Saturday May 24: Noland Creek Trail, Morning

The group awakens slowly on the morning of the twenty-fourth. They move in silence preparing breakfast and gathering their belongings. The unavoidable thought, that their trek is nearing an end, hangs in the air unspoken. A short hike is planned to the next site. Tomorrow will see their trip come to an end.

From Ben’s journal,

“These are the last days of our long hike into these vaunted and revered mountains. I ask myself if I miss anything back there in Ohio, and no answer is forthcoming…”

Saturday May 24: Noland Creek Trail, Afternoon

The short journey proves to be more challenging than the hikers expect. Noland Creek, a churning cascade, crosses the trail at regular intervals and with no easy means of crossing, the hiker find themselves fording some troublesome and deceptively deep waters. There is only one casualty, however. Jason Bricker stumbles during one crossing and plunges backward into the freezing water. His arms and legs flail desperately for purchase as his camera, which was struck in the fall, flashes madly. Luckily, Jason is unharmed in the incident, which provides the witnesses with a tale to tell in an otherwise quiet and uneventful day.

Saturday May 24: Noland Creek Trail, Evening

The last site for our intrepid hikers is located beside Noland Creek. A small cozy site, nevertheless it, too, is well populated by other travelers, a sign that civilization is just around the next bend. Our explorers are able to find some isolation by the creek where they build a large fire, eat, and pass their last night away regaling each other with exaggerated stories of their journey; the buds of tall tales to be told for years to come as they look back on these days as joyful remembrances. As night sets in it has begun to rain. A storm front moves through the mountains throughout the evening, a foreboding sign for tomorrow’s long hike out of the mountains.