Now this is what I call a kickass weekend. Friday after work, I drove up to Atlanta, Georgia (8-hour drive). After only four hours of sleep at Heather's friend Winston's place, nine of us drove up to Nantahala in North Carolina to go whitewater kayaking. I borrowed Winston's sit-inside kayak as mine is a sit-on-top. It was a four hour paddle from the top to the base of the trail and most of the course was Class II with number of Class III rapids. It was one of the most adventurous things I've ever done as was evident from my yells of excitement most of the way down. At the very end, I lost complete control after jumping off the five foot fall and flipped my kayak upside-down. Good thing I was wearing a body-suit, life-vest, helmet, and grip shoes so within seconds I was out of the water, safe and sound. It took four people to get my water-filled kayak out of the water though. All in all, good times.

We drove through some beautiful scenery on the way back to Atlanta from Nantahala. We were very close to the Blue Ridge Parkway, regarded as one of the most scenic routes in the world. I want to go all across the Blue Ridge some day. Back in Atlanta, we had some good food and crashed at Heather's friend Jacob's house for the night. Finally after a much needed good night's sleep, I woke up, and left for home around noon. I wasn't too interested in driving down the busy Interstate-75 so as soon as I entered Florida, I took an exit for a smaller country highway and drove home through smaller, prettier roads. On the way I passed Ichetucknee Springs, Suwannee River, Homosassa Springs, Crystal River, and Weeki Wachee Springs. I definitely want to paddle down Ichetucknee and Suwannee sometime soon.

I got home around 9pm, uploaded some of the pics from this weekend here: Nantahala Whitewater Kayaking. Heather, Catherine, and John took more pics and I'll add them to this gallery as I get them.

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