Drip Drop

Drip drop, splish splash, squish squash. Mother natuer once again unleashed her fury upon southern Appalachia, and today I had the honor of hiking in it. Since the shelter was completely full, I woke up quite warm this morning, although I had little to no wiggle room. I deemed myself worthy of cinamon toast cruch for breaskfast, so that's exactly what I had. I am at the point where I will pack anything out of town if I think it would taste good on the trail. I hiked all day through the rain with Hal today, We spent the day thinking about the trail ahead and trading trail stories, a nice change of pace for me. For the first part of today it was raining, but then it cleared up. I had a supurb view on Wesser Bald, the tower view made the slippery climb quite worth it. I then began the rolling descent into the NOC. There are plenty of useless ups and downs along the way. Today I was slippingh and sliding all along the trail. I had one complete fall and my side, and my trekking poles prevented many others. You learn to become excited when you see signs of civilization, it means warmth is near by. When you are cold and wet, warmth is a delight. My half day here at the NOC has been spent lounging around doing nothing, something I have become quite good at recently. Today I also made my reservation at the Hike Inn near Fontana Dam. Since I have reserved a specific date, I am bound to a certain tome table getting there. I have also started thinking about my assault on the Smokies. I have determined I will do one big push through and get the park behind me. There are 10-15 thru hikers in the vicinity of the NOC tonight. Most of them will walk 15 miles tomorrow, I will only walk 7. It has been nice being half a day behind the big crowd of hikers. Good night, and good luck. Kirby

Ga>ME 2008