Date: 2009-04-02
From: Franklin, NC

To: Cold Spring Shelter, NC
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: light rain

Rock and Captain D had scheduled a shuttle to pick us up at 8 this morning. The dude showed up and promptly ran over the curb. Made me question whether this was going to be a safe ride, but he got us back to the trail in one piece. As soon as we got out of the car it started to rain, so we put on our pack covers and I put on my rain jacket. They took off and I meandered up the mountain at my own slow pace. As I hiked up I started to walk into the clouds and another day of walking in the fog. There were two balds today that I was looking forward to seeing, but with the fog I knew I wouldn't get to see much. At one point the trail was following along a road and right along the patch of grass between the trail and road were purple wildflowers. They were so pretty and I took a picture. I love flowers! I arrived at Silver Bald which is supposed to have a great view, but I didn't hike up there to see the fog. As I hiked up and down in elevation, I hiked in and out of the clouds. At one point I did have a great view of a little town nestled in between the mountains. It looked really neat. After that little view I hiked back into the clouds. Since there were to be no great vistas today due to the fog, I decided to check out the Wilson Lick Ranger Station. It is a historical site of the first ranger station in the Nantahala National Forest. When I got to the turn off to the blue blazed trail, there was no indication in my data book, the map or on the sign how far it was to the site. I decided I would walk 10 minutes and if I didn't see anything I'd turn around. (I really wanted to see something different besides the fog today.) I arrived at the site within 5 minutes. It had a display talking about the early duties of the rangers and information about the first rangers. It was located in a nice little clearing and had a house and garage. I couldn't see inside since all the shutters were closed, but I tried to imagine what life could have been like for them. I spent about a half hour there roaming around and eating a snack before I headed back to the AT. This little trip was the highlight of my day!I arrived atop Wayah Bald and went to the top of the stone tower. The architecture of the tower was pretty cool, but once again only views of the fog. There was a sign that said on a good day I'd be able to see the Smokies, but obviously not today. I went down and hiked on. I arrived at Wayah Shelter around three and found Captain D and Rock napping (I think) in their sleeping bag. It was a sweet shelter and if there hadn't been fog it would have had an awesome view. It seemed to early to stop, so I decided to hike on. I thought about tenting at Licklog Gap, but when I got there the gap was like a wind tunnel. Crazy! I hiked on. So I decided to just try to get to Cold Spring Shelter and arrived just in time to get the last spot in the shelter. The data book said it slept six and there were only five and it took the other occupants to convince Jim to move over and let me in. Actually Sky King moved Jim's stuff over to let me in. It was pretty cozy, but no more than on other rainy nights. Quite a few hikers showed up right after me, many a part of the Hooligan Gang. They all went to the tenting area and we heard them up there having a good time until after dark. They definitely like to party and do a little weed. I've heard more than one hiker say they've left a shelter that they are occupying due to the vibe. They were at Muskrat Creek Shelter when I left there last week. I've met many of them individually and I like them all, but when together it turns into a fraternity type party atmosphere. Nothing wrong with them having a good time, I just chose not to stay around it. Jim informed me that I missed part of the trail back at Franklin. I was picked up on the south side of the road and dropped off on the north side of the road. I missed walking across the road. Oops. He made it sound like I could no longer call myself a thru-hiker. I tried to be slick when it came time to hang our food. The shelter had bear cables, but they were broken. We decided to just hang our ropes over the main cable. I said they could use my rope as it could hold several bags hoping that someone else would actually go out in the rain and hang them. Didn't work. Sky King and I eventually went out to hang mine, his and Jim's food. Seneca, John Paul, and Adam (I can't remember his name) had set up mousetraps and every time one would go off I'd jump three feet in the air. While I was there they caught five mice. One went off after I had gone to sleep and scared me wide awake. All was quiet after that accept for the rain hitting the metal roof.