Were packed up early and down at River's End by 7:15 for one more "real" breakfast before hitting the trail again. I'd really been dreading the 3500-foot climb away from the Nantahala. Turned out not to be as bad as we'd expected. The trail was mostly well graded, with nothing really treacherous. Just long, long, long, and humid, humid, humid. We stopped often for quick water breaks, but made it the first 6.9 miles to Sassafras Gap Shelter by 11:30. We weren't even aware we'd come to the Jump Up until we were well beyond it. It was long and steep, but not the mass of rocks and roots we remembered. Must have been the new section of switchbacks we'd passed. Guess the good faction of the NHA has prevailed after all.

Since we weren't planning on being at a shelter tonight, we made our spaghetti dinner for lunch to take advantage of the water. Left the shelter and its energetic gnats about 12:30, headed for Cheoah Bald and beyond. Trudged our way up the 1.1 miles to the top of the bald, then plopped down in the tall grass to drink in the view. Our rest was very short-lived, however. Within minutes, huge dark clouds started moving closer. We could hear thunder and see where it was raining on the next ridge. Black clouds were forming behind us too, so we knew we didn't have long before being soaked.

We threw on our packs and made a dash to get down a bit lower. Ronald ran ahead to try and scout out a flat spot to pitch the tarp to wait out the storm. In less than a half-mile he found what was probably the last flat ground for two miles. We quickly set up the tarp and crawled in with our packs just as the full force of the rain, thunder and lightening hit us. Ronald thought we'd sit out the storm, then go on, but it soon became obvious that wasn't an option. The storm wasn't passing quickly, so we made the decision to officially call it a day, and crawled into our sleeping bags to get warm. Had to do a temporary patch job on a small hole in the tarp. Also had a little leakage down the center seam, but nothing major. It was certainly drier than being out in the storm.

The rest of the day is a surrealistic blur. The storm raged on for hours. We probably should have written, or played cards, or read, but it was so dark, it seemed like night. I was chilled, so all I wanted to do was curl up and sleep. We just hunkered down and napped. I woke up a couple times, just to look at my watch or listen to the storm, then nodded off again. By about 7:00 the storm ended and we woke up to munch a bit before going back to sleep for the night. I'm sure that's the most continuous hours I've ever spent in my sleeping bag.

When we left this morning or goal was to travel much farther. Again the weather failed to corporate with us. To get an early start, we packed up everything last night except for a few essentials. All we had to do this morning was to walk down to the Rivers End Restaurant for a big breakfast before tackling the climb. We would be well fortified for the 3500-foot climb out of NOC to Cheoah Bald.

For me, the only way to deal with climbs like this is to just hunker down and go. And so we did. For three and a half hours we did little but look at that little patch of earth in front of our feet and climb. I was quite surprised when we reached the sign to the Sassafras Gap Shelter at 11:30. I was expecting a much longer climb.

To celebrate, we decided to stop and cook our big meal for lunch. We'd get a chance to rest awhile before completing the climb. The ever-present bugs made staying at the shelter quit uncomfortable. Driven off, we headed for the summit where we hoped to spend some time enjoying the view.

On the climb we could hear the distant rumbling of afternoon storms. On top we could see the storm clouds off to the North and East. We lay in the grass for a while hoping the storms would ignore this peak. Standing tall amongst the other mountains, Cheoah Bald seemed to draw them like a magnet. Watching the approaching storms, I knew we had about ten minutes to set up shelter. We quickly tossed on our packs and ran down the mountain. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find a place to erect the tarp on the narrow ridge top.

We found a flat spot at the junction to a side trail and hastily put up the tarp. The plan was to wait out the storm then proceed on down the mountain. Moments after the tarp was up and we were safely secured, the sky opened up. Somewhere we'd managed to poke a small hole in the tarp. After a few tense minutes I was able to secure a temporary patch. We laid back to wait out the deluge.

As we lay there, the lighting component of the storm was rapidly approaching us. All of a sudden a flash of lighting followed by the immediate clap of thunder hit outside the tarp. It was close to the side of the tarp where Brandon lay. He immediately bolted upright and looked at me with terror in his eyes. I tried hard to lie there nonchalantly, appearing as if there was nothing to be concerned with. Meanwhile internally my mind was trying to resolve the same questions his eyes were posing.

All that could be done had been done. Trying to run down the narrow ridge in this storm wouldn't make things better. For now we'd have to leave our fate to the Lord's hands. Soon enough the thunder and lighting moved off. The rain lightened a bit, but never stopped. Off in the distance we could hear the sound of other storms. Sometime during the second rain shower, Linda made the decision to call it a day. So out came the sleeping bags and now we lay here comfortably in our cocoons and reasonably dry from the storms raging above us. We're running low on water, but fortunately we had our big meal for the day. We can stretch our remaining supplies until we get down off the ridge in the morning.

Today we left NOC (boo hoo!) and headed up and out of that place. We climbed up and up, and gained 3,500 feet in eight miles. We stopped for lunch around 11:30 at Sassafras Gap Shelter and decided to have an early dinner. So we made Spaghetti and I cleaned out the dishes. We left there and climbed to the top of Cheoah Bald. I was tired of going up, but we finally got to the very top. We walked to the edge and took some pictures of the view. It was getting dark and we could tell it was going to rain. After staying there for about ten minutes, we headed down the other side. We looked for a campsite to set up the tarp and get out of the rain. We found one and set it up right before it started raining. There was lots of thunder and lighting around. It was pretty scary. We spent the whole afternoon and evening in our sleeping bags.