Date: 2004-05-30
From: Roan High Gap Shelter

To: Apple House Shelter
Miles today: 14.7

Carver's GapStart: Roan High Knob Shelter @ 0904 Finish: Apple House Shelter @ 1647Miles: 14.7Weather: Very screwy today. Cold damp clouds in the morning, cold hard rain for two hours, sunny/partly cloudy mid-afternoon, thunderstorms in evening.Breakfast: Mountain House Granola.Lunch: Beef Jerky, Twix, Oat n' Honey, Fruit Punch Gatorade.Dinner: Velveeta Shells & Cheese, m&m¢s, Country Time Lemonade.Trail Conditions: Downhill, Rocky, very muddy, VERY slippery!Animals: Steers, lizard, dog, birds.People: Tons of day hikers, Jacob, Symposium Club, Goose, Darkcloud.Spent a cold night atop Roan. It probably dropped to the low 40¢s. I stayed warm enough w/ my tights and bag liner though. The four of us thru¢s did not want to get going this morning. It was cold, wet, and foggy. We finally ponied up and pushed on. No views going down Roan. Carvers Gap was awesome and clouds blew over the open balds. It was incredible to see. I hiked thru Carvers with the stray dog, however, she got too far ahead and we separated. I hope she is okay. It rained buckets for about two hours as I headed to Overmountain Shelter. Overmountain ShelterOvermountain Shelter was awesome. I will certainly return one day to camp there. There were other hikers I have seen along the trail (I won¢t mention names) getting stoned and drinking it up. They were concerned about me being there, but I really didn¢t care what they were doing. They had a small radio and were playing classic rock, the station was playing the top 600 rock songs. It was good to hear music again. I dried my gear out in the sun and pressed on to the Hump Mountains. It was neat to overlook the shelter from the bald above. Overmountain Shelter from a Distance The Roan Highlands were awesome. I loved the huge grassy fields and the views are amazing. The wind going up Hump Mountain was so strong it was keeping me off balance. The most adventurous part of the day came when I ran into the steers. Herd of Longhorns!I don¢t know a whole lot about cows; other than I like milk and they taste good between two buns w/ ketchup & cheese. However, I learned they get really wound up when you walk right toward them. There were about 10 longhorns bumming around and eating directly where the AT goes. I wasn¢t too sure how to deal with the situation, so I thru caution to the side and decided to look 'em in the eye and hit ¢em in the head. I slowly approached them and started talking, giving them a friendly hello, etc¢¦.about 15 yards from one of the steers ¢ it got all pissy and started snorting, kicking it¢s back legs, and rubbing it¢s horns into the dirt. I decided he wasn¢t in the mood for friendly conversation, and I backed off. I approached again about 10 minutes later and they were all lying down, doing whatever longhorns do. They were all calm, and one bull was like 5 feet from the trail. So I started walking slowly toward him. About 20 feet from him I stopped. We just stared at each other for several minutes and then he started snorting, and the whole herd starting rubbing their horns in the ground. Finally, I just decided to take the scenic route and scurried thru about a 14 of a mile of briar patch and chewed my legs up. I boogied on to Apple House Shelter and arrived as an evening thunderstorm rolled in.I am spending the night with Jacob (a thru going to Harper¢s) and two college kids from Georgia out for the weekend. I told Jacob his trail name should be ¢Oats¢ as he ate six packs of Quaker this morning. We¢ll see. Anyhow, I¢m off to bed. I have a big day ahead.One Year Reflection