Date: 2013-06-20
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Roan Mountain
Miles today: 8.7

Last night at Overmountain Shelter was hard, literally. Shelter floors are very, very hard, and my pad just gives me the illusion that I have a soft place to sleep. I slept poorly, as I usually do in a shelter. I have a nice, comfy, hammock, but I am an idiot, and worse, a lazy idiot, if I choose sleeping in a shelter over the teensy inconvenience of hanging the hammock. But I did. Overmountain is a landmark among shelters, and I just wanted to sleep in it. The view from the shelter was truly amazing and I should have taken the picture of the view last night, but I waited till this morning to take it (probably in too much of a hurry to get to that pudding), and this morning we were socked in with fog, so....no photo of the beautiful view. Oh well, that will teach me to procrastinate!One last word about the shelter, which is a lesson in shelter etiquette for you hikers out there. There was a hiking club staying at the shelter, which should consist of people experienced enough to know better, but they woke up around 6 AM and commenced to make a LOT of noise. Big, booming voices, lots of laughter, etc. I don't get up that early, neither do most hikers, and in fact I am usually sleeping really well right about then after a restless night. But there was no sleeping through all that racket. Again, my own fault for not wearing ear plugs, but come on, common courtesy should dictate that when others are sleeping and it is in fact so early, that you respectfully keep the noise level down until a more respectable hour. I am sure they would have considered me quite rude if I had commenced to make a lot of noise after they had turned in for the night. Same rules apply in the mornings. 'Nuff said.So maybe it was the lack of sleep and the rude awakening, but today was just hard. The story of the day was a story of heat, humidity, and foot pain. I have never really handled heat well in my life. I know, I complained an awful lot about the cold, but heat it definitely harder to hike in than cold is. (Cold is just harder at night.) I used to get overheated easily and pass out, partially because I didn't sweat very much. Menopause took care of that, I can now sweat freely and copiously, but I still don't do well in the heat. I feel ill and get bad headaches. So today I carried my backpack, the Green Monster, up and over two good sized mountains, in the heat and humidity. By the way, I weighed the Green Monster, and it weighs in, with food and water, at....22 pounds! That's a really good weight. Then you probably should add about three pounds of sweat to that total--the pack just stays wet, and is starting to smell worse than me. Today I went over Hump Mountain (5,587 feet high), and Little Hump (not so little at 5,459 feet). They were both really beautiful, they were balds, also, with the most amazing 360 degree views. I found out how to work the panorama setting on my camera today, and it worked well for the beauty of the balds. It still doesn't really capture the spectacle of the view though, I don't really think the feeling of being able to look at all the world spread out before you on all sides can be captured by an image. It is the footprint of God, surrounding and encompassing you. Just truly beautiful. Coming down from the Humps, the question became, Where to spend the night? The problem is that there is 18 miles between shelters in this stretch. Yes, it is possible to just set up a campsite anywhere along the trail, so I am not really dependent on shelters. And I have already described how uncomfortable they are to sleep in without a good pad, so I was resolved to setting up the hammock even at a shelter. The good things about a shelter are: Roof and walls in case of rain, which is possible at any time out here, nearby water source, occasional bear cables so I don't have to hang a bear bag, a privy, a fire ring, and, most of all, people. Hikers are scarce now, with the thru-hikers all gone. There are some section hikers, but it is very possible to go all day without seeing a single other person. I'm not a real people-person, but nights alone are a little lonely, long, and a little creepy. I like having someone around at night. But I can't walk 18 miles. There is a road crossing at 8.7 miles, and it is never a good idea to camp near a road crossing--too easy for partying locals to show up. But--there was a hostel at the road crossing, called Mountain Harbour. I'm not staying in the hostel itself, but camped in the yard. I set up my hammock in the yard, and guess who else is here? Kiwi Don, mostly recovered from his norovirus, and Jane and Lola! I set up my hammock near their tents, and took a much needed shower. The owner of the hostel even did my laundry for me, so my stinky clothes are now clean. Then, he gave us a ride to town where we found a little diner and had great cheeseburgers and ice cold Mt. Dew. Aaah! Kiwi Don is definitely recovered, he ate a HUGE burger with bacon, and kept it down. We had a nice conversation and returned to the hostel in better spirits. The town, if you're wondering, was Roan Mountain, TN.I left North Carolina for good today and entered Tennessee. You may remember my first state line, how exciting it was going from Georgia into North Carolina. But ever since then, I haven't really known what state I was in at any given moment. The AT pretty much runs along the state line, so sometimes you're in NC, sometimes you're in TN, sometimes you're probably standing with one foot in each state. But today the trail left North Carolina completely, and I will now be in Tennessee until I get to Virginia.I really do hate to complain, but I had a new area of complaint show up today, in addition to the heat and humidity. Remember that I said my right pinky toe hurt yesterday? Today it became excruciating. Every step was so painful. I tried to lead with my left foot on downhills, to take some of the pressure off, and discovered that I am extremely right-footed, and it just felt too weird to lead with the left. When I settled for the night I took my shoe and sock off, I expected to find a blister, but no. The poor pinky toe is red and swollen and very painful to the touch. I don't know what is going on with it, but after my shower I wrapped it all up real well in moleskin and bandaids just to pad it, cushion it, and we'll see how it does tomorrow. Ouch!