Asheville Transplants

Did you know Asheville is just a short drive from North Carolina wine and apple country?

One of my favorite things to do in the fall is spend an evening at Appalachian Ridge Artisan Cidery in Hendersonville for their Friday night bonfires, s’mores and live music - and Friday, October 16 is expected to be their last bonfire night of the season!

Appalachian Ridge is a beautiful orchard-based cidery tucked into the Hendersonville countryside. Their tasting room is housed in a restored 1920s apple barn, with a large lawn overlooking the orchard and a gorgeous setting for watching the sun go down.

The plan:

I'll be there at 6:30 PM and will do my best to snag us one of the bonfires scattered around the lawn.

Come whenever works for you, the event runs until 9:00 PM.

We'll spend the evening around the fire, listening to live music, enjoying a craft-made drink, making s’mores, talking and hanging out as the sun goes down.

Inside the cidery, you can purchase hard cider and spirits made right there at Appalachian Ridge, wines from their winery across the street, as well as s’mores kits to take outside to the fire.

🍎 My fall drink recommendation: Try their hot apple cider with a shot of their scratch-made apple brandy.

🎶 The band: FUN SIZE - Christina Chandler and Roddy Wilder joined by Jeff Lott on drums and based out of Asheville, NC. Playing covers and dynamic original songs.

🍕 Food: Grass Roots pizza will be on site if you want to grab some food.

A few things to know:

• This Meetup is for adults only. Please leave the kiddos at home for this one.

• Please leave your furry friends at home, too. For the comfort of the group around the bonfire, this will be a dog-free Meetup.

• Seating is limited, so bring a camp chair if you have one.

When: Friday, October 16, 6:30–9:00 PM
Where: Appalachian Ridge Artisan Cidery, Hendersonville

Visit their website for more info on the venue: https://www.saintpaulfarms.com/appalachian-ridge-hard-cider

AVL Transplants Social Hike + Lunch

Three Waterfall Loop at DuPont 🌲🥾💦

Saturday, October 17
10:00 AM to 1:30 PM

We’re doing it again, and this time you get THREE waterfalls. 😄

Join us for a gorgeous fall morning in DuPont State Recreational Forest as we hike a scenic loop connecting Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, and High Falls.

This is another social hike, which means the point is not to charge through the forest like you’re qualifying for something. 😂 We’ll keep a comfortable pace, enjoy the scenery, stop at the waterfalls, take pictures, talk, laugh, and actually get to know the people you’re hiking with.

And with October fall color starting to show up in the mountains, this should be a beautiful one.

💦 Three Waterfalls in One Hike

We’ll start from the Hooker Falls Access Area and make our way through DuPont to three of its best-known waterfalls.

First up is Hooker Falls, a wide waterfall on the Little River with a beautiful open viewing area.

Then we’ll head toward Triple Falls, one of DuPont’s most iconic sights. The river tumbles over three dramatic cascades, creating one seriously impressive waterfall stop.

From there, we’ll continue toward High Falls, another spectacular cascade pouring over a broad granite face.

Three very different waterfalls, one hike. Not too shabby for a Saturday morning. 😄

🥾 Distance: Approximately 2.6 to 3 miles
🥾 Difficulty: Moderate
🥾 Hiking time: Approximately 1½ to 2 hours at our social pace
🥾 Terrain: Forest trails, gravel roads, hills and some elevation change
🥾 Pace: Comfortable and social

📍 Where We’re Meeting

Hooker Falls Access Area
DuPont State Recreational Forest

We’ll meet near the trailhead parking area.

There is parking at the trailhead plus an overflow parking area nearby. Parking and admission are free.

DuPont can get busy on beautiful fall weekends, so give yourself a little extra time to park and find the group. Please plan to arrive before 10:00 so we can gather everyone and hit the trail on time.

Restroom facilities are available at the access area.

🐶 Dogs Are Welcome!

Bring your four-legged hiking buddy!

Dogs are welcome, so if your pup loves trails, people, other dogs and outdoor adventures, bring them along. Please keep dogs leashed and under control throughout the hike and, of course, bring bags and clean up after them.

We may end up with our own little AVL Transplants canine hiking club. 😂🐾

🍔🍺 Then We Head to Trailside Brewing!

Once we’ve earned our lunch, we’ll head over to Trailside Brewing on the Ecusta Trail to keep the social part of the day going.

It’s a perfect post-hike setup. Grab some food, order a beer or whatever sounds good, kick back, and hang out with the people you just spent the morning chasing waterfalls with.

We should wrap up the hike right around burger-and-beer o’clock, which feels suspiciously well planned. 😂

Lunch is optional, but if the last hike was any indication, it’s half the fun.

Come for the waterfalls, stay for lunch, meet some new people, reconnect with familiar faces, and spend a gorgeous fall Saturday exploring one of Western North Carolina’s most beautiful places.

Three waterfalls + fall in the mountains + good people + Trailside Brewing afterward.

Yep. That’ll do. 🍂💦🥾🍔🍺

Heads up Hikers
Finding the location:
Don't use the Meetup link. Put the location into your phone to get correct directions from GPS. Meetup wouldn't add it correctly.

Coming alone? Good — that is the ideal way to do this one.
Nobody needs to bring a friend. You show up by yourself, we put you on a team of four, and you spend the afternoon with them.
You get a phone, a team of four, and 75 minutes in the River Arts District.
This is a photo challenge, not a gallery tour. Each team gets a card with a dozen very specific, slightly ridiculous challenges scattered across the RAD — find a mural with an animal in it, get a working artist to tell you what they are making right now, recreate a painting as a team, talk your crew into the strangest group photo you can manage. Points for each one. Bonus points for style.
Teams are drawn at the start, so you will be paired with people you have not met. That is the entire point. It is much easier to talk to strangers when the four of you are trying to find a mural. Most people here will not know anyone either — that is true of nearly every Transplants event.
Then we come back to Wedge Studios, score everything out loud, and hand out some entirely unserious prizes.
The Plan:
• 2:00 PM — Meet at Wedge Studios, 37 Paynes Way. Grab a drink, get sorted into teams of four, pick up your challenge card.
• 2:30 PM — Teams head out on foot. The play zone runs through the RAD between Wedge Studios and Wedge at Foundation on Foundy St — about a mile end to end.
• 3:45 PM — Back at Wedge Studios. Teams turn in their photos.
• 4:00 PM — Scoring, prizes, and food.
• 5:00 PM — Official wrap. Stay as long as you like.
What to Know:
• Solo is the default. Teams are assigned on arrival, so you will never be standing around trying to join a group. If you do bring a friend, we will usually split you onto different teams — you will both meet more people that way.
• Running late? Comment on the event and we will slot you into a team when you get there.
• Free. No ticket, no buy-in. Food and drinks are pay-your-own, and nothing on the challenge card requires spending money.
• All you need is a phone with a working camera and shoes you can walk two miles in.
• Wedge Studios has free on-site parking.
• Food: Wedge Studios has a resident food truck (Trucking Delicious — burgers, patty melts, hot dogs) open Tuesday–Sunday during taproom hours.
• Wedge welcomes well-behaved dogs, though a 75-minute walk in the middle of the afternoon is not ideal for every dog.
• Getting there: I-26 Connector construction has closed Hill Street, so come in via Clingman Ave or Riverside Dr and give yourself a few extra minutes.
• Please be respectful in open studios — ask before photographing anyone's work up close.
• Rain plan: if it is genuinely pouring we will call it. A little drizzle and we go anyway.
Why This Event:
Most ways of meeting people involve standing in a room holding a drink and hoping. This one hands you a task and three teammates instead. You will finish the afternoon knowing a corner of your own city better than you did at lunch, and you will have actually talked to people — because you had to, to find the mural.
New to Asheville or ten years in, knowing everyone or knowing nobody, come play. Come solo — most of us do.

Okay, Asheville Transplants, Forks & Friends is back for round two, and this time we’re trying something completely different. ☺️

For October, we’re heading downtown to Addissae Ethiopian Restaurant for a night of bold flavors, shared plates, and a dining experience that may be brand new for some of us.

📅 Monday, October 19
🕡 6:30 to 8:30 PM
📍 Addissae Ethiopian Restaurant
48 Commerce St, Downtown Asheville
👥 Limited to 12 people

Addissae serves traditional Ethiopian food family-style on large platters of injera, the soft, slightly tangy Ethiopian flatbread that becomes part of the meal itself. The menu includes richly spiced beef, lamb and chicken dishes, along with plenty of vegetarian and vegan options.

And part of the fun is that Ethiopian food is meant to be shared. Instead of everyone disappearing behind their own entrée, we’ll be gathered around platters, tasting different dishes, trying new flavors, and probably figuring out together what we’re doing. 😂

That is pretty much the whole idea behind Forks & Friends.

Each month, we’ll explore a different restaurant, cuisine, or dining experience somewhere around the greater Asheville area. Some places will be familiar, some will be a little adventurous, but the point is always the same: good food, good conversation, and a chance to actually get to know some new people around the table.

Addissae is a cozy little downtown spot, and there are parking lots directly behind and near the restaurant, so you won’t have to wander six blocks through downtown Asheville hunting for your car after dinner.

Space is intentionally limited to 12 people so we can keep these dinners small enough for real conversation. If you RSVP and your plans change, please update your RSVP so someone else can take your seat.

Never had Ethiopian food? Perfect. Neither have I. 😆

Let’s go try something new together.

🍴 Forks & Friends Dinner Club
Good food. New places. New friends.