Date: 2003-03-14
From: cold spring shelter

To: nantahala outdoor center (noc)
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: overcast clouds

day 13i thought it might rain last night and it sure enough did. not much, but it was enough to have gotten our food bags soaking. dean, brendan and myself had talked last night about going into the noc or maybe even furhter. we wanted to do some laundry and have a burger or something at the restaurant. we had decided to get going fairly early. yeah, it happened, but only for brendan. he woke up early, skipped breakfast and was out in no time. dean and i went back to sleep for a little longer, then had breakfast, and then headed out.we walked together for a few miles, but i was feeling damn sluggish. i'm sure my pack weight still had something to do with it, but i just wasn't really feeling the hike at the moment. dean was moving fairly quickly so i took a break and he kept going. we agreed on meeting up at the noc.i walked a few more miles and had some lunch at tellico gap where there's a hostel that i had no idea about. not that i would've stayed, but i definitely would've checked it out and had lunch there instead considering that it was only 200 yards away. i needed some lifting of the spirit and body, so i decided to have one of my favorite dinners for lunch: chicken flavor lipton pasta. it worked. i ate, had a cig, and started movin'.unfortunately that movin' only lasted a few miles. pretty soon i was draggin' ass again. the last few miles into the noc i walked helishly slow. god, it felt like every mile just went on forever. i got to a. rufus morgan shelter and had pretty much made up my mind to stay. when i got there, however, it was fairly packed with spring breakers. there was room enough for 2 more, but i didn't really feel like interfering so i checked out the register, got some water, and headed out. it was only a few more miles to the noc anyways.as it turned out those last few miles were probably the best miles of the day. i really picked up the pace. now i felt like hiking. i was a little tired, but i was movin'. i figured that i'd probably still find the fellas there, but i didn't bet on it. i was at least an hour to an hour and a half behind them. pretty soon i heard the river on my left and man did it sound like that thing was movin'. i started declining in what i remember to be in a zig-zag pattern with a lot of steps.i finally made it to the road and took a break by the bridge. i was getting some water when the father of the father and son couple that dean, brendan and i had camped out with at bly gap came up to me. i didn't recognize him at first, but after asking him where i had met him it all came back to me. his son and him were doing some rafting for the next couple of days. we shot it for a bit and he told me that brendan and dean had just left not to long ago and were headed to the next shelter. the next shelter is about another 6 miles. there was no way i was gonna do that i thought to myself. i thanked the guy for the info, wished him and his son well, and headed to the restaurant. it closed at 5pm. i had missed it by about half an hour which meant that i had also missed the hostel office.well, there was plenty of good stealth camping around or i could go up on the trail a bit, so it wasn't really a problem. as i was sitting contemplating my fate, a car pulled up and asked me if i knew where the hostel was at. i replied that i had some idea and that i was actually headed that way. i hopped in and we rolled. this lady turned out to be the best friend of pat, a fellow hiker that i'd met back at carter gap shelter and who also had been at the shelter last night. this friend had come to visit her. we got to the bunk houses and i thanked her.i decided to hang out for a bit and see who i'd run into. malkovich was there and so was sire and mr. cranky pants (one of my favorite trail names for some reason. i don't know, it just sounds funny. they directed me to the showers and laundry that were in the restroom area. well, i thought to myself, at least i can get that done. i talked with malkovich and then relaxed solo for a bit.a short while later this guy approaches me with a beer in his hand. he asks me the usual questions, "was i hiking the trail?" "was i having a good time?" "when did i start?" we kicked it for a bit and he offers me a beer. naturally i accepted. i believe the guy's name was ted (i know, i'm terrible), so we'll call him ted for now. ted was waiting for a couple of buddies (one of which's name was rich, and that i'm positive about) who were going to raft with him. ted and his buddies had been doing this every year for about 5 years now.after kicking it for a bit more and dropping back a few more beers, ted asked me if i was hungry? i answered in the positive and we drove to the nearby town of bryson city, nc. we went to pizza hut, picked up a pie and drove back. we didn't eat there, because ted was expecting his friends any time now. so in the meanwhile i have this hot, delicious-smelling pie on my lap, which i'm not gonna dig into until i know it's okay. a couple minutes pass and ted looks at me and is like "what the hell you waiting for? you know there's nothing better than beer and pizza!" so we crack a couple more open and start digging in. oh it's great. we're eating, we're drinking, we're talking, and i'm riding in a car, which i love (whether driving or a passenger). it was quality.we got back and shortly after ted's friends arrived. malkovich was bunking in the room next to ted so we offered him some beer and pizza. he took us up on the latter and we all shot it for a bit. it was getting really late and i was pretty much drunk, so i told the fellas that that was it for me. they inquired about were i was staying. i told them the saga, and they said that there weren't any bunks in the room left, but there was plenty of floor space if i was interested. i took them up on the offer and crashed on the floor. not too long into my sleep, the fourth person in the room showed up. he wasn't part of ted's party, but was a nice enough guy. there was one problem though. as soon as this guy who'd also been drinking hit the sack, boy did the snoring start. i plugged up my ears with the industrial plugs that ted had given me earlier, but it was no help. the concrete walls were vibrating. i got my ridgerest and bag and went outside on the small balcony. slept like a baby .