Date: 2016-05-08
From: Hughes Gap

To: Overmountain Shelter
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: clear sky

It rained a bit last night but was luckily done by morning. Somehow my rainfly was dry but Ziploc¢s wasn¢t, which has been trend of late strangely enough. Our big climb today was Roan Mountain, a 6,000 foot behemoth full of stairs that had us gasping for air halfway up. We only stopped a couple of times for a quick breather, which is far better than how we were doing in Georgia. Something interesting I¢ve noticed is that for the past few days we¢ve been passing people on the trail that we passed weeks ago. It¢s amazing how a 4 day break can put you in a bubble of people you thought you¢d never see again. We¢ll definitely see all new people after our 2 week break, or none at all which would be strange. After Roan and walking through a cloud at the summit, we continued to a series of balds that were littered with families going on a stroll for Mother¢s Day. There would¢ve been nice views during this walk had it not been for the cloud cover we were in. Oh well, I doubt those views would¢ve beat Max Patch anyway. I¢m not sure anything will. This evening at camp was hilarious as I got to see Danny struggle to subtract simple numbers to figure out mileage. I had to teach him how to reduce the number on the left to add 1 to the front of the number on the right. He was trying to put a zero to the right of the right number HAHAHA. Our brains definitely do shut down at times out here.Oh, I almost forgot the most exciting thing that happened today. Near the end of our hike, I spotted an owl fly from tree to tree near the trail. I tell Ziploc so we continue quietly with my camera recording. I see it again on the branch and it¢s looking directly at me before taking off again. This time captured on film! The owl does this a couple more times, but then I see it swoop down, land on the ground, seemingly struggling with something, then take off to another tree with prey in it¢s talons! We walk to where I thought it landed and begin looking up for it. It isn¢t until the owl eats its prey and the remaining leaves from its kill land on our heads that I realize it¢s directly above us about 20 feet up in the tree! The owl¢s wide dark eyes are staring directly into mine as I¢m sure it¢s studying what my intentions are. The gaze of a large owl is fairly intimidating ¢ gets my survival instincts on edge. Nonetheless, I take the best picture I can of it before it flies off, never to be seen again. It¢s amazing how such a large bird, the size of a basketball, can fly with such silence. I would have never known it was there if I didn¢t look up at that exact moment, but I¢m glad I did!Well, nature keeps putting on a show for me. In the twilight hours this morning, I woke up at 3 AM to the sound of a pack of coyotes yelping over their last victim. I estimate they were no further than 14 mile away. When that sound woke me, my half asleep self thought, ¢Oh, I must be back in Marietta¢ since I can usually hear them from my bedroom there. As soon as I realized I was actually in the wilderness, I grabbed my knife and made it a little more accessible, just in case. Then, around 6 AM, I was awakened again to the sounds of two deer snorting as if they detected a threat. One was maybe 100 yards away to my right and the other a bit further on my left. The sound they make is a bit intimidating as well, so it¢s a good thing I knew what it was as to not cause any alarm. Nature is finally coming to life!