Date: 2003-04-26
From: Carver's Gap, Tn

To: Apple House Shelter
Miles today: 13.2

I crawled into my sleeping bag in the Apple House Shelter at 8pm and realized several minutes later that there was a smile on my face. It had been a very good day.The Greasy Creek Friendly hostel started to come alive at 6:30am. First Window, then me, Slug, etc. until everyone was packing, drinking coffee, and making plans for the day. Several shuttles were going out; one back up to Carvers Gap and one to Rt. 19. I had almost 14 miles planed for the day and wanted to be on the road by 7:30 but we didn't get out until after 9 and started northbound from Carvers Gap ar 10:15.Two section hikers that I had met at Uncle Johnny's Hostel several days ago were on the trail ahead of me and Shocked and we all leapfrogged until the next shelter down the line.I realized very early on that today's trail was going to be special. The views, limited as they were going over Roan Mt. were beautiful. The trail in the park was a gradual, gravel snake up into the clouds.The pines smelled especially good today, probably because I was feeling back to my old self after recovering from the food poisoning several days before.I met a nice, section hiker named Phil at the Sten Murray Shelter that had lots of thru-hiker questions, and passed several more section hikers throughout the day. This area must be be very popular and I understood why.As I came through the woods into Yellow Mountain Gap, I could see a wonderful, grassy hill rise in front of me and I knew that was where I wanted to eat lunch. I stopped to read the plaques on the Overmountain Men, but didn't take the .3 mile trail to the Overmountain Shelter; an old barn that had been refurbished into a shelter that sleeps 20, because I knew that there were great views of it from the top.I climbed almost to the top of the hill, put my rain jacket on the ground, and hoped that the threatening skies would hold off their rain long enough for me to rest and eat my lunch. Shocked came by 10 minutes later and we had about 20 minutes before the clouds started to spit on us.The views were everything I had expected; big clouds, rolling hills spotted here and there with sunshine, and dark areas where the clouds were sharing their rain with someone else.We moved on as the wind picked up and it got colder. On up the hill we were passed by high Octane on his second thru-hike and JP Digger and Foxy who were headed south today back to the Greasy Creek Friendly. Felicity had been dropped off at Carvers Gap too and was south bounding back to the hostel. Digger told me about the longhorns in a pasture at he top and because they had left their cameras back at the hostel, asked me to get a good picture of them for him when I got to the top no knowing at the time there would be no pictures of longhorns for me today.There was a line of thru-hikers, stretched out several hundred feet apart going up and over Little Hump Mountain, then Hump Mountain where the weather turned wicked. At 5,587' the temperature dropped at least 30 degrees, the winds gusted around us all at 30-40 miles an hour and the rain whipped at our bodies. I couldn't see but 20 feet ahead of me, so I had no idea where I was going or how long it would take me to cross this area. I was blown off the trail several times, and at one point started laughing at the sheer power of what was happening around me. I've always loved high winds and this was Mother Nature at her best. Somewhere in all of this were longhorns waiting to be photographed but they would have to wait for another photographer. Sorry Digger!When I finally climbed up and over Hump Mt. I was wet, chilly and exhilarated beyond belief; what a great experience it had been crossing in that weather.Back down into the trees we all went, back into a sunny day, with flowers and warmer temperatures. Oftentimes I experience a week's worth of weather in a day as I cross mountain over mountain.Many times today I caught myself smiling, it was a good day to be alive.