The Nantahala Outdoor Center

Definitely not 18 miles today. 11.7 instead. Woke up and it was raining. Looked out of the shelter and into the grayness and wet, and pulled my sleeping bag back over my head. Had to leave eventually, the rain wasn't letting up. 

Met some new people, mostly just in passing, though spent some time with Quickstep and Turkeybird at the Wesser Bald shelter. Turkeybird is an awesome guy, 64 and loving life. Very funny guy. He told me when he explained that he was going to hike the AT to his daughter, she told him "I have your power of attorney and I will put you in a home!" Apparently she didn't follow through. I really like him and pray for the best for him. Walked with a kid that wants to be a medic in the army. Good luck to him, too. 

After leaving Wesser Bald shelter (side note, saved a lot of time with the views because of the fog, everything was gray so no need to check them out) was jumped by the German. Well, I jumped. I was looking at the trail because of the mud, and I look up and there's this lady coming out from behind a tree. Her name is Dinosaur, due to a pink stuffed pillow in the shape of a stegosaurus she carries. Very interesting person, she has done a lot of traveling, and is in America solely to do a thru-hike. Her story about coming through immigration here was pretty amusing. "You're going to do what?" "Hiking" "Where?" "From Georgia to Maine" "what address?" "I will be hiking on the AT the whole time" and repeat. Apparently they gave her a really hard time in Atlanta. She traveled the length of Central America, and obviously a lot in Europe. Dinosaur also was a nanny (she called it au pair or something) as a teenager for a family in Ireland, to practice her English. Strong accent, but excellent speaker. We walked the last 4-5 miles into Nantahala Outdoor Center together, where I got a room in their hostel.  I like it here. Had a Tail of the Dragon burger, with a salad. Quite excellent. Also ran into the English father/son team, who I hadn't seen since Neels Gap. Stakes and Cliffwalker are also staying here.  Dan, who apparently doesn't have a trail name yet, is my bunk mate. He was some sort of high powered  big shot in pharmaceuticals, who quit his job to hike and change his view on life. Hope it works for him. 

My feet are hurting. Which is common. As Bangerang said the other day, "every day I feel like somebody beat the soles of my feet with a baseball bat." Today was muddy, and the trail mostly alternated between an actual stream and slip 'n slide mud patches. It was cold last night, and combined with the mice kept waking me up last night, and besides the time with my wife I don't remember a good night of sleep. This morning my hands went numb. I'm telling you all of this because I'm afraid I'm mostly putting everything in a rosy picture, and I want to make sure you realize it isn't just a casual jaunt into the woods. All that being said, and with missing my family aside, I'm having a great time. 

My feet at Cold Spring, while I'm trying to talk myself into getting moving. It didn't work for a while.