Day 15

Sorry these are out of order. Please read in day order not posting order. I promise I'll fix them when I get to a computer. Thurs. Sept 11 Roan High Top Shelter to Wilderness Shelter 25 miles Weather: can't complain too much I'll start from the beginning. I had just fallen asleep last night when I hear all kinds of noise. I crawl downstairs in my boxers to see people lugging tons of stuff inside. I make sure they're okay then head back up to lay back down. There was one older man and three teenagers. I knew that since this shelter was only a few hundred yards from a road, this was bound to happen. They had several large coolers, huge battery powered lanterns, and gigantic trash bags each with a comforter. The girl won't stop about being cold. Then bags being torn open. They seem to settle down and I hope for sleep. Then the beer cans start opening. To get the party going further they start smoking inside. Realize that I am in the attic and am basically sitting in a cloud of alternating tobacco and marijuana smoke. Their party goes on pretty much all night. I was miserable. I woke up at 6:45 and grabbed my gear. Wanting to get going quickly, I skipped cooking breakfast. It had thunderstormed all night and continued to drizzle on me for the first hour. Being up on Roan Mountain, I was of course in the clouds. I started up the other side of Carvers Gap and was just being swallowed by the clouds. For the next 10 miles I was on these huge balds on top of the mountain. That picture of me is from Janes Bald. Imagine beautiful mountains behind me like the picture in the book. So for hours I hiked without being able to see 50ft in front on me. The grass was very wet so of course three hours into it my boots and socks were soaked. To keep the balds bald, the forest service keeps live stalk up on top of this ridge. The goats were pretty cool. At this point I was anxious. I should have been traveling faster but the wet boots slowed me down. I got to the first shelter where I planned to stop and get water. There were two guys there, so we got to talking. I checked my water and still had some left so I decided to just move on and get water at the next shelter only a couple miles away. I was out of water just before reaching that turn off. My book told me water available at spring on path to shelter. What it meant to say was on your left, you will see a dried up spring. I end up walking down the mountain before I could find the water source. The Overmountain Shelter was a converted barn which had plenty of space and two stories. In the register everyone claimed gorgeous views. All I could see was cloud. It was noon by the time I got back to the top and I had only gone 6 miles. At this point I started to climb. On top of Hump Mountain, I literally walk up to the biggest bull horns I had ever seen. I was about 10ft away before I could see the cattle who all jumped up to their feet at that same moment. There were 5 pairs of the huge longhorns glaring at me. I was frozen, I didn't really know what movement or sound would sent them charging at me or leaving me alone. I walked a wide circle around them and they just turned and watched me go. Coming down from there was much faster, but killed my knees. Halfway down I stopped at Doll Flats just as the clouds were clearing up. If I was going to take a longer break, I was going to change my socks. I decided that my boots would still be too wet. I sat down and ended up taking a long break and never motivated myself to get up and change my socks. I was extremely upset with myself. I got up from my rock threw on my pack and went straight on a nice relatively flat trail. I passed a camp site and it started heading down. And it keeps going down. Then I realized that I hadn't seen a white blaze in a while. Evidently that rock I was resting on had the double white blaze indicating a sharp turn. Frustrated doesn't even begin to describe my mood. I had hiked several extra miles, wasted hours of time, and it was getting too late. By the time I was ready to leave Apple House Shelter, it was 5pm. I had hiked all day, 16 miles, and had 9 to go to get back on schedule. I should have just stayed. I called to get a pep-talk to motivate me to keep going, but that failed. But I left. After running across the speeding traffic of 19, I climbed straight up this beautiful valley. It hurt bad, but from the top it was perfect. Blue skies on the left, clouds hovering over the mountains I had just come down on the right, all above this lush deep valley. After spending a few second appreciating what I had just climbed, I started freaking out because I lost the trail. So I had to climb back down to realize that the double white blaze was on the rock where I collapsed half way up. My long day was not the one I should have been screwing up. I continue hiking and came across several of the best views I've had all trip. The sun was setting and everything had an orange glow. I walked up a road a little ways to fill up with water from a church spicket so that I wouldn't have to spent time filtering from a stream. I dawned my headlamp and kept hiking. The Elk River was badly flooding, but fortunately the trail stayed a few feet above. I was dead, hiking through the dark, my headlamp needing new batteries, to a shelter that according to my map, didn't exist. I finally show up to meet Brant just before he went to sleep. This is by far the best shelter I've seen. It's brand new and has three stories of bunks. I'm laying here squirming because my knees are hurting so bad. Hopefully, they'll be better by the morning. In all, no sleep lead to many rookie mistakes but still had a beautiful evening. I definitely want to do some more hiking at Roan Mtn, but only on a very clear day. High: completed my first marathon Low: messing up so often