Nantahala Outdoor Center

Made it to the Nantahala Outdoor Center yesterday afternoon after 8 miles down hill in a thunderstorm. I'm at about 135 miles total right now. Im going to take two zero days to recover and to stay out of a big storm tomorrow. Figure ill make it up in the Smokey Mountains.

This center is pretty neat. It's situated right on the Nantahala River. The have a white water rafting course you can watch people go down, class 5 rapids close by, cabins, a diner, zip lines, trains, and an outfitter.

I went into the outfitter and they had a former orthopedic specialist working part time in the store. He helped me with some shoe inserts and told me that I would benefit greatly from some metatarsal pads. He said they don't sell them, but any drug store should. Whats crazy is he knew exactly where my foot pain was without even asking just by looking at my feet. Everyone else usually asks, "Where does it hurt?" I'll say one thing... the inserts just by themselves without the pads already started making a world of difference. Therefore, I'm looking forward to some easier hiking.

So the agenda for the next two days will be:

- Sleep
- Eat, eat, eat
- Wash clothes
- Haircut
- Smokeys pass
- Look for some metatarsal pads