Ice forest!

Thursday, April 04, 2013
 Destination: Wesser Bald Shelter
Starting Location: Wayah Bald Shelter
Today's Miles: 10.60 Trip Miles: 119.62

 

Edit: For a video view of this day go to

 http://www.deadlyquests.com/201

where Eric has some footage of the ice forest.
I hiked by the tent site between 10 and 11am.
Talked to some inside the one of the tents and
 I remember them mentioning Mountain Man.




Didn't get away til just before 10:00 but was able to do 10.6 miles in freezing rain with iced limbs falling around me every where! A number of them sound too close and made me scramble.  Highlighter was following about a hundred feet or so behind me when I heard the loud cracking sound of a large limb breaking and falling.  It sounded like it was maybe 50 feet or so behind me.  Highlighter said it sounded like it was just in front of him.  Neither of us were able to see it.  We came to what looked like the oldest shelter on the trail.  I was very small and already crowed at noon.  We stopped to have some lunch and Highlighter decide he was through for the day and would wait for a spot to open up as some of the people were just taking a break from the freezing rain for a while.  I decided to keeping going since I was feeling good and keeping warm and dry even in this weather.

Near the Wesser Bald Tower the trail was poorly marked and I turned toward the tower and continued past down what looked like a trail but the further I went, the less it looked so.  I descended about half a mile without seeing a white blaze and decided that it was an old access road for the tower that had not been used for decades.  Turn around and hike back up the mountain with chunks of ice and limbs coming down all around me.  Add one more mile to my credit of miles hiked!  The temperature hovered around 32* all day and my new jacket seems to be working just fine in that range!

I stopped just short of the shelter to get the water I would need for the night and next morning.  The shelter was full and I had to sleep on the edge at everyone's feet. No problem with that, just had to climb into my sleeping bag early because I was starting to chill. Warmed up quickly and was nice and comfortable and dry!



 "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien