Wesser Bald Shelter to Nantahala Outdoor Center

APRIL 18, 2012
Wesser Bald Shelter to Nantahala Outdoor Center - Strenuous
5.7 miles in 3.5 hours 

This morning everyone was up bright and early, I believe we were all weary of the sleeping arrangements by that time.  Eight people in a shelter built for six is a bit crowded, but we made the best of it. After our breakfast of oatmeal and coffee, we were the first out on the trail.

We have a short hike today, mostly downhill.  But it was still raining and the trail was wet and treacherous.  In fact, Wait-up slipped down by stepping on a root again.   We saw the privy of the A. Rugus Morgan Shelter from the trail above a LONG time before we actually got to it.  It appeared to be just a little way down, but it seemed like it took us forever to actually get to the shelter.  It was a small one, and we heard later that it was jammed packed with people too the night before in the rain. 

Our first view of Nantahala Outdoor Center from the descending trail.

 It was a long descent into the Nantahala Outdoor Center gap; but our first site of the building from the trail above was a welcome sight, knowing that we would have a night in a bed tonight.  We decided to upgrade from the basecamp, which is actually a hostel with no linens to one of their cabins so that we could enjoy it more.  They sometimes rent out Cabin D as a motel, they said.  We saw several of our fellow hikers in the cabin where we shared a common living area and a small kitchen and laundry room.

Even before we went to our cabin though, we took advantage of the River’s End Restaurant for one of their famous pizzas.  Clyde and Nightwalker were already there eating with Nightwalker’s wife who had met them there from Greenville, SC.  They told us they were going into Bryson City to spend the night. While we were eating Joshua and Caleb came in also. 

The AT crosses right over the NOC bridge.

After lunch and a shower, we restocked our backpacks from our supplies in the car.  This was the first time we had seen our car in six days.  We could finally retrieve our Thru-Hiker’s Companion and feel like we had the information we needed about the waypoints.  We had arranged for a shuttler named Donna to meet us at Fontana Dam this afternoon to leave our car there and bring us back to NOC to spend the night. 

The Nantahala River is famous for Whitewater rafting.

We drove into Bryson City to Ingle’s Grocery store to pick up a few groceries that we had decided on, then on to Fontana Dam to leave the car.  Donna met us there.  On the way back to NOC we found out that Donna lives and has a hostel and cabins for rent at Stecoah Gap, we drove right past it.  We could have stayed at her place tonight if we had known; but we already had reservations at NOC.  

We had heard good things about the hamburgers at the River's End, so we heated up our leftover pizza in the microwave in the cabin, then took it with us to the restaurant where we ordered a burger and fries to split along with our pizza.  While there, we met a nice couple from Kansas who had bought some property near by and were working on building a log cabin on it.  They told us they were staying in The Little Cabin in the Woods.  Small world - we told them that we had just met Donna when she shuttled us here.  They always stay in one of Donna's cabins when they come to work on their house.

We walked back to the cabin with Ryno (well, not exactly, he ran up the hill because it was raining). We went to bed early hoping for a good night's sleep which we did - except for the guy above us who had heavy feet and walked around until late at night above our heads.  Oh well, we finally got to sleep and it was good.

Cabin D, Room 6

Beautiful peonies at the River's End Restaurant.

Us on the bridge after getting cleaned up.

Wayah Shelter to Wesser Bald Shelter

APRIL 17, 2012

Wayah Shelter to Wesser Bald Shelter - Moderate
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.

Burningtown Gap, Elevation 4236

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. 

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. 

Beautiful orange wild azaleas at Tellico Gap

Beautiful pink wild azaleas at Tellico Gap

Winding Stair Gap to Wayah Shelter

APRIL 16, 2012

Winding Stair Gap to Wayah Shelter - Strenuous
11 miles in 7 hours

After a good night’s sleep at Sapphire Inn, we were ready to go again.  We walked over to McDonald’s for breakfast and got extra to eat later on the trail.  We were packed up and ready for the return shuttle to Winding Stair Gap before 9:00.  Unfortunately, our shuttle driver was not so ready.  It was 9:45 before we were on the trail and ready to start our day’s hike. 

On the ride to the gap we met two interesting men, Clyde and Nightwalker.  Nightwalker has been commissioned by the Appalachian Trail Conversancy to update the AT distances.  He had 7 or 8 pounds of equipment in his pack.  They started at Springer Mountain in early April and it was our privilege to coincide with them on this part of the trip.  We leapfrogged with them to the NOC but lost them when they decided to slackpack backwards from Stecoah Gap. 

The walk through Swinging Lick Gap and Panther Gap was pretty pleasant; several times the trail went right down the middle of a stream. 

Swinging "Lick" Gap, Elevation 4100'

Panther Gap, Elevation 4480'

Suddenly at the top of a hill, we came to a wide open clearing which looked like an excellent place to sit in the grass and take a break.  Going off to the north of us was a grassy knoll with a trail running the length of it leading to the top of Siler Bald.  I understand it is a very popular hike for locals to come for the magnificent view from Siler Bald.  In fact, we hiked part of the way up with a gentleman who was doing a day hike to Siler Bald.  However, we did not feel that we had the energy to make the extra distance to the bald, so after our break, we continued following the white blazes of the AT. 

Our hiking buddy going up to Siler Bald.

Siler Bald

Wayah Gap, Elevation 4180'

From an elevation of 4600’ we dipped back down to 4180’ in Wayah Gap, then had a strenuous climb back up to 5342’ at Wayah Bald.  I have often said the AT wouldn’t be so bad if it were not for the gaps – they always go down, then you have to go back up to where you started from.

We met a young man named Josh and his female friend thru-hiking together.  They had started hiking on April Fool's Day at Springer Mountain.  We saw them frequently along the trail although they seemed to get a late start each day and hiked until bed time usually.

A frequently seen sign at the gaps on the highways.

We passed Qwyatt on the trail and chatted with him for awhile.  We found out that he had stayed at Saphhire Inn last night with his wife; he saw us walking back from McDonald’s this morning when they left.  So he got an earlier start than us. We asked about his destination for the day and he said as long as he could find two trees close enough together, he could stop anywhere and hang his hammock; he usually doesn’t try to make it to a shelter.  We warned him of the storm which had been forcast for the night and he said he didn’t worry, he had a cover.  That’s the last time we saw Qwyatt, we wish him well.  He was a very nice man.

Big Spring Shelter to Winding Stair Gap

APRIL 15, 2012

Big Spring Shelter to Winding Stair Gap - Easy

9.1 miles in 5 hours

Today was suppose to be a 12.2 day which meant it would be late when we get into Franklin tonight and not give us much time to rest before starting again tomorrow.  But, thanks to our decision yesterday to go on over Albert Mountain, we will have more time to restock and do our laundry this afternoon when we go into town.  That’s one of those decisions that you hate at the time, but are glad you did it.

After an uneventful night in the tent and a good night’s rest, we left camp at 8:20 and had a fairly easy hike.

As we were approaching Rock Gap Shelter from the trail above, I couldn’t help but notice that we could see right into the privy as we passed by.  Good thing no one was in there!  In fact, we found this to be true of several privies in NC- not very private.

Elevation 4160'

First view of US 64 from above.

At the paved road intersection beside the sign pointing the way to Standing Indian Campground, we met Qwyatt, a thru-hiker, waiting on his wife to come spend the night with him in Franklin.  He offered us a ride into Franklin but we still had 3.7 miles to go before we quit, so we continued across the road and into the forest again. He promised to pick us up at Winding Stair Gap if we were there when they went by.  We found a good water source just past the intersection and refilled our water bottles. 

We reached Winding Stair Gap along with four young men.  They gathered beside the parking lot while I ventured out to the side of the road to stick out my thumb to hitchhike.  They said to my husband that I should not be playing like that because someone might stop.  He said I wasn’t playing; I was really trying to hitch a ride into town.   Wait-up joined me in my efforts and in about 15 minutes a car suddenly pulled over to the side of the road.  A nice lady inside said “Y’all look like good folks.”  “We are,” I said, to which she said, “Well, get in!”  So we stuffed one backpack in the already-loaded trunk of her small car and another one we crammed in the back seat with me.  I don’t know how many times that sweet lady said, “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”  Well, I couldn’t believe we had hitchhiked either but we did, just part of the AT experience! 

Catch-up hitchhiking into Franklin.

Lynn is a retired educator, just like us as it turned out.  She took us right to the Sapphire Inn where we had already reserved a room.  If you read this, Lynn, let us say again “Thank you!”

Wait-up hitchhiking into Franklin.

Standing Indian Shelter to Big Spring Shelter

APRIL 14, 2012

Standing Indian Shelter to Big Spring Shelter - Moderate except Albert Mountain, strenuous
14.4 miles in 10 hours

We left the shelter at 7:45 a.m. after an uneventful and restful night.  We had a short uphill to reach the summit of Standing Indian Mountain then started down to Beech Gap.  It was relatively easy like “a walk in the park” with lots of switchbacks and trails on the crest of the mountain under shade.  The weather was cool and pleasant.  Beech Gap is a beautiful stopping point with large Beech trees and a large, nice camping area.  Although we needed water, we decided not to trek downhill ¼ mile from Beech Gap to get it, hoping we would find some on the trail.  In fact, we did find a couple of very nice springs directly on the trail as we went north just a short distance.

Beech Gap, Elevation 4460'

View from Timber Ridge Trail, Elevation 4700'

Beautiful violets could be seen all along the trail.

Blue Ridge Gap to Standing Indian Shelter

APRIL 13, 2012
Blue Ridge Gap to Standing Indian Shelter - Moderate

11.4 miles in 7.5 hours

   


The rough road leading up to Blue Ridge Gap.

To begin the North Carolina section of the AT, we shuttled to the drop-off point at Blue Ridge Gap and began to climb the rough, slag road up to the AT.Too bad that road is not maintained, it could be a good access point close to the GA/NC line.

The beginning of the AT at Blue Ridge Gap.
 

It was a tough ascent but we got to the AT and began our journey at 9:00 a.m.

Here the trail enters the Nantahala National Forest.

At 10:40 we reached the tree where the GA/NC line sign is posted and took the same pictures we had taken in September when we were here at this point on our first section hike.Read all about that one on the Georgia Section blog. GEORGIA SECTION BLOG

Elevation 3840'

Past the sign tree we were beginning unchartered territory for us. We reached Bly Gap just past the line and saw the other famous tree with an interesting shape in the middle of the trail. In spite of the training we had done, it was a rough morning for me. On each incline I was gasping for breath and at each level spot I wanted to shout “Thank ya, Je-sus!” like Flo frequently does in the Yada Yada Prayer Group books (by Neta Jackson). However, at the end of the day I did not have sore muscles like last time, so the training must have done some good.

The famous tree in the middle of the trail at Bly Gap.

Elevation 4300'

Muskrat Creek Shelter for a lunch break.

NORTH CAROLINA SECTION

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Today we drove to North Carolina and began to put our logistics into place to begin our second section hike from the NC/GA line to Fontana Dam, NC.  First we drove to Franklin and checked out the Budget Inn and the Sapphire Inn.  The Budget Inn was full and we liked the Sapphire Inn better, so we made reservations for Sunday night and dropped off a resupply box.  Then we drove to Nantahala Outdoor Center in Wesser and made reservations for a two-person room in Basecamp for Wednesday night.  We parked the car at NOC and checked and rechecked to make sure we had everything we needed for our first three days on the trail.  It’s a scary feeling to leave our car realizing that if we didn’t take it with us now we would not have it tomorrow when we started out on our hike and would not see our car for 6 days.   

We are using the same wonderful shuttle drivers out of Hiawassee that we used in September in Georgia.  Joyce and Sally are two retired ladies from Florida who moved to GA and have a beautiful home near the Blue Ridge Gap.  We have learned to find shuttle drivers who live close to your point of need in order to keep the cost down.  Joyce and Sally are very reasonable.  Sally met us at NOC and took us back down to Hiawassee, GA to spend the night at the wonderful Holiday Inn Express (King size bed with Jacuzzi and free HOT breakfast for $80 plus $10.16 tax).   The Holiday Inn is conveniently located next door to the wonderful Daniels Steakhouse where they have all you can eat buffets, which we took advantage of for our evening meal. 

We were excited to get our adventure underway and arose the next morning with the sun, went to breakfast downstairs and then relaxed to look at our Thru-Hiker’s Companion once more while waiting on our shuttle.  The Companion was nowhere to be found – I had left it in the car!  OMG!  How could we hike for 6 days without our Companion?  We depend on it to plan our stops at shelters or campsites and also to know where water is along the trail.  Okay, what are we going to do now?  Making a mad dash downstairs to the public computer, I found that someone else was using it.  So back upstairs to wait.  Time was running out, but finally we got to the computer and quickly found a list of trail features with amenities on Summitpost.org.  Thank goodness I remembered seeing it before and knew it was there.  It doesn’t have a description of each site like the Companion does, but it will do for now.  We printed it out just in time before Joyce arrived to drive us to the trail.  RELAX…..!  We are ready to go.