Date: 2014-07-14
From: Franklin, NC

To: Cold Spring Gap
Miles today: 16.8

Today was the first day I got significantly off of the trail. The shuttle driver picked me up at the Budget Inn and a we approached Winding Stair Gap, she asked which way I was headed. I said I was going North, so she pulled off the highway before the parking area at the start of an old forest road. There were no white blazes to be seen. I told her that I came out further up. She said, "This road connects to the trail and there is a waterfall back there." So I got out and started up the forest road. It wasn't even a gravel road. It was mostly grass and weeds with two worn tire tracks. After a short distance I heard what founded like a waterfall. I didn't see anything. As the sound became louder, I poked through the rhododendron on the side of the road and there was a small waterfall. Niagara has nothing to worry about in terms of competition. It appeared to be a drop of about three feet hidden among the bushed. But I wasn't here to see waterfalls, I was here to find a white blaze and hike the trail. I hiked on up the forest road. After 10 minutes of hiking the sounds of the highway started to fade away and I began to get concerned that I was not heading to the AT. I hated to turn around, because maybe it was around the next corner. After 20 minutes, I decided I needed to hike back to the road, walk down to the parking area, and find the AT where I had come out of the woods on Saturday. I turned around. Twenty minutes meant I had gone a mile out of my way. Turning around meant another mile. As I neared the road, I heard the waterfall again. Right next to the waterfall was a white blaze. The trail went up into the woods right next to the waterfall. I was distracted by the waterfall when it was supposed to be my sign that the trail was starting. Why couldn't she have given better directions ? Why didn't I ask for clarification? I had hiked two extra miles, but I was back on the trail. Thus only makes sense to people who have hiked a marked trail, but it brings great comfort to see the white blazes. As I hiked this part of the trail, everything seemed to be named "Lick." I wondered what it meant and decided I'd have to look into that later. There was Wilson Lick Gap, a Swinging Lick Gap, and more. I had two major mountains to cross today, Siler Bald and Wayah Bald. When I got to the top if Siler Bald there was a quarter mile side trail to the summit. I had been walking in clouds all morning. It had been sprinkled off and on; enough to make me out the cover on my pack, but not enough to put rain gear on myself. I get soaked from sweat, so rain gear in a slight sprinkle seems pointless. Anyway, with the limited visibility and the extra two miles I already hiked, I decided to forgo the hike to the summit. I had lunch at an actual picnic table at the Wayah Crest a Picnic Area. There were several tables and a parking area off a gravel forest road, but I was the only one there. About three o'clock I made it to Wayah Bald. There is an old stone tower that gives you 360 degree views. The skies had cleared and the views were great. I met a couple from Orange Park, Florida who used to live in Green Cove Springs near a fish camp restaurant we used to go to with my in-laws. I told hem my wife was in St. Augustine while I was hiking. They said they loved going to St. Augustine, but they also love coming to the mountains every summer. They had been up to the stone tower in the morning but it was clouded in, so they drove back to Franklin for lunch and came back up when the sun came out. And I had been hiking for six hours to get here. I was glad the sun was out because I was not going to make a second trip. When I left the tower, I hiked back down the paved path to where I had come out if the woods, but there were no white blazes. I heckled the trail guidebook and it said I would approach the tower from a connector trail to the east, but I had approached towards the west. I went back to the tower and saw a trail going west. I followed it for a shirt distance and it intersected the AT, white blaze and all. Somehow in my approach up the mountain to the tower I had gotten off the AT and into another trail. I was curious to know where I got if, but not curious enough to hike back to find out.I stopped for supper and to camp at Cold Spring Gap Shelter. I shared the small table at the shelter with Harry Parsons and his adult daughter, Claire. We had a great time sharing stories and talking about our families and hiking adventures. And they shared their bananas foster with me - gourmet trail food! I told the that my son-in-law, Tim, was about to start seminary at Louisville Theological Seminary, and Harry said they support a missionary to China who was back in the states for two years to attend the same seminary. I got his name to share with Tim. How's that for degrees if separation, on the AT, in the middle of the Nantahala National Forest. I hiked up the hill from the shelter to set up my tent. It was another campsite with a glorious view .