Day 15 - Nantahala River

Set up my tent last night on limited, semi-flat ground near another woman hiker. She got up before a hint of light in the sky and started packing. She was using a flashlight but I know it wasn't helping her because it was aimed into my tent most of the time. Clack of pans, rip of zippers, rustle of synthetic fibers mashed into stuff bags, crunch of granola. Heard it all for 30+ min and then blissfully boots walking away. I got out of my tent a little later than normal because I wanted all the other nearby campers to know that wasn't me waking everyone up. But you have to admire someone that can get up and go. It takes a lot of inner strength to get going so early. Life on the trail.

Two Englishmen came into camp. Their plane landed at 2 a.m. They slept in a hotel for 4 hours and then caught a shuttle to the trail and then hiked 11 miles. I was walking by their campsite that evening when one of them climbed into his hammock/tent. It promptly sank to the ground still tied to the trees. I heard him say to his companion: "My back's on the ground and I don't care.". Poor guy. Couldn't help but laugh, I hope in sympathy.

I love walking through the tunnels cut through the rhododendron thickets. Their twisted forms and their thick, dark canopy are straight out of Tolken's Middle Earth. Early men through here cursed these thickets because it's impossible to walk through them. The only choice was to find a way around or cut through, an arduous task.

What makes me sad is to see all the magnificent American chestnuts rotting on the ground from a fungus blight. New chestnuts come up from the old roots and when those trees reach 5 to 10 inches in diameter the blight kills them too. The forest is filled with dead trees with new chestnut sprouts growing below them, all doomed. I had no idea there were so many young trees trying to grow. Maybe somehow one will become resistant to the fungus. And then there's one of my favorite tree the hemlock also doomed from the woolly adelgid. The hemlocks in these mountains are almost all dead. We're going to lose them all. It's a disaster.

The good thing is that the poison ivy that literally covered the ground in the Georgia mountains doesn't like this higher elevation.

Many pretty wildflowers along the trail including Clintonia, the wood lily. The trilliums have seed pods now.

You learn to hate the word "gap" cause that means what goes down must go back up. Today after normal up and downs on the trail, I walked down 4 1/2 miles for an elevation loss of about 4300 feet. Tomorrow I walk back up for about 8 miles for an elevation gain of about 5000 feet. Then more up and downs.

The big down hill of today took me to the Nantahala River where the trail passes a great outdoor center and outfitter. Anything you want to do on a mountain river you can do here from renting kayaks, rafts to trout fishing. It's a really nice place and very friendly. I'd heard about their pizza on the trail and it was excellent!!! But the BEST thing is I'm staying in a bunk house and just a few buildings away are showers and a washer dryer. They even supply a towel and shampoo all for $19. I'm now totally clean. I ate hot food (on the trail I eat cold food) and I'm watching a beautiful river roll by. Google the Nantahala Outfitters at Wesser N.C. to get a look at this place. A true oasis!!! And tonight I sleep inside four walls on a bunk bed. Also my food boxes from Lauren and Lucy were here from a month ago. Life is good.

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