3/28/01
It was another chilly morning but we were determined to get an early start. After a quick breakfast and goodbye to "Preacher" and "Seawolf", we got on the trail around 7:15 a.m. My ankle was questionable, but "Doc' Creeper had some Vioxx and Tylenol and he fixed me up and we took off. We had a long difficult climb from Wayah Gap to Wayah Bald, but the scenery was awesome and my ankle was feeling good so it was a fun morning. By 9:30 a.m. we were at the top of Wayah Bald at the fire tower taking photos of the layers and layers of mountains before us. We kept on down the trail and by 1 p.m. we had covered 10 miles of rough terrain and were still feeling good. There, Creeper took a nasty spill while descending through some black, muddy trail. He bent his trekking pole and suffered a charlie horse on his right leg. Soon after he rolled his ankle so the two of us had our physical challenges this afternoon! We were still feeling pretty good and reached Tellico Gap by 2:30; 13.5 miles from the starting point for the day. We decided it was much too early and too beautiful a day to quit so we kept hiking.
While on the ascent of Wesser Bald, I met Jane Gatlin, a teacher who was day hiking south on the AT. We talked for a few minutes about school and spring break and how wonderful it is to spend the time hiking in NC mountains. So, all you students from Columbiana Middle School in Birmingham, AL, I hope you'll get your parents to bring you up to the mountains to get out and see the beauty for yourself and enjoy the hiking like your teacher does! I hope you'll follow my progress on the trail as I try to reach Maine later this year. It was very nice to meet you, Jane, and I enjoyed our brief visit on the side of Wesser Bald today!
By the time I caught up to Creeper after chatting with Jane, he was near the top of Wesser Bald. The clouds had moved in so the view from the firetower was less than stellar so we opted to keep moving. Creeper was really struggling by this point but we were thinking that it would be good to get off the ridge as the forecast is for thunderstorms to move in after midnight. We passed Wesser Bald Shelter where I stopped briefly to sign the trail register and kept hiking. It was a LONG 5 miles almost straight down to the next shelter, and by now Creeper was earning his name. We reached the Rufus Morgan Shelter around 6:30 p.m. with the day's light fading. We had already made the decision to go all the way in to Wesser since Creeper was stiffening up and we knew the rain would make the morning hike even more difficult. I popped up to the shelter to sign the register and met 4 ladies and a dog who were staying there for the night. We talked for about 5 minutes and because my hands were so cold, "Mo" entered my trail register entry for me while her dog Adeline "Addie" and I snuggled for a minute. "Terrorist", "Bum Runner", and "Rice Paddy" were cooking dinner so we caught up on trail gossip, then I quickly headed down the trail as we were almost out of daylight. We arrived at Wesser at the NOC (Nantahala Outdoor Center) at 7:00 p.m. and knew we had to hurry to register for a bunk at the hostel. I zipped over to the River's End Restaurant as the office was already closed, and barely made it to the door as they were locking up for the evening. We got registered at the bunkhouse, and actually got a room to ourselves as most other thru-hikers had gone to Bryson City for the night. We were too tired to shower, so we quickly cooked dinner and made phone calls home and called it a night. While cooking dinner, we talked with "Eagle" from Alaska who has already hiked the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) and 600 miles of the CDT (Continental DivideTrail) and is now thru-hiking the AT. He's doing 20 miles a day through our "hills"...who knows, he may burn out before the end at that rate. Today's stats: Lo 22 degrees, high 50, increasing clouds. Mileage:21:4 (first 20+ mile day!) Cumulative 134.1
