Date: 2015-03-29
From: Iron Mountain Gap

To: Carvers Gap
Miles today: 15.9

After 4 days at Cantarrosa Farm, it was time to leave. Mike and Peggy have a beautiful, comfortable home, with incredible views of the river. We really enjoyed staying there and getting to know them, they're fascinating people. I wholeheartedly recommend that anyone passing through Erwin schedule a stay with them. They're listed in the AT Guide. We used "Shuttles by Tom" for a ride to the Iron Mountain Gap trailhead. Marie (Tom's wife) drove the two of us and Maverick, and picked up coffee and a breakfast sandwich along the way. Tom and Marie shuttled us last year as well. Both are very experienced and active hikers (Tom did the PCT last year). They know the trail in this area intimately and are a wealth of info. Their rates are very competitive and they're in the AT Guide. We dodged a bullet by zeroing at Cantarroso yesterday. All day we've been meeting hikers who said it was really nasty cold yesterday. Most just hunkered down somewhere. Today was much better. Still pretty cold (22 when we left the house at lower elevation), but little or no wind. Even though we spent much of the day climbing, the temps actually rose. And it was a climbing day. The second half of the day included a four and a half mile climb from Hughes Gap (4040 ft) up Roan Mountain to 6212 ft. And it was a pretty relentless uphill climb, especially with full packs on our backs. There was snow on the ground all day. In the beginning the trail was frozen, but clear in places. However, as we climbed, the snow got deeper and in some places we were using other people's postholes. In some places the snow may have made the trail easier, since it covered over smaller rocks. We wore our microspikes today and they really made a difference. I never once slipped, even in places where the trail had partially thawed and refrozen. Anyone hiking these southern trails in March should consider carrying them. We've tried YakTrax, and they worked OK, but in my opinion, they're not as durable as microspikes. My wool gloves with wool liners worked well for me today, although my fingers did get cold on the last downhill. We only had a couple of opportunities for a view and I took a couple of pics. Instead, the pine forest on Roan Mountain was the feature story today. I remember from last year that this forest is beautiful, but today it was magical. We went through dense groves of smaller pines loaded with snow. It was a winter wonderland. The day was clear and the sun was out, but the trees were so dense that only a little light filtered through. I'm tall and I had to stoop a lot, because the tree branches were so laden with snow. If I bumped a branch I got doused with snow down my back. We saw a few more weekenders at the top of Roan Mountain, I think it's a popular trail outing for local folks. There's a parking lot and other facilities at Carvers Gap (5512 ft elev) which is a relatively short hike down from the mountaintop. Princess had arranged a shuttle pickup for us at Carvers Gap and the parking lot was busy. Our ride down from the gap didn't take long, but there was ice on the upper sections of the road. We headed straight in to Mountain Harbour B&B and Hostel. We stayed here last year and really enjoyed it. Mary runs it and does a first-rate job. It's another of our favorite places to stay on the trail and we plan to be here several days as we slack the nearby parts of the trail. We stay in the B&B (house) and it's really pretty plush by trail standards. More about that tomorrow. We were NoBo today, so we didn't see many hikers. Bohemian passed us, we knew him previously as Justin (NTN). Spooner passed us near the top of Roan - he was moving along quickly. And we passed Felix, a thru-hiker we haven't met before. We passed several others, but only said hello and moved on. We met a group of 5 here at Mountain Harbour, but the only name I remember is Saint. I'll try to get names at breakfast, but they're moving along and we may not see them again. We also saw Imp, Fern, Chow and Stretch go by as we were waiting at Carvers Gap. We hollered hello and we may see them tomorrow as we SoBo. Bedtime now, but I get to sleep in a bit later tomorrow because Mary doesn't start shuttling until after breakfast, and Mary's 8:00 breakfast is not to be missed.