Back to Brevard Part 1

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It was only about a 70 mile drive from the state park in South Carolina to our next stop in North Carolina. We are heading to a private campground that we stayed at for a week 2 years ago and had really enjoyed the area. Land of Waterfalls RV Park is technically in the town of Pisgah Forest, but the closest real town is Brevard. We are coming this time about a month later in the spring so hopefully it will be a bit warmer than our last visit. Being fairly close to the Blue Ridge Parkway means we are at higher elevation than we have been in quite some time with the campground sitting at about 2100 feet. We have already done a lot of sightseeing and hiking in the area which can be seen at the following link. This time we plan on seeing more and different things simply because the area has a vast amount of hiking and obviously waterfalls given the name of the campground.

We arrived at camp and setup in one of the dozen or so sites in this smaller campground that we had reserved back at the end of January when we were making our summer travel plans. The sites are on gravel but reasonably level with full hookups and decent WiFi. There is a camp host but we never need to speak with them or check in. The whole thing is simply done thru their reservation system online.

There is a New Belgium Brewing operation in nearby Asheville. We had visited and toured the main plant in Fort Collins Colorado two years ago and really enjoyed the it and the vibe of that facility. From the sounds of things, the brewery in Asheville that opened in 2016, continues that tradition so we decided to drive up on Saturday morning for a tour of this facility. They offer several different tours from a free 45 minute tour, a 90 minute Production Tour for $15 or the two and a half hour “Behind the Scenes Tour” for $40. From our experience in Colorado, we opt for the longer tour and book it when we arrived on Friday afternoon.

Our tour was scheduled for 10AM which is when the taproom opens for the day. We are greeted by our tour guide Dale and told to sit tight while he does the morning team building session. We meet Joe from Portland Oregon. He is the only other person that is on our tour so we will have a fairly small group. We start the tour outside and Dale tells us all about the history of New Belgium and the reason for the second plant being built in Asheville. He grew up in the area so he was familiar with the actual land that the brewery now sits on and has lots of stories about the place. We head inside to the main reception area for the tours and continue our lessons with a beer or two from the full range of New Belgium beers.

Creative Entrance Arch at New Belgium

Inside this large room with full walls of windows are several large stainless steel vessels. Each one is handling a different stage of the brewing process and we can look inside them to get a sense of what is going on. This place is very big into being “green” so much of the discussion is around how the waste heat from one process is used in some other way in the brewing process. There are 4 large monitors butted together with the real time status of each of these kettles.

Big Stainless Steel Kettle

The State of the Brewing Process

A Look in a Kettle

There is a lot of eclectic art along the way. Some of the pieces come from the remnants of the former businesses that used to occupy this land - an auto junkyard and a livestock auction house. This part of the tour is where we are given the option to slide down a corkscrew slide - like you would see at a children’s playground. We had done this during our Fort Collins tour as well, but what one was closer to the end of the tour so we had pounded a few more beers than we have so far on this tour.

Cattle Art

We also get the full story behind the bicycles that are associated with New Belgium. Back in 1999, brewery workers started to receive a bicycle for their one-year anniversary. This tradition continues today and each year there is a different style and color of bike so it is possible to know what year an employee started by simply looking at their bike. Fat Tire Ale is one of their original beers and uses the bike as its logo. Dale is coming up on his first year anniversary and is looking forward to getting a new bike since his last bike was stolen.

Dale Shows Off Some Past Years Bikes

More Bikes Hang Overhead

Next we head into one of the main production areas in the brewing process. To the untrained observer, it looks like a mess of pipes and valves and gauges but the whole area is spotless and all of the pipes are clearly labeled so workers that run this side of the process can make sure everything is progressing properly. Another large monitor is near the entry door to the room that has all the gory details of which beer is in which tank. I did notice that one of the tanks has a picture of Al Roker - the weather anchor at NBC. Dale says that the production workers have the ability to change pictures as they choose and there was likely some sort of inside joke as opposed to a whole batch of some new beer! Of course if New Belgium introduces the Al Roker Ale, you hear it here first!

Production Area

A Plumbers Nightmare?

Al Roker Beer in Production?

We had another stop for some more beer, this time we are given the choice of some of New Belgium’s more unusual beers like tripels and sours. Personally I’m not a big fan of this style but Chris likes some of them and our buddy Joe really likes one of them. There is more artwork hanging on the walls of the hallway including a large heart shaped board where employees attach some item that is important to them. Each one tells a story and Dale relates one of the stories of a women that has been working here for awhile.

A  Voodoo Ranger Christmas

Beer as Art

Employee Story Board

As we continue down this hallway, we stop at a large cooler for more stories from Dale. From the sounds of it, each employee is allowed to take up to a case of beer each month. We head into the cooler and are amazed at how many different beers are in here. Dale tell us to each grab a beer of our choosing and he will put it against his allotment.

Employee Beer Cooler

Lots to Choose From

We continue down the hall and see several of the lab areas where the beer gets analyzed during the brewing process. It was a bit strange at one point because a worker was sitting at a computer doing some sort of analysis or report and our tour group was walking by staring in at her like we might at animals at a zoo enclosure. She seemed uninterested in our presence.

Beer Analysis Room

Next was the view overlooking the main bottling line. They were actually running during our visit and it was very impressive to see the scale and speed at which the production line was running.

Overlooking Bottling Line

Empty Bottle Arrive

Filled and Capped - Next Stop Labels

Just off of the production viewing area was another room with a bar. This time we get to sample some of the IPA beers that New Belgium produces. These are some of the more popular beers with the iconic Voodoo Ranger being the “spokesperson” for the brand. Off of this room is a window overlooking the canning side of the production but it looked like this line was down for maintenance.

Voodoo Ranger Bobblehead

Canning Line Down

Another tour group is arriving in this room so Dale takes us to one of the employee meeting rooms to finish off our tour at New Belgium. He tells us to wait and goes to pull a few bottles straight off the production line and comes back to share his efforts. This is the area where they also train some of the employees to be beer tasters. I wouldn’t have thought training was required but he showed us the sheet of dozens of smells or flavors that might occur in beer. In order for the person to qualify as an official taster, then must be able to identify the majority of these items. After reading the list, I think I will stick with being a casual beer drinker. I’m not sure I want to be put to the test to identify a beer that has even a hint of sweat sock, skunk or pumpkin guts smell to them!

Smell/Flavor Table

It was amazing how quickly the 2.5 hours went by. We head out of the production buildings and back to the main taproom. By now this place was hopping. The inside and outside seating area was nearly full with people enjoying a beer. They had a gift shop in one corner and I found a t-shirt I liked.

Lots of Happy Beer Drinkers

Since we had already had a few too many beers, we decided to walk around the area near the brewery. There was an Adventure Lab that would give us a tour of this part of Asheville known as the RAD - River Arts District. It didn’t take long before we realized how appropriately named the area is. We are right along a portion of the French Broad River and there are many dozens of small artisan shops all along the streets. It had recently rained and looked threatening so I’m sure it had scared away some people but the places did look fairly busy. We did a little window shopping and stopped to watch some glass blowers doing their thing.

Repurposed Cotton Mill

Tank Artwork

We completed a large loop thru the RAD and finished up back at New Belgium. We were a little hungry and while they don’t serve food at the taproom, they do have a few food trucks with a variety of offerings that looked good. Dale had given us beer tokens good for another beer either here or back in Colorado. We knew if we didn’t use them now, we would lose track of them and never find them again during a future visit. So I grabbed some beers while Chris ordered some food and we sat inside and enjoyed the people watching.

Back at New Belgium

The following day we would head out for the real reason we are back in western North Carolina - a hike in the mountains. We head out early to the southern portion of Dupont State Recreational Forest. We have done several hikes here during our prior visit but this time we will be tackling a new trail for us. A 3.6 mile loop according to AllTrails that combines several trails - Big Rock, Cedar Rock, Little River and Corn Mill Shoals trails. Like many of the trails in Dupont, they are both for hiking and mountain biking. The trailhead parking lot is large and accesses several other trails in this part of the park. There were quite a few cars and it looked like the majority of the users were here with their bikes.

Well Marked Trails at Dupont

Up the Rock Trail

We will have a half dozen or so geocaches along the way to motivate us during the hike. It was an overcast day and things were a little wet from yesterday’s rain. It became obvious as we started the climb up the Big Rock Trail as to where the name comes from. This part of the hike has lots of large exposed rock which kind of reminded us of some of our hikes in Maine at Acadia National Park. Near the peak of Cedar Rock, we are greeted with some excellent distance views of the area.

View Along Big Rock Trail

White Fringe Tree

Clearer View at the Peak

Trail Junction

Even though much of the exposed rock surface was quite wet, the footing was remarkably good. It looked like we were going to end up sliding down on our butts. Fortunately that didn’t happen. The azaleas were in bloom and it was a rather pleasant hike for the first couple miles.

Back Down the Rock

Azalea

Back down from the peak, we intersect with the Little River Trail and the flatter portion of the hike. The trails are marked very well but the bright yellow warning signs about technical rock crossings and high water levels did make us wonder what we were in store for the last half of the hike. Every now and then there was a decent view of the Little River. One of the geocaches that we found was an ammo can in the crook of a tree. Normally these get found often enough and removed and replaced that they can come out. This one was now firmly wedged between the two trunks and would not budge. I could still open the lid to sign in but in another couple of years, I suspect the lid will be squeezed shut in the tree’s death grip.

Watch Out for Hazards

The Little River

Squished Ammo Can

We had gotten in three quarters of the hike before we saw our first group of cyclists. We had just gotten to a water crossing and were surveying the situation when they closed in from behind. We stepped aside and let them go first so we could gauge water depth and the stability of the stepping stones.

Rhododendron Lined Trail

Water Crossing

Beautiful Butterfly

The last section of trail back to the parking lot does have a bit of a hill and with all of the detours for geocaches we were coming in at the 4.2 mile mark which had made the legs a bit tired but we made it to the car with a very nice hike under our belts.

Pretty Flowering Shrub

Cool Fungi

The next day we were expecting rain in the late afternoon hours so we knew we should keep the hike to a shorter distance to avoid being in a thunderstorm in the mountains. We decide to head back to Dupont for a hike that we did 2 years ago but really enjoyed so doing a repeat wouldn’t bother us. Plus there were a couple of geocaches we had not found in that earlier visit. We planned on hiking to Triple Falls and then High Falls out of the Hooker Falls parking area.

Little River Below Triple Falls

The first section of this trail is rather steep and tiring. There were a lot of people doing the same thing and we weren’t the slowest but we were also definitely not the fastest movers.

Lower Section of Triple Falls

We head up to the overlook shelter and wander back into the woods to find the first cache we were looking for. Then back to the main trail heading to High Falls. We had one more geocache that was up a steep bank from the main trail. It took a bit of doing to find a suitable place to climb up and make the find but then we continued on. Around the 1.25 mile mark, we take a lesser traveled trail that goes right along the river and should get us closer to the base of the High Falls. It turned out that while it technically worked, it wasn’t much more than a deer trail. But the one good thing was we saw a large group of butterflies all interested in the same spot near the trail. For future reference, we should have stayed on the main trail for an additional tenth of a mile and found a much easier route to the base of the falls.

Butterflies

Back to the main trail we arrive at the viewpoint for High Falls and are greeted by the start of sprinkles. It wasn’t even 1 PM yet and we were expecting at least a couple more hours of dry hiking.  It was about 1.5 miles back to the car and we debated about making a run for it but I checked the radar on my weather app and realized a rather significant storm was racing our way. There was a group of 8 of us that headed up to the large picnic shelter that overlooks the falls to wait out the rain. We had good thunder and lightning as well as some pretty strong wind gust that forced us all to one side of the shelter. When it finally passed, we saw that there looked to be more of these brief but intense storms heading our way and we decided to just call it quits and head back to the car. It was an exciting 3 mile hike. Back at the motorhome, we discovered it hadn’t even rained there.

High Falls Just Before the Storm

The rest of our Brevard stay will continue in part 2.