Two Swamp Puppies Left the NOC

May 2, 2025

Bo and I slept in this morning, since the hostel staff had a parade to attend where their son with down syndrome would be walking escorted in a parade for his school. For breakfast, “Poppins ” let me have some of her left over pizza and then I made a cup of coffee up at the lodge. I rolled my feet put with a cork ball while I ate the pizza and drank the coffee.

“Poppins” recieved a resupply box, which she let me go through to get whatever I needed resupply-wise for the Smokies, since her hike was finished and Fontana was known to be wiped out of resupply options. I packed up my bag and my box that I would pick up in Fontana in a few days. Marcus was going to Fontana and agreed to drop my box off at the front desk so I could pick it up in a few days and not have to carry extra days of food in my pack.

Bo and I hit the trail around 10 am, which was our latest start yet. We were fortunate to have a couple of dry hours of hiking before the clouds opened up. Around noon, there was an absolute downpour, which my poncho was no match for, and Bo and I ended up being drenched head to toe.

It was a steep climb out of the NOC, over 3000 feet of elevation gain. I thought I blew past Sassafras Shelter, but it turned out to be another 1/2 mile down the trail. Bo and I stopped for a quick lunch before the shelter in order to not get too cold from the rain. We decided to push on further to the tent site despite my feet protesting. Bo did better today about walking behind me during the downhills.

We climbed Cheoah Bald and were met with a beautiful overlook. We also saw the menacing storm clouds behind us and that they were approaching fast. I knew we would be racing the sky from that moment on. As we hiked on down the Bald, the dark cloud followed us, threatening to open up at any moment. We made it to camp just in time to set everything up and get inside the tent before it started pouring again.

There were a couple of day hikers hammock camping nearby with a dog that proved to give us some problems. The dog was off leash and was approaching Bo, who was tied to a log, and I had to ask the guy to call his dog back, which he did. Then, while I was setting up the inside of the tent, the dog ran right up to Bo, and they are nose to nose. I was not happy and once again asked him to either keep his dog by his camp or put the dog on a lease. Bo did so well, despite the dog coming into his space. The dog owner didn’t say a word to me after I went off, and I planned to hike far tomorrow in order to avoid camping with them again. Their dog also ended up barking throughout the night, keeping me and two other thru-hikers up.