Wednesday, May 1st

BluetsWe once again left later than desired, being passed by Buckeye 70 as we packed up. Squirrel and Drew also managed to leave before we did, which was no great challenge. We started out in a bit of pain, as we all decided to skip the Vitamin I.

There was a fairly sharp descent into Wesser that day, though the trail was well-graded and well- maintained. We stopped frequently, since flowers were everywhere. Spring had exploded into bloom while we'd slept, trilliums, blue lets, Solomon's seal and trout lilly covering the sides of the valley. We hiked much of the way down a ridgy valley, cut into a wandering green "V" littered with flowers and thru-hikers. It took us an awful long time to get to Wesser, due to our breaks and easy pace.

We arrived in Wesser in the early afternoon. It's worth mentioning that Wesser isn't actually Wesser. The town got small enough that they lost their status as a town, as well as their post office. Now it's usually referred to Nantahala Outdoor Center, or NOC, for the resort that now dominates the area. NOC (The Town Normally Known As Prince) now has a steady population of 50, a few restaurants, and some inns nearby. Dave, Botany Boy and I went straight to a restaurant, where we all order the same thing: The Nantahala Gorge. It's a double-decker sandwich with everything but the kitchen sink on it. A fine way to end a day's hike.

We went across the street to try to get a room at NOC. I told the guy at the front desk that I would happily get a room if he would only let me use his phone line for ten minutes or so. He spent a while trying to find out exactly what I'd be doing with it, which line I could use, what time I'd be using it, and called a superior to get permission. We waited for a while to get a response, during which time I said that I may as well get a room. It then became clear that there were not, in fact, any rooms available, as they only had two, and both were taken. One word: incompetence.

Botany Boy, Dave and I hitched to the Nantahala Inn, a little bed and breakfast sort of place. It was $70 for a room, but they were happy to let me use their phone line. When split three ways it was $25 a piece (with the wonders of taxes), which seemed reasonable to be able to use the phone. Our only problem with the room was the smell. Not to say that it started off smelling bad, but we all washed our socks in the sink. Wow. It is seldom that I have smelled something so bad. We cleared out soon after for supper.

We ate dinner at the Inn, as the prospect of hitching back to NOC to get dinner seemed a little much. It was delicious. We even got our desserts packaged so that we could have them up in our rooms.

I asked at the front desk to use their phone line, which they happily let me use. I perched on the edge of a table and plugged into their fax line to get the routine 100 pieces of mail. That took me a few hours to answer, with the journal updates. The problem was that I didn't have time to copy all of the images from my digital camera to the laptop, leaving those journal entries photo-less. Well, they're...uh...intended to make you visualise things. Yeah, I decided that the images were a hindrance. Yeah, that's the ticket...

Miles Traveled: 5.7
Song Stuck in my Head Today: "Lazy", Love and Rockets
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