Date: 2012-12-12
From: Fontana Lodge 

To: Nantahala Outdoor Center 
Miles today: 27.3
Weather: broken clouds

(In which Dante and I hike 27 miles with 18 mini-bagels and arrive at an NOC where we can't get food) -Currently sitting in the lodge common area the morning of the 13th... too exhausted to write last night-This morning (12/12/12) I got up and ate breakfast with Dante in the lodge before taking the ten minute walk over to Fontana's only convenience store that opened at 9 am. The plan was to resupply there and even stop by the post office that supposedly opened at 8:30 am. The source of this information was both my guidebook and the woman who worked the front desk of the lodge. We arrived at the store a few minutes before 9 so we went over to the post office... only to learn that it now opens at 11:30 am. Oh well. We walked back to the store to find it still closed. A sign in the window revealed why: Hours - Sat-Mon 9-5, Tues-Fri CLOSED. It was Wednesday. Anger, directed mostly at the Village of Fontana and everyone in it, was the primary emotion that surfaced first. Ultimately, and once again, I had no one to blame but myself... for trusting the woman behind the desk at the lodge for telling me the store opened up at 9. GRRWAAARRR!This was a little too much. We stayed in town specifically because of the store and there was absolutely nowhere else to resupply. The next town is 13 miles away and hitching here, where there's no trailhead, would be very difficult. As we strode back to the lodge in a fury a new plan developed. We'd buy whatever bagels the lodge's restaurant would sell to us and we'd hike the 27 miles to the NOC and resupply there. It sounded miserable at the time and it was miserable in practice. The waitress in the restaurant was understanding and nice about it, but all they had for us was a bag of 36 mini-bagels. We paid too much for them and split em' up evenly between us. A single pound each... that's enough for 27 miles right? Sure.We were back on the trail at 10 am and trudged. Overcaffeinated and angry, I flew up the big climb out of town. The first 20 or so miles went well but then the bagels disappeared, the sun went down and the wheels fell off. The last 7 miles were a steep downhill and were pathetic. We stumbled down the hill to the NOC and made sure to trip on every rock or root on the way. We were so pathetically tired that at one point, after Dante rolled his ankle for the fifth time, I started laughing so hard that I spent the next minute or two bent over my trek poles gasping for breath in that that's-so-funny-I-can't-breath way. Dante seemed to catch the laughter and we both stood there doubled-over with tears of laughter running down our faces. It was terrible. After we came to, we stumbled the last two miles silently and exhausted into the outdoor center.We had called the outdoor center earlier in the day and set up lodging in advance. It was a good thing too, because everything is closed. On top of that, the only convenience store that we had a hope of walking to (0.9 miles away) is also closed. No places from nearby towns will deliver food this far and the outfitter and restaurant here wont open until 10 am tomorrow (so we're told...). If there's a low-point on this trip as far as cumulative disappointment is concerned, this is it. The last day of the 100 Mile Wilderness was rough, but not disappointing. I'm having trouble smiling at anything right now.Tomorrow we'll wait for the outfitter to open before eating, resupplying and pulling a relatively short day. Things will be better with food...Today's post is brought to you by gut-wrenching laughter at things that aren't funny, because that's when you know you've had enough.