Mountains & Memories

5/3

• Miles traveled: 15
• Shelter: tent at Hughes Gap, mile 372, before Roan Mountain

So, during the last post I decided that I wasn't going to consistently offer a high/low point of my day anymore. I found myself looking for a low point in good days (boo 👎🏼) and a good point on bad days (which is probably a good idea and why I will continue it sometimes).
Anyways. Our day started with sunshine! We hiked about 5 miles before we got into a van with a stranger.

Robert Bird retired and moved from the north east to eastern TN. He has done a lot of hiking in his past know what hikers need. A COUCH! He outfitted his van with a very comfy couch and lots of trail magic. Ziploc and I had a seat, a snack and some great conversation with Robert. It was a nice break.
We hiked and sweated up the next mountain. The temperature has been rising lately. We found the next view.

We crossed one more view after a long day of hard work and we tucked in for the night just short of Roan Mountain.

5/4

• Miles hiked: 12
• Shelter: tent under Overmountain Shelter at mile 384
• High point: hugging my parents 
• Low point: the horrific weather

The day started out cloudy. We packed up and headed up Roan Mountain (as I knew it as a kid 😊). It was so windy. We passed Roan High Knob Shelter, the highest Shelter on the AT and continued towards Carvers Gap. The hike was filled with evergreens, short and tall, and when the wind blew it smelled like Christmas. 🌲🌲🌲

We made it up the mountain to an old hotel site. The Cloudland Hotel from the the 1900's. It's just a leveled space now but can you imagine it in its prime?

We passed by some other structure remains on the mountain and headed down to Carvers Gap to meet my parents.

It was awesome to see my parents. They met us at the gap and drove us into Bakersville, NC for some food at Mammies Kitchen. Mammies had everything you could ever want to eat. We settled on the special and a few double bacon cheeseburgers. It was delicious and we headed to Dollar General for the resupply. Yes of course my parents were a little concerned at the amount of junk food and the lack of fruits & veggies we were taking with us. Hikers need their calories and need them in lightest form possible. SALTY SNACKS. We then took a detour by our old mountain house in Bakersville and were calling out the familiar sights along the way. It was like an old trip down memory lane.
We celebrated my birthday with cupcakes and unfortunately we were so caught up in the day we didn't take a photo but we will next time! I won't miss it. It really lifted our spirits to see them and we really needed it because we had no idea what we were headed into.
They dropped us off and we said our goodbyes at the Gap. We headed towards Round Bald and Jane Bald. We faced the 60-80mph winds and rain across the bald as we hiked towards the shelter. We hiked over 6 miles in the rain towards Overmountain Shelter.
Once we arrived at the old tobacco barn turned AT shelter, we learned that over 30 people were in the top level and there was no room at the inn. We didn't know what to do. The weather was supposed to get worse so we improvised.
We set our tent up under the stairs to the upper level of the barn. We had no other choice. The wind would have destroyed our tent outside the shelter of the barn and we would have been homeless.
We set up and hunkered down. The storms died down about 2am and we finally got a little bit of rest (on a 30° slope 🙄). The next morning, we decided it was the worst night on the trail so far.
(photo from the following morning, you can almost see our tent set up in the breezeway)