Visiting an old, dead, friend

RIP to the second oldest yellow poplar.

Left Standing Indian at 5:45 am–after the guy whose friend lives in Franklin had already left. That guy was trying to catch the 11 am shuttle to Franklin by Ron Haven, I guess. I had thought about trying to catch the shuttle to Franklin, mostly because I remember eating at this *awesome* All You Can Eat Southern food buffet in Franklin in 2008. No modern guidebook mentions the buffet, though, so I didn’t think it’d be worth the hassle of going into Franklin for a buffet that may be out of business.

I got to Albert Mtn at 11 am—now Albert Mtn was the type of steep I remember the AT being! The weather was fantastic, so I had to climb the tower and grab a photo. When I hiked in 2008, the weather was crummy, so it was awesome to get the view from up there. I met Winnie and his two buddies on top.

Had to stop in at Big Spring Shelter–the second shelter I stayed at on the AT in 2008.

I took the side trail to see Wasalik Poplar–the 2nd oldest yellow poplar in the world. I realize that taking side trails is kind of against the spirit of a speed hike, but I *really* wanted to see the poplar and have spent the past three years regretting that I didn’t take the side trip in 2008. To make matters worse, the tree was still alive in 2008. I still was pleased to view its grand dead trunk, though, and met a nice family with two kids from Manchester who grabbed my photo with the tree.

Somewhere around 3 pm, I hit Winding Stair Gap into Franklin and realized that my foodbag is filled primarily with coffee. Decided to push on.

I was SO stoked to see Siler Bald. I *love* Southern Balds. Really love them. Love them enough that I wrote my Silviculture forestry management paper on them—and got back the comment: “While I appreciate your enthusiasm, this paper is twice as long as the limit.”

Met No Hurry on the way down from the bald–and he lives in New Haven! (where I used to live!) He’s also getting graduate research credits for hiking the AT….hmm, sounds disturbingly familiar.

IT band started hurting like crazy on the way up from Wayah Gap. I had intended to make Wayah Shelter, but I was in so much pain, that I decided to call it a night and rest it. Very frustrating for all my excitement about hiking to have an injury already…