Bryson - Sylva, NC here I am!

I am staying at this great little campground outside of Bryson City, NC called Smoky Mountain Meadows RV park (I'll do a full write up when I leave). In the evenings you can actually sit outside without being eaten alive. Outside my RV in the open field I am able to enjoy fire bugs lighting up everywhere! Even had one almost land on me.

One of the views from my RV! Most nights I sleep with just a fan and open all my windows so I can wake up to a view of these moun

The only drawback to this picturesque mountain town is wi-fi/cellular. Verizon is very limited everywhere. I have barely any signal at the campsite. With my booster I can just barely make a phone call and in town the library and businesses have slow wi-fi. As such I drive 19 miles over to Sylva, NC every day where the library there has blazing fast wi-fi. Towns have vibes. Bryson City feels like a tourist town. You either are a local or a tourist. But in Sylva its a real working small town where I feel welcome and have already made connections. 

The library where I work. Just a short walk to main street Sylva. Hours aren't great, they don't open till 10am, but you can always sit outside on their rockers and still access the wi-fi.

View from 2nd floor of library. Great office window!

Split rock on a trail at the near by Pinnacle National Park. This is a far as I made it on this very steep trail! Out of shape, am I!

The trail is all straight up. I made a new friend, Sheila, who was out for her first walk after eye surgery.

One nice thing about the area is that there is always hiking near by. So I can take a hike before or after work without having to drive far. In Bryson city you can easily get to the road to nowhere. It's a road that was being built and then not finished so it just stops. I didn't really enjoy this trail because the tunnel freaked me out (its longer than it looks). I've noticed that once I get a little scared by something on a trail my fear just keeps compounding and I stay in a slightly easily panicked state the rest of the trip (something for me to work on).

The tunnel.

End of the road! Just forest and some trails after.

I guess the road to nowhere needs some trails to nowhere. Just drops off the edge of the mountain (yes I know its runoff line).

For the weekend I did two great activities, first I went for a hike near Bryson City called Deep Creek. I was originally going to just do a short 4 mile loop but decided I wasn't done hiking when I hit my turning point and continued on. Overall I did 12.6 miles. Not too bad except where it went straight up for 1.5 miles or straight down for 1.5 miles. This is such a beautiful day hike. It took me 6.5 hours with little to no breaks (I'm a slow hiker though). There are plenty of campsites available and some longer trails that could turn this into an overnight. However, the campsites are at lower elevations so I wouldn't recommend during major bug season.

You are near water most of the hike.

There are 3 or 4 different waterfalls.

These fungi are cool!

The next day I met up with the Foothills Paddling Club at Brookside Camp on the Nanthala for a day of rafting. I had enjoyed this activity with them a month ago when I was in Greenville, SC and it was just as much fun (but with a much shorter drive!). The river is a bit low right now because of drought they are doing later and shorter dam releases. Pictures from a company of our raft going over the last rapid.

So far I'm really enjoying this area. Looking forward to going backpacking this weekend!