Date: 2003-04-15
From: Overmountain Shelter

To: Route 19E, Roan Mountain
Miles today: 8.7
Weather: clear sky

Well, I¢m still sick, but it¢s a great sunny day. Maybe the sore throat and chest congestion will sweat out of my system. Well, it didn¢t. But, let me add a note to that. IT WAS AN AWESOME DAY ANYWAY!!! Sunrise at Over Mountain Shelter was cool. The view from the first grassy bald back towards the shelter (A Big Red Barn) was cool! Note: This barn can be seen in the movie ¢The People Under the Stairs¢. After the first grassy area, we climbed up Little Hump Mountain, an awesome climb up a grassy bald again, with awesome views the whole way. (Took a break on some rocks on the way up.) Then we did a wild ass steep climb up another huge grassy balk (Hump Mountain). Awesome, you could see the AT track up the mountain and little hikers climbing it in front of us. The climb made me breathless (long and steep), but so did the awesome view the whole way up. It was a series of climbs, getting steeper as we neared the top (it was a false top, so we climbed some more). Note: awesome view of Hump Mountain from Little Hump Mountain. After we got over Hump Mountain to the other side, there was a rock outcrop and a plaque where we took a break. You won¢t believe what we saw here! Big long horn cattle on the AT!!! Holy Cow! They were right on the AT footpath, horns and all. We had to walk within 5 feet of them to get by. Awesome. Lots of pictures here. What huge horns!!! They didn¢t seem to mid us being there, but I was a little nervous (Wench didn¢t seem to be), being that close to those huge, sharp horns and all. That has to be the coolest thing that we saw so far. It was pretty awesome too, watching the hikers in front of us cross a loooong grassy ridgeline off into the distance as we ate a snack on our rocky seats. Little tiny hiker ants they looked like, going across the ridgeline until they disappeared at the other end. Cool!! Later, we ate lunch overlooking a farm/orchard scene near Elk Park (grassy, nice views¢¦cool). When we finally got headed down the trail to route 19E, who should we see hiking up but our buddy ¢Slowride¢ who we had hiked with for quite a lot of the AT south of here. He was day hiking with his girlfriend Sheila, who had come to visit him (he had been off the trail for 5 days visiting with her and is getting back on tomorrow¢4/16). Cool to see them. Once we reached highway 19E, we hitched into Roan Mountain to resupply (A quick 15-20 minute hitch). Note: Buck Buchannons County Store is closed (owner died; they say). Note 2: Roan Mountain Supermarket is closing (retirements), will open upon new management (not sure when), but in the meantime supplies are limited. For diner, we went to ¢Bob¢s Dairyland¢, good people, good helpings of food. (I had a 4 piece chicken dinner with fries, coleslaw, a roll, sweet tea, and water. Then we resupplied and went back for ice cream. 20 minutes later, we had a ride back to the trail and stealth camped near the road (under a pint tree and next to a stream). Thought I just heard people walking by, but may have been a radio.Awesome day!!! Great weather! Great company! Great food (most important!)! Do I still feel sick? YES! But it never put a dent in how great today was. It figures, the 2 days I¢m sick, we do the biggest climbs, and work the hardest (must be a test). I think I passed¢¦Now sitting (laying) in my tent journaling, waiting for the NyQuil I bought in town, to kick in. Tomorrow we check out the new trail relocation, the next day we should be at the Kincora Hostel. Life is good! Attitude is everything!