Date: 2021-03-27
From: Silver Bald Shelter 

To: NOC
Miles today: 23.3
Weather: scattered clouds

AT day 723.3 miles to the NOC (+ 0.5 bonus miles from Silver Bald campsites back uphill to the AT)My post from yesterday was very brief so I¢m going to elaborate on how I dealt with the many challenges of tenting during Thursdays torrential rainstorm. It rained so hard that I couldn¢t even hear my mp3 (with headphones) because of the force of the rain hitting the outside of the tent. As my wife can tell you I am no fan of tenting in the rain or during a hail storm. During the first hail storm that we encountered on the John Muir Trail I was sure that our MSR Hubba Hubba tent was going to be ripped to shreds and we were going to die from hypothermia. In the Sierra you don¢t have the option of hiking less than 10 miles to a parking area where you can get shuttled into town. I also spend the first hour of a rain storm expecting the worse and continually check the edges of the tent to check for leakage.I¢m glad that it didn¢t rain last night at the Silver Bald Shelter campsite because my tent site was so slanted that I spent the night with my sleeping pad pushing against the foot of my tent. The Zpacks Duplex sheds rain outside of the bathroom floor with no problem unless you press against the bathtub floor and push it out past the top of the tent, then the water pours in.When I got to camp yesterday I had to dry out my tent, rain gear and Ursak (grizzly bear resistant bag) food bag.  Fortunately my  cuben fiber tent and rain poncho don¢t hold water like silnylon equipment and they dry quickly. Thursday night I slept with my Ursak food bag until I woke up to silence around 1am. The Beech Creek area has known bear activity so I put a plastic bag over the Ursak and tied it off to a tree. Not long after I got back into my tent it started pouring rain again. In the morning I retrieved my food bag and found out that the plastic bag was a failure because you have to cut a hole in the bag to pass the Ursak¢s lines through to tie it off to a tree.I was also disappointed with the seepage of water I had in the bathtub floor of my Zpacks Duplex tent.  I had selected a tent site that appeared to have good drainage because there wasn¢t any sign of pooling water from the 5 hours of torrential rain the site already had. But from 6pm to well past midnight periods of torrential rain would pass through the area and last for up to an hour before it would let up for 30 minutes. During this time I had minor pooling of maybe a shoelace depth form under the foot of my tent. The bottom of the tent got wet enough to get anything I had placed in that area wet. The water didn¢t pool inside the tent, the wetness was more like the condensation you might get inside a poorly ventilated tent. I can understand the bottom of the tent leaking water if I was set up in a pool of water but not with the insignificant amount of water that was under the tent. My Tarptent Notch has performed better in worse conditions and it has a silnylon floor. One night during a wild and crazy Sierra thunderstorm I was camped by the lower Palisade Lake. I woke up after the storm passed to find a small stream running just outside the vestibule of my Notch. I placed my flip flops in the water and they started to float away in the current. Luckily I had my tent placed on a small patch of sand that was just high enough to keep me out of the stream that was flowing down the mountainside.  I placed my rain poncho and sit pad (I made from 4 folds of an old Z-lite pad) across the bottom section of my tent and under my inflatable pad.  I placed all of my stuff in the trash compactor bag that I use to blow up my air mattress and placed my other compactor bag over the foot of my sleeping bag to keep it dry in case I slipped off my sleeping pad in the middle of the night. Wet tent floors are one of many reasons why it is a good idea to have an inflatable sleeping pad instead of one of the foldable foam pads because it keeps your bag higher off the wetness.I woke up Friday morning thankful for surviving the lightning and rain and grateful that my sleeping bag, puffy and night clothes were dry. At my Silver Bald tent site I discovered that a lot of my food was soaked. I used an Opsak (thick plastic bag) to line my Ursak food bag and it had water pooled in the bottom of it. I organize all of my food for each day into a gallon plastic Ziploc type bag. The only bags that didn¢t have water soaked trough were the heavy duty freezer bags. My oatmeal and hot chocolate packages were soaked on the outside.At Silver Bald a young woman from San Diego was complaining about condensation inside her tent. I don¢t know what brand of tent it was but it was the most ridiculous tent I¢ve ever seen. It didn¢t have any mesh lined opening. Even the entry way didn¢t have a bug mesh window. No wonder she had constant condensation problems. A man pitched nearby had a Big Agnes Copper Spur that I recommended she look at. My sleep Friday night was interrupted by a hiker in a nearby tent that had a habit of snoring. Not his fault but I¢m a light sleeper and wake up easily. Just another reason to avoid crowded campsites. I woke up early Saturday morning because I wanted to leave just as the there was enough light to keep me from tripping while hiking up the trail. I felt refreshed and ready to go hiking. I knew that this was going to be a spectacular hiking day because the Wood Thrush were out singing for the first time this trip. They have a beautiful song and I loved to wake up to their melodies during my 2019 hike. In New England they would start singing about 30 minutes before sunrise. My hiking partner and I had an agreement to get up at the first bird song. The bonus 0.5 mile hike back up to the AT should have been annoying but the songs of the Wood Thrush and Robins made the time pass quickly. I had 23.3 miles to hike to the NOC today. I estimated that I would get there between 4:30 and 5pm. More thunderstorms were forecasted for the late morning into the midafternoon. I didn¢t want to get stuck up on the balds or ridges during a lightning storm so I kept a steady pace. There was a long climb up to Wayah Bald but it was well graded with switchbacks. I got up to Wayah Bald around noon. The good news was it still hadn¢t rained and I was able to dump a bunch of food that I wasn¢t going to need in the trash. The bad news was the bald was in the clouds and I didn¢t have any views. I then had a long descent and several climbs and descents until I got to Tellico Gap. Sometime between Wayah Bald and Tellico Gap a light rain started and a few bouts of thunder could be heard in the distance. Very brief period of rain would continue off and on throughout the afternoon but thankfully the thunderstorms moved out of the area. I arrived at Tellico Gap around 2 pm and noticed an awning set up with trail magic going on. I had my hopes up for a caffeinated sugary soft drink and maybe and moon pie like I got from Miss Janet. Unfortunately a hoard of hikers were ahead of me and all that they had left were diet cokes and beer. Once again I was foiled by the huge number of hikers out enjoying the AT this year. I was lucky enough to stop for water at a magical stream. The environment looked like it was created by an artist for a Fairyland landscape painting. As you can see from today¢s picture there is a little Pixie¢s house set into a tree. I appreciate the imaginative hiker that helped add a little mystique to this special place.The trail continued the pattern of long gradual climbs and descents until I got to Wesser Bald. I was treated to some great views here. I passed the Wesser Bald shelter and camping area at 2:30 and all of the choice tent sites were already taken. I couldn¢t believe that people would stop hiking so early on such a beautiful day. No wonder I can¢t find a decent tent site after hiking a long day.I remembered from 2019 that the trail to the NOC will soon be mostly downhill with a few minor climbs. I stopped to talk with a young through hiker and we discussed the crowded trail. He thought that shelters should be reserved for thru hikers. I told him that I disagree because thru hikers may think we are special but everyone had the right to come out and enjoy nature and this beautiful trail whether they are day hikers, out for a long weekend or sections hikers. After all the AT was not built for the exclusive use of thru hikers. It might suck not to get good tent sites but that¢s the AT.The Rufus Shelter is about a mile from the NOC. I didn¢t stop to check out the shelter but the area around it was a wet mucky mess. There were already several hammock campers set up. I¢m not sure because I didn¢t thoroughly investigate the area but it didn¢t look like a good place to set up a tent during or after a storm. Hammocks seem like the way to go on this crowded section of the AT. You can pick up some water at a stream and then find a nice place to stealth camp away from the crowds.I got to the NOC at 4:38. I was pleased with my time estimate. I would have made it at 4:30 if I hadn¢t have stopped to chat with several hikers along the way. When I got to the trailhead I saw the beautiful site of my wife walking across the street to give me a big hug and kiss. She said that I didn¢t smell that bad.I decided to call her on Friday and asked her to drive the 5.5 hours to the NOC to pick me up. After a week of crowded campsites I decided to call it quits. This wasn¢t the AT experience that I signed up for. I started my hike on 17 February In 2019 and never had to deal with the crowds. The campsites and hostels were never crowded in 2019. Even when I got up to New England and the spring temperatures brought out more hikers to explore their beautiful mountains I didn¢t have these types of crowds.With the exception of the 3 hours of terror that I spent hiking on ridges during Thursdays extreme lightning storm, I enjoyed and celebrated every step of the trail that I was privileged to take on the trail. I woke up each day feeling refreshed and ready to experience new adventures. My 67 year old body felt stronger than it did in 2019. I love to hike long miles in the mountains. I don¢t really hike fast, I average 2.5 mph which includes hiking up and downhill and breaks. I just start hiking early and stop hiking late. I take short breaks about every 2 hours and eat while I¢m hiking. I enjoy experiencing the forest as much (or more) as I do views from the overlooks.  I started out this years journal with a prehike entry that said ¢If not now, when¢. Well I guess the when will be never. I only have about 350 miles left to finish my 2019 hike. I might still complete those miles this June but I doubt it. My goal for the AT was to complete the trail as a thru hike, not a section hike. Not that there is anything wrong with section hiking the AT but just finishing the trail wasn¢t my goal. I guess I¢ll have to wait to earn the designation ¢Thru Hiker¢ until next year when I attempt to thru hike the PCT with my wife. We head out west this August to hike about 600 miles of the PCT southbound from Sierra City to Kennedy Meadows South or further if we want to. We have family that live close by the famous McDonalds at Cajon pass so maybe we will just keep hiking.  We¢ve never hiked the area from Sierra City to Tuolumne Meadows. We also have never hiked the Sierra in September. It was a pleasure sharing my hike with you. Happy TrailsSilver StreakHappy Trails, Silver StreakNote: I¢m finishing the last 346 miles that I have left from my 2019 thru hike attempt. The mileage includes a week that I hiked from Springer to the NOC.