Date: 2011-04-04
From: Wayah Shelter

To: NOC
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: clear sky

Day 14. The winds blew the entire night, high in the trees, not much at ground level. It was as I imagined sleeping under an elevated train track or maybe underneath the catapult on an aircraft carrier. I had to put on some afterbite on my poison ivy at 2:00am, which is doing OK subduing the itching. I was up at 7:20am the everyone was talking about the terribly weather front headed our way. The forecast called for 30-50 mph winds, lightning and a lot of rain and it was due to hit at 9:00pm that evening. That forecast engaged me to get going and quickly. I had met two section hikers, Steve and Eddie, and we set our goal to get to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) for the evening, 16.5 miles away. I left at 8:05am and put myself in high gear. It was not an easy day, a lot of up and downs. I did stop at the Wesser Bald observation tower (only 43 steps up) and looked at the beautiful surrounding area but I did not linger long. At 3:40pm, I heard my first rumbling of thunder coming in from the west. I stopped and put my rain cover on my pack and took off again. At 4:00pm the rain and hail started. It had been a warm day and I was only in my short sleeve shirt, I could not afford the time to put on my clothes. It was actually fairly comfortable so I did not mind the wetness. Around 4:30pm while descending into the Nantahala gorge, stepping on rocks, I took a tumble. I had placed my left foot on a rock below me and was striding forward when the rock whoppled. I caught myself with my trekking poles that kept me from going down head first but I did end up striking my left quad on a rock. I got up, tested all my joints and was ok. I did bend my left trekking pole, more on that later. I have noticed that this has been a common occurrence late in the afternoon. I don't pick my feet up as well and do not concentrate as well as I should. As I descending below 3,000 feet, I finally ran into trees leafing out. It was neat to see them from above and then move down into them. I also saw my first snake, a little black snake with a gold band around its neck. I am not sure exactly the proper name for it. There were many more wildflowers in bloom but I was moving too fast and it was raining too much to stop and observe them. I got into the NOC at 5:45pm and the storm was in full force. Steve and Eddie showed up around 6:15pm so we went ahead and ate at the River Bend restaurant. I had a salad, club sandwich, french fries, a beer, several glasses of ice tea and some vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. I still probaby expended more calories than I consumed today.After dinner, we went to our bunk rooms. Envision a cinder block room, 10 feet by 16 feet, put 2 sets of bunk beds in there with one shelf and that was it. But when the heavy electrical storm came at 10:23pm and again at 3:40am I was very glad to be inside. The bunk room had a tin roof so I did not sleep all that well but I was dry and warm and that was key. I shared the room with 3 young men from outside Freeport, Maine, hiking their way back home. It is suppose to rain tomorrow but I will worry about that after the sun comes up. Overall, a good day, I did the 16.5 miles in 9 hours, a 1.8mph pace and have covered 135.2 miles.