Date: 2017-04-01
From: Cherry gap shelter

To: Roan High knob sheltet
Miles today: 17.6

4/1/17 Roan High Knob ShelterMiles hiked: 377.4, Miles to go: 1812.4We awoke to another misty, moisty morning. It rained off and on during the night and by morning everything was damp and dripping. After breakfast, 1st Sgt and I headed out. As usual, all the younger hikers passed us in short order as we did our home check-in with our wives.It was gray and foggy all morning. Our hike was generally climbing today as we made for Roan High Knob Shelter. At 6100 ft, it is the highest shelter on the AT. Since it was Saturday, we saw lots of day hikers and section hikers. The coolest thing to happen today was we ran into Rooster, Hydrator and Hydrator's girlfriend slackpacking southbound. Slackpacking is when you hike with a small pack, carrying just food and water. They knew they were going to see us today, based on my blog. So, they made two extra sandwiches for us. Sweet! Trail magic!We stopped at the Clyde Smith shelter to eat our lunch, where some southbound section hikers told us about trail magic at the next road crossing. A family was grilling hot dogs. We headed out for the road, which was about 3 miles away. As we approached the road, 1st Sgt and I could smell hot dogs grilling. Apparently, North Carolina has some sort of flower or bush that gives off a grilling hot dog scent because, when we arrived, there was no one grilling hot dogs. Bummer. We had missed the hot dogs; however, the trail angels had left potato chips and sodas. We were quite happy with those. The salty chips and sugary sodas were just what we needed because we were getting ready to start a 5 mile, 2500 ft climb to the top of Roan High Knob. Over the next three hours, we climbed and we climbed and we climbed. We climbed up smooth, well graded trail. Then we climbed on rocky trail. Then we climbed on rocky, wet, muddy, steep, rooty trail. Part way up the climb, 1st Sgt got a message from his wife that he had dropped his wallet. Ringer, whom we had met at the shelter last night picked it up, found his wife's phone number in the wallet and called her. Whew, that was a close one! Ringer will bring it to him at Mt Harbour Hostel. The only problem is that we are moving faster than her, so we will have to take a zero day to wait for her to catch up.   About two miles before the shelter, we came upon Winter sitting on a log. She said she was having trouble with her leg hurting; but, she planned to push on to Overmountain Shelter, which was an additional seven miles past Roan High Knob. Darwin and Company were all there and she wanted to catch up. We encouraged her to stay with us. She said she'd think about it and promised that if she decided to push on she would stop at the shelter and let us know. 1st Sgt told her that if we hadn't heard from her by nightfall, we were going to come look for her. The sun finally broke out about 4 pm and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. However, over 6000 ft, it was very windy and cold. We arrived at the shelter and found that it was a fully enclosed cabin with a loft. We set up for the night in the loft. It is snug, dry, and warm and we are out of the bitter wind. Winter arrived and informed us that she was pushing on to the Overmountain shelter and planned to night hike with her headlamp until she arrived. 1st Sgt and I were sad to hear she was pushing on; but, neither one of us is her father, so there wasn't much we could do. I did get a text from Lumber Jill saying that she had stopped at Stan Murray shelter, which is a couple of miles before the Overmountain shelter. I told her to keep an eye out for Winter, so hopefully Winter stops there. We had another hiker named Jeeves join us in the loft. He is a pleasant young man we'd never met before. We all shared dinner and caught up on each other's hikes and passed along trail gossip about who's where along the trail. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and in the 70s. We will also be passing over some very scenic balds. It should be another glorious day.