Date: 2011-04-14
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Mountaineer Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Beautiful, clear, cool start to the day. Everyone was up early with the talk of Pizza for lunch only 9 miles away. We started up the Humps which are a series of Balds in the Roan Highlands. The early morning light and the constant spectacular views made the hiking the best yet in my opinion. I fell quite a ways behind the pack because I stopped for so many pictures, and just to enjoy the views. It was a long, hard, rocky downhill, which really aggravated my knee. When I arrived at the road I found six guys and one dog all trying to hitch a ride to the pizza place. Of course this was never going to work so we split up and started walking. Naturally, shortly after 4 of us started walking on we saw the 3 who stayed behind go whizzing by in the back of a pick-up truck laughing and pointing. Mammoth and I walked down to see "Sky" who was down the road at the hostel. We decided to check with the hostel to see if they would give us a ride. Sky went to check when a lady stopped to give Mammoth and I a ride, and we didn't have time to get Sky as the hostel had quite a long drive. Once we were in the car the woman powered down all the windows due to our stench I'm sure. She was a member of the women's walking club, and we were very grateful for the ride. She didn't take us to the pizza shop we thought she was going to, but instead drove us into town to the Smokey Mountain Bakery. At first we were a little distraught by the condition of the building, but we felt a little better when we realized the other hikers, Breeze, The Mayor, and Darvey were here also. We went in and found a tiny shop that had a small brick oven to cook the homemade pizzas. You could order a 12" pizza with any of the 12 toppings for one price of $10.00. I got everything but pineapple and olives on mine. Eventually Sky showed up after getting a ride from the hostel owner. He was less than pleased with us for leaving him, but that is the luck of the hitch. Turns out the other pizza shop was closed, and what a good thing. The pizza was delicious, plus they had cold soda, fresh baked donuts, and pastries that we all sampled. We all left stuffed, but nobody more so than Mammoth. He had thought they were running low on drinks so he ran next door to the dollar general and bought a half gallon of chocolate milk and a gallon of OJ. By the time he got back, most were full; so he ended up drinking 3/4 of a gallon of OJ. We all got a ride back to the trail by the hostel owner. Mammoth, The Mayor, Darvey and I continued on hiking, and the others stayed at the hostel. Mammoth was so full he lay in the grass for a while swearing he couldn't hike another step. I gave him about 1/2 an hour then told him I was going. He reluctantly followed, of course now packing a half gallon of unopened chocolate milk. We trudged on for 9 more miles with our full bellies and finally arrived at the Mountaineer Shelter which is quite new and nice. Overall it was my favorite day on the trail coming shortly after the worst 24 hours on the trail leading up to Roan Mountain. I guess that is how quickly life on the trail changes.