Nantahala Outdoor Center to Brown Fork Gap Shelter

The climb out of the NOC is infamously brutal. I planned to hike to Sassafras Gap  Shelter, which is 7.7 straight up or Cheoah Bald which is 8.6 miles up. The climb went well after I awoke from the bunk room I shared at the NOC with Belou, Cap and Tomas. i arrived at the first campsite at 11:30am and Jesse James was there. he said we should move on to the next shelter which is 17 miles from the NOC. bad idea. it was a tortuous day, totally up and down and capped by something called Jacobs ladder, which was about 90 minutes of pure pain. I stumbled into camp at 7pm and was greeted by Mouth of the South, wrongway, honeybuns, jukebox, rain, rabbit and brew among others . I set up camp down by the creek and made dinner and laid In my bag wishing u could fall asleep. I'm in pain.