March 27th:
I woke to a light drizzle and made a quick breakfast of fruit, hot
oatmeal, and cocoa. No one was up and moving at the campground;
everyone was tucked into their heated RV’s. But I was on the road by 8
a.m. The drive to Carver’s Gap was only about 15 minutes from the
campground.
As
you can see from the photo above, there were plenty of parking spots
available. In fact, I didn’t see anyone actually hiking for about the
first three hours. Hiking conditions were not ideal. The climb out of
the gap was about 700 vertical feet of icy switchbacks. The reward was a
view of the cloud that covered the top of the mountain.
The Roan Highlands are known for grassy mountain tops (balds) and
grassy ridges. In most of the southern Appalachians, mountain tops tend
to be heavily wooded and without views. In the northern Appalachians,
tree line can be as low as 4000 feet with views for forever from rocky,
bare mountaintops. Although it appears from my photos that there is
just a heavy stationary cloud, the winds were actually blowing about 40
mph, so the clouds were in rapid motion. Down at Carver’s Gap, the
thermometer indicated about 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Up on top, it felt
like the low 20’s with colder wind chill. I was dressed with long
underwear (top and bottom), two sets of socks, t-shirt, heavy fleece
sweater, rain jacket, and knit cap. There was a light drizzle at the
gap and a stinging sleet on top.
I passed Round Bald and Jane Bald before descending back into the
woods. I passed an abandoned Coleman tent that was apparently not quite
up to the conditions.
At just over 3 miles, I was excited to see my first trail shelter in
over 20 years. My excitement diminished when I got up close and saw
that someone had taken over the entire shelter by putting up their tent
in the shelter. I had planned to sign the trail register, but whoever
was in the shelter was still inside the tent with the trail register at
10 a.m. Some things don’t change. On my thru hike, I was always first
up in the shelter and on the trail. I was typically finished by 2 or 3
pm after a 15-20 mile day. Many of the twenty somethings hiked the
same distance but didn’t get started until late morning (or later) and
didn’t get to the shelter until after dark.
I
continued hiking on. The trail traveled back and forth from winter to
spring and back again, depending on where I was on the mountain. I also
passed a marker for Yellow Mountain Gap where a group of mountain men
traveled in 1780 to defeat the British soldiers during the Revolutionary
War. Finally, I reached my second shelter, Overland Shelter, and
signed the trail register: “Quid Pro Quo Returns” GA>ME ’96.
Translation: my thru-hiker nickname was Quid Pro Quo, and I hiked
northbound from Georgia to Maine in 1996.
The Overland Shelter is a converted barn and has sleeping quarters on
two floors. A lone section hiker in his 20’s was present when I
arrived. He told me that he had been section hiking the Appalachian
Trail for about eight years.
After eating my lunch of trail mix and water, I said goodbye and
started on the return trip to Carver’s Gap. The folks tenting in the
first shelter had woken up and were having breakfast (at noon). I waved
hello/goodbye and headed back up into the balds. The view had
improved.
As
I crossed the balds and down the mountain (southbound), I did run into
several thru-hikers who were northbound. I could tell they instantly
dismissed me as a day hiker who was not one of them. And they were
right. My time as a thru-hiker has passed. It still felt wonderful to
be “back on the trail.” My hike finished up at 13 miles for the day.
My feet were sore, and I was ready for a beer.
I drove to the
Station,
which is a newish hiker taproom/hostel on Hwy 19e just east of Roan
Moiuntain, TN . The bartender, who was nicknamed “Crazy”, gave me a
couple of samples of Tennessee IPA’s. I selected the Scatterbrain IPA
by Bearded Iris Brewing of Nashville. “Crazy” called it one of the top
three IPA’s in the country. I agree that it was a great IPA and drank
two of them. We shared some hiking stories and I arranged to use their
parking services for the next day’s hike.
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