Date: 2007-03-31
From: Wayah Gap, NC

To: Tellico Gap, NC
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: clear sky

Wowee, what a day. After much discussion (and I had a dream last nite aboutit), Nicole and I decided to see if we could slackpack today (which is when youare shuttled to your last point on the trail, and dayhike with a daypack to apre-determined road crossing, and a shuttle is there to bring you back to town). We decided we would slackpack today, stay another nite @ the Budget Inn, zerotomorrow in Kay and Gadget's room, and hike out for good on Monday. This willalso allow us to avoid hiking in the big rain and thunderstorms that areforecasted for tomorrow.So, we chose a 9 mile slackpack and wanted to go from Wayah Gap to BurningtownGap. Well, Ron Haven told us that getting to Burningtown Gap is a huge drivebecause of the way the forrest service road is routed. He suggested we go theextra distance to Tellico Gap, where a shuttle would be waiting at 4:00 p.m.Nicole and I said ok, but with a bit of apprehension, because it was going to beour longest day yet @ 13.5 miles.So I loaded my pack with day hiking essentials, such as water, lunch, snacks,rain gear, a long sleeve shirt, my emergency kit, knit cap, camera,maps\guidebook, TP, and packcover. I think my pack weighed a mere 6lbs tops. It felt AWESOME!So we hopped the shuttle bus, which was full of hikers slackpacking to\fromvarious places. Nicole and I were the only ones going 13.5 miles though.On the bus ride, Ron told us many local stories, showed us the actual cave EricRudolph hid out in from the FBI (which was on a major road, and they stillcouldn't find him...duh), and showed us a grave behind the McNish Family house,where they thought they had buried their son, who had fallen from war (not surewhich past war). The fallen soldier's wife remarried, had kids, a body (sent tothem by our govt. has been buried there), and then one day, the supposed fallensoldier shows up and he was not dead afterall!! The govt. assumed he wasbecause they found his dogtags. To this day, no one knows exactly who is buriedthere but it is an unknown soldier. So we finally get to Wayah Gap @ 11:20 a.m., and Ron goes, "the shuttle will be@ Tellico @ 4 p.m." So let's all do the math here, 13.5 miles in 4.5 hrs wouldmean hiking 3mph, which we have never done, plus the first 4.2 miles are a toughclimb up to Wayah Bald. We figured we'd give it our best shot, and deal with itlater if and when we didn't make it the shuttle on time. LOLSo we get started, and the day is nice and cool in the upper 60's and overcast. We hiked up and up and up, stopped and ate a quick lunch, and 2 hrs later, wefinally made it to Wayah Bald. We sort of knew then that the 4:00 shuttle wasjust not going to happen.   Wayah Bald also has a cool stone fire tower on it. The views were stunning, butit was a pretty hazy day. Still, we could see for quite a distance and it wasgorgeous. I climbed to the top of the stone fire tower and it was windy. Wewere surrounded by mountains. Scholar, who thru'd in 2005 was there. She toldus in 2005, she slept up on the fire tower and about froze from the wind! After some pics and a snack, we headed down the mountain toward Licklog Gap. Manwas it tough going. Nicole was just tired today. I felt like hiking, but weboth soon found out we were really pushing it to go that far.After Licklog Gap, we started back up. We ended up in an area that had been onfire, and it was a good sized fire. I don't know if it was a controlled burn oraccident, but I was amazed that everything still had a strong smell of burnedash and wood. Trees were burned, rhodedondron's were dead, which was weird to see, but fromtime to time, I saw a tiny patch of new grass or a few tiny white flowerssprouting out of the blackness. It occured to me just how amazing and resilientnature can be (as long as we let it that is).The eerie thing about this though was that the next gap was Burningtown Gap. This gap got its name from the fact that an African American town was oncethere, until the whites torched the whole town and all of its residents. I wasbasically hiking through an unmarked graveyard in a way. There was absolutelyno way you could tell any of this had ever hapened there, it just looked likethe woods, but it saddened me to know I was literally standing where many peopleperished due to pure hatred.By ths time, it was 3:30 p.m., and we still had 6 miles to go. Nicole calledRon Haven and explained we were just not going to make it. He is so laid backand hilarious at the same time. He goes, "Oh, you're doin good, we'll work itout, just keep walking and we'll see ya down there." At this point, Nicole goes, "Well, I really don't think we'll be able to hike 6miles in 1 hour though."   I about busted my gut laughing at that comment. Of course we wouldn't be ableto hike 6 miles an hour! Well, we could have if I twirled around, became wonderwoman and summoned my invisible jet to fly us there, but unfortunately, my jetwas in the shop getting a new invisible clear coat, so that just wasn'tpossible.Ron said he would have someone there at 6:00 p.m. to get us. This was stillpushing, seeing we were exhausted and still had Copper Ridge Bald to climb, butwe knew if we were 20 minutes late, they weren't going to just leave us either.So we started up our last big climb. Nicole was in bad shape, no energy, andready to just sit down forever. I felt ok, but my feet were killing me from thepounding. We went up and up again, and we've discovered that when we get really tired, westart getting really sarcastic and say things like, "I hope there is a wheelchair to wheel us from the shuttle to our room!" LOL Nicole started singing asong about how she didn't need to eat or rest or resupply, she could hike allthe way to Maine with just her remaining snack. Of course, we are both laughingat this point.You have a choice to make when in less than desirable circumstances. Focus andobsess on your pain and misery, or just make fun of it and laugh whilecontinuing to push on. We choose laughter.We passed Cold Spring Shelter and 2 men were there, a section hiker and thruhiker. It was a small but cozy shelter. We talked for a few minutes, and theytold us we had 3.5 miles to go....ugh.I swear someone kept adding height to this moutain as we were hiking up it. LOL I had to sing my song, "This is the mountain that never ends."We finally start the down portion, which was equally as long and grueling. Therewere some beautiful streams we hopped over, but mainly, we wanted to be done.Down, down, down, pounding feet, aching knees, rolled my ankle pretty good, painin every part of my lower body. This was the moment I had been thinking aboutall of those days I sat at my secretary desk. It was here. One of those (ofprobably many) moments that test you mentally. Can you push the pain out ofyour mind, can you continue, can you see beyond the present and know it istemporary?Well, after going down for an eternity and still not seeing the road or hearinganything, I yelled "Where is this damn gap!!!" Suddenly a voice answers back,but I couldn't understand what he said. WOW, I am close!! Someone heard me. Iyelled up to Nicole we were close. Finally 2 more switchbacks, and I see aroad. I am focused only on the trail ahead of me, looking for the opening,looking for the end, and there it is! I see it, I hear voices, I see vehiclesand guess what else. Trail Magic!!Indeed, this was my hardest day yet, and to see 2 smiling faces of Harold andJim, a cooler of cold drinks, a huge box filled with snacks and TP, and bandaids, batteries, wet wipes, and actual chairs almost made me cry.And guess who else was there, Sailor! We knew he headed out the day before, buthad no idea where he was. Not Guilty was also there.I could have kissed Harold and Jim right on the lips for their service to ushikers. They are both from Franklin, friends for 34 years with families andkids, and they own and run the local insurance company, Wayah Insurance. Theywere so accomodating, offering us anything we needed, taking our empty pop cansand throwing them out so we wouldn't have to get up. Seriously, the definitionof trail angels. To top it off, they told us they were our ride back to town. Life was now perfect. LOLThey packed up everything, Sailor was making camp right there, Not Guilty wasgetting a ride to the NOC and hoping to slackpack the next day, so Harold, Jim,Not Guilty, Me, Nicole, and Maggie, the adorable 1 yr old black Lab all jumpedinto Jim's truck and made the rounds. Cool thing is we got to see the NOC, which we'll be hiking into on Monday (yes, we are going to leave Franklin!)We got to see parts of this beautiful state, like the Little Tennessee River,where people were trout fishing. There was also a HUGE waterfall coming downthe mountainside. Jim dropped us off at our motel, we tried to give him some $ for gas, but hewouldn't have it. Nicole and I hobbled to our room and collapsed. While wewere hiking, Nicole asked me if I thought Ron Haven would bring her dinner andfeed it to her with an airplane fork. (after I stopped laughing) I told her Ithought it was worth asking him! LOL Well, we didn't have the energy, so wetook showers, took a fistfull of Vitamin I and passed out. A long hard day, inwhich we learned our physical limitations. It is a good thing to know thatthough, and I know my body that much better now. Tomorrow, rest.~Certain