Day Seventeen Entry: Sep 27, 2013

Zero day at the NOC. Mostly laying low I did have fried eggs for breakfast and intend to do so again tomorrow. I even had a glass of red wine after my spaghetti dinner. I did a load of laundry lets see a shirt two pairs of socks a pair of pants and a set of long underwear. Most of the day we watched kayakers plAying in the river that runs right thru the place. The release must come around 9 am but stays high until after dark. There are gates all set up and some of these guys are good. I watched a fellow stay right in the same place and do about a dozen forward rolls. There were kids and all sorts of toys. Even stand up paddle boards. I watched a truck go by with about 30 deflAted rafts heading off to the put in. Of course the place was full of middle schoolers and the overflow bunkhouse was up and out, way out. I met a fellow Jay who we has seen earlier hiking with his daughter. They had started at Springer too except by now she had ditched him and he was on his own. He'd been stung by a bee of some sort and was hitching into town for an Epi pen for next time. He said later hitching into town was like being a kid again. Sitting in the back of a beat up pickup-- it was fun. Come to find out he's headed to Fontana dam too before he goes home and we decide to hike together. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain and the climb out of this gap is steep but the first shelter is about 6 miles and we'll shoot for that. Oh, and the weather report was for rain, rain and then rain. But we can do it on fried eggs and grits from a breakfast at the restaurant .
55° Partly Cloudy
Nantahala National Forest, Bryson City, NC, United States

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