very small and crowded to me. But it is still an iconic part of America and the trail to the base of the mountain did give some neat views you don’t often see in photos of the monument. One thing I did not realize was how much material was removed from the natural face of the mountain to get down to solid stone that could be carved. You can see how deep they went in the area to the right of Lincoln’s head in the second photo above.


In the gift shop we got to visit with Nick Clifford, one of the carvers who worked on the mountain during its creation. He is 93 years old and just a few years ago he got to go back all the way to the top of Washington’s head. We asked him if he enjoyed the work. He said it was a good job at a time when there were very few jobs to be had. I think he is humble yet proud of the work he did there.


Mr. Washington as seen from the profile view turnout just outside of the park. The surface finish is pretty amazing.


We went from Rushmore straight over to Crazy Horse. It is massive even though you cannot get close to the mountain due to the active work going on. The heads of Mt. Rushmore are roughly 60 feet high each while the face of Crazy Horse is 90 feet tall. The white sculpture in the foreground is the artist’s model of the finished carving.


We were lucky enough to be there in time to see a blast remove approximately 250 tons of material. It is my understanding that they will now move back up and start the detail work on his hand and the horse’s head and mane.


Having been at Fort Robinson where Crazy Horse was killed added some perspective to the visit. If you go, watch the movie they show. There’s lots of good info about how the monument came to be and a pretty funny story about one of the sons rolling a bulldozer off the side and then recovering it.

Since it had been an easy day so far we headed into Custer so my son could do some rock shopping. We then headed back into Custer State Park to check out some things at the visitor’s center. This is a good time to give a shout out to the staff of Custer State Park. Every park staff person we encountered was friendly, knowledgeable, and professional. I wish we had more time in the trip to explore the park further.


From the visitor center we headed back north on the Iron Mountain Highway. They are resurfacing the road so we knew there would be delays waiting for the pilot cars to lead us through sections. It wasn’t that much of an inconvenience in reality and we actually had a very good visit with one of the flaggers, a Lakota woman. She shared with us some neat stories of her growing up until the pilot car arrived and we got moving again.

More to come ...

 

[fortel]

Part Six

Day six started rainy and cool. My son really wanted to go to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum so we decided we would run back down to the wildlife loop at Custer State Park and look for critters before coming back up to the museum. Coming in the east entrance I saw black-billed magpies for the first time. We don’t have them in Missouri but I wish we did, they are spectacular birds. We also saw the first of the bison cow/calf pods beside the highway. We drove south on the wildlife loop road until we could turn onto the gravel interior roads in search of more wildlife.


This guy was right by the road and looked like he would steal your truck in a minute if you turned your back on him.


Came across another pod of cows and calves. Park staff said a few days earlier that most of the herd had been together but had since broken in three or so pods that were scattered around the park.


This solitary bull was further down the road. He was way off the road bedded down but a long zoom got a decent enough photo. I didn’t want to be the moron that walked right up to him and then couldn’t understand why I had hoof prints on my skull.

Another casualty to the rain was Barnes Canyon Road (CSP8). It runs east/west from the Badger Hole area to the airport and just north of the French Creek Natural Area. I first saw it on the National Geographic Trails Illustrated map with a warning that it was not recommended for passenger vehicles and showed gates at each end. But then I tried to find it on the official map for the park and it was not shown. Hmmm. When I asked about it in the visitor center they pulled out a different map that did show it. They indicted that if the gates were open is was OK for private vehicles to drive it. Obviously my interest was peaked at this point. After crossing through the interior of the wildlife loop on CSP 2, 5, 4, and exiting by the horse camp at Blue Bell, we headed up and around to see what was up. Left the pavement just past Badger Hole, the gravel road is getting narrower, things are looking up … then came the locked gate. Apparently water was over the road and the gates had been locked. I really wanted to see what was on that stretch. If anyone has ever driven it, please chime in with info.

Mt. Coolidge at 6,023 feet was socked in with clouds so we headed back up to Ellsworth AFB to hit the Air and Space Museum. Many of you know Ellsworth is home to one of the B1B bomber wings. It was a flying day and the Lancers were flying touch-and-gos while we were there. We’ve got the B2s at Whiteman AFB about an hour west of where we live which are cool planes in their own right, and I love seeing them overhead from time to time, but seeing the Lancers climb up and out was a wickedly impressive sight. The museum is where we saw the second “Words To Live By” of the trip. Number one on the list of Flying Regulations of the U.S. Army Air Service in 1919 was this – “Don’t take the machine into the air unless you are satisfied it will fly.” You’d think that one would be obvious.


So one of the neat things about the museum is that they take you on base and you get to go down inside the training silo for the Minuteman II missiles unlike just looking down through glass at the silo that is part of the Minuteman Historic Site near the Badlands.



This was part of the aiming system for the missile. If I understood correctly, each silo had a viewport of sorts seen in the second photo above, the Polaris Tube, oriented to the North Star. It was used in some combination with this scale to aim the missile. I need to read a little more about it to better understand how it worked.

The rest of the visit consisted of an impromptu tour of the static plane displays outside by a veteran who was a gunner on one of the AC-47 “Puff the Magic Dragon” gunships in Vietnam. He is an Eagle Scout also so he and my son had a really good visit. You could see his pride as he discussed the aircraft and the roles they played in history.

This was our last day in Rapid City before headed east to the Badlands. One interesting sighting coming back from supper was a Jeep FC sitting on a lot on the northeast side of Rapid City. Didn’t stop for a photo but it looked like it was complete and in running shape.

Day seven started by making a run east to get tour tickets for the Delta launch facility that is part of the Minuteman Historic Site before they booked up.


After the tour topside showing how security and access to the facility was handled, we headed down to the underground control facility. By the way, the ranger/guide that led our tour gives a test to see if you can identify one of the above ground pieces of equipment. You could win a patch or emblem if you guess correctly. And no, I’m not giving the answer here. But I guessed wrong just so you know.


This eight-ton blast door sealed the two man crews inside during their shifts. The concrete pod they were in was constructed with two-inch rebar. Somebody may have come knocking but they sure weren’t getting in. The ranger told us that personnel at each facility could decorate as they wanted, hence the Domino’s-themed art on the outside of the blast door.


One of the two missileer consoles in the facility. They were far enough apart that no one person could insert and turn both keys at the same time, which was one of the requirements for a launch. Since it was know this facility was going to be turned into a historic site after the treaty was signed, everything was left in place at the end of the last shift to leave in 1993.


One of the two keyholes that would have been used for a missile launch. I cannot begin to imagine what would be going through your head if you had just received orders to insert the key and turn it. This ended up being one of the most compelling sites of the whole trip. My upmost respect and admiration for the young men who sat down there 12 hours at a time knowing in the back of their minds what they may be called on to do. And thank goodness those keys never had to be turned.

One more ...

 

[fortel]

Part Seven

From there it was on to the Badlands and Sheep Mountain Table road … or so I thought. Remember the mention of all the rain the area had been getting? So we get out to Scenic and turn south on 589/27 to head to Sheep Mountain Table. Right after the little cluster of buildings that make up Scenic – bam! – road blocked off and closed. A ranger later told us that the rains had washed out the main road headed south. The road to the top may have been un-passible anyway due to the rain but I sure would have loved the opportunity to find out for myself. We started back east by driving up and around on Sage Creek Road. Saw quite a few bison and pronghorns in the western part of the park as we worked our way back to the Pinnacles entrance station south of Wall. Note – the Sage Creek Rim Road between 502 and 240 is also closed at this time (early June) so we looped up 502 to 590 and back down 240 to reenter the park and continue on the Badlands Loop Road to the visitor center.


The Yellow Mounds area has the most color of any of the formations we saw. From there we continued on the park loop road back towards the visitor center.
In the visitor center were two women visibly upset from all the rattlesnake warning signs at the park pullouts. They seemed certain that they would be murdered by a rattler before they could get out of the park. The third and final “Words To Live By” of the trip were heard at this point when the ranger offered them this advice … “If you don’t want to get bit by something, don’t poke it.” It’s the first week of June, he’s got a long summer tourist season ahead of him.


I thought it was interested how different parts of the park looked depending on where you were. The iconic views of the eroded slopes totally disappear at times when you climb up onto the flat grassy tops. They had been seeing bighorn sheep on the loop road but we missed them until later in the day when we saw several on the ridge across from the visitor center.



We stayed at Cedar Pass Lodge in the park which allowed us to watch the formations warm up with late afternoon light from our cabin. But rain was moving back in and we had decided to make a run for home the next day so we hit the sack early in preparation for the 800 plus mile drive back home.


Day eight and luckily the heavy rain ended just before we headed out of the park at 3:45 am. The HIDs came in handy working our way through all the deer in the middle of the road from the lodge back up to the interstate. Once back up to I-90 we turned east and watched a nice sunrise through breaks in the clouds. It was a long, long drive home.

So, a few thoughts, reflections, and regrets from the trip:

The Frontier did great and I continue to be impressed with the engine in the thing. The two major drawbacks are the lack of rear seat legroom and the tailgate design that leaves huge gaps for dust intrusion into the bed and Leer shell. Got to seal that up somehow.

The KO2s really impressed. Very good road manners and, from what I could tell from this trip, better off-pavement performance than the original KOs. I’m a fan.

Trip mileage was just over 2,600 miles in 8 days, with over half of that distance split between the first and last days of the trip. Best MPG was 19.9 and the entire trip average was 17.8. Lowest gas price was $2.37 a gallon and the highest was $3.74.

I pushed the off-pavement driving time too hard on our Devil’s Tower/Cement Ridge/etc. day. That was my bad and I need to remember to save that kind of driving for when that is the sole intent of the trip. It got to be pretty tedious for my wife and son by the time we got back into Rapid City that afternoon.

I really enjoyed interacting with all the different park staff encountered on the trip, especially the staff of Custer State Park who were outstanding. Kudos to them for the job they are doing.
The Critters Seen list included bison, pronghorns, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk, badgers, prairie dogs, bald eagles, a bullsnake, and tons of grassland birds including magpies and meadowlarks.

And while I certainly regret not getting to do some of the drives that the rain kept us from doing, I had a blast on the trip. I enjoyed the geologic/habitat progression of the Sandhills to the buttes, the grasslands to the granite of the Black Hills, and the stark eroded landscape of the Badlands. I also enjoyed all the wildlife, some familiar and some not, that we saw.

I tried to fact check as much of this report as I could. If there is a glaring error that I missed let me know and I will edit. I also tried to include as many road names or numbers as possible for other’s trip planning. If there is a road or location in the report you need more info on, let me know and I will share what I can.

And finally, thanks again to all the ExPo members who chimed in with suggestions during the planning stage of the trip, that knowledge helped a bunch. Now what’s next?

 

[roverrocks]

Great writeup, great pictures. Thanks for posting your adventures in this great little known region.

 

[fortel]

Roverrocks

I'd still like to get further into the Sandhills like you have in your trips, but NE-2 is a great road to get a feeling for how cool this region is and traffic was light enough to take our time as we drove. Living where I do its always good to get out where the horizons are a long way off and the skies are big.

 

[xjaugie]

Great write up on one of my favorite places to explore around. My mother works for the jeep tour company. She drives from Maryland out to Custer park each year to work for the summer. This year she is 70 years old and still makes the trek, she loves that park.

 

[pmatusov]

Thanks for the trip report! That's one part of the country I have never visited yet.

 

[Foy]

Sandhills, and soon

Fortel,
Nice writeup and thanks for sharing it.

We're headed that way soon enroute to Montana. We have also benefitted, and greatly, from some sage advice and guidance from Roverrocks and will be reporting by early August once the trip is complete.

Foy

 

[fortel]

Great write up on one of my favorite places to explore around. My mother works for the jeep tour company. She drives from Maryland out to Custer park each year to work for the summer. This year she is 70 years old and still makes the trek, she loves that park.

That's fantastic she is still able to make the journey and work at the park. There was a lot about Custer State Park that makes me want to go back and spend a lot more time within the park boundaries.

 

[fortel]

Thanks for the trip report! That's one part of the country I have never visited yet.

Its worth planning a visit to. I keep looking back over the BHNF MVUM maps and would love to put together a trip like the MOS guys did a couple of years ago. The good thing is that once you are in the general area there is a ton of stuff to do without having to venture very far.

 

[fortel]

Fortel,
Nice writeup and thanks for sharing it.

We're headed that way soon enroute to Montana. We have also benefitted, and greatly, from some sage advice and guidance from Roverrocks and will be reporting by early August once the trip is complete.

Foy

Foy

Man I thought we had a long haul out, you've got a big road trip ahead of you. ExPo and its members are an outstanding resource for info and planning. On a separate note, I've got to plan to get back to NC sometime soon. I spent a ton of time through the 80s and early 90s hanging out in eastern TN and western NC whitewater kayaking every chance I could afford to get away. A really bad swim on the Cheat in WV at high water spooked me and I sort of drifted away from that kind of boating. But NC is still one of my favorite states. Good luck on your trip.