A pleasant late summer day

Yesterday I went on a steamy late summer excursion down to a waterfall located somewhere on Route 9, about 30 minutes from Black Mountain. (Warren Wilson affiliates will remember this place as "the route 9 property.") I always hesitate to go all the way out there because is it so dang far. But it was worth the trip yesterday. On the trail down to the river, I ran into a group of friends who I know from different places. We chatted about plants and such, and Wylie taught me the plant "mandarin" which was growing next to where we stood. Later on in the walk I also saw black cohosh, American cohosh (cimicifuga americana), boneset just starting to bloom, yellowroot, and I thought I saw goldenseal but it was something else. MMC5th and I did some boulder hopping and swam in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. The water temp was absolutely perfect. We found a place to sit so the waterfall would splash on us pleasantly. Then we walked back downstream and swam again in a really long pool of water that was really really nice. It was a very worthwhile way to spend a hot Saturday afternoon in early August. Our trip was topped off by a visit to the Swannanoa Amazing Savings, where I was able to thoroughly satisfy my hoarding craving by buying 6 fair trade chocolate bars and 4 jars of organic concord grape juice! Oh yeah, that's about all I have to say about that.