Wayah Shelter to Wesser Bald Shelter - Moderate
10.6 miles in 7 hours
At Tellico my breath was taken away with the beautiful wild azaleas in bloom in pink and red.We had seen lots of them sprinkled throughout the forest already, but here they were concentrated in one area and close to the trail.
As usual, it was a hard climb up from Tellico
Gap to get to Wesser Bald Tower. We were
exhausted and sat down to rest on a switchback when Wait-up suddenly said “Look
behind me.” I looked and there was the
tower on the top of the incline.
Hallelujah! We made it. As we were making our way to the tower, it
started to rain so we waited it out under the tower for awhile. We were so hot, a little rain felt good
though. Several of our hiking buddies
arrived to join us under the tower and we discussed our plans for the
night. Our plans were to stop at Wesser
Bald Shelter just .8 ahead of us. Some
of them were planning to try to make it to A. Rufus Morgan Shelter.
10.6 miles in 7 hours
No storm last night as forcasted. That was an answer to prayer, we could just
see our tent washed down the hill with a gullywasher.
We climbed 3 or 4 steep inclines before reaching Cold Spring Shelter where we stopped for lunch and water. We met Nightwalker going back down the trail lickety split. He had forgotten to take his GPS equipment off "Pause" at their last stop. Uh oh! He had to retrace his path almost a mile and back.
Several men had reached the shelter before us. As usual, I immediately looked for the privy and noticed that, standing in front of the shelter, you could see directly into the privy to the seat. Well, I just said, "Turn your head, boys, cause I gotta go." And I went.
The mosquitos were very thick at this shelter. Out came the repellant again.
We climbed 3 or 4 steep inclines before reaching Cold Spring Shelter where we stopped for lunch and water. We met Nightwalker going back down the trail lickety split. He had forgotten to take his GPS equipment off "Pause" at their last stop. Uh oh! He had to retrace his path almost a mile and back.
Several men had reached the shelter before us. As usual, I immediately looked for the privy and noticed that, standing in front of the shelter, you could see directly into the privy to the seat. Well, I just said, "Turn your head, boys, cause I gotta go." And I went.
The mosquitos were very thick at this shelter. Out came the repellant again.
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| Burningtown Gap, Elevation 4236 |
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| View from Copper Ridge Bald Lookout, Elevation 5080' |
Copper
Ridge Bald Lookout was a pretty place for pictures so we took a few. From there, it was a lot of downhill hiking
to Tellico Gap.
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| Rocky Bald Lookout, Elevation 5030' |
At Tellico my breath was taken away with the beautiful wild azaleas in bloom in pink and red.We had seen lots of them sprinkled throughout the forest already, but here they were concentrated in one area and close to the trail.
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| Beautiful orange wild azaleas at Tellico Gap |
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| Beautiful pink wild azaleas at Tellico Gap |
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| First site of Wesser Bald Fire Tower from the trail below. |
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| View from Wesser Bald Fire Tower |
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| View from Wesser Bald Fire Tower |
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| View from Wesser Bald Fire Tower |
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| View from Wesser Bald Fire Tower |
After donning our rain gear for the first time
EVER when on the AT, we continued down the trail toward the shelter. Clyde and Nightwalker caught up to us and
told us to be sure to stop at the spring before the shelter to get water or we
would be walking back to get it. Right
before we got to the water hole, the rain turned to HAIL! Sure enough!
That was interesting.
The water source was a very nice one with the
water going into a manmade reservoir before coming out a pipe. We appreciate someone taking the time to construct
such a nice water hole.
Going on down the trail to the shelter, oops,
Wait-up stepped on a root and down he went--right on his behind, landed on the
roots sticking up out of the ground.
Ouch! We learned that you do not
step on wet roots.
We reached Wesser Bald Shelter right behind
Clyde and Nightwalker and quickly claimed a spot on the floor with our sleeping
bags. We didn’t want to set up our tent
in the rain. As it turned out, before
the night was over there were 6 people on the floor, one on the bench, one on
the dirt floor and one in a hammock outside.
During the evening, we became better
acquainted with a father and son pair better that we had previously met at
Wayah Bald Shelter (there were the ones who got the only level campsite
there).
They told us their trail names were Joshua and
Caleb. Enough said – it’s amazing how
just the mention of you name can lead to some interesting discussions. If you know the story of Joshua and Caleb in
the Bible, you know where the conversation went after that. Caleb was the one who said, “Give me that
mountain!”
From my previous experiences in shelter (in
Georgia), I was dreading the mice during the night. Since I was sleeping beside the wall I
figured they would be running back and forth beside me all night, but no, not a
single mouse all night long. Yay! I
can handle that! The rain was pretty
fierce most of the night with some thunder and lightning. We sure were glad we
were not in the tent.
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