Date: 2023-07-11
To: NOC
Miles today: 9.55

Day 17 - Rain, More Rain and Grumbling9.55 miles todayWhat a night.  Last night as I was writing our daily trail journal the rain drops began and they kept getting worse. Honestly, I don¢t even like writing about it. One day it will be a proud bit of family lore how we all survived the rainstorm in leaking tents on a slanted muddy bank. Right now though, it just brings back miserable memories. In short, a huge storm rolled over us about 9:30pm and lasted until 4am. By this morning at 5:45 when we got up in the dark to break camp, sleeping bags, shoes, books, trail maps, socks, shirts, etc¢¦ were all soaked. Mud everywhere. A couple of us, myself in the lead, had really bad attitudes this morning. I had gotten about 1 hour of sleep all night and was hating life by the time we got up.  Most of us were bickering and barking at each other by headlamp this morning while sliding around on the mud trying to pack up tents and other gear. We skipped breakfast in our haste to leave the scene of our worst night yet and hit the trail at 7am. With the leaves high above still dripping rain water on us, we hiked in silence for almost an hour. Everyone was pretty miserable and didn¢t want to talk. About 2 miles in we came to a fire tower and all climbed to the top. I boiled water for our breakfast and Erin¢s coffee. As soon as the water was almost ready our oldest son walked by and tripped on the pot, spilling our precious hot water.  This initiated another round of angry words and tears. We used the last of our water to refill the pot and all sullenly stared at the gorgeous views around us as the rain clouds lifted.  With the sun leaking through and warming our cold dampness and with hot food in our bellies we began to apologize to each other.  We asked each other and the Lord to forgive our short tempers and sharp words. We talked about how hard the night was and how it wasn¢t someone¢s fault. Sometimes life is just hard. It¢s how we deal with it that counts. In better spirits we left the tower and hiked along a ridge finding our first wild blueberry bushes. They provided a delightful snack for us all. However the trail soon became overgrown with briars and brambles, leaving us all scratched and itching. The trail seemed to never end today. The miles passed by hopelessly slowly. The latter half of the day was all descent, knee-jarring descent that was slower going down that it would have been going up. The scenery did improve with rocky, Colorado like trail conditions and massive views as we descended a ridge line. Around 2:30pm we arrived at Nantahala Outdoor Center. It¢s like a ski resort for whitewater kayaking and rafting.  We all made it to the swim area of the river and happily waded in then jumped into the 49* water.  Soaking our swollen feet and rinsing off the mud and memories from the night before was the perfect end to this imperfect section of trail. We then checked into our room which turned out to be a bunkhouse with 3 bunk beds, and that¢s all. Actually it had one light bulb and two outlets.  It was worse than most shelters we¢ve stayed in. No bathroom, no pillows, no sheets or towels, nothing.  After unpacking ALL of our gear and going to eat we returned to the room and it dawned on me how ridiculous it was to pay $180 per night for this.  I looked in the shared bathroom and was appalled.  Even our middle son pointed out accurately that our room felt like a prison cell. He was right, except even prison cells have toilets and sinks. I called and found another option available so we packed up and walked over. We had to get two rooms but turned our two adjoining rooms ¢adjoined¢ by walking down the hall to each other.  Oh well, it was so much better than the bunkhouse AND the tents the night before.  Plus we had sheets, towels AND real pillows.  Our youngest son was the only one unhappy with the upgrade, he wanted the prison cell bunk beds.