Day 12 - Zero in Franklin

Today was a lot less packed than yesterday. To be fair, my body probably needed a relaxed day of rest.

I woke up at the late time of 8:30 and went down to eat the hotel breakfast of waffles and microwave burritos.

We then went back to Outdoor 76 to do our laundry. They had loaner clothes so I was able to wear something besides my rain gear when doing laundry.

After laundry, we walked back towards the hotel for lunch. When you have to walk around everywhere, you realize just how pedestrian unfriendly most American towns are. There were many times where there wasn't a sidewalk, and I had to play frogger to get across a highway bridge. It also started snowing again as we walked. Still beats raining.

For lunch we had a bunch of barbecue with fried sides. Afterwards, I went over to the grocery store next door to resupply. My next planned stop was at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, also known as the NOC, which was just two days away. I've gotten a lot better at buying just the right amount of food that I need, minimizing the weight that I have to carry on my back.

With my post-lunch malaise hitting me, I got back to the hotel and relaxed in the room for the rest of the day. There were six of us packed into a room that was supposed to have four at most. That itself wasn't bad. The smell of six hikers and their gear, however, was truly an assault on the nose. Fortunately the human nose acclimates pretty quickly to whatever environment it finds itself in.

We ordered a pizza for dinner (pictured above). I got my gear ready for tomorrow and dozed off around 10.

We got a shuttle to pick us up around 10:30 tomorrow morning, so I had the luxury of being able to sleep in. Zero days are nice for recovering, but I felt that I needed to be back on the trail.