2 JUL 14
Roan Mountain trip: Day 4
Bradley Gap-US 19E/Roan Mountain, TN
Miles today: 6.3

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.

-Henry David Thoreau

Last night about 0100 a fly was stuck between the tent and my rain fly. That bastard buzzed so much it woke me up. I spent the next 10 minutes torturing him by flicking him through the no see um netting every time he landed. If I have to deal with him he’s gonna have to deal with me. I think he eventually died from blunt force trauma due to getting thumped by my finger. There was a strange flashing light outside my tent. Didn’t seem to be a firefly, because it would faintly blink or flash 4 or 5 times, then move around to another side of the tent. See, this is the shit I don’t like. Scary forest mystery creature crap. If someone is being funny, ha ha I have a joke for you if you keep it up, but I didn’t HEAR anything. My eyes must be fooling me. Just bury your head back in your stanky sleeping bag and go back to sleep.

Nothing got in my food or trash bag hanging from the tree last night. Now it was time to tackle Hump Mountain (mile 386.9; elev 5587). Again, the trail was very narrow which made for another “sobriety test” walk. This part of the trail is often photographed as well- it has a very distinct, treeless area cutting a wide swath up the mountainside. It was steep enough, and soon my left big toe started disagreeing with the inner edge of my insole. The guide said Hump has a few false summits as well, so when I had reached the summit it was a minute before I actually realized it. Saw a snake for the first time; he was a baby maybe 5 inches long and brown. He slithered in the grass before I got my camera out. Well, I did make good time coming up- took me 56 minutes. Cool.

Looking back, I don’t remember which climb was tougher, summiting Roan Mountain or summiting Hump Mountain. I went up Roan in the afternoon, so my legs weren’t fresh, but I did Hump on the last day of the trip, which is a negative too. The trail up Roan was also obviously reouted to create numerous switchbacks- several times I crossed over what was the old path going straight up. Rain was what made my ascent up Roan miserable, but in hindsight I think Hump was tougher because the trail took a more direct path to the summit.

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1 JUL 14
Roan Mountain trip: Day 3
Roan High Knob Shelter-Bradley Gap
Miles today: 10

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.

-John Burroughs

0615- Roan High Knob shelter (mi 376; elev 6275′)

Geez the people upstairs would not stop talking last night. Oh well, the sun is up, somewhere in the world at least. I mean it’s obviously daylight outside, but I can’t see the sun because there is a cloud enveloping us. I keep forgetting that up at 6000 feet we are up at cloud altitude. My socks and shoes are wet. Still. Not again, but still, as in continually wet since I arrived at Greasy Creek Gap. I changed my shirt but figured I’d rather have one clean dry pair of pants & socks for tomorrow so I kept the nasty ones on for another day. They’ll get dry once I start walking anyway, providing there’s no more precipitation. Sometime during the night, a mouse decided to leave a little calling card on top of a baby wipe I forgot outside my tent. Nice.

Even though the guide shows water at Carver’s Gap, I topped off anyway. Started down the side trail, then hit the AT northbound. Needless to say, it was full of rocks. Not rocky, but composed entirely of rock. The baseball sized ones that roll all over the place and dare you to keep your footing. I know they were there for erosion control, but with the heavy rains the last few days not only were they slippery, they were loose as well. This made for a very slow and methodical descent down. I came upon two gentlemen who stopped to say hi. (This chance meeting will be of minor significance later). I asked how the trail was down to the gap, and they said “same as this”. Crap. 2 miles of this? So much for making up any kind of time, walking at a quick pace willy-nilly is an invitation to a nice sprain.

The scenery down was beautiful, but couldn’t take my mind off of the ankle snappers. During my laughable game of hopscotch, I set my right foot down on a rock, which immediately flipped over, turning my foot painfully inward to the left, Ow! That hurt. It’s not the typical ankle rolling you’d think- the bottom of my foot didn’t go inward, it went outward. That hurt pretty bad, but I kept going. “Just pay attention” I muttered to myself. 15 minutes later the same thing happened to the same ankle. Arrgh! I yelled out loud this time. Stupid ass rocks! Sigh. Keep going. Guess what happened AGAIN just a few moments later? Ok, now I’m injuring myself. Putting pressure on my right foot is starting to hurt all the time now. I’m about to sprain my damn ankle coming down this mountain. I’m hobbling on the tiptoes of my right foot using my trekking poles as crutches. What a circus act.

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30 JUN 14
Roan Mountain trip: Day 2
Clyde Smith Shelter-Roan High Knob Shelter
Miles today: 7.9

Storms have come!
Rains wash the earth away
Dark skies fall down
Into another day.

-Enya “Storms In Africa”

Woke up at 0555. The clouds finally ran out of water, at least for now. Everything I own is damp. Tried to dry my socks, but with the condensation from inside my tent that was an exercise in futility. The bottom of my sleeping bag somehow got wet as well. My shoes were just as wet as they were when I’d taken them off yesterday. My insoles were moist. Thank God I brought my Crocs- I couldn’t imagine having to keep these wet shoes on for a minute longer than I have to.

S L O W L Y started packing up and getting ready to go. Guess what’s worse than putting on wet shoes? Putting on wet socks, then putting on wet shoes. Hmmm, should I stay on the trail or should I go dry out for a day. Dry shoes and dry clothes sound good. I’m a wimp.

Trudged down the hill to fetch some water, made some coffee, and after gulping down my mandatory handful of morning pills,  halfheartedly donned my pack, bid farewell to my shelter mates and set off for Hughes Gap at 0800. It was a steep climb back up to the AT. Here goes nothing. On the way, since I was the first person on the trail for the day apparently, my face was assaulted every 50 feet by spider webs. There are few feelings in the world as gross as getting a faceful of web. At Little Rock Knob (mi 369, elev 4918′) I stopped for a breakfast of peanut butter crackers and was treated to a view of a valley. The walk up was through a good number of rocky rhododendron tunnels. Clouds overhead were trying to break, and I saw a sliver of blue sky (yes!), but the lower clouds were still scuttling by, quickly obscuring the view.

Valley from Little Rock Knob

Checked my voicemail, and yes, I had left my keys in the car. Shannon said to not panic, they’ll hang on to them for me. Good call on telling me not to panic, because I was already tallying up how much it would cost to not only get a locksmith to get me in my truck, but the probable necessary overnight stay as well. My phone call to the B&B went unanswered after 9 rings. Not wanting to dawdle, I set out for my next waypoint. The walk down to Hughes Gap wasn’t bad, all things considered. Took a 15 minute break down by the road at 10:00 to readjust my pack. I was 6 miles between water points with an uphill climb to Ash Gap, but I could top off there before the looming ass-kicker up Roan Mountain. My legs were tiring, but not as bad as they were after my trip to McAfee Knob back in March.

On the way up from Hughes Gap, I noticed 4 dead mice strewn along the middle of the trail about 20 feet apart. That was strange. What made it stranger was the fact that they were all missing their…heads. What kind of animal has a blood lust for mouse heads? Zombie owls, that’s what. Fear the undead…

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