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Slept well in spite of the mouse running over my head as I passed the night with my mummy bag drawn over my head with just my face exposed. Whipped up some good oatmeal this morning with the help of the dried maple syrup that we picked up at Big Spring Shelter. Put on my old boots for today, packed up and headed toward Wesser and Wesserburgers!

The southern Nantahalas presented the best of its rugged terrain especially after Tellico Gap. After the Gap, the trail was a roller coaster of up and down. The burned up fire tower on Wesser Bald provided nice views of the surrounding Nantahala Mountains. From there it was two miles of steep down, down, down hill toward the Town of Wesser, North Carolina. There were many fine views on the descent to the Nantahala River Valley. Ruffed grouse serenaded us today, and we saw wildlife such as a toad, a snake, and many different wildflowers.

At the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), a center for whitewater kayaking and rafting, we signed into a room with three double beds since there was only one room left in the hostel bunkhouse. One bed for me, one for Jim, and one for the backpacks - all for just thirty-three dollars.

One of the best aspects of the room was the fact that we had our own shower! I hopped in and took a good shower, but still could not get all the smell off. Later, we had dinner of all-you-can-eat salad bar, bread and cheese at the restaurant. I topped that off with two scoops of ice cream for dessert. The restaurant is an interesting place being situated right at the river's edge and providing a view of the kayaking gates that the kayaks race through down the river. It is a rustic kind of place that caters to people of the outdoor variety. Later on back at our room, the power went out, so with nothing better to do I went back to the restaurant and had another two scoops of chocolate chip ice cream. What better way to top off the day. Total miles for the day - 11.6

According to my mother's records, I phoned my parents (probably for the first time since we began our trip) using a payphone at the NOC. I called using a "credit card number" provided by the phone company rather than calling collect as I had done in 1981. This way the call was charged to their phone, but we avoided a collect call charge. We talked for 19 minutes (cost $6.44). In the list of things I was to be informed about were my grades from university, reports of births of cousins in the "family", and that she had sent a package to me four days ago (sent Thursday, 19th of May) to the Post Office at Fontana Dam. Apparently I had made an order to a Seattle, Washington recreational equipment company known as "The Yak Works" that had some sort of problem. They had sent a card telling about whatever it was. Unfortunately, I have no record of what that order was, or what the problem was. Probably the item was backordered and they wanted to know if I wanted to wait or not. "The Yak Works" company was one of the many recreational equipment companies that had formed around this time, many of which, including The Yak Works, have gone out of business.

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