Date: 2016-03-29
From: siler bald

To: fontana dam
Miles today: 51.5
Weather: clear sky

3/30/16   Left Siler Bald this morning after a nice, cold sunrise and headed north over some moderate terrain. The day warmed up nicely and we got to Wayah Bald just in time to meet Trail Chef and his 5 year old granddaughter Emily who were just setting up some trail magic which we enjoyed with them and were very thankful. We went up the stone tower on Wayah Bald and got our first look at the Smokies, way off in the distance to the north (looked very far away!). Continuing on we came to some more trail magic at Burningtown Gap, only about a mile before our destination for the night. This was perfect since they were giving out big juicy hamburgers and cold soda and we were so well fed when we left there that we didn't have to make supper when we got to Cold Spring shelter. No cooking and no washing dishes...does it get any better?3/31/16   We left Cold Spring tent site on a day that was threatening rain. It ended up not raining until just before we got to our day's destination, the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC). This is on the Nantahala River just upstream from where it flows into Fontana Lake (one of the TVA's projects from the 1930's). The NOC is a little bit geared toward the tourist crowd, but in an outdoors way. They do a lot of whitewater rafting out of there. The Nantahala is controlled by a dam upstream so they get good water releases every day. Anyway we spent the night at NOC in some nice bunkhouses and had full use of a community room for hikers and nice showers and the place was pretty clean so it was a good rest. We had dinner at River's End Restaurant with Lucky, Lil Santa, Goat Gas and White Owl (from Belfast, Maine). The building actually hangs out over the river a little. We resupplied for a few days, at the general store (expensive) and did our laundry. There's even a railroad that runs through, a former branch line which is now a tourist railroad that runs up through the Nantahala Gorge. Didn't see any trains but we heard one the next day after we got back on the trail. 4/1/16   NOC to Brown Fork Gap shelter today. This was quite a difficult day with some tough terrain. Started out with a pretty steady uphill climb for the first eight miles from 1732 feet to 5062 feet then a lot of ups and downs for the next eight miles. We came to one spot called Jacob's Ladder and we both thought it might kill us before we got to the top! It wasn't that long, just really steep and I think we were both already pretty worn out when we got to it. 4/2/16   Brown Fork Gap shelter to Fontana Dam, NC today for a stay at the famous (among hikers, anyway) Fontana Hilton. This is a shelter on the shore of Fontana Lake that will sleep 20 people on two levels on two sides of a center passage way. It's a very nice shelter, although a little cool this night as the wind was blowing straight through the center passage way. There was a former thru hiker there when we got there setting up to grill some burgers for us and there was soda and some other beverages so once again we didn't have to make our own supper. Very much appreciated and I'm sorry I didn't get the thru hiker's name who was responsible for the trail magic but thank you very much! Then another hiker showed up and asked a couple of us to come up to his car where he presented us with a couple of bags of cold sodas and some more "other beverages" which we were glad to accept and share with the crowd of thru hikers. Later I got a shower which was mostly cold by the time I got there, but free, and smelly hikers can't be choosy.    On another note, let's make the caption of the photo included with this entry read "sunset at Siler Bald", not "sunrise"!