Date: 2008-05-20
From: Franklin NC

To: Wayah Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Slackpacking and the WolfWet ClimbAfter our first real ¢Zero Day¢ (so named because it is a day in which you go zero miles), we woke up late and ate breakfast at some place called Wilson's in Franklin, NC with a bunch of other Thru-Hikers. When we got back to the Budget Inn, Ron Haven was there with his thru-hiker short bus. We got a ride up to the trailhead with a bunch of the folks we've been hanging with.When, in desperation, my brothers and I came off the trail two days ago, we got a ride from Dave at the road about 3 miles before most people get off to go to Franklin, so the other hikers would be starting ahead of us. While we dropped them off, Ron suggested we stuff our packs in the Mountain Laurel off trail a ways and do what is called ¢slack-packing¢ to make up time. Slack-packing is when you stage your pack somewhere and get a ride further up or down the trail, and then you hike the section between without a pack; or, with a significantly lighter pack, carrying only daily essentials. Our hiking speed was dramatically different. We slack-packed Rock Gap to Winding Stair gap (about 3 miles) in less than an hour and then picked our full packs up (reluctantly) and picked up where the others had started earlier that day..The climb up to Wayah (¢Wayah¢ means wolf in Cherokee) was horrible and I was constantly on the verge of bonking; but we were still making good time until somewhere in the middle of the day when it started to rain again. Soon came hail and torrent while lightning was striking the mountains all around us. There were times when the lightning would strike less than a thousand feet away. The ¢Wolf¢ was definitely howling. Thank God our Mom used to take us out on the porch when we were young to "enjoy" the summer electric storms in Pennsylvania. It was kind of like that, only scarier and a lot wetter. At times we were walking in ankle deep rivulets as the steep trail turned into a flowing stream. The good thing is that we got hit so hard the last time with rain that we went to an outfitter and upgraded our gear. I can¢t express how glad I was that we did that. It could have been so much worse.By the time we got to Wayah Shelter, the rain had subsided; but of course, all was wet, the shelter was full and so were all of the campsites. A girl named Trailfox was there along with two guys named HaHa and Slow. There was this crazy, old Army Ranger dude who admitted he hadn¢t been taking his meds and we encouraged him to do so (especially after discovering his vast collection of combat cutlery and enthusiasm for demonstrating its use) we met Longtoe from Austria, and the rest of the crew was there, like Cubit, MadMtMike and others.It was COLD... AGAIN! Our spaghetti was damn good though. We just came up with a new method and I¢m really happy about it. We mixed up some tomato paste and some sauce mix and cooked up a pound of angel hair pasta to split between the three of us. It was DAMN GOOD! I hung my hammock from two trees on the side of a crazy hill while most of the guys looked on with dubious curiosity; uncertain of the hammock¢s feasibility. It¢s good I had that thing ¢cause I wouldn¢t have been able to put up a tent anywhere. It was hard enough hanging it between two trees on this crazy slope with wet leaves sliding everywhere. Everything was on a hill and everything was wet. The night was dreary, it rained some more and sleep came none too soon.David AKA "Jukebox"Website:http://www.brotherproof.comBlog:http://brotherproof.blogspot.comPictures:http://www.photobucket.com/brotherproofFilm:http://www.youtube.com/wbaf1Myspace:http://www.myspace.com/brotherproofDavid's Website:http://www.davidpatrone.com