Saturday, May 28th

Standing Indian Mountain (87.4 mi) to Siler Bald Shelter (113.1 mi)

Hiking Miles: 25.7

Total Ascent: 4,744.4 ft

Total Descent: 5,544.9 ft

Total Grade: 393.5 ft/mi

Steps: 61,402

I ate the last Cliff bar that was in my food bag for breakfast, and quickly realized that I was getting really low on snacks. The view this morning was absolutely breathtaking, not that I expected anything less. The sun rose on the opposite side of the mountain through the trees. Everything was wet due to the dew (condensation), so my “packed-up” tent and cover were heavier than normal.

I unfortunately pulled the string right out of the sleeve on my mattress storage bag, and it was too time consuming to restring it back into place. So I just stuffed it in the sack along with the mattress, and figured I would fix it another time. Our latest goal was making it to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in two days (48 miles), but we waited to make reservations just in case we got slowed by the tough terrain.

We all left the site at 7:00 am, and got a pleasant downhill start. Along the way, we noticed a large group of hikers (at a campsite) who were preparing for the day. We met a woman on trail shortly after who actually was part of that group. She had tripped and fallen when we first saw her, but she was fine. Stevie and I were cruising on the trail because we both needed to use a privy and one was located at the Carter Shelter about 5 miles away. The lady told us that she met two guys (traveling South) who had their food stolen from a bear at the Carter Shelter. They also stated a bear can was tossed around by the same bear.

When we finally arrived, the shelter was set back just a bit from the trail. We looked around to inspect the aftermath of the bear visit, but to us it looked no different than any other site. One just tends to use their imagination (more) knowing that a potentially dangerous animal had passed through during the night. We did our business and left the sight just as K2 and Hiker Bling were approaching (to also use the privy). Stevie told them that we had warmed the seat for them.

We climbed a very steep incline to the top of Albert Mountain and reached a cool milestone for our southern section – 100 miles! Overall for us, that put us at 673.5 miles. It was close to 1 pm at this point and there were a number of people having lunch there and climbing the tower steps that actually had “100 m.” written on it in marker. That was where we captured our celebratory pic and video.

So we grabbed a little lunch, climbed the tower to catch a few spectacular views, then continued on our way.

The day felt long, and we spent time contemplating whether we should stop into the town of Franklin (popular) and stay at a motel and resupply, which I desperately needed, or hike on. I really had a strong craving for McDonald’s food too, and in desperate need of calories. I was literally running out of steam. I had already burnt over 4,000 calories with hardly eating any food today. This was actually the first time Stevie and I struggled (actually I struggled most – Stevie was cool with either option) to decide our best option. As time passed and we got some rest, we agreed to find an appropriate spot to make dinner (we had one package of Pad Thai left) so we could gather some energy and think better. Our most rational option was to finish 5 more miles for the day and stay at the Siler Bald Shelter site, which would land us at 25 miles for the day.

We split the Pad Thai dinner which tasted really good. I video chatted with Teresa and she was having a good Saturday. She panned the phone over at Lakeyn who was stretched out on the couch, and Jackson was sleeping as well. After the call, we got moving again. We had decided not to reserve bunks at the NOC because it did not have linens or towels. 

We reached the Siler Bald blue blaze trail close to 8 pm. Then about two-thirds the way down the 0.5 mile trail, we stopped for water at a source (waterfall like) and I filled our 3L pouch, realizing there may not be more for awhile. Just before reaching the shelter, Stevie was a little ahead of me and stopped because he didn’t hear the sound of my trekking poles clicking. When I caught up, I heard him say “Where are your poles?” With carrying the 3L water pouch, I had left my poles back at the water source. Shaking my head in disbelief, I placed everything down including my pack, and raced back to get them (83 steps there, 98 steps back). Meanwhile, Stevie moved on to reserve a space. There were several campers at the site but only a father and son (Will and Kirk) were staying in the shelter, along with their dog “Rider”. We set up quickly, Stevie had some instant breakfast and I just drank some Gatorade. Soon thereafter, we went to sleep after a pretty exhausting hiking day.