Date: 2005-04-07
From: Cold Spring Shelter

To: Nantahala Outdoor Center
Miles today: 11.5
Weather: light rain

I slept cozy and warm last night. There's nothing like being dry, clean and comfortable when rain is falling steadily on the roof above. While breaking camp, I'm greeted by a fellow who stops for a morning break. Swamp Thing is from South Africa and hikes in shorts and a long-sleeved cotton top. Seems like a cool guy. I don't understand why some people choose to do this; I'm too chicken to lose the pants. We leave at the same time, but he's off like a rocket. After a few miles, the rain has thinned out, and a jacket isn't that necessary anymore. However, the fog lingers most of the morning along with a growing sensation of being depressed.Good days always come as a surprise, when I least expect it. I climb Wesser Bald's fire tower to find myself in the center of an impressive scene. The fog is changing into clouds right before my eyes, and it sweeps up the all sides of the mountain below. It moves so fast! Here's another moment of joy that lifts my mood as I'm alone to watch the weather change in ways I've never before seen. How many moments will I experience by the end of my hike? The day gets even better as the sun comes out and erases even more fog. There's one side of a mountain that's really interesting. It's a high peak right before the long descent into the Nantahala Gorge. There's a wide variety of colorful lichen and strange growth, and it all happens in the same place. It must take a very specific climate to support this rare pocket of life. Now is a perfect time to whip out my camera and take pictures of everything with the macro lense.As I descend towards the gorge, the amount of green I see increases ten-fold. I'm low enough in elevation that spring's in full force. Millions of lime-green buds have appeared all over the trees. It's really beautiful to watch winter change to spring in one day, like I'm pressing a fast-forward button on a time-machine. I stop to take a rest at the last shelter before the NOC. Panoramic is here (How did I catch up?) along with some new faces. Redbeard and Zenobia are a couple hiking together (with Zen's sister), and I also meet Smoke and Mutt, and a guy from Rhode Island named Jesse. We're informed that a restaraunt nearby has some killer burgers and is still open for another hour or two. So with little hesitation, Panoramic and I decide we might be able to make it and take off down the trail. A few miles later, we arrive at the River's End Restaraunt with no more than five minutes to spare. "Someone" must be watching out for me, if you know what I mean. The food is excellent!Redbeard, Zen, her sister and Panoramic share a bunkhouse together, but I (being cheap) look for a place to stealth camp by the river. I feel like a freakin' homeless person once again. There's a plateau between some train tracks and where the land drops off to the raging Nantahala below. It seems private enough and I hope that no one will find me here. But I can't help to feel an uncomfortable sense of danger. Maybe it's because I'm camping illegally. Or maybe because I'm five feet from a thirty foot drop-off into a deadly river. I get my tent set up just in time for a thunderstorm to roll through. The lightning is pretty intense through the thin layer of sil-nylon above my head. Every flash blinds me for a second, even through my shut eyelids. What another long and interesting day this one has been!