Date: 2011-04-13
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 14.3
Weather: scattered clouds

We awoke to no rain, but thick fog, and bone chilling cold. The mood was pretty good but the feeling was we just wanted to get up and over Roan Mountain. We had some sleet last night and figured it would be worse up high. Breeze was the first to leave (there is a restroom up on Roan Mountain, 6.5 miles away). It was very cold hiking up over Roan, the trail was muddy and icy. The higher we went the more the trees were covered with ice. Every time the wind blew the ice would fall from the branches and hit us in the face, hands, or head. By the time we reached Roan Shelter our hands were numb, it was raining ice, and we couldn't see anything. Against better judgment Mammoth put on his last article of dry clothing because he was so cold. Mammoth also managed to bend one of his trekking poles, which put him in a foul mood. We hiked down the hill as fast as we could trying to get to warmer temperatures. The sun was threatening to come out, but this only melted the ice and again caused it to rain from the trees onto us. When we reached Carver Gap, miraculously the sun came out and it warmed slightly. We sat in the parking lot drying our clothes and having a slightly better outlook on the day. I forgot to mention that as we hurried down Mammoth tripped and actually broke his already bent pole. I think I heard him cursing behind me when it happened. As we were drying out a couple came down off the balds and offered us some trail magic. They said whenever they hike this time of year they bring cookies for hungry thru-hikers. They gave us 3/4 of a box of Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies, a box of Chocolate Chip Cookies, and 5 Gatorades; we were very thankful. After we devoured the cookies another guy offered to take the trash so we didn't have to pack it out. The day got warmer and we hiked up over a series of beautiful balds. When we got to the third it was so nice I decided to stop and unpack my bag and dry my bag, coat, tent, fly, liner, and boots. Mammoth did the same. We spent about an hour up on the bald enjoying what turned out to be a gorgeous day. We finally hiked down to the Overmountain Shelter, which is an old converted barn overlooking a meadow surrounded by mountains. Tonight we have Mammoth, me, Darby, Sky, Breeze, Rocket, and Spaceman all at the shelter. The skies are clear and the moon is up. Sunrise promises to be great. I should mention Sandy and her Husband Reuben 2, Sandy was handing out candy bars to Thru-hikers at the start of Roan Mountain while she waited for her husband to hike a short section. What started out as one of the worst days on the trail so far ended up as one of the best!AlanApril 29 - I just took a brief break from typing this to watch the Royal Kiss, I did not get up at 4:00 am to see everything live, but did watch some of the actual wedding. Last night Earl Grey planned to be at Doc's Knob Shelter after surviving the previous night in his tent with large hail, high winds, and thunder & lightning. How sad that there has been so much devastation and loss of life with all the tornados in the south.The journaling is a learning experience. I am trying to just add the pictures that go with the journal date. So today, if you got to the last photo, and go backwards you can see today¢s photos without going through so many. Hope that makes sense. I am also learning to remember to save the journal entry before switching to photo mode ¢ I¢ve had to retype a day here and there. Luckily today I had copied it into word to spell check, and did not have to retype!Mary