Date: 2005-03-28
From: NOC

To: NOC
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Ah, bliss! So THIS is what a zero day feels like. It feels GOOD! I needed it, I earned it, and I am taking full advantage of it.I slept in until 8, got dressed (but didn't bother taking a shower since, after all, I'd just had one yesterday!), walked down to The Rivers End restaurant for a hearty hiker's breakfast: coffee, two eggs over easy, bacon, toast, grits and a biscuit with sausage gravy. It was the first decent breakfast I've had in 15 days.In general, even when I start my day in a town and could eat a big breakfast, I don't want to; it's hard enough climbing up that first mountain without a full stomach.And by the way, for those of you who may not have noticed the phenomenon before when driving through the mountains: towns are always located along a road, and mountain roads always go through gaps between mountains - usually where a river has cut through creating the gap in the first place. I mention this because it¢s one of those things hikers is keenly aware of going into and out of town. The NOC here is a classic example: as noted yesterday, we dropped about 3000 feet in five miles coming into town, and tomorrow we will get to reclaim that elevation and then some - with a climb out of the NOC of 3,500 feet in the first six miles. What that means is that there is almost no downs and very little level ground - it will be all up hill.As a result, I'm planning a relatively short day - seven miles, leaving me 21 miles to do in two more days to reach Fontana Dam by Thursday. The second day will entail a far more reasonable set of elevation changes, and then the third day, going into Fontana, will once again be predominantly downhill. Such is the life of an AT hiker.In addition to a big breakfast, I'm doing a number of other things I haven't had time to do in previous town stops - mostly involving cleaning and repairing my gear. My tent, for example, having gone through several downpours, was a bit muddy, as were my boots which will get a new coat of waterproofing once they're dry. I've cleaned my cook pot, mug, spoon, water jugs, filter, and what not. If it came out of my pack, and wasn't crawling around on the floor on its own, it got washed!I also had a go at trying to fix the belt on my old pair of pants, but I'm not entirely sure how well that is going to work out. I had picked up a new set of plastic buckle parts, and needed to attach them to opposite ends of the belt. Unfortunately, I realized that I had sent home the needle and thread that was in my emergency kit - the one whose weight convinced me that I really couldn't afford to have any emergencies on the trail. The good news was that Vision Quest was able to lend me her needle and some standard backpacker's thread - dental floss. The bad news is that all she had left was the mint flavored kind.As you may be aware, assembled eyes, one is always supposed to put one's tooth brush and tooth paste in with one's food when hanging one's bear bag, as minty stuff seems to be especially attractive to bears. Hmmmm...Ok, Private Longhaul, let me get this straight: you've just used a bear's favorite flavor thread to sew the buckle onto the belt of the pants that you will be wearing into the woods where all the hungry bears live.   ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?????No, of course not. There's really no need to worry. It is after all a quick-release belt buckle, so if I see a bear coming, why I'll just whip the belt off and hand it to Butterfly Moon to hold while I stroll innocently past her down the trail. (She was taking a nap when I borrowed the dental floss, so she won't have a clue what's going on.)Actually, this is simply my way of trying to increase the readership of my journal. It's the only way I can think of to stay ahead of Breakaleg on the number of hits - introduce a bit of danger and intrigue into the story line. Clever, eh? As you can see, I'm really making very good use of my time on this zero day, aren¢t I?If you'll excuse me now, I need to go waterproof my boots.Ok, I'm back. After finishing up with my gear, BfM said she REALLY needed to get to a McDonalds for a cheese burger and fries, so we walked down to the road and stuck out our thumbs. We got lucky almost immediately, as a one of the employees of the NOC was leaving work and offered us a ride into Bryson City. He turned out to be a really nice guy, and ended up joining us for dinner and then gave us a ride back to the NOC. His name was Colin, and he is the manager of the mail order department. We also got to meet his dog, Livingston, as apparently a lot of the employees of the NOC take their dogs to work with them. Cool, Huh? Oh, today's non-hiking day is dedicated to my faithful transcriber, Shelly, and to her long-suffering but ever so patient husband, Jerry. Great to see you guys yesterday. Until the next time,Stay tuned, Longhaul