Inconvenient Sunshine.

Sunday was dreary, wet, misty, and filled with fog in every nook and cranny of these mountains; so naturally, I went on a hike. Location of choice this go-around happened to be Whiteside Mountain (4,930 feet) between Highlands and Cashiers NC, aka the highest cliffs in Eastern North America that provide some pretty crazy climbing routes. There were also apparently some Peregrine Falcon nesting sites!...none of which I saw though since the fog was so thick.

I feel as if Geoff would have really liked this rock...

I felt like we were in a spooky forest tourist attraction.

Just admiring the lovely view.

Sluggy.

Apparently there was a rescue way back when off the side of the cliff in the next picture...

Rescued from over there?! Braver than I'd be...

Rocks!

This looks familiar...

Me and Catherine standing on the pluton!

Let me draw your attention to the MASSIVE quartz vein to the left. 

A pretty cool and very dark cave. 

Photo cred to Catherine.

It was cool seeing the steps disappear into the fog.

Gnarled.

When I got back I worked out for a bit, showered, and began fixing dinner only to realize that we were expected to be ready to go out pre-storm sampling in less than a half hour. I had to forego my intended dinner of spaghetti and meatballs for a turkey sandwich I slapped together in an impressive 3 minutes, cap and label some 300 sample vials, and throw on my exceptionally dirty work pants that I had originally intended to wash later that night. I've never been overly fond of the dark, so trekking through muddied trails with nothing but a small headlamp to light the way had me a bit on-edge. We set up our sequential rainfall samplers, collected water from the transects we would sample the next day, and even managed to get lost for a bit as well. I have to say I'm not overly eager to have any more night field excursions anytime soon...
The next day was intended for storm sampling, but there seemed to be a problem...there wasn't much of a storm at all despite the fact that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) had predicted a 100% change of rain with  3/4-1 inch of rainfall. I was stationed at the weirs and sampled from weir 1 and 2 every 45 minutes, which would be quickened to 15 minute intervals if by the work of some miracle the misty haze that had settled over Coweeta somehow turned to legitimate rain.

I lost count of how many times I walked up and down this road collecting weir samples.

The majority of my day was spent sitting in my car for some 9 hours reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from beginning to end, listening to music, and absentmindedly staring out the window wondering why I was sitting in a car for 9 hours storm sampling if there wasn't even a storm. Regardless, the whole day was good practice of procedure for future storm sampling, even if the data collected was essentially useless...

An abnormally large cluster of butterflies gathered at the side of the road.