Day: 010
Date: Thursday, 04 May 2023
Start: Near Burningtown Gap (AT Mile 123.8)
Finish: Nantahala Outdoor Center (AT Mile 136.9)
Daily Kilometres: 22.0
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 232.7
Weather: Perfect! Sunny all day and cool to mild.
Accommodation: Bunkhouse
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Hamburger
Dinner: Fried chicken & vegetables, chocolate brownie and ice-cream
Aches: Dave - tired with a couple of niggles; Julie - nothing to report
Highlight: The first few hours of hiking were idyllic. Though cool, the sun was casting its first light through the trees and there was no wind, in contrast to the past few days. The views were clear and we could see a very long way from our first lookout, the tower atop Wesser Bald.(4,618’).
Lowlight: Finding that our bunkhouse for tonight involved a stiff little climb up from the Wesser River, a test for the legs who had been told their climbing was done for the day.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were away hiking by soon after 7:00am on a perfect morning (see above). It felt good to be alive and the first climb to Wesser Bald seemed relatively easy. That may have been due to lighter packs (most food eaten), or perhaps the prospect of only 13 miles hiking with junk food and a cold Diet Cokes a reward. Whatever the reason, it was very enjoyable and the few hikers we met all seemed upbeat.
After Wesser Bald began the very long descent to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) on the Wesser River at an altitude of 1.727’, probably the lowest we have been so far on the trail. The descent was memorable, crossing a couple of rocky crags that provided not only excellent views, but some thrills on steep, rocky, cliff edge trail.
Once down the steeper drops, the trail fell more gradually through very green forest. In a way, we were seeing the whole of spring in one day. Up high, the trees barely had their new ll green leaves and the forest floor seemed relativel bare. As we got lower, the leaves were fully grown, the undergrowth verdant, and the wildflowers different. It was quite a transition.
We reached the very different vista of the NOC at 2:30pm. It straddled the fast flowing Wesser River and a main road, with stores, a restaurant, a pub and a plethora of outdoor activities on offer. It was buzzing, with quite a few readily-identifiable AT Thruhikers - looking unwashed, maybe carrying a pack - along with tourists, watersports fans, a canoe slalom course, zip-lines, you-name-it.
I checked in at the store to get the key to our room, but before going there we stopped in at the pub for a late lunch which we ate in the sun overlooking the river. Very pleasant.
The walk to our allotted bunkhouse, advertised on their website as “Stay where the Appalachian Thru-hikers Stay”, incorporated a nasty little hill and was more than a few hundred metres from the centre of the resort. Our bunkhouse (four bunks) is basic and over-priced, but we knew that before we booked.
After showers and laundry, we had an over-priced meal (as also expected) at the restaurant perched on the edge of the river before walking back to our bunkhouse to do some admin, including posting multiple days’ of this blog now that we have decent copnnectivity. There were still lots of thru-hikers hanging around the place and it was hard to work out where they were going to spend the night, but they didn’t seem to want to leave.
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