3's Company
Day 14 of the Trail: 13.5 miles hike
Waking up today it felt like Frosty took a dump on our camp site. The good news is that our campsite, although cold, was mostly sheltered from the wind and I survived without being squished by a falling tree.
Our goal today was to make it to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) as early as possible. Our life long friend, and brother in all ways but blood, was going to meet us there by 12:30 pm and we planned on making it there ASAP. The prospect of a shower, laundry, restaurant food, and a bed to sleep in was motivation, as well.
It was slow going today, I am not gonna lie. We had the coldest start on the trail to date and for the first time ever we hiked almost the entire way to the NOC in our cold weather jackets. Normally hiking in jackets is a no-go. When you hike in a jacket you sweat and then you get cold because of the moisture. It's typically better to hike cold in the start because you will undoubtedly warm up as you go on. Not today. It only got colder as we hiked because we were climbing above 5000 feet for the first hike. As we went higher the temp dropped and the water in my water bottles began to freeze. It wasn't till more than half way through the hike that we began a long 4 and a half mile decent into NOC and the temp warmed up and the wind calmed down. This was one of the least comfortable hiking days so far. However, we did make our goal and made it to the NOC by 12:30 pm. We couldn't have been sitting down for more than 3 minutes when I spotted John.
It was an awesome thing seeing him and I knew that things were gonna be that much funner with him around. They always are!
First things first, we immediately went into the local restaurant and ordered a fat burger and fries. Next, we got our room which is a glorified four man bunk room. Then, we did laundry and showered. After a quick call home and settling in we decided we needed to start this part of the trip off right and we grabbed some pizza and beer for dinner.
By this time we were started to crash from the hike and John from his early flight into Atlanta.
We spent the evening discussing the upcoming trail and weather. Tomorrow is about an 8 mile climb out of the NOC and we are hoping to make it the 27ish miles into Fontana within two days. The forecast shows an upcoming week of cold and snow so we got that going for us. It's about the journey folks and I hope the journey warms up!
