SimRacer wrote:

[Cherokee]

Until they got their gambling license and built that Harrahs out there, they
were a very poor and somewhat downtrodden people. Sounds like things haven't
changed much, even with all that casino cash rolling in. They're lobbying
our (NC) legislature to get it so that they can use live dealers with their
games out there, to increase their traffic even more. Presently, all the
games out there are video in nature. I'm only 36, but I've been going out to
Cherokee for years, and your description sounds literally spot-on, even if
you'd said it 25-30 years ago (sadly).

It's funny, but I was having a feeling of deja-vu there. I'm pretty
sure we must have gone there when I was a kid. We went to the Smokies
pretty regularly for the fall colors, but usually stayed in Pigeon
Forge. And that would have been 35-40 years ago. I'm guessing it was
pretty much the same.

[stream condition after a rain]

Yes they do (clear up fast). I have a log home farther up the mountain range
from where you were (Boone NC, NW NC, across the border from Bristol TN),
and rain will stain things up pretty good for a little while, but as you
correctly noted, it doesn't take too long to clear out...usually. A couple
of those hurricanes made it up into our mountains last year though, and did
some real damage with the resulting deluges. Homes were lost, roads and
mountainsides washed away, it was a mess. They're still cleaning parts of it
up. The last time I went out there (about a month ago, the wife is
recovering from surgery or we'd be up there at least every other weekend
during the warm months), there was still a good chunk of the Blue Ridge
Parkway closed from Mt Mitchell on North uptoward Grandfather Mountain. I
assume from reading your great UCAP (Up Close And Personal recount) here,
that you didn't see too much in the way of that storm damage. That's good to
hear from the Southern end. They were hit pretty hard too.

Not knowing the area, it's hard for me to say if there was damage.
I did see some areas that looked like they had flooded, but whether it
was last year or years ago, I couldn't say.

Nice series, sounds like you had at least a reasonably nice time in our
humble little state. I've heretofor not been into fly fishing, but my
neighbors up there (up there = Boone NC, I live near Raleigh during the
week...) are really trying my patience over it, so I may soon have to give
it a bonafide try. I'm a flat water (largemouth/crappie/striper) and inshore
angler (striper/redfish/flounder) primarily, but my log home is on a small
river up there that is apparently the home of several species of trout. My
closest neighbor says that if I 'ain't outfitted for fly fishing by next
Spring, he's giving me a rod and forcing me to go' so I figure to give it a
whirl over the next year or so. Oh the humanity! LOL! More fishing stuff
will have to be purchased....

Nice pix too BTW, thanks for sharing.

Thanks, and my pleasure. I had hoped to make it over towards Boone,
but time was too short. The first real love of my life lives near there
(in Vilas?), and I've always loved that stretch of the parkway.


Chuck Vance