Date: 2009-04-26
From: First Creek Past Clyde Smith Shelter, NC

To: Bradley Gap, NC
Miles today: 15.2

Today was a tough hiking day with lots of up, but I was rewarded with vast views in every direction. The climb up Roan Mountain was something else. It was extremely steep in some sections with rock climbing thrown in. I'm glad I did that portion of the hike in the morning with fresh legs. When I got to the top there was Tanglefoot with a group of other hikers (all new faces to me) lying in the sun relaxing. On top of Roan Mountain, there used to be a hotel around 1914 or so. The hotel was half in Tennessee and half in North Carolina. There was a line down the hotel to tell the guests which state they were located. The NC side was dry, so the line also told them where they were allowed to drink. A sheriff from NC would hang around the hotel and nab the guests that wandered to the NC side with alcohol. Ha. All that was left was part of the foundation. Beautiful location for a hotel. Hiking down off of Roan Mountain we saw a chimney right off the side of the trail. No other portion of a building, just a chimney. The hike down from Roan Mountain to Carver's Gap was hard due to the rocks everywhere. It was like walking in a creek bed without water (I was glad there was no water). My heels are sore with the two blisters and they took a pounding on these rocks. At Carver's Gap we ran into another group of hikers lying in the sun eating lunch. We had lunch there as well. Tanglefoot was trying to get some trail magic like a hamburger or chocolate milkshake, but nobody took the bait. There were a lot of tourist/locals around since it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but no trail magic for us today. One guy was having trouble getting his car started and Tanglefoot was trying to help. I took a picture, because he was hunched over the motor of the car with his backpack still on. Cracked me up. Once the pack is on, we are reluctant to take it off. Ha. The rest of the day was climbing from one spectacular bald to another. We are actually camped between two balds tonight. From the balds I was able to see the mountains in all directions to include what I had walked during the day. If you are ever in the Carver Gap area, I highly recommend that you hike north a few miles on the AT. You will be rewarded for your efforts. If I had to pick my favorite view of the day it would have to be the valley where the Overmountain Shelter is located. The shelter is an old converted barn and the valley is something out of a postcard. I had trouble hiking up Little Hump Mountain since I kept wanting to look at the scenery. We have gotten our string of nice weather days and I am most grateful. Blue skies and warm days are fabulous and I hope we have many more. . It is a little chilly where we are camped tonight, but we are almost at 5000 feet. Tomorrow we head back down into the 3000. Today is the first time I felt really hungry. I make a snack bag each morning and I had emptied my snack bag by lunch. I haven't lost much weight so far like some of the other hikers, but I think I'm going to need to start consuming more calories. I pretty much eat all day long and my food bag is going to start getting heavier as I will need to have more snacks during the day. My Achilles tendon is doing better and only hurts if the uphills get extremely steep. One of the trail maintainers said they like to keep the grade at 10 percent which made me laugh. The trail is way, way steeper than that at times. My blisters make it hard for me to have a normal heel toe gait, because I can only take the pounding on those blisters for so long. Oh well, the trials of walking the trail. According to the elevation chart tomorrow should be an easier day, but I never know until I get there what is really in store for me.