Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014 - 22

H Nantahala River to Wesser Bald
text and photos by leonard adkins

the hike

this 13.5-mile circuit in western north carolina offers
stunning views at the wesser bald lookout tower.
FaMilY aDVentUre

the appalachian trail Goes
right through it
Go family-friendly rafting with the
Nantahala Outdoor Center (noc.com). The
Nantahala River has eight miles of Class-II
rapids before dropping down the Class-III
Nantahala Falls. The center is a one-stop
adventure destination, with a variety of
accommodations, restaurants, stores, laundry, zip-line adventures. mountain bike,
kayak, duck, and other gear rentals; and
more. Many package deals are available.

The view from the Wesser Bald Lookout Tower is the real payoff for the hike.

the appalachian trail that you
and I walk today is a very different
pathway than the one followed by
hikers in decades past. When Earl
Shaffer, the AT's first thru-hiker,
walked the trail in 1948, the route
went across miles of private property
with the permission of landowners
who lived and farmed on and near the
crest of the mountains.
In addition, multiple miles followed
roads, sometimes for expediency and
sometimes because landowner permission could not be obtained. By the
time I did my first thru-hike in the early
1980s, the trail had been rerouted
onto scores of miles of road because
many of those families had left the
mountains and much of the property
had been closed to the pathway.
Thankfully, the Appalachian Trail
22 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

Act, signed by President Jimmy Carter
in 1978, allocated federal money to
purchase land to protect the trail and,
I'm happy to say, today less than three
miles of its entire length remain to be
protected.
Many beautiful places were
brought into the purview of the AT as
the result of these protected-land relocations, but, in some ways, it changed
the character of the trail forever. This
moderately strenuous circuit hike provides several examples of what has
been gained. And what has been lost.
The first example becomes obvious
almost as soon as you start walking
eastward from the Nantahala Outdoor
Center along U.S. 19. Although the
scenery can be pretty as the roadway
goes along the Nantahala River, traffic
can be heavy at times and the shoulder

in some places is narrow, so it may not
always be the safest and most enjoyable of places to walk. Thanks to relocations, hikers no longer have to walk
such segments of the trail very often.
Turn right onto Wesser Creek road
in .9 mile, and the journey provides a
glimpse of the more pleasant aspects
of road walking. It was portions of the
trail such as this that enabled hikers to
experience the rural and bucolic
aspects of the eastern United States,
passing by mowed fields interspersed
with homes. Inhabitants along the way
became acquainted with hikers, often
striking up conversations and inviting
the footsore and hungry travelers
home for dinner, a shower and a soft
bed.
The journey changes again at 3.5
miles when the road comes to an end
and the ascent along Wesser Creek
Trail begins. Because, in part, property
owners were more willing to sell their
lands located on ridgetops, streamside
walks along the AT are rarer than they
were in the past. Passing through a
forest of poplars and rhododendron
tunnels populated by trilliums, anemones, violets and mayflowers, the
Wesser Creek Trail begins at a moderate grade. A variety of trilliums grow in
the Southern Appalachians, but you're

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Blue Ridge Country - September/October 2014

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