3/30/01
Zero mile days aren't as easy to stomach as I thought they would be! All of your fellow thur-hikers leave town one by one, fading into the mountainside as they begin the 7 mile climb out of the NOC. I was chomping at the bit all day to get back on the trail, but one look at my still swollen multicolored foot was reminder enough that sitting still is the best remedy for the long haul. Besides, our wives were on the way to rendezvous with us at the NOC for a short but wonderful time together. Creeper and I ate a trail breakfast while packing up our gear this morning, then ate another full breakfast at the River's End Restaurant. While there, we caught up with Dennis and Alex who we hadn't seen since Neel's Gap, and met thru-hikers Jeannette from the Netherlands and Brenda from Cleveland, OH.
Another trip to the outfitter was mandatory (we're gear fanatics!), and I broke down and bought a 13 oz. tarp (8x10). This will be my new home after I ditch the tent once the threat of super cold weather subsides. I'm looking forward to the weight savings! We spent the afternoon laboring over our gear, looking for more ways to cut weight. We actually gave up some things that were hard to part with, such as my Tabasco, Creeper's garlic, and my pepper blend for seasoning. Instead of shipping all this stuff home, we're putting it in our bump box. That way, if we really miss it, it'll be at our next food pickup and we can lovingly embrace it and welcome it back to our pack! We performed a little gear repair, seam sealing our tents in a couple of suspicious places where we saw minor leakage during the rain back at Bly Gap on the NC/GA border.
Paula and Christie arrived right on schedule around 4:30p.m. Man, was the car packed! We realized we were going to have one heck of a challenge getting the four of us plus 2 backpacks, bump boxes, food boxes and all their stuff in a Honda Accord! We brought the ladies up to basecamp, celebrated with a cold beer, introduced them to "Thor", "Yolo", and "Marine One", and shared photos from the early part of our journey. Then we performed a miracle packing job, placing me in the backseat with Creeper's HEAVY pack on my lap and other miscellaneous stuff all around us. Then we made the 14 mile jaunt to Bryson City to find lodging and dining. Bryson City is a cute little town, with 4 or 5 stoplights and small shops in the "downtown" district. After driving around and through town 4 or 5 times, we finally settled on the Sleep Inn. After sorting out all the stuff in the car, we headed to Anthony's to appease my never ending quest for PIZZA. The pizza bug hit me about 5 days ago one morning while hiking in the snow. I shared my obsession with Creeper, who immediately fell into the same obsession. I started singing P-I-Z-Z-A, P-I-Z-Z-A, P-I-Z-Z-A to the tune of Bingo that day after reading Dave and Kelly's entry in a shelter register regarding C-H-I-L-I to the same tune. So, we got our pizza fix...at least for now. I'm willing to bet that by Monday we'll be singing that song again! After dinner we called it an evening as Paula was tired from the long drive and we have a lot to do tomorrow including a drive to Fontana Dam to break up our food drop, possibly a trip to the doctor for x-ray's of Creeper's leg (the leg is swollen from his nasty spill) and, who knows, maybe even an x-ray of my foot which by the way looks much better and feels good despite the color scheme across the ankle. Stats: Low; who knows, we were in a bunkhouse! High: nice, middle 50's, cloudy. Mileage; zero, but in our minds we hiked a bunch! RABBIT
