Date: 2019-04-01
From: Winding Stair Gap / Franklin

To: Tellico Gap
Miles today: 19.4

It's a frigid night in the mountains, as low as 18 we hear later. Even in the Franklin Budget Inn we can feel it. Doesn't help that we couldn't find the heater last night. I put an iced tea and block of cheese in the room's "fridge" overnight and they are both frozen solid.Nevermind, it's pancake breakfast time! The First Baptist Church picks up all the hikers willing to get out of bed and takes us over to their Church for a free pancake and bacon feast. The room fills up quickly and pancakes disappear even faster. They take each hiker's picture and give them a card to write that they will mail wherever we want. They do this everyday for a month or more during thruhiker season. What an amazing bunch of people! The assistant pastor, a young bearded guy in jeans and a UT sweatshirt gives us a little pep talk / sermon about God helping those with heavy burdens. I appreciate his words. One of the volunteers at out table hands out "ultralight" Bibles the size of a matchbook with a few Psalms and Gospel verses. I'll carry that and perhaps find some inspiration when I need it.At the motel we pack up and board a town shuttle to the trail. Most people are headed back. We start off at Winding Stair Gap and quickly space out. Clammy and Fast Lane disappear up the trail. I catch up with Trim Tab, who's loving his new backpack, and using his guitar as a coat rack. The trail is slick from thawed ice left over from the rain two nights ago. I let down my guard while texting my brother and slip and fall on my side with my poles and phone flying. Yikes! Gotta be more careful. My shoes have 800 miles on them and hardly any traction left. So I spend the rest of the day viligently using my poles and watching my step.I catch up with UNICEF and Fast Lane at Siler Bald. It's a steep climb from the trail over an open field that looks like an out of season ski run. Going up we meet Carry On, a 74 year old Santa-looking thruhiker aiming to be there oldest to reach Katahdin this year. More power to him! But he's got tough competition from Enoch and probably others!A thin mustached guy with a thick North Carolina accent named Slim and a thirty-ish bearded guy from Those Island named Candy are resting along the trail. Still no sign of Clammy. We assume he stopped at Siler shelter. He was supposed to go easy on his knee and log a pain-free day.On the way up Wayah Bald I run into a man backpacking with his young son and daughter. They're headed to Nantahala but not eager to start the climb. I tell them about hiking with my kids and encourage them to have some fun and adopt trail names.A few miles later we reach Wayah Bald with its stone firetower. The surrounding forest is charred from a 2016 fire. The wooden lookout atop the tower burned and has been rebuilt. Here we can definitively see the Smokies, as well as everything else we have hiked the last three days or will hike in the next week. The ridges are sharp and clear. Distant ranges are visible that aren't even drawn on the panorama map that identified the peaks. The room underneath the tower has great acoustics. A girl named Librarian who's recorded an album is testing it out. She's with Soccer Mom, who whips out fruit snacks and offers them to everyone. Another girl named Plug is sitting in the sun and never wants to leave. She spent the frigid night in a shelter with 10 other people literally rolling on top of each other. It's been a chilly morning and ice still lingers on the trail in the form of mounds of thin strands that look like frost heave.UNICEF can't resist the stone tower and free solo climbs it up to the first landing. I test it out and he gets really concerned about my form. Some of us weren't meant to climb!Still no sign of Clammy, we head on down Wayah Bald towards Cold Springs shelter where we plan to spend the night. On the way I find a wide guy named Beast slowly trucking on. He doesn't like the uphills. There has been a good bit of that today. Not too steep, but long climbs to Siler and Wayah Balds.Cold Springs shelter is packed, and every tent site is taken. I don't recognize anyone. We have hiked straight into "The Bubble". A huge number of hikers who started on the first day of spring, several days before us. Tonight is supposed to be cold, so even if there were tent spots on this ridge near 5000 feet elevation we wouldn't want them.UNICEF stays put, trying to find a site. He's tired. Fast Lane and I are more motivated to find a quieter site so we head towards Tellico Gap, another three miles. This getting to be a pattern. It's steep hillside all along the way with no stealth spots. A small campsite at Big Springs is full. My feet are feeling the miles now. We plunge down into the gap and find a pleasant surprise. Trail magic!Baked beans and turkey sausage cooked over a campfire by a father and son pair of hikers. I wish I could remember their names but they are from Suches Georgia and had a lovable bird dog with them. Thank you guys! Just what we needed!There's no real camping area so we setup our tents in a parking cutout surrounded by stacked beam landscape berms. It's a quiet gravel mountain forest road but a couple trucks do pass over the evening. I hope no trucks try to pull in after dark!There are power lines, but they can't obscure a beautiful sunset that backlights mountains to the west and highlights mountains to the east. Tomorrow it's on to Nantahala Outdoor Center where I have my new pair of shoes waiting. Also a restaurant. Not sure which one I'm looking forward to more! It's going to be a cold one tonight so I'm heading in to bundle up.