Date: 2014-05-08
From: Roan Mountain High Shelter

To: Roan Mountain, TN
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: clear sky

I hate to sound like a broken record, but we have been blessed with amazing weather, views, and company this week. And once again, today was fantastic. Except for my aching legs and feet. But besides that, amazing!We left the shelter early and started what was primarily a downhill day with a few big ups thrown in for fun! We got to walk through the spruce Forrest again, which smelled amazing as alway and significantly better than us! II like the mornings after camping with people because Jon and Kent will recap what they learned from other hikers and what they learned about the new people in camp (while I'm laying in my tent typing trail journals). It's basically the only time they talk on the trail so I have to enjoy it! On a side note, I added in my head the total time we've had conversation on trail when it's just the three of us and I came up with roughly four hours tops. Those of you who know Jon may not believe that. But he's surprisingly quiet when walking. Anyways, after a couple miles of downhill, we came to a road crossing where we started our climb up to Jane Bald. It was a nice climb because the surroundings were beautiful. I don't think I will ever get tired if seeing mountains fully surrounding me. It's just awesome. And maybe even better because I've walked up to them and earned it so to speak. After reaching the summit, we had a couple miles of downhill and took a short break at a shelter at the bottom before starting our next big climb, the longest of the day. As we started off up the hill, in silence, as usual (I'm totally not kidding about the talking or lack there of. It becomes a joke after a while. And I just throw my headphones in. I've gone through an entire battery in the last couple days), I see someone running down the hill towards us. As they got closer, I notice that it's none other than Bamboo! Turns out he had stayed at a different shelter than us having missed the turn to the one we were at and had run to the top of the hill (just two miles up) trying to get cell reception. He was on his way back down to get his stuff which he had left at the shelter. We told him our plan if he wanted to meet up with us after he had was done packing up. And we continued on our way up. It was almost twoikes to the top and almost a thousand feet in elevation gain. No easy task. But again the scenery couldn't be beat. It was like walking through the hills in the sound of music. I mean just amazing. Worth every inch of up hill and pain! At the too, and I know this will surprise you, we go directly back down. But that brought us in to some shady Forrest and a beautiful piped spring. A grat place for a break. After enjoying some rest we started our third and final ascent up the other half if the bald. It was even higher than the last but again, breathtaking (in more ways than one). There were false summits on this one, which are places where it looks like you're at the top only to discover you're no where even close! But we finally made it! While we were up there looking back where we had come from in awe, we saw a line little ant making their way up very very quickly. We stopped and waved, thinking it was probably Bamboo. Turns out we were right. He was hurrying to try to catch up with us, which he did as we were heading down the five or so miles into town. Yay, someone to talk to! Even with good conversation the downhill was brutal. Very rocky and steep in some places. But at the end was some trail magic!!! There were some other hikers with sodas, fruit and hot dogs right before the road crossing. The best part was that two of them are massage therapists. They were giving massages as part if their trail magic! I asked if they'd check out my quads. They did! They stretched me and did some releases which hurt but helped! Awesome! Afterwords we walked down to the hostel and grabbed the shuttle into town where we got some dinner and a few items for resupply. I also got some gauze to try wrapping my feet tomorrow. If they don't get better, I'm not sure what I'll do. They are bad. Really bad. Even the boys seem to have some pity on me. Not enough to offer switching packs or anything, but they at least can see that I'm not just making crap up I guess! The hostel is beautiful m, set on a farm with a river running through it, horses, goats, dogs and a barn. It's a great place to post up for the night. We've all gotten showers and laundry done so it's pretty much time for bed! We get back on the trail tomorrow heading towards Hampton, TN. We hope to be there in two days. We will meet up with our friend Dave there too! He's going to hike a bit with us! I know Jon is looking forward to it in a big way! I'm going to head to bed now. Keep an eye out for more in the next few days!