Date: 2013-03-25
From: Wesser Bald Shelter

To: Nantahala Outdoor Center
Miles today: 5.9
Weather: overcast clouds

I woke up the first time at 3:00 am...looked out of the shelter to see dark but with a hazy glow. Then, I woke up again just before 5:00 am. It was still dark¢¦but the ¢glow¢ was brighter. Now it was 6:00 am and upon waking I discovered that the lower half of my sleeping bag was covered with a light film of snow. First reaction?! This is not good! Later my wife would tell me that at 6:00 am the temperature on Wesser Bald was 18 degrees with a wind chill of 7 degrees and wind gusts of up to 25 mph...bbbbrrrrr!Although still dark, I got up...packed up using my head lamp to see everything¢¦and ate a frozen honey bun! I had to pound on the Gatorade bottle I use for a water bottle to break the ice so I could even get a sip of water! Looking out from the shelter, I could see that there was now 3 to 4 inches of new snow¢¦and you couldn¢t tell where the trail was or was going easily. With trepidation, off I went with my head lamp on to light my way.There were no footprints on the Appalachian Trail at this point¢¦nothing but pure snow. In fact, mine were the only footprints for the almost 6 miles down to the Nantahala Outdoor Center. No one caught up with me. It took about 4 hours to traverse the downhill¢¦moving very slowly..relying on the trekking poles to make this ¢hairy¢ descent. I couldn¢t see where I was stepping most of the time.Arriving at the NOC just before noon, I checked into the hostel¢¦just one of the many amenities offered by the NOC. The Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) also offers white water rafting, paddle/raft guide school, restaurant and retail store. It opened in 1972 when a group of people took over the old Tote 'N Tarry Motel. The NOC is based in western North Carolina near Bryson City on the Nantahala River, surrounded by the Nantahala National Forest. The Appalachian Trail passes directly through the heart of the NOC, crossing the Nantahala River on a bridge next to the outfitter. The NOC operates whitewater rafting trips on seven Southeastern rivers: the Chattooga, Cheoah, French Broad, Nantahala, Nolichucky, Ocoee, and Pigeon. Too cold for a ¢dip¢ in the river at this point!Still no word from Two-Socks and DBCooper directly. Reading my trail journal guest book comments after a large lunch at the NOC restaurant, I saw that I had a note from Two-Socks wife saying: ¢Hi, Two Sock's asked me to post this. He got the voice message but having trouble returning call back, Two socks and DB Cooper are 6 miles behind Fifteen. Fifteen get room for them tomorrow.¢I had tried to call Two-Socks at various stops along the way the day before with no luck in talking with him..but I was able to leave a cell message¢¦and I was glad to know he had gotten it. I had already had my wife make reservations for both of them (I still could not find my wallet at this point and thought I had left it back at Wesser Bald Shelter!)...I could only hope that they would be able to get through all the snow and down the mountain to the NOC.Later that afternoon,a call came in from BearCat. You may remember from an earlier posting that BearCat and Tuesday were still waiting for a final piece of equipment to come in before they left Franklin, NC on the 11:00 am shuttle. However, he and Tuesday never made it back on the trail once we left Franklin, NC because of a medical problem Tuesday encountered. BearCat took Tuesday back to Headland, AL where they would stay until after BearCat¢s son¢s wedding. They expected to be on the AT again by about April 22nd. I was glad to know where they were...and that they were safely out of this weather!There were two other thru-hikers staying in the 4-bunk hostel room at the NOC along with me. One was a young man with the trail name Cheddar who I had met previously while staying at the Wayah Bald Shelter. The other was a young man called Tenderfoot. It was Tenderfoot¢s mother (trail name Spirit) who offered the wonderful fire and trail magic back at the Wayah Gap Picnic Area two days before. Neither Two-Socks or DBCooper made it in to the NOC today. As I got ready to call it a day, I was hoping they had found a warm place to 'park'.