We had straight up warm to hot weather today. Temps felt like the 80’s. It was a challenging day with a huge amount of elevation change. We started with a few summits in the AM and had lunch on Wesser Bald.

Copper Ridge Bald

Wesser Bald from fire tower

Wesser had a cool fire tower that was open all the way to the top, so we went up. Completely amazing 360 views of the mountains that just seem to go on forever. I tried to take a panoramic pic but I’m not sure how it came out as it’s tough to tell on my phone.

After that most of the afternoon consisted of a huge 4000 foot descent to the Nantahala Outdoor Center, referred to as the NOC. It’s a complex for whitewater rafting amd kayaking and stuff like that. They also had a live band, bbq restaurant, and loads of beer.

NOC

It was super tough to pass up but we pushed on for a few more miles up the giant ascent out of there. From the elevation profiles of the entire trail this descent and ascent appears to be one of the biggest anywhere. We found one of the few campsites on the way up in Grassy Gap and made camp after a hot, tough 17.5 mile day.

Grassy Gap...Where's the grass?

Tomorrow looks pretty tough also, but with less overall mileage planned.

Vital stats:
Mood – determined
Physical state – feet and knees are feeling it after the massively long descent, but good
Smell – pure funk
Song stuck in my head – Settle Down by The 1975

We took a leisurely start to the day by waiting until the 11am Ron Haven shuttle back to the trail. This allowed us to stroll around Main Street in Franklin a little and get some iced coffees. Roughing it!

We got off the shuttle with a bunch of other thru-hikers and headed out. Since we have a reservation on Tuesday in Fontana Dam we are taking it relatively easier by limiting ourselves to 15 miles or less. Most of the day the weather threatened rain and thunderstorms but we lucked out because it never did. The first bald (Silah) we skipped the side trail to the summit because of the threatening clouds…

Side trail to Silah bald summit

The 2nd bald, Wayah, was very cool.  There was a large stone fire tower where we hung out with a bunch of other thru-hikers and took in the awesome views.

We hiked a few more miles for a total of about 12.5 and then made camp in Licklog Gap (lol). We made a campfire with Slingshot, John from Sharon, PA, and a few other cool people. We chatted about serial killers. Good stuff to chat about in the woods!

Vital stats :
Mood – good
Physical state – sore but good
Smell – it’s been much worse
Song stuck in my head – Story of my life by One D (shut up Dave)