Date: 2003-06-17
From: Roan High Knob Shelter

To: Apple House Shelter
Miles today: 14.6

As reward for our toil, and because the shelter was totally enclosed and darker than most, and because no one else seemed to be stirring early, we slept in late ¢ till 9 AM! We were wakened by the smell of cigarette and/or marijuana smoke coming from upstairs ¢ lovely way to greet the day!We pulled out about 10 AM, headed down the north side of Roan. I was so glad again to be going down this morning instead of up!The descent took us down into a thick fog. At the Roan Gardens (?) where all the rhododendrons are, visibility was only about ten feet in places. I stopped for a few minutes and Hal went ahead.A group of couples from East Tennessee stopped me with questions about thru-hiking. ¢Have you had a lot of rain?¢ ¢Yes,¢ I said. One lady said she¢d read that thru-hikers are typically wet 85% of the time (WARNING: I may be exaggerating that figure to suit my own experience). When they noticed me getting cold, they began to wish me well and move on. Another lady said, ¢Well I hope to read about you someday.¢ So I gave them my website.I came across Hal sitting and journaling at the junction to the Grassy Ridge side trail. Said he was on a roll writing so I went on. He caught up to me when I stopped at Stan Murray Shelter to check the register, then we moved on to Overmountain to have lunch.Overmountain was an interesting place. It¢s a huge barn that¢s been converted to a shelter that sleeps 30 (compared to the typical 6-8). Toby really wanted to stay there, so that was the second half of the group¢s Plan B. Just as we finished lunch and had decided to push on, in walks Jo! She¢d made great time and wanted to hike on with us. So after she¢d scarfed down some hot tea and a snack the three of us set out together.Hal and I laughed, he¢d predicted that the group would fall apart since we left. Jo wasn¢t sure how the second half would react to her moving on with us.The terrain was nice ¢ Little Hump and then Hump Mountain, two balds. We got a bit of a view as we started up Hump Mountain but the higher we climbed the worse the visibility. Just past the summit a herd of Texas Longhorns were grazing. Those are so cool!Big rocks litter the trail down into Doll Flats, a meadow that afforded a quaint view of some small town. We¢d talked of camping there, but on approaching the site I groaned inwardly at the raucous laughter coming from that direction. We talked to the leaders of the group of teenagers and scouted the terrain between there and Apple House Shelter, just 2.5 miles away. In the end we agreed to push on.My leg was flaring up, By the time we arrived at Apple House my feet were pretty much in agony. All three of us shed our boots and socks and slipped down the steep creek bank to soak our feet and clean up our legs.Arriving at a shelter at 8 PM is taking a risk on finding room; we came upon about six or eight tents surrounding the shelter. Turned out to be the Indianapolis Hiking Club, one of which had thru-hiked last year. They were the only ones there all tenting and no one in the shelter! Score. We staked our spots and ate some dinner. The Hiking Club shared some s¢mores with us ¢ they already had a great fire going. That was a special treat!