We woke up very early, at 6:30 AM. We were hoping that we could accomplish the 2 miles we had missed the day before by 8 AM. After waking up we started packing and getting ready to leave. We decided to not have any breakfast because we would be stopping by Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) later in the day, since it was on the trail.

Around 8 AM we reached the campsite just like we planned. Then we just kept on walking. For the day, we had some up and down hikes then a short steep climb to a watch tower. Then a tremendous down to NOC, and a climb up. Our plan was to get to the climb up from NOC, and camp there. The steep climb was pretty hard, even though it was about half a mile, it took a while. At the top we climbed up the tower and took a short break. The view was very nice. (pic below)

After we came down from the watch tower we continued hiking on the trail. Or at least we thought so. It turned out that we were actually hiking down the mountain on the same side. We only figured that out once we were almost all the way back down the mountain 😱😱😱. By the time we climbed back up it had been an hour. We lost 2 miles there. Once we found the actual trail, we had a flat and then the down. The climb down to NOC was treacherous. It was a whole 5 miles down, and it wasn’t just gradual, it was very steep in some places. When we got to the bottom of the mountain my whole body was in pain, and I was so, so, so exhausted. I was really looking forward to a nice juicy burger. We arrived at NOC at 4:30 PM, and ate at a place called River’s End. The food there was AWESOME! My dad and I shared a chicken burger and a beef burger. I also had a nice cup of lemonade. At 5:30 we got back on the trail and decided to hike what we can up the mountain. The goal was to get to the campsite at Grassy Gap, and we got there at about 7 PM. At the site, we set up our tent, had a small bowl of chicken and rice, and then went to bed. All through the night there were fireworks and loud bangs, after all, it was the 4th of July.