After my somewhat horrendous October I fiercely declared my November was going to be EPIC before it even started.  That declaration alone was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life.  Epic doesn’t just happen though, you choose it and you continue to choose it every day.

I moved in with Mary and Billy on Nov. 1st into Wilson’s Cabin off a dirt road in the  exceptionally beautiful mountains of Fairview, NC.   Mary and Billy are both Kayakers and two of the coolest people I have ever met in my entire life.  Upon finding out I was a photographer Mary immediately invited me to join them at 15th Annual Green River Race to take pictures.  Being EPIC November I of course said yes without question having really no idea what I was in for.  All I knew were the basics, I’m going to hike down to a river with strangers, watch more strangers kayak, watch my first ever kayak race, take pictures and then party with said strangers.  Sounds interesting yes but I had no idea the details were going to make it life changing.

The first obstacle was exhaustion.  I had gone out to see The Enemy Lovers the night before at Stella Blue got home late, then stayed up til about 6am trying to figure out what it was I wanted to do with my life.   You know, one of those existential crisisy sorta nights. Mary and Billy had friends staying over in town for the race and the whole cabin woke up with excitement around 6:30am.  I was up by 7am and it’s fuzzy but I think out the door around 8:30am.  That’s where the first choice was made cause I could have easily backed out and stayed home in a nice warm bed.  Instead I bundled up to go hike down to a river in freezing temperatures.  Mary was paddling so her and Billy left the house separately and I was assigned to follow and hike in with their friend Janna.

The second obstacle will call ‘oh shit’.  Mary and Billy are sorta super outdoor people and there was no emphasis put on the ‘hike’ in  to the river.  This hike was about an hour and was pretty much straight down. Janna is also a sort of outdoor wonder woman which put me somewhat at ease thinking well if I fall she’ll rescue me so that’s cool.  Most of the thought process though was I’m tired what the hell am I doing and please don’t let me fall on my ass in front of all these people.  Please, pretty please I don’t want to eat shit this early in the morning.  There was a solid line of people hiking through these woods and at times the trail was at a stand still because it’s so precarious in sections every step is taken with great caution.  I saw plenty of people eat shit, I did not When you finally make it down to the river and think there’s a sigh of relief you then realize that you have to leap over sections while saying small prayers not to fall into the water.  So, I kinda felt like a super trooper just making down there.  Kudos to the other 1000 that made it down there too, you ROCK!

Once you get down to the river it’s absolutely GORGEOUS and worth every step.  Janna gave me the lowdown on the race, the rapids and most importantly on how to be careful and not fall in the river.  Billy then introduced me to a ton of people all of whom upon seeing him would shout with excitement BILLY JONES!!!!  There were so many people down there that it was hard to get a good view and a clear shot of the big rapids and after Janna’s pep talk I really wasn’t trying to get anywhere near the edge of the river.  It was such an interesting super fun crowd just to be around though.  All these people who just absolutely love and are in awe of nature, felt like meeting my lost tribe.  The set up of people there freezing there asses off just to rescue the racers was in itself impressive.  And the kayakers, these people who feel this pull to be on the water and risk their lives paddling through such a beautiful force of nature.  I was grateful for the opportunity to be there and be a part of it all.

After a few hours down on the river there were a few realizations that painfully set in.  One, I was dead tired and knew that straight down hike was going to be one hell of a straight up to get out.  Second, at this point in my life my cold weather clothes were more fashionable then functional and I was freezing my ass off!  I decided to bail and headed back to the trail but as I got closer there was sun down there.  Sun on this beautiful section of river where the other 1000 people were not.  Enough sun to keep me happily seated in a majestic place for a couple more hours just listening to the water and relishing in the fact that I was even there.  A week prior I had never even heard of the Green River.

The hike up was actually way more fun then down.  It was warmer and although intense you’re less likely to fall on your ass going up.  I then drove about 45 minutes home took a HOT bath and thawed out and then a nap for a couple hours.  Now for the second most important choice …. stay warm and asleep or wake up put all the layers back on and go freeze my ass off at an outdoor after race party.  It’s epic so the choice was wake up and go party!  I did hit snooze a few times though and arrived to the party fashionably late.

The party, oh the party was good … really good … like super fun good.  If you ever have the option to go and maybe aren’t up for the whole race thing at least go to the after party.  Kayakers are fun and know how to party!  I got there right as the band was going off and the dj was coming on.  Where was there?  There was down a super windy road at a huge private house on a big piece of land.  There was a band, bonfires, dj and super huge buffet of free food put on by Liquid Logic Kayaks.  I met up with Mary and Billy who were exhausted and frozen from the day and were actually on their way out.  They introduced me to a few more people including one very fun dancing girl named Alexis.  I made my way with Alexis up to the deck were the dj was just going on and her and I and a couple of people started to dance.

A few dancing girls with a mainly male crowd and it didn’t take long … the entire deck then filled with people in less then 20 minutes.  The DJ Jeremy Miller from Greenville was super fun and spun a crazy mix of shit from breaks to LMFAO to alternative which at times set off mini mosh pits.  Now, for those of you who know me from way back I use to dance a lot but along the road somewhere back in Vegas I pretty much stopped dancing in public.  I don’t know what even happened a combination of the destruction of my life the previous month mixed with a bunch of strangers who I’d probably never see again, bonfires, starlight, good beats, recent inspiration from David Boyd of New Politics and I danced ALL NIGHT!  Probably about 9 years since I danced that much in public, I don’t even know what word to use to describe how it felt or just how much fun I had.  I suppose being re-born is a strong term but in that moment my life looked exactly like the life I’ve been dreaming about in my head my entire life.  I also had the pleasure of dancing with a very tall handsome later to find out super amazing man from West Virginia as well.  That too was fun and unique in it’s own right.  I’m very much a solo dancer and have never danced with someone longer then maybe half a song.  So, I partied with a bunch of strangers and had an absolute blast and at the end of the party out of a few hundred people I was among the last ten there.

Now, for the aftermath that continues to change my life.

Being how awful and just bat shit crazy the relationship part of my life had been the past 5 months I rightfully made a wrong decision.  I had declared the month prior to all friends and family that I was off the market for a good long while just dating music and work I wanted nothing to men indefinitely!  So when I found out the tall man I was dancing with was also an amazing man I ran … literally, I freaked grabbed my shit off the deck and went to a different far corner of the party.  Dancing with someone was fun, actually meeting someone scared the shit out of me.  We did meet up later in the night but I managed to accidentally hide some more and we left the party without exchanging numbers or even beyond first names.   I then drove and smiled the entire way home.  Now, here’s where a super tight kayak community comes in handy … I took pictures and when I woke up the next morning with super big cheesy grin on my face quickly showed the pictures around the house asking if anyone knew the man on my camera.  Yes, of course they did … I facebooked his ass, he messaged back, numbers exchanged and he was at Wilson’s cabin within a couple hours.  Technology does sorta rock sometimes.  We talked for a bit before he headed out for WV and he’s now been back down twice for some super fun visits.

The other change has been the dance catapulting in a strange turn of events.  I put the pics I took of the race on facebook which lead to a frenzy of kayakers tagging themselves and friends.  I took a picture of one kayaker (Chase) who just so happens to spin drum n bass in Asheville.  I LOVE Drum n Bass, LOVE dancing to Drum n Bass and had no idea it existed in Asheville.  So, a couple of weeks ago I went to my first Drum n Bass party where Chase was spinning and danced all night.  This lead to meeting a super amazing group of  new music and dance loving friends.  The type of people I haven’t known since 9 years ago in Vegas except these people live in Asheville so they are exponentially awesome.  A few nights ago I went to my second DnB party and danced all night again.  This time though all the nervous energy was out.  This time I didn’t even care when I was the only one dancing with a room full of people staring.  This time I did exactly what I’ve been wanting to do for years.  There is no way I would have thought hiking down into a river would have directly lead me to dancing at sick drum n bass parties.