Date: 2004-03-01
From: Cherry Gap Shelter

To: Stan Murray Shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Log entry: 30Start time: 0800End time: 1930Morning weather: cold, foggy, light drizzleAfternoon weather: foggy then cloudy and windyEvening weather: cold, cloudy, and windy, 40 degBreakfast: OCP and CIBLunch: crackers and peanut butterDinner: chicken noodle soupTrail description: Poor Mike. On the whole not too bad of a day but the climbs up Beartown Mt and Roan Mt was a tuffy. Then once we pressed onto Stan Murray the climb out of Carvers gap over Round and Jane Balds were pretty aggressive.People: Mikey, the Solemates, Beatle and Sasha dogWildlife: noneMoney spent: noneBiggest complaint: Frozen or bad water sources, scared that Mikey might die.Thoughts: Beatle gets an early start so we decided to follow his lead and get moving, or at least out of our bags. The climb up Little Bald Knob was good to get our hearts pumping. The walk down the backside was the steepest downhill we have descended. I think without the aid of rock steps, stairs, or switchbacks. This thing went down fast. Before long Mike and I ambled into Clyde Smith Shelter where Beatle was eating lunch. Mike and I went to get water from the spring. You could see the water come up out of the ground; it was cool. Jacob joined us shortly to pump water as well. We all took a good hour lunch and then moved on. Beatle first, then the Solemates, then eventually Mike and I. Mike's biggest complaint was his legs being sore. Too sore to even play basketball if he was at home. The climb up Roan Mountain was a bear. Up there with Shuckstack, rocky mountain (Unicoi gap), and Kelly Knob (Addis gap). It was a long, hard pull. The first part up Beartown Mountain was the worst. After that the grade lessened a bit, but the trail became all ice. So we walked real slow. I think if it hadn't been so icy we would have hurried a lot more and gotten even more tired. Roan Mt is cool but we couldn't enjoy any of the views due to clouds. The downhill was on a very gradual slope and the trail was hardpack snow and easy walking. We climbed up to Roan Mt Shelter which is a super cool cabin. It even has a door. Beatle was inside relaxing on his sleeping pad. Mike and Iimmediately dropped packs and headed for the water source. Good thing we didn't waste anytime... Beatle led the way to the spring and as he looked down at the pipe and pool he said, "uh-oh". Mike and I chirped "what" simultaniously. The water was all solid ice. No hope unless we wanted to melt ice. So we hurried back to the shelter and hurriedly packed up. Only 4.8 to the next shelter and we had about 2 hours ofdaylight. The first 1.7 miles down into carver gap we covered in under 20 minutes. The next stretch over the balds was sweet. We could see storms blowing in and the sun was poking out a little in the western sky. It was windy too but the sky was beautiful. I wish Mike could have enjoyed it. He looked dead tired but kept pushing on. What a trooper. The downhill to the shelter was kinda dangerous. We wanted to move fast but the snow was too soft and you would post hole up past your knee, dangerous.As we approached the shelter Trish was inside and Jacob and Beatle were down getting water. We got our pump and bottles ready and Jacob came up out of the valley just as we turned around and asked "How¢s the water?". "You might as well pump it out of that puddle and I am not kidding." The front of the shelter was muddy and most was standing water. I brought my cooking pot with me and Mike and I headed towards the spring. Jacob was right, very little flow and one small pool filled with leaves. So I filled my cookpot with as clean of water as possible and filtered out of that. The filter (Pur Hiker) was ready for replacement anyways and we plugged it up about 4 times. After each quart we had to take it apart and knock or pick as much gunk out as possible. By 2030, 50 minutes later we had enough water for dinner, breakfast, and enough to get to the first source in the morning. By the time Mike and I got back to the shelter everyone was done eating and cleaning up. Mike ate a quick meal and crawled in his bag. My chicken noodle soup is pretty involved to make so by the time I had eaten and cleaned up all the headlamps had been off for almost an hour. What I could have easily done is eat a lunch instead and been in bed in 20 minutes from dropping pack. But that would be, to me at least, like conceding to the mountain. I am too much a proud and stubborn German to ever wave flag to a pile of dirt.