Date: 2014-04-14
From: Roan Mountain, TN

To: Vango Memorial Hostel
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: moderate rain

Day 33- April 14 Roan Mountain, TN to Mile 404.4, Vango Memorial Hostel. 12.6 milesWe had a good night's sleep in our room at the hostel last night. We opened the window a tiny bit and could hear the creek flowing by all night. The forecast has been for rain and thunderstorms to move into our area today and tonight so we were happy to start our hike under dry but cloudy skies. Our luck continued all day as we arrived at this hostel with dry boots. We chose this hostel because of the stormy weather that has been predicted, but so far (4 PM), nothing. Of course we had to climb uphill out of Roan Mountain, with our packs full of 5 days of food. After that initial climb the ups and downs were more moderate. We hiked by 2 spectacular waterfalls today which made the day unique. Jones Falls was a tenth of a mile off the trail but very worth the extra distance. It was a couple of hundred feet high with a nice amount of water flowing. Mountaineer Falls seemed slightly smaller, but still impressive. We stopped for lunch at the Mountaineer Falls Shelter and met a SOBO section hiker who was trying to decide where he wanted to be when the bad weather hit. We encouraged him to consider the Mountain Harbour hostel. A short stretch of the trail today paralleled the Elk River, which Jim thought looked like a good place to fish. We have not hiked along too many rivers so this was a nice treat. The hostel we are at tonight is a memorial to a gentleman who was a true friend to the hiking community. He left this piece of land and money to build the hostel and made provisions for a man named Scott to run the place. The first floor of this house is a bunk room with beds for 6 hikers. The second floor, where we are, is a private room with a queen-sized bed, a TV and a computer! But no bathroom! There are two outhouses on the property that are shared by all hikers. So far we are the only ones here, but that may change as the evening wears on. Tomorrow the rain is supposed to stop but some unseasonably cold temps will move in for 24 hours. So we'll probably be hiking in the rain in the AM, which we haven't done for a long time. Today we passed the 400 mile mark! Yippee! We weren't really sure where the exact mark was but we stopped just before a footbridge over a stream figuring that was close. We started to clear the leaves off the trail to scratch the number 400 into the dirt when I noticed that someone else had marked the spot by using small sticks to make the number 400! That was perfect- we got our photo of our boots and 400 to document our progress!I called Leki, the manufacturers of my hiking sticks and made arrangements for them to send me replacement sections for the parts that broke on my stick yesterday. They will send the parts to an outfitter store in Damascus, VA, where we will be on Friday. That is great customer service! Because we have a TV in our room, I was able to watch The Ellen Show this afternoon-what a treat. Maybe we'll be able to get the Dancing With the Stars show tonight! We don't normally watch much TV at home, but I do enjoy those two shows. Two questions came up in the comments so here are the answers. The temps have been in the 60's and 70's during the day for the past 5 or 6 days. Tomorrow we hope to be above freezing and that should not last too long then we'll return to temps in the 50's and 60's. I think 50 degrees is a delightful hiking temp! Also, I appear in most photos in a lavender shirt and that is my hiking shirt. I have another long sleeve shirt, dark purple, that is my Keep Dry At All Costs shirt. When it warms up more consistently I will have our Trail Jeannie send me my red, short sleeved summer hiking shirt. This was Day One of our 5-day section into Damascus, VA. Our planned daily miles will increase slightly each day until we peak on Thursday with another 22 miler. We arrive in Damascus on Friday. More on that later. There have been bathroom scales at last night's and tonight's shelters. We both feel like we have lost weight but it is hard to know exactly how much because we are not at home to get consistent readings. But, as best we can tell, Jim has lost about 5 pounds and I may have lost up to 10 pounds! Now obviously this cannot go on for 6 months so we are trying to eat more (which means we have to carry more) and we are hoping that our bodies get used to this routine and the weight loss moderates itself. Of course I am enjoying feeling my rib cage which had disappeared for many years! Time for dinner and maybe a Snickers bar!All is well.