Date: 2005-05-02
From: Clyde Smith Shelter

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 12.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Turns out, it was a good decision to stop short of Roan High Knob last night. There's a big difference going over it well rested and fed. It was relatively easy, depite the fact that it was 3,000 feet in ascent and 1,000 feet in descent in the first 3 hours. I took it very slow of course. It just wasn't the nightmare I remember it being. I'm also pretty confident that I'm more physically fit this time. Maybe it's the knowledge of what's ahead. Maybe my body just remembers.   I started at the exact same weight with no training again, and I seem to be more physically fit and more capable of handling the Trail, aside from the knee problem that's giving me hell. It was pretty rough today. I have a great amount of difficulty bending my leg or bearing weight on it now. The weight problem isn't so bad as long as I keep it straight, but as soon as I pick up the leg and bend it, there's a tremendous amount of pain. I have to walk kind of peg-legged to avoid the pain. The only problem with that, is my foot isn't getting picked up. All to often, I kick rocks, roots and branches. Every time I kick something, I get a sharp pain, like a jolt of electricity through the knee, that's just as bad as if I bend it. I'm really walking funny. Walking stiffly like that is starting to affect the right ankle, which is painful and starting to swell. I think I'm going to be able to walk through this, eventually. I noticed today that if I keep pushing through the pain and forcing myself to put weight on the foot, it seems to hurt less. I don't know if that meant it's going numb, but I'm still able to hike. For the 10 miles I did today, it felt like I did 20.The Trail today was almost an immediate 500 foot climb, then down 1,000 feet, then up almost 2,400 feet to the top of Roan High Knob Shelter. I passed Roan High Knob Shelter at 11 o'clock and I kept going. I didnt want to waste any time sitting there. I actually felt great, thinking I could do 20 miles or more today, but that was before I started going downhill.   The climb up to Roan High Knob was pretty warm and I had to take some clothes off, but as I got higher, I had to stop to put clothes back on again. Close to the summit, there were icicles hanging from the boulders and a layer of ice on the puddles between the rocks. There were traces of snow from God knows how long ago under some trees. The downhill from Roan High Knob was nice. Large sections have this creek running though it. There's water running nonstop, but, not deep, maybe about an inch. Just enough where your shoes didn't get wet. It was well graded because when I got to the north side, it goes down to this parking lot at Carvers Gap, a very popular for people to hike up in that direction. And in the other direction, going up to Jane Bald and Grassy Ridge was even more well graded. They had actually made a trail there and covered it with some material to keep the erosion down. The Balds were magnificent. I've walked through about a dozen of them in the past few weeks. Each one is different in it's own way. The grass seems different, the views are different, even the way the stunted trees are is different. Each one is very unique.   Jane Bald drops into Grassy Ridge, which is a very wet, muddy area for a good distance. The name says it, it's a grassy ridge. There's grass that has really deep roots, you can tell because the Trail has eroded through it up to 2 feet in places, and the roots go down that far.The hike down from Grassy Ridge was a terror, by far the worst downhill on the Trail so far. It's very steep, and so eroded that roots were sticking up sometimes 2 feet out of the Trail, with rocks that were not stepping stones, but more like obstacles that you had to try to get around, and lots of mud. There were orange flags everywhere saying 'Trail Maintenence'. It definitely needs it. I was just a wreck from trying to get around everything.I made it down to Stan Murray Shelter, but I wasn't going to stay there. I saw that Hopeful Hiker's pack was sitting there. I just stayed there long enough to write in the register. I wanted to stay at Overmountain Shelter. It's a famous on the Trail. It's this big, huge barn. It can probably fit up to 50 hikers, if it had to. The barn has been converted to a shelter. I heard stories that the barn was taken over by the Forestry Service, by eminent domain, and left some bad blood in the area. Regardless, it's a wonderful place to stay in terms of size. A little too open, the wind is blowing right through it, there's really no place to hide because the boards are so old that there are gaps between them. It's a 2 story barn maybe 60 feet long and 60 feet wide.I got here at 2 o'clock and could have easily kept going in terms of time. I figured the way the pain was going in the leg, I need to start being patient. So, I'm playing 'patient man'.OC1 (Vern) came in right behind me. He's going on because he has to go pick something up tomorrow in Roan Mountain. He told me yesterday, that when he went over Max Patch a couple of days after me, the snow was crotch deep. They could not find their way across, all of the markers and posts were buried under the snow. So I got lucky on my visit to Max Patch, because I was able to tan while I ate pizza from the Trail Magic.On the way to Overmountain, the sides of the Trail were loaded down with tons of ramps. Ramps are wild onions that are found in North Carolina, southern Virginia, and Georgia too. They generally grow above 3,000-5,000 feet. They are very strong, like a scallion. Some people eat them raw and you have to stay away from them for days.   I like to cook them in olive oil. I picked up enough to make a chopped half cup full, which I took to the shelter. I cleaned them, fried them in olive oil, then mixed them with pepperoni and chicken noodle soup and made a wonderful onion soup. I don't know if I'm going to smell for a few days, but I enjoyed it. It's 4 o'clock and no one else has shown up, I have this huge barn all to myself. It's windy as hell. I'm all wrapped up, I may have to crawl into my sleeping bag. The thermometer says 44 degrees, but, with a 30 mile an hour wind, is pretty uncomfortable.This shelter is rated one of the coolest shelters to stay at on the Trail. Right now, I'm sitting in the back of it. I took some pictures. It overlooks this wonderful valley. Right below the shelter, it drops down into grasslands with little pine forests and off in the distance. In the valley between the 2 ridges, there are houses with well groomed lawns way in the distance.Tomorrow, I'm going to try to get my mail drop and possibly take another zero day. I keep telling myself that I don't have a time schedule. I don't need to be rushing in and out of places. I'm actually ahead of schedule compared to the last time I hit the AT. Patience, enjoy it, take care of my knee, these are the things I have to remember. A 10 mile day is a 10 mile day, and if I take a zero day, I'm going to enjoy it, too.