Mar 17

DAY #15
START LOCATION: Winding Stair Gap/Franklin, NC
FINISH LOCATION: Wayah Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 11.0
TRIP MILEAGE: 118.7
MILES TO GO: 2,060.4

Yesterday, Scruffy had considered a taking a zero day in Franklin for
today. So I was glad to see him ready to go at 830 this morning. He's
good company. Shuttle van had us to the trail by 9:00 AM under
overcast skies. Sofa King, Hollywood, Scruffy and I generally rolled
together most of the day. The morning started off great... Cool,
crisp, easy terrain. Sofa, Scruffy & I had a great lunch at a picnic
area and we were singing the day's praises.

But damn did we get our butts kicked in the afternoon. Snow drifts
18" deep, icy potholes and a nasty climb to get up Wayah Bald. Biggest
bummer of all... We reach the 5,260' Wayah Summit observation tower,
just to be socked in with fog. There were nice pictures there of the
view so Scruff and I were left to imagine how nice the view was.
Shelter could not come fast enough. Unfortunately it was full with
spring breakers... So Scruffy, Hollywood and I tented while Sofa
shoehorned himself in the shelter. One of only 3 female thru hikers
Ive met is here sheltering tonight, Switchback from Maine. She's
moving fast and thankfully cool with us crass and loud males. We are
trying hard to tone it down... Not easy as there's so few ladies out
here.

Had some nice St. Patty's treats at the shelter tonight. Scruffy, born
in The hills of North Carolina grew up eating this processed meat
called "Liver Mush". I'd never heard of it. It's supposedly all the
ground up organs of pig bonded with little cornmeal and pressed into
1lb bricks. He'd seen it at the Ingles grocer yesterday in Franklin
and decided to treat us by panfrying it over a campfire. It was
delicious... It tasted a lot like thanksgiving stuffing. I had mine
with a little cheese I added. He said not to expect to find it outside
west NC as he can't even find it in east Tennessee. Bummer. Then the
spring breakers had whiskey to celebrate... Warmed the soul.

We're hoping tomorrow will be a little less snowy, but we doubt it...
It's just a 10 mile ridgewalk tomorrow, so we are expecting more of
the same... But it's training for the Smokies... Tons of snow up there
still.

-n8dog