Asheville Sauna Updates

My least favorite type of person is the type who loves—nee, needs—to teach something during every interaction, and I, unfortunately, got stuck next to said person in the sauna at the gym the other day. 

When I entered, he was the only other person there. I gave the cursory polite nod as I entered, then sat opposite him. This was when he decided to bestow all the wisdom he’d “accumulated” onto a stranger. 

“Are you having a good day,” he asked. 

“So far, sure,” I said. “Yourself?”

“Sure,” he said, “that’s an interesting word.” That’s when I knew I was in for it. “Are you sure you’re having a good day or sure you’re placating the questions of a pestering old man by being polite because you don’t want to learn anything about him?”

“Honestly,” I said, “you’re thinking about this harder than I have. I said sure because it’s been a long day at work, my brain is tired, and it’s not a good or bad day. I didn’t mean to be curt; sorry if it came off this way.” I was genuine when I said that. 

“That’s the problem with the younger generation,” he said (mentally, I thanked him for considering me part of said younger generation), “Young people just want to exist. You don’t want to learn.”

“Or,” I countered, “it’s been like I said”—admittedly, now giving him a very per-my-last-email energy—” a long day, and I like coming into the sauna to turn my mind off.” 

Luckily for me, another gentleman came into the sauna at that moment,

Probably sensing my bristling instead of leaning into learning, he immediately dropped the conversation with me and asked this newcomer how his day had been, and when he said, “Good so far,” he more or less verbatim repeated the same exchange we’d had. The difference was this new fellow seemed more receptive to this gentleman’s charms than I. He played along, agreeing that people walk through the world in too much of a fugue state, agreeing that social media is ruining the social skills of young people (LIKE ME!), and adding positive commentary as the first man talked at him. 

Things I learned about this first man in the course of their convo: 

• He often made other people’s days by giving them random, specific compliments. 
• He’d recently taught a very rude (his words, not mine; my interpretation based on his description would’ve been “underpaid and harried”) automotive store employee how to appropriately interact with customers in an “upbeat, positive way.” 
• He really loves asking people waiting in line in front of him at grocery stores if they are waiting in line, and if they don’t laugh uproariously, chastising them for not having a “sense of playfulness.” 
• He stays in the sauna for 45 minutes to an hour because he’s made of tough stock, but he would prefer a wood-fired sauna, of which there are absolutely none in Asheville. 

At this last revelation, the more receptive gentleman suggested Sauna House, which he immediately poo-poo-ed. Wood-fired was what he wanted. Not Nordic!

Editor’s Note: Nordic and wood-fired aren’t mutually exclusive.

Because this gentleman had already once explained what I was like and how I acted, I didn’t think he needed any of my expertise, namely that there is a new wood-fired sauna right here in Asheville!

I stumbled upon Drip Sauna on Instagram a couple of weeks back and, intrigued, booked myself a session. 

Billed as “Asheville’ first wood-fired sauna & cold plunge experience,” Drip Sauna is a business that has two wood-fired, mobile barrel saunas and corresponding cold plunges that live at the Asheville Adventure Campground just off Amboy Road. They offer private mobile bookings, private riverside sessions, and community riverside sessions, which is what I booked with a friend for a Wednesday night (as of this writing, community sessions—aka public sessions—are only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the evening). 

The community sessions are a steal at $30.00 for about an hour. The saunas are both smaller and a tad hotter than Sauna House. What I liked about Drip Sauna over Sauna House is the intoxicating (did I just organically write “intoxicating?”—I don’t love this for me) wood-fired scent that permeated your sweating and soaking (this might be the most trite sentence I’ve ever written but I’m leaving it in to show you that I’m not perfect) and the relax area is a fire pit right on the banks of the French Broad, which was lovely. 

What I like about Sauna House over Drip Sauna is that these are small barrel saunas, and you’re pretty much stuck conversing with whoever is in the sauna with you, which in my case was a woman who bitched about being kicked out of Sauna House the whole time. And honestly, I’m coming across a little bit like her in these last two paragraphs. I shouldn’t really be comparing the two. While they have the same ethos, they are different enough experiences for both to exist, and I will be patronizing both depending on my mood moving forward.  

I left, excited to share my Drip Sauna experience with others—it can’t be overstated how relaxing post-cold plunge on the banks of the French Broad around a firepit was—but not with my gym sauna teacher because being stuck near him once was more than enough. 

Right before I left him and his annoying ways, a third man came in, and he pivoted from the receptive gentleman to this newcomer, asked him the same question, and gave the same response about how young people, all people really, would rather just walk through the world in fugue states, uncurious to the world around them because social media has rotted their brains uncurious to connect and learn about their fellow humans. 

It’s necessary to point out that throughout the half-hour I was in the sauna that day, this benevolent teacher talked incessantly to three different men about people not wanting to connect with others and never once asked any of us a single question about ourselves.