Date: 2010-05-19
To: Carver Gap
Miles today: 10.8

Half Left woke up early this morning because it is Hannah's birthday, she's 10 today. He grabbed his phone and called her right away, no answer. He continued calling a couple more times, she eventually called him back about 15 minutes later. His face lit up, "Hey Punkin", his nickname for her. "Happy Birthday!" She said, thanks, Daddy. The conversation went on, then I got to tell her happy birthday also. She gets to read our journal also. We will be in town for my high school reunion in early July. We plan to get her as much as we can and also visit with the rest of the kids and family. We went back to sleep until the rest of the house stirred around, about 7:30. CC (the host) made coffee and took breakfast orders. Wanderer got up really early and had hot tea, the Amish boys also stirred early. We had our coffee and ordered a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and turkey bacon with a croissant. Yum yum. After breakfast, she cleaned up and checked out everyone except us. We had decided to take her offer of shuttling us to Carver Gap and hiking SOBO back to her hostel for another night. She is a wonderful lady and we were enjoying her company. Unbeknowanst to me, she also asked Half Left what kind of steaks we liked, Ribeye he answered. She shuttled us to the gap about noon, took our picture, showed us the climb for tomorrow across the street and off we went. Right as we started the trail, Wrongway was coming out of the trail, heading in the right direction, north. We talked briefly to him, took his picture and said we hoped to see him again. The climb up the backside of Roan Mountain is a continuous slightly upward sloping, zigzag which we hikers call a switchback. It is not a difficult climb, just long. We made it to the top in about an hour, heading into Roan Mountain Knob shelter for lunch. The shelter is an old log cabin originally made for the keeper of the fire tower, which is non existant now. Just the foundation is still there. The shelter is one of the nicest we have seen, it has a door, windows that actually open, a tin roof, a loft, sleeps 15 and it's made of log cabin logs and mortar. We ate tuna sandwiches, took photos and went to the top of the knob, 6200 feet, the highest shelter on the AT. Leaving the shelter, we hiked still upwards, continuing about 1/2 more to the peak. At the peak, there was an area where a hotel used to be called the Cloudline. It was a three story hotel that strattled the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. The story goes, a line was painted down the center of the inside of the building across the tables to signify the line defining the states. Seems North Carolina didn't allow drinking alcohol and Tennessee did. So you could sit on the Tennessee side and drink alcohol. There was a police officer who waited for someone drinking to step over the line and would ticket them. We took photos, looked at the beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and the wonderful flowers everywhere. But back to the trail we had to go. The desent was steep!!! I at that moment was glad we took CC's advice about going southbound. The hike down the mountain was 3 miles of knee hurting, mud slinging, rock tripping, yuck. There were nice places to see more views, especially one we had to go off the trail a little bit, you could see the huge Roan Mountain and many others who will remain nameless because I am not sure who they are. On our loooooooong decent, we saw a few more NOBI hikers (northbound), Wanderer who was about half way up the southside of Roan, he was smiling and happy as usual. We talked about the trail we had been on and he let us know about what he had been through. Hikers always do this when you meet up with someone coming from where you are going. The trail, was long and muddy. We crossed our halfway point on a road, had a snack and continued the 5 plus miles left. As we hiked, a dog, cute thing, looks like a german shepard / golden retriever mix. She followed us the whole way, she was a great hiking dog, but wouldn't quit following us. We arrived at the hostel, tired and ready to be there. The dog following, CC took one look and I think she's in love. Don't know if she will keep her, but she is a cutie. CC went to the store today and bought us Ribeyes, she was glowing we she told Half Left. He is out on the grill cooking them as I update the journal. CC is in the kitchen making one of her wonderful salads, two other hikers are also here to eat the steaks, Eat More and Sleepy. We have met them before on the trail, nice young men. Well, I must join the group around the fire. Haven't heard from Wild Poodle, but expect to hear maybe tomorrow. We have been leaving notes in the shelter registers letting her know we miss her. I will let yall know when we hear. See you on the trail...