Date: 2021-09-14
From: Nantahala River

To: Wayah Shelter 
Miles today: 16.29
Weather: clear sky

Quiksilver and I were both up at 6 after our second night at the N.O.C. with no plans to hurry out the door. We sat and drank coffee in the common area of the hotel with two firemen from Tampa who are at the NOC for a five day Swift Water rescue class.  The news was on the TV as we sat and talked, good googily moogily, I don¢t know how anyone can watch the news first thing in the morning and still face the day. I¢m not made of such stern stuff. Instead I made an intensive study of the stained carpet in the common room.  If that carpet could talk, it wouldn¢t, it would just mumble ¢the horror¢¦the horror¢ over and over again until put out of it¢s misery by Martin Sheen (obscure reference alert).We left the for the walk down to the trail at 8:15, knowing as we crossed the river that we were at the lowest elevation we¢d experience the rest of the trail: 1727 feet. Today would be a big climb day as we went up out of the gorge with the fire tower on Wesser Bald as our first waypoint. Five miles in as we were still climbing we caught up to a hiker. This turned out to be fellow flip-flopper No Bad whom I had last seen just north of Duncannon, PA about 1600 miles ago. We knew he had been coming up behind us thanks to info we got from the shuttle driver who took us into Gatlinburg last week. Wicked cool to bump into yet another hiker still out here on trail from way way back. We hiked the next hour with No Bad, catching up on this and that. When we got to the 4600 ft Wesser Bald fire tower No Bad didn¢t climb up with us, as at this point of his hike he¢s not interred in taking one more step than he has to. Quiksilver and I spent 10 minutes up on the observation deck, I still can¢t get enough of these high Mountain views!  After descending 800 feet to Tellico Gap we went back up 1200 feet over Copper Ridge.  No Bad dropped back on the climb as he takes a more deliberate pace on the uphills. We also ran into three trail maintainers from the Nantahala Trail club, based out of Franklin, NC.  They are out repainting blazes on trees, cutting in water diversions, and doing general trail and shelter work.  The AT is maintained by volunteers from many individual trail clubs along the way.  Each trail club has a section of trail they oversee with help from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, an umbrella group that coordinates the entire trail.  We chatted with one of the volunteers as we took a break and I had lunch. Quiksilver is going to be joining one of the clubs as a volunteer once his hike is completed.  If I lived closer, I¢d do the same.  We must have passed 15 NOBO section and day hikers today which was surprising, as it¢s a Tuesday. Still, with weather like this I can see why people are out hiking. We arrived at the Wayah Shelter just after 3 and decided to stop here for the day. No Bad got in at 4, but elected to hike another two miles to a campsite. We¢ll probably see him again tomorrow sometime. After picking a hang site I retrieved my rock bag and line to prep my bear hang. This is the first time doing this in two weeks as we¢ve either had bear cables to use or have been under a roof. There¢s a slight chance of rain tonight and then some wet weather looks to be moving in Wednesday afternoon. Might have a stretch of wet feet coming our way.We are planning on hiking out by headlamp in the morning to see if we can catch a sunrise on top of Wayah Bald about a mile ahead and 700 feet up. Not sure if the weather gods will cooperate, but we¢ll do our part and be there if there¢s a show to be seen. Nine days to Springer!