Date: 2010-04-28
From: Silar Bald Shelter

To: Wayah Shelter
Miles today: 7.3
Weather: clear sky

It is a beautiful day, perfect hiking weather. Break camp and head uphill over Siler Bald. The Bald is a huge grassy area, I would guess several acres worth, at the summit of the first mountain of the day. I'm thinking amazing star gazing if the weather permits, not a place to camp in a storm, thou. A pretty trail down to Wayah Gap. Wayah means wolf in the Cherokee language. Lots of warblers, spring flowers and two pretty streams. From Wayah Gap we head uphill toward Wayah Bald. The trail is all in the sun, as the forest is hardwoods which have not leafed out yet. Hot climb over rocky terrain. About one third up the mountain there is a good flowing stream which crosses the trail. I dunked my head in the water, ahhh, natural air conditioning. We finally gain the false summit, pretty views. Downhill for a little bit, then up to the Wayah Bald Observation Tower. A bonus awaits, we find trashcans and bathrooms, heaven. We empty our trash and start up the short paved path to the observation tower. White blazes on the asphalt mark our way. All we can say is WOW! The tower is a CCC project built entirely of stone. It guards the highest point for our hike today. The views are exceptional, from the top of the tower you have 360 degrees of miles of mountains. You can identify all the mountains thanks to visual guides mounted on all four sides of the tower walls.   Sunshine and I spent some time at the tower enjoying all the scenery and making phone calls. Good reception for AT&T and Verizon.Time to move on, we leave reluctantly, it is so pretty. The blazes are on the ground and direct us into the bushes. We have been walking with yellow and white blazes. The yellow blazes mark the Bartram Trail. This trail shares the path with the AT for quite awhile. When it finally splits make sure you go to the left. We are staying at Wayah Shelter. The shelter is one of the newest ones. It is placed so that you have great views of sunrises and sunsets from the interior of the shelter. Sunshine and I hang our hammocks in the shelter, since no other hikers are there. Later, two other hikers show up and don't object to the hammocks in the shelter, so we stay put. Lot's of good conversation from No Boat and Terrapin. No Boat's hiker name derives from the fact he lives in Florida and does not own a boat. Nice guy who was missing his wife. We had a long conversation about how missing your family is the hardest part of dealing with the trail. He is thinking he might go home at Hot Springs and I am leaning toward going home when we get to the NOC. Time will tell.Terrapin, on the other hand, is a young twenty something hiker. He has no responsibilities or significant other calling him home. He can't imagine leaving the trail. This young man was so sweet he left his smelly boots out behind a tree near the shelter so we would not have to smell them. We assured him we were all smelly, but, he would not bring his boots into the shelter.The sunset was colorful. The owls were beginning to call to each other in the twilight. Conversation was slowing down as one by one we went to sleep. It was a good day.Hiker Tip # 19 Listen to your body, it will tell you how many miles it would like to do a day. Overly sore knees, blisters, upset stomach and headaches are signals. Be kind to your body and it will be kind to you, tell your mileage hiking Ego to sit down and enjoy the walk.