The Heat is On!

After leaving the Blue Ridge, we descended rapidly into lower elevations and higher temperatures.  I was still a few days ahead of picking Julia up in Raleigh, so I picked a half-way spot near Greensboro, North Carolina.  The campground choices didn’t look great from a cost/benefit point of view. Instead,   I elected to stay over for free at Grove Wineries using my Harvest Host membership.

I knew that I wasn’t on the Blue Ridge anymore when I set up the Brew Hut thermometer.  94 degrees! Some people love it hot; I’m not one of those people.  Callie is one tough dog; she doesn’t seem to mind it hot or cold. With Callie safely secured in the Brew Hut with the screens open and ample water, I entered the air-conditioned luxury of the Grove Winery’s tasting room.

The young woman working  in the tasting room also happened to be a Harvest Host member.  She and her husband had traveled by trailer from Alaska to North Carolina. They stopped at many Harvest Host locations along the way.  In the end, they both found employment at Grove Winery and Vineyards.

I have quite a bit of experience tasting West Coast and European wines, but almost no experience drinking East Coast wines.  I was very pleasantly surprised with the whites but especially liked the reds.  Not normally part of the tasting, there was a bottle of the 2011 Cabernet Reserve open. It was amazing.  I ended up buying a bottle of that and also a bottle of a red blend called Block B (2013).  I will try my best not to open them until Julia arrives.

For the rest of the afternoon and early evening, Callie and I hung out on the shaded patio.  I caught up on some reading and made use of the free wifi.

By 7 pm, the sun was starting to go down.  However, the temperatures stayed above 90 in the Brew Hut until about 8 p.m.  It was just too hot to cook, so I ate some crackers with cheese and drank my last cold beer.  Then I chugged two large glasses of cold orange juice and a bottle of kombucha.  You would think I would be up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night,  but I must have been dehydrated because I had no trouble sleeping until dawn.

Staying for free is its own reward, but I was ready for air conditioning.  Next stop:  Raleigh, North Carolina.

Scalplock Lookout

After hiking the Highline Loop, we spent a day driving around Flathead Lake, which claims to be the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the Western states. Along the way, we stopped at a couple of state park units, a winery, and a brewpub.

On the next morning, Dave and I got up early to hike Scalplock Lookout, which Dave picked out because it looked challenging (over 3000 vertical feet in 5 miles) and did not require driving through the national park. The trailhead was an easy drive east on Hwy 2.

I was concerned that the climb would be unpleasant, based on some reviews. However, Dave picked a perfect hike for both of us. The ascent was gradual in the beginning, crossing a creek on a wobbly bridge rated for one hiker at a time. Although it was very windy, the heavy forest shielded us.

The terrain seemed like favorable grizzly country, so we passed the time alternately yelling out, “Hey Bear;” and out-of-tune singing of old classic rock songs from our youth. Eventually, we rose above tree line and were greeted with amazing views and brooding skies.

From the false summit, we climbed more steeply across a beautiful meadow of wildflowers. If I was a bear, this is where I would hang out all day, but no bears were seen on this hike.

At the summit, there was an unoccupied ranger lookout: a sign indicated that they would be back by the weekend. We ate trail mix at their small picnic table (who hauled that up there?) and rehydrated. We gave each other high fives just like we did in ninth grade basketball and headed back down for just under ten miles. A perfect hike and a great day with an old friend.