nahantala outdoor center to locust cove gap

slept well at the NOC. no one snored, which was unusual. there was definitely farting however.

woke up pretty late as there weren’t a lot of windows to let the sun in. according to far out (guthook) the general store was open at 8. nico and i packed up our laundry and headed down the hill of stairs only to find that it wasn’t open until 9. back up the hill we went. i used the hour to do some blog posting.

at 9 we were finally able to do our laundry, and i was pleased that we had an option of tide pod flavors; regular or unscented. i didn’t confer with nico before i asked for the unscented.

laundry in, i hiked back up the hill of stairs and did some recon on my food situation and determined that i didn’t need to get any. this also means i’m still carrying more food than i need. i noshed the leftover pizza from last night and in poor hiker fashion, left the pizza bones. it was just too much dough for me.

a couple hours later nico popped into the hostel saying he had seen dan, and that dan was taking a nero at the NOC, and he would probably take a zero.

i considered it, but i liked our plan to get through the smokies in reasonable weather. that’s the reason i decided not to purchase the bag liner, so i felt it prudent to stick to the plan.

i did another round trip on the hill of stairs to pick up my laundry and packed up. i got nico to download signal so we could stay in touch, we hugged and i headed off. it was about 11:45.

the trail for the day was essentially a 7.5 mile climb and then a short descent to locust grove gap. i was actually pretty happy to climb as it’s easy on the knees.

for the most part it wasn’t too steep, though there were a handful of notable exceptions. eventually i topped out at cheoah bald and was greeted with some fantastic views.

i finished up with a descent to the gap. i had some cell service so i called the parents and had a chat with them.

when i arrived at locust grove gap i was the only one that was there. i had grand dreams of having the entire site to myself. nico messaged to say he had decided to leave the noc after all. a little while later a trio of hikers, a dad and his two sons who are apparently triplets (their sister didn’t come) showed up, and one other solo hiker. another while later and nico made an appearance, tenting inside the rhododendron- a site that i coveted, but had passed up because my tent was too big.