Date: 2014-04-07
From: Roan High Knob Shelter

To: Mountain Crossings Hostel
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: moderate rain

OMG. I can't really express what I've been through today. To start off, we're at the very tip top of the mountain. Last to get in last night and almost last to get up. Still pouring so of course no one wants to move on. Seriously considered zeroing up there but eventually natures call is too overwhelming and you're going to have to venture out to pee at some point. Turns out that metal roof amplifies everything hugely and the "buckets of rain" was really just residual drips coming off the trees when the wind blew. It was fine but chilly so we decided to head out. Still hiking with Scorch and Mariposa. The beginning was a mess! You had to have full rain gear on which is hot and humid even when it's cold. And we're going downhill most of the day so it's going to be a muddy sloshy mess. What I didn't expect was that the trail was now a creek all the way up the sides with no room to skirt the edge, so you were just walking in three inches of water all morning. Worse is that there were no relief drains so it just got deeper and deeper; and when they finally did and you got relief you'd enter a switchback and the drain just poured right back onto the trail. AND about five hundred feet of it was solid ice under the water. All one big slow chore. Poor Mariposa and Scorch both slipped and fell at some point. You slide and slip constantly and are pulling muscles all over your body trying to correct yourself. At this point it's sopping wet, so phone is turned off today. The pic posted is the one and only I took which is a shame because the day just got more interesting. After a few hours I finally made it down out of the forest and muck and into a very foggy, misty mixed area. Sort of a ridge line between the mountains. Found out this was a Revolutionary War battle site. Surprised me as I always assumed it was just up north. I was way ahead at this point. We always hike with me up front. Mariposa is usually with me if not close behind and Scorch follows. But this time the weather was so kooky we were all spread out. Here's where the fun begins. You never know with the wind - one side of the mountain is usually breezy and the other calm. Ridges are almost always breezy. I start to hike up hill on the edge of a bald and holy cow the winds pick up royally. Probably thirty or forty miles per hour. And it just gets worse. And worse. And worse. Imagine this...up on a bald with no trees, just a big grassy hill - it's so foggy you can't see more than 50 feet. The clouds of fog are flying in big wisps up and over the bald. You can't hear a thing except for the howling wind and your rain coat and rain cover just slapping back and forth at a rapid pace. Like a racing heart. The wind was so bad you would lean almost 45 degrees into it and your pack was all out of place. Every once in a while the wind would suddenly stop for a second and you'd fall over from leaning. This went on for THREE hours! Endlessly trudging uphill. You know when the goofy weatherman try to report during a hurricane? Worse. You couldn't even stay on the trail it blew so hard. I'm not exaggerating - towards the highest point it was up to 70mph or more. Mariposa said she was glad Scorch was behind her because if she collapsed he'd be by at some point to tell her to get up. I've never experienced anything like it. The worst part is at the very last hill I heard a loud pop, then silence - my rain cover was gone! Never to be seen again. We had decided already that the best thing to do today was just get down into Roan Mountain, Tennessee and stay at a hostel. Much lower in elevation the wind was less but still high. You'd be in these big coves where very tall, bare trees were blowing around and crashing into each other and limbs would fall down everywhere. Long story short it was crazy! But we all made it. Had to tent at the hostel because they were full up, but got the shuttle into town and had a cheesesteak, hotdog, fries, and an ice cream cone. Met some great new hikers too. Pint size, Goat, Shortz, and Red who is from Texas also. Skeeter and Snowplowman were also staying.