Miles Hiked: 0
Miles Left: 2115.7
Ending Location: Still at the Holiday Inn

So first off, the term 0-day now has such a different meaning than it used to.

B and I decided to spend the day in Hiawassee since we had agreed to meet everyone for lunch and had to resupply. Also the time off the trail was certainly welcome after a 11 mile day yesterday.

We started the morning by planning what our hiking schedule would be like since we needed to know how much food to buy. Well, we actually started it eating the excellent breakfast at this hotel. Biscuits and gravy, bacon, hot muffins… They even had a cool pancake machine! After breakfast though we got right to planning. We also had to figure out when we’d require the care package containing food and snowshoes to arrive for us at Fontana Dam. FYI, Fontana Dam is the last resupply spot before we enter the Smokies. I ended up sending an overly verbose, (I know, from reading this journal that’ll be a shock), email to Liz and Theresa talking about what we’d need and they both went ahead and took care of it that day. So if B and I get through this with all our fingers and toes intact you’ll have them to thank.

By the time we were finished it was time for lunch. Everyone met downstairs and we all walked over together to another buffet restaurant. The type of food reminded me of Homeplace, which is an establishment any Virginia Tech grad is very familiar with. Fried chicken, fried okra, mashed potatoes , stuffing, etc. Basically good food and great company, (but creepy place. Way too many scary dolls). It was funny seeing some of the younger hikers keep coming back from the buffet with arms full of desserts.

After that B and I went to Ingles to stock up on food. We chose to go to a grocery store because the “hiking” store was closed on Sunday which meant we couldn’t buy our standard dehydrated meals. Also, after listening to Wild Trout and Fabio the night before we both wanted to experiment with a different diet. When looking for food we had a couple goals:
1) Lightweight, since we have to carry it
2) Compact, since it has to fit in our packs
3) Durable, since it will be smushed/ crushed and non-refrigerated, (though refrigeration isn’t a huge deal since it is cold half of the time)
4) High in calories
5) High in protein
6) High in fiber

I also made sure I used a basket vs shopping cart so I wouldn’t buy too much. I failed. Basically there’s no worries about me going hungry in the near future. It was a lot of fun though and I’m basically treating this whole next week as a science experiment to see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to food on the trail.

Grocery shopping took approximately three hours. After that it was back to the hotel to complain that we bought too much food, and for me to start catching up on the new season of House of Cards on Netflix. Ah civilization.

That night we went back to Ingles to grab dinner from the salad bar. Both of us were done for a while with buffets since we really weren’t that hungry. Also, the constant eating was having some unfortunate side effects that are not conducive to hiking all day in the woods.

So that’s what an 0 day is like in Hiawassee.