Asheville Urban Kayak Tour on the French Broad - Bent Creek to River Arts District (Buncombe County, North Carolina)

 

I'm in Asheville, NC for the weekend. The home of world-class craft beer, terrific hiking along the Blue Ridge, and outstanding kayaking on the French Broad River. I intend to take advantage of all three during this short visit. To start, I'll be joining REI for a paddle through downtown Asheville along a tamer section of the French Broad. 

I get an early start and drive the three or so hours the morning of the event. Meeting up with our guides a few minutes before the start, we go through some introductions and basic gear review, and then we hop in a van to shuttle a few miles up river to our launch point. There will be seven of us, plus two guides on this little trip. After the standard safety briefing and gear outfitting, we hop in our boats and launch into the river at the confluence with Bent Creek. 

We almost immediately hit a section of some very mild rapids, but since most of my recent paddling has been on lakes, it's a fun change. I make it through the section without any problems and we continue down river, with the guides pointing a few landmarks along the way. We go under a couple of bridges and through another couple of mildly rough sections before passing along property owned by the Biltmore Estate. In the distance and on the hillside above us, we can just catch a glimpse of the Biltmore House itself, the largest privately owned house in the United States. Cass and I, along with her brothers and their wives, visited at Christmas time a few years ago. It's a grand site and very interesting to see from this vantage point.

Continuing on down the river, we reach our take out point near Craven Street and the northern end of the River Arts District, which we have been paddling alongside for a while. Checking my GPS track, it looks like we've traveled a distance of about 10.3 miles through the heart of downtown Asheville. It was a nice smooth ride the whole way and our guides were outstanding as always. Now, I'm going to head across the street and enjoy a nice cold craft beer at New Belgium Brewery before continuing on to further adventures in the Brewery District of downtown.