Date: 2013-05-07
From: Cherry Gap Shelter

To: Ash Gap Campsite at the base of Roan Mountain
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: thunderstorm

My original goal was Roan High Knob Shelter at the top of Roan Mountain but today was not a good day. For some reason Tuesdays are bad for me. I really enjoy my weekends when I have company and companionship and that gets me through Monday and then Tuesday hits and I realize I'm out here all by myself for the rest of the week. The novelty of doing this alone has worn off. I know I can do it alone I just don't want to do it alone any more.I enjoy the comradery with fellow hikers but I have not established any long term relationships thus far. It was a real "feel sorry for me day." Every hill seemed twice as bad and I knew at the end of the day I was going to have to climb Roan Mountain. Rain was expected in the evening so I really wanted to get to the shelter. I wasnt going to chance sleeping in my tent at 6,275 feet in the rain. Roan Mountain is suppose to be the coldest point on the AT in the south. I started uphill towards Roan Mountain. In the beginning its a gradual climb with many switchbacks so it wasn't bad but it took a long time. It took me so long that I thought I was almost to the top when I got to the campsite at the base of the knob and realized I still had 1.6 miles to go and it was a very hard uphill. It was a big psychological let down for me. I started up the hill just as it started to rain and I could hear thunder in the distance. I walked a little way debating in my head which would be better; walk an hour and half uphill in the rain and hope for a place in the shelter or camp at the base and worry about packing up a wet tent in the morning. I was tired and hungry so tenting won out. I quickly pitched my tent and climbed into my warm sleeping bag. As I was finishing pitching my tent Gray Beard, an older hiker came by and he too debated tenting or going forward. He opted to move on. Grabbed some snacks for dinner since it was already raining. Shivered in my sleeping bag for a little while. My sleeping bag is plenty warm plus I have a silk liner but I think I am part reptile because when its damp out I get cold from the inside and its hard for me to warm up. This is where I made the cardinal hiker/camper mistake. I opted to not get out of my warm sleeping bag and go out in the rain to hang my food bag. Nobody was camping around me so my decision would only affect me and I was cold. Bad decision. My food is stored in zip lock bags inside of a waterproof bag. I put that in my pack and put my pack in a trash bag and kept it in the vestibule of my tent. Surely no animal is that persistant, right?? The rain pounded the ground most of the night. It rained so hard that it splattered mud up under my rain fly. It rained so hard that my tent started to leak. I had no phone signal at all so I sent telepathic messages to Jim to come get me. He didn't get them!! Then I heard the scurrying of little feet. Actually, in the dark in the middle of the night in the woods it sounds much bigger than mice feet but fortunately for me it wasn't. I found my phone and turned on my flashlight just in time to see the underside of a mouse scurry across the top of my tent. Not the fly but the tent. It was a very fine thin fabric separating that mouse from me and it was directly over my head. There isnt a lot of head room in a one person tent. I gave that mouse a wack and sent him flying. It was completely reflexive. He might be a very nice mouse but he freaked me out in the middle of the night. Several more times I was woken up (or disturbed, there wasnt a whole lot of sleeping going on) by him trying to get in my food bag. I kept banging on my vestibule and he would run away. I'm sure I terrorized that poor mouse because he eventually went away but not before he chewed a quaret size hole through my food bag and helped himself to some crackers. Lesson learned. First and last time I will ever sleep with my food bag. It was a long night. Hmmmmmm, what am I thankful for today?? I'm still working on that one.