Hiking the Good Hike

Day 9
Standing Indian Shelter to Long Branch Shelter - 16.2 miles

Today was a much better day than yesterday. Yesterday I was bummed about the rain and also that we only hiked five miles. We made up for it today. The weather was perfect and the hiking was great. The first several miles were easy walking. We stopped at Carter Gap Shelter(s) (apparently there are two, we only saw one) for lunch and then kept moving. We had some sweet views today including a fire tower on Albert Mountain. Just before Albert Mountain we crossed the 100 mile mark.

We ended our day at Long Branch Shelter which is very new. We tented at one of only two tent sites. There are a few familiar faces in the shelter tonight including Rooster, Chickadee, TrailMovin, all who we have spent several nights with and Tom and Jack from Colorado who we recently met. We had some fun hanging out at the shelter before bed but were ready for bed as the darkness approached. They (hikers) call it "hiker midnight" when it gets dark because that's when we all go to bed. We plan to wake up early and hit Franklin, NC in the morning.


Day 10
Long Branch Shelter to Winding Stair Gap- 7.3 miles

We woke up at 7:00 to get an early start and catch the 11:00 shuttle into town. Nearly everyone in the shelter was up shortly thereafter. It seemed everyone was ready to go to town. We were on the trail by 8:00 but had to move quick to cover over 7 miles in just 3 hours. We never looked back and made it to Winding Stair Gap at 10:20. The thought of having pizza for lunch really had us moving.

When we arrived at the gap we were greeted by some former thru hikers offering beer as trail magic. We talked with them as we waited for our shuttle which arrived closer to 11:30. Our shuttle was provided by the owner of the hotel in which we would stay. He told us all about Franklin and what restaurants/businesses we should visit. He drove us to the hotel where we would spend our night in Franklin. Not the nicest place but nice to have a warm bed and shower. For lunch we ate at Corbin's Country Buffet, great food and very hiker friendly. After lunch we wandered into an really nice outfitter to replace a spork and Cassandra got a 45 minute foot analysis at the mention of having blisters on her toes. We chose to resupply at Dollar General rather than taking the shuttle to a real grocer. After the resupply we went to Vitto's Pizza for dinner with Rooster and Chickadee. Great pizza at reasonable prices and they even drove us to and from the restaurant at no cost. The rest of evening we just relaxed and made some phone calls to catch up with our parents.


Day 11 Winding Stair Gap to Wayah Bald Shelter - 11 miles

We chose to take the 11:00 shuttle back to the trail. There were about 20 hikers on the bus and no faces I recognized. It was overwhelming. We did meet Robbie who had seen our blog and had actually lived in Portsmouth temporarily. Our shuttle driver drove us to the trail head once again telling us where we should resupply and stay in the days to come.

The bus stopped and the hikers dispersed making their way up the mountain. Cassandra, Rooster, and I were the last on the trail and Chickadee stayed behind to meet with her dad who would hike with her a few days. We passed many hikers as we made out way up the trail. Several miles into the day's hike we encountered tail magic. A section hiker known as Fresh Ground was set up serving soup, salad, hot dogs, hot chocolate, and coffee. Such a great surprise. I don't really understand why people spend their time and money to help us so much but it's awesome.

After hanging with Fresh Ground for a while we continued to Wayah Bald. Wayah Bald is the location of the photo (taken last year) at top of our blog. We spent quite some time gazing at the mountains we had crossed and the ones we would soon be crossing. We stated to get cold from sitting too long so we moved on the Wayah Bald Shelter where we would camp.

It was a fun evening at the shelter. Someone had started a fire an we spent some time hanging out around the fire getting to know both old and new trail friends. As the temperature dropped everyone slowly began making their way to the tents/shelters. It was really a great day but most have been so far.



Thanks for reading,
Chris