Rain Rain Go Away

Yesterday (Friday) was out new longest day. We went 16 miles! Yahoo!  It was a cloudy day hiking (good for letting the sunburns heal) and then it starting raining just as we started to setup our tent. We camped 1 mile away from the NOC. A place with several stores for white water rafting and hiking. After setting up our tent we walked up to where some people were gathered around a camp fire. Coco and his brother (we forget his name) were there. We camped with them about 5 days ago. There were also 3 other guys there. The one guy hikes the trail often. He even hiked this section in the winter getting hypothermia and tried to convince his friend and doctor to let him continue hiking. They didn't let him. You'll meet a lot of interesting people out here with interesting stories. While we were talking to these guys we cooked dinner over the fire like usual. This time we made a mistake. The one log rolled and so did the pot and everything in it. We were able to recover 3/4 of our supper. After eating and talking some more we went to our tent. We normally read or a little and then listen to an audio book. Ranger's Apprentice. Thanks to Danae's cousin, Dion who gave us the audio books, we have some entertainment in the evening. 

After waking up, we had to roll up our tent in the rain. No fun!  The tent is gross and probably weighs and extra pound thanks to the water that falls from the sky. We walked the 1 mile to the NOC and printed our Smokey Mountain permits. $20 per person just to walk a few days in the smokies. We then sent some more extra weight home. A pair of leggings, an extra pot, soap, medical tape, and cream for foot fungus. Afterwards we went to a small shop and bought those chocolate package doughnuts and a 3 Musketeers bar. We finally got back on the trail at 11:00 with only 1 mile behind is. By the way, the NOC is at 1,700 ft elevation. We then hiked 8 miles up to 5,062 feet. This was the most difficult day for me (Shazz). My heel was feeling great this morning, but the continuous uphill made it sore again this evening. After reaching the summit, we hiked down 2.4 miles to camp. Once again it started raining 30 minutes before we setup camp. We took out our already wet tent and quickly setup the tent so that no more water gets in. It is now 5:30 and we are waiting for the rain to slow down so that we can cook food. Mashed potatoes tonight! We are camping with Neon (pictured below) tonight. We met about a week ago and bump into him almost every day. He is about our age and fun guy to talk to. Hopefully we keep bumping into him. Tomorrow we are aiming for 15 miles. Only 2 miles from Fontana Dam, the beginning of the Smokies. It's all downhill tomorrow. Sadly Monday will be all uphill. 

Us and Neon