march 19 - NOC

The rain stopped overnight, and my clothes were somewhat dry in the morning. I wore them anyways, knowing theyll dry while i hike. Me and dj packed up our gear then hiked the 1 mile to the NOC. We hung out in the outfitter shop then went to the restaurant there for breakfast. After breakfast we opened up the package that DJs uncle had sent, in contained some food for dj and passover food for both of us. We divided up the food then dj called a synagogue in nearby knoxville to find out about passover accomodations. Im actually typing this up as he speaks to them. We dont have alot of hiking to do today, but its all uphill. Only about 7 miles to the next shelter, with 3000 feet of elevation gain. Its already 1pm, so we'll take it slow but not too slow. Were dreading the smokies, everyone is, the cold, the elvation the terrain. Nobody has anything good to say about em. We printed out our permits for the smokiies at the outfitter. It comes with a list of rules we must obey for the smokies. One of them is that thru hikers must give up shelter spot to those with reservations, but can only stay in shelters, no tenting allowed... hopefully well be able to take 2 days off for the passover seders. 2 days closer to spring is better than nothing... We started hiking the 7 miles to the shelter around 1:30pm. It was completely uphill the entire day. The same way we hiked down 3000 feet yesterday we had to hike back up. Wasnt so bad though. Me and dj hiked together the whole day. Hiking with another person always makes the day go by quicker. Plus, i had a can of beer right before we started, and drank the other four while hiking. Was hiking pretty fast so was burning it off faster than i can catch a buzz. We stopped for a half hour for lunch, and i ate a big lunch of food i found in the NOC hiker box. After that it was really hard to hike. Hiking with a full stomach is never easy to do. So i huffed and puffed until we finally reached the shelter. Its pretty crowded here now. Theres a group of really loud girls here. One of them i called powderball, she goes by powder puff but shes kind rounder than that. Allready ate a big dinner, i have alot more food than i need to get me to fontana dam only 20 miles from here. Then well probably go to knoxville for the first days of passover. Theres supposed to be a hiker gathering at fontana dam on sunday, so finding a ride shouldnt be too hard.