09-04-2025
Western North Carolina tourism companies struggle ahead of outdoor season
MITCHELL COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Tourism is essential for the western part of North Carolina, but outfitters are dealing with a new reality as they open back up for the spring and summer season.
'Disaster living is exhausting,' said Christy Thrift, owner of NC Outdoor Adventures.
She watches trucks, trailers and excavators work all day long.
'I'm so grateful for the work they're doing, but I'm so tired of the traffic,' Thrift said.
The bridges are standing again, and the railroad is getting nailed back together piece by piece. Each crew is slowly rebuilding the mountain and river Thrift loves.
'It's constantly moving. It's a new piece to a puzzle every day. It's a new problem every day,' Thrift said.
Some of the big problems with running a river outfitter have solved themselves, like the water quality of the Toe River. An independent tester found very low E .coli counts and no evidence of permeant heavy metals in the water.
Thrift is still figuring out how she's going to get people in and out of the water for tubing and rafting since her old concrete put-ins were washed away. On certain trips, everyone will have to wear a life jacket, and she's changing how she talks about the rafting and tubing experience.
'We still have people missing. There's certain things I'm going to have to add to these trip talks that are uncomfortable, and that's something I'll have to do every day,' Thrift said.
What people will see is different, too since pieces of homes, cars and lives are hidden in the banks. Thrift likens it to an apocalyptic white water trip.
'It's going to be hard for the guides,' Thrift said. 'They lived through it. We lived through it. The trauma, and then they have to paddle through it knowing what it used to be.'
This year, Thrift will open a month later than normal in May, and she's already lost $50,000 from water damage and canceled trips. She also doesn't have any bookings scheduled for tubing and rafting.
'I've been trying to do advertising, but how do I do advertising? All of my pictures have beautiful bridges and these beautiful places,' Thrift said.
No matter what it looks like, Thrift and so many others need visitors.
'We thrive on tourism. We're remote and rural … Without it, we won't survive as a town,' Thrift said.
NC Outdoor Adventures runs hiking, rafting and tubing tours not just in Western North Carolina but also just outside the Charlotte area.
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