Date: 2014-04-16
From: Winding Stair Gap

To: Burningtown Gap
Miles today: 14.6

Woke up in the hotel room bright and early to leave at 7:00am. Nova, CAT, Wind and I caught a ride back to Winding Stair Gap with the trail angel named Intense. Ronnie Haven does a hiker shuttle later in the morning but we four decided to get an earlier start. Thanks again to Intense for the generous ride! Wind took off like the wind because he needed to cover 20 miles today to reach Fontana before the post office closes on Friday. I ran into Nova and CAT throughout the day.Hiking today was incredible! The day started off chilly with cool looking ice formations in the mud. I heard dozens of woodpeckers searching for their breakfasts. I was even singing to myself out loud!Silver Bald was pretty neat looking and I was disappointed that the trail did not go to the top. It entered the woods and started to twist so I thought It may go up. Once I realized I wasn't going to the summit it was too far for me to bother to go back.I ran into a group of trail maintainers from the Nantahala Outdoor Club. These gentlemen spend each Wednesday working on the trail. They had lots of questions for me about my hike and I had lots of questions about their trail work. They provided inspiration and encouragement for my hike and I thanked them for their service. I had a huge smile on my face for the next hour.The climb up towards Wayah Bald intersected a bunch of times with a road. I did not enjoy seeing SUVs zooming past as I hiked up. At one point there was a sign stating 'Wayah Bald 1.8 miles' with yellow blazes mixed with white blazes. I was perplexed. What are the yellow blazes? There was a ratio like 4:1 yellow blazes to white blazes. Eventually, I reached the summit of Wayah Bald and the Stone Tower. The view was so gorgeous that it took my breath away. I met up with Nova and met a section hiker named Wildcat. Wildcat is an enthusiast Louisiana hiker doing a section from Winding Stair Gap to Harpers Ferry. Today was his first day on the trail so he was bubbling with excitement.The three of us started descending Wayah together. We came to an intersection that was very confusing. We did not see any white blazes but we saw a turn off for yellow blazes so we started on that path. After going quite a ways (over creeks, ducking under branches) We realized that we had seen any white blazes, only yellow. We debated the situation and I turned on my GPS to confirm we were indeed on the wrong path. The three of us backtracked to the junction and chose the path marked shelter. After a couple minutes a white blaze appeared. It was annoying mistake to lose approx. 30 minutes but I was having such a good time I didn't care!I had heard that Aquaone Hostel was the best hostel on the A.T. from a bunch of different sources and I wanted to try it out. I had just spend two nights in Franklin, I didn't need another hostel stay so soon - but I couldn't resist! Nova also was keen on giving it a go so we called for pickup from Burningtown Gap.Wiggy (thruhiker from 2010) picked us up in a car towing a trailer for our packs. He is very charming and told a funny story about two hikers that took the same yellow blaze turn off mistake as us, but did not realize their error until hours later!His wife Maggie, met us and welcomed us to their beautiful lodge. I had a shower and was given some snazzy loaner clothing to lounge around in. Maggie made Nova and I a couple pizzas for dinner (which we devoured). The bunk room is a spacious, cozy, sparkling-clean cabin with homey decor touches. It is absolutely wonderful. There is a great selection of books, board games and satellite tv. I'm looking forward to sampling Maggie's homemade waffles at breakfast tomorrow!Question from the guest book - how do I put up big miles so early? The answer is discipline since I would like to finish in approx. five months!