Franklin to the NOC

Before we get into the details of each day since the last blog, you’re probably wondering what NOC is. First time I heard it I was wondering as well. NOC stands for Nantahala Outdoors Center. The trail passes right through their complex. It turns out this is one of the largest white water rafting and kayaking training centers in the country. Many of our Olympic athletes that participate in those events train here.

Day 13 – Deep Gap to Carter Gap Shelter: mile 85 to mile 93.5

We were fed a wonderful breakfast at the Barn A.T. Hostel by Scott and his wife Shawn. After breakfast Scott took us back to the trail head. Unfortunately the road was still closed and we had to walk 5 miles to get back to the trail to resume the hike.

There were lots of small streams along the side of the road as we walked back to Deep Gap. With the snow and some ice still around the scenery was beautiful in the early morning sun. Once we got back to Deep Gap the hike along the Appalachian Trail was not that difficult until we got close to the our stop at Carter Gap Shelter. The three days off from hiking has taken its toll and our legs were very tired. Hopefully our trail legs that we had gained return quickly.

Day 14 – Carter Gap Shelter to Rock Gap Shelter: mile 93.5 to mile 105.6

We got an early start and worked our way toward mile 100. The climb up to the top of Albert Mountain was brutal. At the top of the mountain is a fire tower and painted on the side of the tower is AT 100 mile mark. It turns out that the tower is actually at mile 99.7 and a few tenths further down the trail people have arranged sticks into the number 100 to mark the actual milestone.

After leaving the mountain top, the going was much easier. My legs were pretty spent after the climb up so I was pretty slow, even with the easier terrain. Amy seemed to be doing much better, often getting 100 yards or more ahead of me.

We decided to stay in a shelter for the first time that night. It was supposed to start raining during the night, so this would keep the tent dry, at least until the next rain. The shelter was not one of the better ones on the trail. The ceiling was low in the floor sloped towards the back of the shelter. Luckily it was just Amy and me along with one other thru hiker. As the evening progressed, a group of boy scouts showed up and set up a bunch of tents on the uneven ground around the shelter. One of the scoutmasters decided to join us in the shelter making the total in the shelter just four adults.  

We heard there was trail magic at the parking lot just 0.1 miles further down the trail. We walked down to check it out and had a corndog and some fries. The family providing the trail magic said they would be there in the morning for breakfast at 8:00 AM. It turns out this family had completed a thru

hike in 2018. The youngest in the family at that time was two years old. The father carried him most of the way until they realized the older two children could relieve him every now and then. When they reached Baxter State Park and were to summit Mount Katahdin, they learned that there was an age limit and no one under the age of six was allowed up. They were able to hike within 2 miles of the peak and the family as a whole decided if the young boy couldn’t go to the top none of them would. So they hiked the entire Appalachian Trail except for the last 2 miles. Their adventures can be read in a book titled “2000 miles together: The Story of the Largest Family to Hike the Appalachian Trail“.

Day 15 – Rock Gap Shelter to Wayah Shelter: mile 105.6 to 120.4

Weatherman was right and it began raining around 3 am. We got up around 6:30 am and it was still raining hard. At least our tent was dry and packed away. We walked down to the parking lot just before eight and waited for some breakfast. We had some blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit. The rain was supposed to let up later in the morning and we were already soaked so we decided to press on.

It did stop raining in the late morning but continue to be overcast and occasionally drizzly. The ground was muddy and we were pretty wet and messy by the time we made it to Wayah Shelter. We decided to spend a second night in the shelter instead of setting up the tent in the wet conditions. This shelter was much better with an easier access to the privy. We were looking forward to the morning and a day of sunshine as promised by the forecast.

Day 16 – Wayah Shelter to Wesser Bald Shelter: mile 120.4 to mile 131.0

Finally, the return of excellent hiking conditions. The sky cleared and the sun shone for a significant portion of our hike.  We had decided to slow down a bit and hike just under 11 miles to a shelter instead of trying to get to the NOC over 16 mikes away. Tomorrow will be a nero as we will spend the night at the NOC. 

Knowing we weren’t going too many miles, we decided to take a blue blaze 0.1 miles to Rocky Bald for lunch with a view. It was worth it!  The view was fabulous and the sun was warm. I setup my iPhone to shoot a timelapse while we ate lunch. We also made lodging arrangements for the next day at the NOC.

2 miles from our lunch stop we entered Tellico Gap and came upon trail magic.  We stopped for a hot dog, chips, soda, and snack mixes.  While we were there, hikers we met on our first couple days came by. It was nice catching up. Turns out they are staying at the same shelter tonight. 

We hiked out of Tellico Gap and as always the terrain following a gap is difficult. We now believe the word gap is short for bottom a very big hill. Just before reaching the shelter, we stopped to fill our water bottles and finished the hike to the shelter. One of the hikers we met on our very first day has a YouTube channel called tent talks where she interviews fellow hikers for 90 seconds and puts their stories out there. Amy and I did the interview with her. Not sure when will show up on YouTube.

None of the tent pads at the shelter were very appealing. They were either full of roots or tipped at an angle unfit for a tent, or more likely, both. We found the best one we could that was still available but we still spent the night sliding towards the bottom corner of the tent. Not the best nights sleep.

Day 17 – Wesser Bald Shelter to NOC BaseCamp: mile 131 to mile 136.7

Had a beautiful sunrise this morning as we prepared for our short hike to the NOC. Most of the hike was down hill and we had some gorgeous views along the way. We made it into the NOC around 11:00 am but had to wait until after 2:00 pm to get our bunk room. 

We did get our permits for the Smokies and got them printed at the outfitter. These are special backcountry permits for through hikers. They cost $20 per person and have a time limit on them. This is the only place on the entire Appalachian Trail where it cost money to hike and camp on the trail.

We then went to the nearby restaurant for lunch. We both had a burger and fries and I had a delicious IPA to go with mine. It started raining while we had lunch and continued through the early afternoon.

We finally got our room key shortly after 2:00 pm. The walk to our room was close to a quarter of a mile uphill and the laundry facilities that we needed to use were back near where we got the key. Amy was not happy. The room is a no thrills bunk room with just the bunk, no linen and a bench. The restrooms and showers are in another building nearby. We showered to get out of our dirty clothes and Amy want to do the laundry while I stayed here to work on the blog.

Appalachian Trail Info

The Appalachian Trail, or AT for short, is a 2194.3 mile trail from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is marked with 2”x6” white blazes on trees or rocks. Occasionally you will see two blazes stacked on top of each other. This means there is a change coming and you need to be aware. I’ve always known this but I didn’t know that there were three kinds of double blazes. If the top blaze is offset from the bottom, then the trail will be turning in the direction the top blaze is offset, otherwise the trail continues straight. Straight is used to avoid confusion at intersections with other trails or at campsites or roads.

Data

Stats as in our previous posts. Note that miles are strictly AT miles. The * on line one does not include 5 miles of hiking to get back to the trail. Ascent and Descent are as reported by my Garmin Fenix 6 during the hike activity. Steps are from my iPhone. The Garmin does not record steps accurately while using hiking poles (I think it takes more than 5000 steps to hike 12+ miles).

day	miles	total asc	total desc	steps
13	8.5*	2782	1736	37928
14	12.1	2043	2752	35004
15	14.8	3779	2929	42076
16	10.6	2388	2877	32123
17	5.7	459	2854	22087