We climb to Wayah Bald, and the John B Byrne Memorial Tower on the summit (5,342'). John Byrne started the Conservation Corp during the depression, built the tower, re-afforested the mountains and then died at the age of 37 from a collapsed lung caused by poison gas in WW1.
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| Digby reads the log book at a shelter |
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| Wayah Bald |
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| John Byrne Memorial Tower |
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| View from tower |
The highlight of the day is arriving at Burningtown Gap to discover a 'soiree' as Jamie had described it, and warned us of what to expect. As we come down the mountain we see tents and cars.
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| Burning Gap - Trail Magic - Incoming hiker |
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| Hiker drinking beer from portable cup |
Someone spots us and calls 'incoming'. As we arrive we are greeted - "What would you like? a burger? with cheese? a hot dog? If you have a cup there is a barrel of beer. Cakes are in the icebox over there, help yourself. So we stayed for an hour and gorged ourselves.
Turtle is here - the hikers putting on this trail magic are old friends of hers. After an hour Digby wants to leave and get moving with more miles under our belt before dark. I would have been quite happy to stay and while away the afternoon, and camp there for the night. Many hikers did this - we hear later there is a sea of tents.
We press on and leave the food and company behind. We hike down the ridge to Tellico Gap, where there is no campsite but we camp in a sheltered spot in the car park, by the road. Around midnight a truck drives up, leaves the engine running. We lie in the tent wondering if we are going to be shot in our sleeping bags. He finally turns the engine off and we hear 'bear bells', tinkling bells that dogs wear to frighten or warn bears.
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| Campsite at Tellico Gap |
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