Days 9 and 10: Welcome to Franklin

Day 9 – NERO in Franklin

Even after retiring early last night, I didn’t get much sleep last night. After a warm day yesterday, temperatures dropped to 30 degrees at night, which I wasn’t prepared for when I went to bed. So when I woke up very cold in the middle of the night, I had to rummage through my bag to find my hat and gloves. Also, even though I knew the tent site wasn’t flat, I didn’t realize how bad it was until the middle of the night when I found my sleeping pad and had slid down and was pushing on the side of my tent to the point where I was worried it would fall or tear. Needless to say, the combination caused me to not get much sleep from 1:00 am until my alarm at 5:40 am But then it was time to get up and get going. Packing up the tent and all my stuff took a little extra time, mostly due to the darkness and trying to pack everything up alone in the dim red light of my headlamp (to try to be respectful of others who were still sleeping) and just general reluctance due to the cold. But, after some internal negotiations, I got everything ready and was on my way before 7 in the morning.

The first mile or so of the hike was still completely dark and was a nice gentle descent, which while nice from an effort standpoint, a short climb to start would have been nice to warm me up. Soon I could see a warm glow to the East, outlining the mountains in the distance, which captivated my attention for several moments. It continued to draw my attention to the right for the next 30 minutes, when I was able to look up from the rocks and roots of the trail.

After a road junction I had the only climb of the morning, which was slightly harder than I expected! But at the top I was rewarded with a somewhat clear view of the sunrise and some phone service after not having any since yesterday afternoon. The rest of the hike was downhill to Winding Stair Gap, where I waited for the hiker shuttle to Franklin.

Arrival in Franklin

I can’t say enough about Franklin! Shuttle service is provided in the spring, free of charge for hikers, and takes them in and out of town from the trail. I jumped on the 9:30am bus and was dropped off 30 minutes later at The Grove Hostel in Franklin.

After a quick tour of the hostel, I stood in line to take a shower and put my clothes in the washing machine. Then I headed to Outdoor 76, the outfitter in town. Outdoor 76 was a cool place that had a hiker’s lounge in the basement, expert shoe advice (my shoes work fine currently, but it’s always good to learn more), and they give away free perks to hikers!

After that, I headed to Las Margaritas with some friends for, you guessed it, margaritas! Plus some chips and salsa/cheese. While there, the origin story of a member of our group’s trail name occurred, but that’s a story for a different time. After that, we headed to Lazy Hiker Brewery, a must stop, for a couple of beers. The Lazy Hiker was a meeting point to meet up with other hikers in the area. I met several new people, including some fellow Trek bloggers!

Then I headed back to the lodge to relax a bit before heading out to BBQ at Haywood Smokehouse for a late lunch, which was pretty good. Brisket, macaroni and cheese, and pecan pie for the win! I ended the day with a visit to the cinema to see the Ave Maria Project. One of the guys from the hostel was going and had a trip planned, so I couldn’t say no to a movie, buttered popcorn, and an ice-cold Coke. All this, topped off with a night in a real bed, what a time to be alive.

Day 10 – ZERO in Franklin

Today was the first ZERO of the hike, taking a rest day in Franklin, North Carolina. Franklin is an amazing trail town, very hospitable! The day started with a free hiker breakfast at the First Baptist Church of Franklin, where they even came to pick us up at our lodge! Breakfast consisted of pancakes, bacon, coffee and some homemade cookies. After breakfast, we headed to Ingles to restock on food, along with a few other miscellaneous items. Once again I bought too much food, a problem I’ve always had until now. I really need to get better at perfecting that.

Back to the hostel where I took it easy and worked on some blog posts for a couple of hours. Followed by some hiker tasks, like washing my water bottles, washing my filter, etc. Once that was all taken care of, I took the opportunity to disassemble my backpack, organize it, separate a few items I no longer needed, and then repack it to be ready for the trail.

After that, I had a quick video call with some of my coworkers and was able to communicate with them, as well as answer any questions they had about how my trip had gone so far. It was fun to catch up and see them, although some weren’t impressed that I wasn’t suffering more.

After that, a group of us walked to a pizza place in town to get pizza, which I shamelessly ate the entire pizza. And the rest of the afternoon I just hung out at the hostel and relaxed in preparation for more hiking tomorrow. Temukan df6JSLs di sini. The first ZERO of the tour was a resounding success!

Statistics for day 9:

3.8 miles

755′ ascent, 873′ descent

Shelter between rocks and winding stairs

1 DSLC (Days since last cathole)…

Statistics for day 10:

0.0 miles

0′ rise, 0′ fall

Franklin, North Carolina, USA

2 DSLC (Days since last cathole)…

Whole pizzas consumed: 1

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