Day 4 - AT - Bartram Loop

26 Oct Day 4 – AT – Bartram Loop

Posted at 20:07h in Bartram Trail, Hiking, Southeast by mmbowden60 0 Comments

Trailside Camp to Winding Stair Gap Road parking on Hwy 19 / 129 – 8 miles

It was a short day. I was back to my car by noon. It had rained some during the night, but it was not blowing so I left one side of my tarp open and stayed dry. This lean-to tarp arrangement is comfortable and makes it easy to move around and cook and just open up to the outdoors.

It was so muggy again that it made it hard to sleep with the down bag. I used my goretex rain jacket to cover my chest and down bag to cover my feet and legs. That seemed to keep me warm without feeling all sticky and hot.

Light rain came and went during the morning. At one point shortly after crossing the high point on Rattlesnake Knob, I walked under large white pines on a bed of dry needles. Such a nice feeling on the feet. The boughs of the pines overhead were thick enough to block out the rain.

The trail in this section was excellent. Unlike the descent to Nantahala Lake, there were nice short switchbacks down the last descent leading to the Duke Power Plant road. I am sometimes asked to compare these trails to those in the west. Just having hiked Alpine Lakes Wilderness on the PCT, it was easy to see how much shorter and steeper are the switchbacks in the Appalacians. I guess that is because they descend narrower ridges. After reaching the road, the yellow blazes nearly disappeared causing me some second guessing and backtracking.

Very tall water tank where the trail enters and begins following gravel power plant road. This point is well up the mountain. There is a 2nd short and squat water tank near the bottom of the road that signals to start looking for turnoff to left where trail passes through tall weeds.