The rain continued off and on through the night but by morning it was just dripping off trees. We knew we had a short day into Wesser so no one was in a hurry to move. Plus, when I surveyed the clothesline full of wet, soggy clothes, and knew I had to put them on, I was even less motivated. At least we all had dry socks, but when you put dry socks into wet boots, they don't stay dry for long.

Last night, after dark, Will came down to let us know the Eagle's Nesters were camping just above the shelter. Boy, they must have had a long, wet day. No wonder they were still sacked out when we left about 8:15. We started the 5.7-mile plunge down to the Nantahala River. The first three miles was another chamber of horrors, scrambling over rocks and roots, then tortuously down slippery mud, and up and over every little knob and spur. We noticed that the Nantahala Hiker's Association maintains this section of trail, and they are the same ones who maintain the other killer section out of Bly Gap. We're sure they are followers of the Marquis de Sade.

About halfway down the trail took a definite turn for the better and the last miles were almost pleasant, crossing numerous cascading streams and rocky waterfalls. My theory is that there are two factions in the NHA, one good and one evil. The evil faction has control over the upper portion of the trail, and the good faction is gaining a foothold, and now has control over the last few miles of trail down to the Nantahala. Now, let's just hope that good wins out over evil for the climb over Cheoah Bald when we leave on Saturday. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

We still managed to make it to the river by 11:00, and marched our filthy, sweaty bodies over to the registration building to inquire about lodging and whitewater raft trips. We were delighted to find that there were openings for both. We booked two nights at The Basecamp (bunkhouses) and a half-day raft trip on the Nantahala for tomorrow afternoon. Yee-ha!

The bunkhouses are way, way up the hill, up more than 100 stairs. They are nestled in the trees, so are very peaceful, but we'll have to plan our activities so we don't have to keep running up there all the time. The showers are in the large Community Building, which also has a huge kitchen and a large dining room and deck. I'll bet Basecamp really hops during the height of thru-hiker season, but it was relatively quiet today.

This place also has a special meaning for us because it was where one of our many trail miracles occurred in '77. Then the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center) was relatively new and we didn't even know it existed. There's no town here so we weren't expecting anything but a road. The night before, after nearly 2,000 miles, our Svea stove had given out. We didn't know how we were going to fix it and were facing the chill of October with no stove. The very next morning we came down to Wesser and were amazed to find the NOC and a huge outfitter with just the parts we needed to fix the stove (not to mention friendly people and a warm, cheery woodstove). The timing was too close to be coincidence. Once again, our guardian angel was looking after us.

We spent all afternoon in the pursuit of relaxation – hot showers, laundry for wet, filthy clothes, lunch on the deck at River's End, writing postcards, browsing the outfitters, etc. Had a wonderful dinner at Relia's Restaurant on the hill overlooking their terraced garden. Back at the room, we met our bunkmate, Bill "Beetle" Prather. He's a grad student from Georgia State in Athens, working on his doctorate in American Literature. He's a pleasant guy. He's a big guy, but know he's in good shape, because said he doesn't own a car and walks and cycles everywhere. He started at Springer the day after we did and plans to go as far as Fontana Dam. We talked until after 11:00, then tried to sleep in the hot, buggy room.

When we awoke this morning, the shelter had the distinct appearance of a Chinese laundry. Fortunately shelters are open or it would have smelled more like a men's locker room. All of our wet clothes from yesterday were hung from every nail, peg and line in the shelter. They were still quite damp as we struggled to put them on. The rain had cleared leaving behind the constant dripping from trees. We were in no great hurry. There were less than six miles to our home at NOC for tonight. There we'd get to wash the scum off our clothes and us.

NOC meant good food. This morning we were reduced to our granola because we had used up the last of our fuel. One look at it, and back in the bag it went. None of us could stomach the site of it, so we resorted to Pop Tarts. It's not that I find Pop Tarts all that appealing. I'm constantly amazed at how they seem to have become a staple food for many hikers. For this morning at least, they would have to last us until the NOC.

Last evening the Eagle's Nest group came in and camped on the ridge just above the shelter. We have been playing tag team with them since the day before Albert. The leaders had told us that they were also taking tomorrow off at NOC to do some rafting. But they hadn't informed the kids yet. It was going to be a surprise. As we passed their camp this morning they were safely snuggled down in their bags.

From the map profile of this section, it appeared that we'd have a nice long downhill to the NOC today. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Not included in the profile were the vertical ascents and descents for each knob we passed as we slowly crawled down the ridge. It felt more like a roller coaster than a trail. On any other day it might not have been as bad, but today we had NOC on the mind. Anything delaying us from our destination seemed more like a personal affront.

It does serve to point out the need to hike the trail on it's own terms. I would image that many people who drop out, do so because of the difficulty of resolving the basic conflict of reaching a goal and the journey. It's common to hear some comment like it's the journey not the destination. Yet I doubt that there are many hikers that don't struggle daily with the need to reach your destination and the desire to enjoy where you are.

As we progressed down the mountain, we just had to relax and take it one foot at a time. All the while, we could here the roar of Nantahala down below. Its sound reverberated off the walls of the gorge. At times it seemed we were only yards from our destination.

Around 11:00 we stepped onto the road in front of the NOC, dirty, wet and very relieved to have arrived. Our lodging for the night was still a major unknown for us. Repeated calls over the last week had failed to secure us a bunk in one of their cabins. Space was available and we quickly reserved lodging for two nights.

After depositing our packs at the bunkhouse, we showered then proceeded down to the Rivers End Restaurant for lunch. It's great to relax and eat while watching the rafters and kayaks play on the river. Unlike the last couple of weeks, this place was a mass of people. Walking around through the shops and relaxing along the river, we were taking a vacation from our vacation.

Today we started out on a short day, with only six miles to NOC. A long steep six miles, but we finally made it around 11:00. We checked in and when up to the bunkhouse. We couldn't get the key till 3:00, so we just set our stuff outside. We went and took showers. That felt great! We walked down to the restaurant to have lunch. It's great to have real food. I had a BLT and it tasted fantastic! After lunch, we went to the outfitter store. I bought NOC shirt and so did Dad. Mine said "That which doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger", and Dad's said, "If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room." We had some Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Later we walked across the bridge to Slow Joe's, another restaurant, and ate nachos, chips and salsa. I guess it sounds like we ate all afternoon. We did! While mom and dad wrote postcards, I went down and skipped rocks across the Nantahala River. When it started to rain we dashed up the hill to Relia's Garden (the fancy restaurant) and had dinner. After dinner we walked up to the bunkhouse and met Beetle, the other person who was staying with us. We put our stuff inside and lay around for awhile. We went down to make some phone calls, I called my friend Pat and talked to him for awhile. We came back to the bunkhouse and went to bed.