Date: 2014-04-23
From: Wesser Bald Shelter

To: NOC
Miles today: 5.9

They say the Appalachian Trail is a social trail and you get glimpses of it on the trail while passing other hikers or at the shelters but neither compare to when hikers congregate in the towns.   So today was the day we headed into the Nantahala Outdoor Center or NOC for short. It's not a town per way but an small collection of stores and restaurants surrounded a river where whitewater kayaking is extremely popular. For thru hikers, this is a popular place to pick up a maildrop, eat some good food and do some drinking.    The hike down to the NOC looked pretty frightening on paper, a steep downhill descent which puts a lot of strain on hikers knees, feet and ankles but thankfully it wasn't too bad, the downhill was a meandering downhill instead of a straight drop. It didn't take us long to get and as we were hiking down to the NOC I realized how green everything was becoming, spring has sprung in North Carolina.   The trail goes through the NOC so I got there before Delaware and I saw Guppy sitting on a bench waiting for us, he wanted to go for a burger and a beer and I wasn't going to say no to that. But before went to the restaurant, I finally saw PocketFire! Somehow he got ahead if me and was hiking with a new group, I was just glad to see him and know he was still on the trail. So We went to the restaurant and I had the Tail of the Dragon burger which has jalape±os and a spicy chipotle sauce-it was big and delicious. I had an oatmeal porter from the Nantahala Brewing Company which was really good, want to try as many local beers as I can while hiking the trail. Mouse came in late and I stayed with her as she ate while Guppy and Delaware went to see about renting a cabin, there was six of us so we were hoping for a good deal, which we got at 14$ a person.   The cabin wouldn't be ready for a few hours so we all picked up our packages and headed down to the river to soak the feet and drink some beer. It was beautiful out and while Mouse and I were heading down to the river, an elderly lady started asking me questions about hiking and when she heard I was a thru hiker, she got all excited and asked me even more questions about where I was from and about the trail, it was pretty cool. Then while crossing the bridge to get to the rivers edge, another group of people asked if I was a thru hiker and then flocked around me asking questions, it was pretty surreal.   We hung out at the river for awhile and then walked to the cabin. We all settled in and then everyone opened up their packages, it was like Christmas morning. I packaged mine before I left but my parents added some stuff which I greatly appreciated. I sent home my cooking pot as it was way too big and replaced it with a titanium mug and I got real lucky as Guppy didn't like his sleeping pad which is a really expensive and good one and offered to anyone who wanted it so I took it and sent mine home. I'm now on my third sleeping pad in two weeks but it was too good to pass up. So after everyone opened up their packages, an insane amount of trading went on, I picked up a few additional snacks to add to my crazy amount I have already, my food bag is stuffed to the brim.   After all the excitement if trading died down, we went to the general store and bought beer and just hung out at the cabin for awhile. There's a few new people to the group so it was good to get to know them. At dinner time, Guppy, Mouse, Super Bob and myself went back to the restaurant and had dinner, I had a pasta dish which I inhaled pretty quickly, it was delicious. After dinner, more drinking went on and I crashed pretty early, I slept on the floor testing out my new sleeping pad while some of the others stayed up late talking to fellow thru hikers who were staying at the same cabin. Hope we all don't have hangovers in the morning.                                                                              Keepin' It Steady