I’m not exactly sure where I was, but I liked it there.

One of the nice things about Cleveland County is being near the mountains -- a new experience for someone who grew up in the flatlands of North Carolina.

Since I’ve been working at The Star, I’ve actually developed a pretty regular circuit to the west, and I got a chance to make the tour a few weeks back.

You start heading west out of the county, do a little trout fishing near Saluda, head out towards
Brevard and up some great roads through the Cradle of Forestry, past some waterfalls, up to the parkway, grab a meal at the Pisgah Inn, and head on back via Asheville.

On this particular Monday I swerved from my normal straight shot west and drove through Ellenboro, Forest City, Spindale, Rutherfordton and the rest of Rutherford county towards Lake Lure, where I played a round of golf.

Lake Lure Municipal Golf Course was a beautiful 9-holer with blooming trees, great scenery and a big turtle in a pond. It was actually designed by the great golf architect Donald Ross. And it only cost $8. Cheap!

I did pretty well, parring the first hole and not doing half bad for the outing as a whole.

Driving out past Chimney Rock I thought about hopping back over towards Hendersonville, but decided to explore a new twisty road on the way to Asheville. Somewhere this side of the city I grabbed the parkway and turned on down towards the Pisgah Inn. I can recommend the pasta with a nice India Pale Ale.

But the inn wasn’t open yet, so I took a hike up to the top of Mt. Pisgah, more than a mile above sea level. There’s some video on my blog: jderrickstar.blogspot.com.

After enjoying my early dinner and panoramic view at the restaurant I headed back down out of the mountains. My German mother found a pretty good German restaurant in Hendersonville (we have our German food scoped out from Murphy to Manteo) but I gave it a miss and headed on out to Saluda, a little less than an hour west of Shelby, just past a pretty aggressive climb on U.S. 26 that can be a lot of fun.

The thing I like best about the small town a mile or so south of the interstate is the road down to the Green River that stretches north of the highway. It’s some of the best driving I know of in the area and I’ve got a video on my blog….

I was fortunate than evening and caught (and released) a nice trout.

Returning to the river this past week I wasn’t as lucky, but it was the wrong time of day. But
that’s not the point. I enjoy just getting down in the little valleys and exploring, pushing my rather unassuming sedan through the twisty, climbing roads and getting off the beaten path.

This past Monday instead of making a right turn I usually take on the way to Saluda, I took a left… just to see what would happen.

Then I took another left, turned around, another left, a right, turned around again….

… and I found a place where the Pacolet River has carved a gorge, with the road hung from the mountain on one side and a hundred foot cliff rising straight from the other.

Climbing down into the rapids the rush of white water drowned out everything else, cool river air flowed down across me and dozens if not hundreds of butterflies took turns filling the air and resting.

I’m not exactly sure where I was, but I liked it there.