Date: 2011-04-15
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Vango & Abby's Memorial Hostel
Miles today: 21.3
Weather: overcast clouds

The wind build through the night and the weather was iffy in the morning. The tops of Hump Mountain and Little Hump Mountains were visible when I woke up, but were shrouded in cloud by the time I started hiking. Both mountains are balds that take nearly 5 miles to cross. Balds are mountains with (duh) no trees on top of them, just exposed rock, moss and grass, so weather on them has nothing to buffer it. With the winds already high at the shelter, I knew it would be a challenge up top and put on all bad weather gear I had.The winds at the top were absolutely ferocious. Straight-line winds coming from right to left constantly with no gusts or lulls, just a constant freight train roar that physically pushed me sideways with every step and caused my rain jacket to flap and sound like a flag in a hurricane. Being in the clouds, moisture accumulated where the wind hit and reduced visibility to nothing. I passed Grandpa climbing, and to my relief he did have some sort of rain jacket on and what looked to be carpenter's pants on and a pack cover and was wearing gloves. He said he was doing fine, just going slow. I passed him and continued over Little Hump towards Hump. I don't know what speed wind has to be to physically push someone off their feet, but the renewed vigor of wind on Hump was in that category. What I had thought was hellacious fury a few minutes ago I wished for as a relief from these winds. Any skin that faced the wind stung and hurt, and I had my first and second falls of the hike as I was literally pushed over sideways while walking twice. I wanted to take video of it, but didn't dare take my camera out in the weather. I finally reached the treeline and the wind died immediately with the buffer. I took of some of the gear so I didn't get hot on the rest of the day hiking.Made Mountaineer Shelter in good time to find Stretch, Sky, the Colonel and another hiker all set up there. The shelter was nice, one of the newest on the trail. I did good time and it was about 3:30 when I arrived. I had unpacked my bag and was in the process of re-hydrating some vegetables and TVP for dinner when one of them looked in the book and said, you know, there's a hostel 3.1 miles up the trail. I had had enough time to rest that I considered it, and when someone put the image of a town run for beer in my head, I agreed to go and packed up quickly with Stretch, The Colonel and Sky. The weather had still held, and it was still not raining, but looked menacing. I am 27, about 5'8", and not in great shape. These three are late teens to early 20's ranging from 5'11" to 6'4" and athletic with a big long stride. With that in mind, considering that I was able to keep up with them for the 55 minutes it took us to hike 3.1 miles (FAST), I did pretty damn good. We made the hostel to find ourselves the only 4 there. It was really a nice place, with a kitchenette, bunk beds, and two computers with internet. The owner Scott was renovating the bunkhouse too, and it looks like it will have two stories by next hiking season. Scott wasn't going to do a town run, but we did get some cans of Busch and Budweiser from him. Not quite favorites, but being inside drinking a beer after hiking my first and unexpected 20+ mile day was sure nice. Looking at weather now, it looks like the rain will come later tonight and go overnight until sometime before noon tomorrow. May not have to hike in the rain after all!