Zero Day - Franklin, NC (6/5/14)

I know a lot of people are chomping at the bit for me to get back on the trail, but I needed to take a zero day today to let two blisters heal a bit before I get back on the trail.  I'm not too far from Great Smoky Mountains National Park and I don't want to almost get there and have to come off of the trail because of the blisters.  They are healing nicely and I bought some special bandages for blisters to help.  Let this be a lesson to anyone who goes hiking -- if your shoes and socks get wet, you are *going* to get blisters!  Something about the wet socks and the shoes.  It's not too bad and they will eventually turn into callouses, but it is a little rough going along the way.  I'll end up packing extra socks from here on out just to make sure that I have enough dry socks to keep this from happening again.


Franklin, NC is a pretty nice town.  It's small, but not too small, if that makes sense to anyone other than me.  I think I described it earlier as "not a one horse town, but everyone shares the same raggedy old mule."  That's a bit of a stretch because it is not tiny and there are quite a few people here, but they do have that southern attitude of let's just take it slow and easy, no need to get all flustered about anything.  It's annoying when you're waiting on your check.  All the other times it's quite the relief from the normal hustle and bustle.  Suffice it to say that Pooh likes it here!


This being a zero day, I've tried to take care of a few things.  I had to replenish my food a little.  I was down to three days of dinners.  I could probably make it to Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) and resupply there but I wanted to make sure I had a day or two past that in case anything came up.  To resupply, I stopped at Outdoor 76, an outfitter here in Franklin.  I bought a couple of freeze-dried dinners and I another small bottle of gold bond body powder (trust me, you need it hiking to prevent rashes and chafing).  While I was there I talked to an older gentleman who thru hiked last year; he had a lot of good stories about the trail.  I also discovered that they have a private club that serves local craft beers.  I was in heaven!  I'll have to head back there before they close today and give them a couple of my pathtags.  It was definitely a stop well worth it!  I also had them stamp my AT Passport while there.


I am staying in Haven's Budget Inn in Franklin.  It's a quaint little motel that seriously reminds me of the motels where Sam and Dean stayed in "Supernatural".  It has the nice 70's ambiance, with the typical colors and accoutrements of the 1970s.  Some people would probably be turned off by that, but I'm finding it very interesting.  Makes me wish I had a demon blade! 


I don't really have too much to report today because it is a Zero day.  Franklin is a nice old town, the people here are really nice, the people at the motel are extremely nice, and I'm just having a blast learning about the small towns in the American South again (like where I grew up).

I hope you all enjoy your day!  I plan to relax a little and then get things geared up to start over tomorrow.  I haven't decided on my hike tomorrow, but I believe it is probably going to be somewhere between 10 and 18 miles.