A Homecoming to Nantahala
I went to NOC a couple weeks ago for the first time. I’d heard of it for a couple decades. It’s always been a dream-destination for me. It represents a lot of good culture to me. Whitewater values.
William Nealy. Deliverance (pardon the redneck bashing therein).
Quality outdoor ed.
At the same time, I’ve never been a ‘course’ person. Never had that kind of $ to spare. Neither an organized trip person. (Altho I’ve been on a few good ones.) But I’m all in favor of the culture.
So we drove thru the Smoky Mt gorge and stopped at NOC.
Wow, what a place. Nice bridge. Nice restaurant. Nice oldstyle lodge-cabins on the ‘holler’ side of the river. Nice big shop.
Full-suspension titanium mtbikes for rent! Litespeeds. The new guy said he thot approx $20-30 per day.
The river rolls by right there. Slalom gates for half mile. The river looked very gentle and humane. Modest. Friendly. Places you could work on skills, but lots of room for dallying. A real low pressure zone.
Even though it was kinda cold folks of all types were paddling.
Kids, teens, gals, dudes.
The gorge was lush. I wanted to hike up some little streams right up to the clouds, up those dense slopes.
‘Schwanboring’ the Japanese
call it, I heard–stream hiking.
But I also got some funny vibes. It seemed like a real rich kid’s playground.
Everyone wore the pataguchi uniform. People had the same ‘my mind is expanding’ look on their faces. It’s a real ‘certain time of life’ place.
Natural Resources Majors. 20-somethings full of health and energy.
It seemed just right crowded-wise, but the manager said ‘we’re dead now, you should see it in summer—there are thousands here!’ She said it like it was a good thing. Yikes!
My crowd tolerance was real low having driven thru Pigeon Forge earlier. Gatlinburg is actually quaint and artful.
PF is America Gone to Hell. The flashy trash will bulge your eyeballs.
But I saw lots of spendaholism at NOC, too. Or maybe I was just oversensitized to it right then. A lot of people in that gorge, on that river, seemed like just one big rock concert. Lemminglike. Mating rituals.
I’m sure when you’re peaking on that scene that it’s heaven. I guess I’m just an old fart now. I hopefully have mostly gone past that embarrassing stage now. I suppose a certain amount of uniformity is inevitable in any mind-expansion. But folks ought also to not be haughty about it, or blind to it. And they should always seriously question what they’re putting their energy into. Youth basically only seems to have *energy* going for it. Then it’s gone. Don’t waste yours.
Make sure it’s your real self that you’re expressing, rather than a vision of an advertisement. That’s the tough work.
Probably everyone goes thru that stage, especially in unguided America and West Civ. I hope yours is as brief and harmless as possible.
But absolutely nothing comes without a price. No such thing as harmless.
It all must be paid for.
I chafed at the NOC fishing dept: fancy graphite rods and such.
Elitism? Is there no backing off from it? I guess it’s just market position. But dang. Include the real world, too. –I made some great finds of a big roll of yellow duct tape and the best epoxy: PC7.
NOC is a great place. But I just sense that every great thing has a great risk. It’s not a sure thing. Much harm can come even from such cheerfulness. Or maybe not? Tell me I’m a sourpuss… Maybe
I take it more seriously coz NOC means more to me… Well, it’s
a great place, it can be held to higher standards. I’m sure it does
fine, but all who enter watch your step! The stakes are higher!
