Date: 2010-04-26
From: Roan High Knob shelter

To: Apple House shelter
Miles today: 14.7

It rained hard last night, and was cold enough when I woke up this morning that I was surprised it hadnt snowed. I climbed down the ladder from the loft in the old fire wardens cabin so I could cook my breakfast out on the porch. Cody, who had spend the night sleeping on the main floor of the cabin, was not feeling well. She said she had gotten up several times during the night and gotten sick. There seems to be some kind of virus going around among the thru hikers. Stickwalker looked a little green, too. Gotta stay away from those two for the next several days.While I was cooking my breakfast of oatmeal and coffee out on the porch, Slinky and Veto came by on their way out to the trail. They wanted to get an early start to find JAY-B and make sure he was okay.I decided to forego breakfast for the time being and try to catch them down the trail, so I climbed back up to the loft and packed up my gear. As I headed out, it was threatening rain again.I hiked down Roan Mountain to Carver's Gap and saw no sign of Slinky, Veto or JAY-B, so I hiked on. It was cold, and rain continued to threaten. There were rhododendron everywhere, and I though this would be a nice place to come back later in the year when they are blooming.I stopped at the Stan Murra Shelter for a quick break, surprised that I had not caught up to Slinky and Veto. I pushed on and finally caught them, and JAY-B, at the Overmountain Shelter. By the time I got there, I was REALLY hungry, so I decided it was time to cook my oatmeal and coffee breakfast. While I was doing that, the weather continued to deteriorate, and a foggy mist rolled in and the others decided to move on.I should have headed out with them because the rain started as I was eating my breakfast. By the time I got going, I couldn't see move than 100 feet in front of me and the wind started blowing and the rain came down. I hiked for what seemed like forever over Little Hump Mountain and Hump Mountain, two bald mountains with false summits. By the time I reached Hump Mountain, the wind had really picked up and was blowing like stink. So, I decided that it was time to don my rain pants. But, I didn't want to take off my shoes to do it, so I tried putting them on over my shoes. Of course, I failed and fell into the grass. Now, everything I was wearing was wet, and I was not happy. It was not working out to be my day! Not only that, but I could tell that the trail was weaving back and forth on the summit of Hump Mountain, instead of just heading over it and down into the woods on the other side.The trail finally worked it's way into the woods, sheltering me somewhat from the driving rain. Anyway, I finally descended through some very nice woods and along some scenic streams until I reached Apple Orchard Shelter. There were Slinky, Veto, and JAY-B. The shelter is an old apple orchard building. Of course it was full, but everyone made room for one more. There were a couple of tenters around the shelter. I was wet, tired, and hungry. Not a nice day, and the forecast for tomorrow is more of the same! To my surprise, one of the other hikers had walked several miles to a convenience store and brought back a pizza for the rest of us. And, they saved me a piece! Pizza is pretty good when you're wet and hungry!