Date: 2016-05-30
From: Wesser Bald Shelter

To: Siler Bald 
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: scattered clouds

At the shelter were Cheeks, RV & Stroke, plus several others tenting. More bugs today; pests, but not usually biting. I was the first one out. The first mile was up the hill to Wesser Bald, which has an observation tower. I met 2 guys who had camped up there. They're out for the weekend, but one of them had done a SOBO thru hike last year ahead of me. Many of these Mtns are called balds because they used to be, but aren't any more; so the best place to get a view is these observation towers. I met at least 20 hikers in the first 1.5 hours, including Clifty, who's working on the trail by sections -- the rest were mostly finishing long weekend hikes. Then at least 6 more day hikers, followed by a group of 7 from Charlotte doing 41 miles in 3 days and then by PBS, a NOBO still hoping to make it straight thru (only 8 days out from Springer, I guess he will). Then another prospective thru-hiker with no name and 3 fairly long-distance section hikers. That was all in the first two hours! They must have really been bunched up camping on the mountain last night, now all heading down to NOC to finish the weekend. Then an hour with nobody and then Yeti and Cub (10 years old). Then 2 more long-distance section hikers followed by a girl from Arkansas who will need to do a flip-flop. At lunch, Slow-Trek and Son, Dan, hoping to do the South half of the Trail this year, then a couple of other section hikers came in as I was leaving the shelter, & another section-hiker on the way down.1.2 miles down to Burningtown Gap at 2.9 miles per hour -- that's the fastest I've done for a while. Nice easy trail. I'm looking forward to more of that the rest of the trip. We'll see! Of course it's not the difficulty of the trail that slows me down as much as whether it's up-hill, & I do still have a bunch of mountains left. Only 1.3 mph up the next Hill. But 2 1/7 mph for the first 3.5 miles out of the shelter!Stopped at Coldspring Shelter for lunch. It's an old shelter that they've rehabbed somewhat. I thought I had heard they were replacing it, but apparently just rehab. That shelter's register goes back to the first of the year, so I got to see notes from some of the people I had met in February, like Slipknot and Einstein -- that's kinda nice -- and also some of the SOBOs finishing that late.Not as much in the way of views on these balds as there used to be. In one place, they cut down some trees recently to make it easier to see. I realized that I've seen a lot of mountains and valleys without knowing much about them.My best views of the day were at Wayah Bald tower because it has explanations of which mountains you looking at. On the way up and down from there, I was observing little luminescent moths, (my guess at the time), reminding me very much of the ones that nearly blinded me as I was trying to cross the Penobscot River in the 100-mile wilderness with my headlamp.After the tower, I met 3 hikers on the Bartram trail that were looping around back to NOC, where I had seen them on Saturday. After 2 more long-distance section-hikers came late-afternoon NOBOs: Captain Sparrow (Ger), and Sir Pass-a-lot. I also talked with a hiker couple eating their supper at a campsite & later passed 2 day-hikers and discussed those insects -- they didn't know any more about them than I did. I later saw one land on my arm, leave the egg sac [?], & then it looked more like a big mosquito. After one quarter hour Trail work (smelled like lemonwood branches) over the trail, I had some supper and then went up Siler bald & pitched my tent. Got there at 7:30, which meant I had a lot more light than I usually do when I get to camp; so I did a few repairs on some of my equipment, took some pictures, & then to bed.Some of the distances in this area seem wrong in the guidebook, especially where the Bartram Trail runs concurrent.