Monday, June 1 7:09 pm 19.7 mi Start of Roan Highlands, Overmountain Shelter
AT 366.4 Stealth Site → AT 386.1 Overmountain Shelter
Weather: Warm and sunny all day. Blue skies all around!
Trail Conditions: The trail just kept climbing and climbing. Didn’t see anywhere for it to climb to, but climb it did! Lots of rocky terrain today
My Condition: Sore feet – switched back to old insoles which helped but lots of rough landings today with all the rocks
Hikers Met: PUDDLES! (also crossed paths with HUMMINGBIRD at the shelter, but I didn’t actually meet her today)
Today was a day for humility. Yesterday’s miles came easy, today’s much less so. As I climbed down Roan Mountain thinking how sore my feet were, a family asked about the trail conditions, steepness, and how far it was to the summit. They had a device unlike anything I’ve ever seen before – one wheel in the center, two sets of handles on the front and back, all supporting a seat for a child hooked to a breathing tube. They all had big old smiles on their faces, and I felt guilty about thinking about my aching feet. Also crossed paths with Mountain Sage a couple miles before Overmountain. He is about to hit 7000 total AT miles, and he revealed to me that he has Parkinsons. The Balds were incredible today – Round Bald and Jane Bald gave some incredible 360 degree views. It was PACKED there – you can park relatively close and get the best of the views within a 15 minute walk. Ran into a couple doing trail work – apparently the ATC just gave the green light to trail crews to resume maintenance. The grass and nettle was freshly cut as I closed in on Overmountain. I thanked them both for what they do. Although the barn is shut down, the incredible view remains at Overmountain. Very excited to see what sunset, and particularly sunrise, bring!
Post Trail Analysis
I can remember just about every single detail of this particular day. Shortly after I broke camp and started hiking for the morning, I came across a female hiker stuffing gear into her pack. I offered up a “Hey hey! Good morning!”...only to be completely ignored. Ouch. I kept walking, and made it to Greasy Creek (lovely name!) where I planned to refill my water bottles. I took the fairly lengthy blue blaze down to the water source, filled up, and as I was walking back I crossed paths with the gal from earlier that morning - PUDDLES! Little did I know that I had just met, face to face, the woman who would become my best friend on trail, and the person I’d spend the most miles hiking with of anybody. This chainsaw wielding, trail crew leading, PBR swigging, Middle Earth reading, backcountry beauty brightened my day any time she was around. She is one of the most impressive hiking conversationalists I know, always asking the right thought provoking questions for whatever the moment. She’s on the cutting edge of celebrity gossip and conspiracy theories. She can eat like a trucker and fart like a foghorn. When she’s not bullying and/or roasting me, she’s got one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever encountered, is creative to the max, and would write the most adorable poems to the special people she welcomed into her trail family. Back to this first encounter, though, I told her that the water source was a little ways down still, and she said “What’s a little bit further when you’re going over 2000 miles?” SHE'S A THRU HIKER! She asked where I was shooting for and I told her the Overmountain Shelter. She said that was her goal too. I said I hoped to see her soon, and as soon as I turned away from her proceeded to almost immediately stumble off trail and right into a tree. She too had gotten off trail when the ATC made their request, and had just recently gotten back on. Her trail family had split up – some kept hiking, some got off trail too.It must’ve been tough for her continuing onward with the journey without the important people she had formed such a strong bond with over a good many miles. She later told me she looked up the trail and noticed the hiker tag swinging from my pack as I was walking away after we “met” that morning - I was the first thru hiker she had seen since returning to the trail, and she was so excited to not be the only thru hiker out here! You’ll hear much more about her later. As the day went along, I remember the feeling of my feet killing me – it was really time for me to give up on those godawful insoles. I remember the unrelenting rocks on the climb down Roan Mountain. I also remember being absolutely humbled at seeing the grit of that family, straining and sweating to get to the top with their all-terrain accessibility hiking machine. I had been working hard that day, they had been working harder – yet no complaint did I hear from them. I’ll never forget the ear to ear grin I saw on that boy’s face when I asked if they were having a fun hike. Life is all a matter of perspective, and despite his and their challenges, they were seizing the day and soaking in every bit of joy they could from the experience. After crossing the road at Carver’s Gap, I was treated to one of my favorite bits of trail – the Roan Highlands in their full majesty. Easily accessible from this parking area, the next few miles the trail meanders gently from one sweeping vista to another. I found my progress slow as I continually stopped to take in the view, and snap pictures. I remember my chat with Mountain Sage about his time on the trail, and about his challenges. Tremors visibly apparent, the pain in my feet vanished as I thought about the challenges he faced in accruing over 7000 miles of experience on this very trail dealing with his Parkinsons. We seemed to be leapfrogging one another, and he was putting up some big mileage! As I neared the end of my hiking for the day, for the first time in weeks I recognized the clear signs of a recently weedwhacked trail. Soon thereafter, I heard the whirring of it. I turned the corner and came face to face with a trail maintainer. I thanked him for the part he had played in my journey and told him this was one of the most beautifully maintained sections I’d seen so far, which was absolutely true. His wife was a bit further up the trail with loppers, also hard at work. I repeated my earlier sentiment! It took visionaries to plan and build this trail, but the maintainers and trail clubs are the real lifeblood that sustains it. I got to Overmountain, the famous barn, now condemned and no longer serving as a shelter, shelter. I pitched my tent near the car that I assumed, rightfully so, to belong to the trail maintainer couple. They gave me a delicious candy bar before heading out, which I very much appreciated. I cooked my ramen and did a number on my food bag, voracious after a long, tough day of walking. I played with a cute puppy, making playful lunges to get it to run circles around me and my tent. I went to hang my food bag, and lo and behold, Puddles came walking around the bend! I smiled and said hey, brushed my teeth, finished hanging my food bag, and then did some serious foot maintenance as I enjoyed the picturesque mountainscape from beside my tent. They needed some stretching, rolling, tincture of benzoin, leukotape, and KT tape. I shyly finished my journal entry as the sun began to set, keeping to myself instead of putting myself out there and mingling with the other hikers. Shame on me, because not only was Puddles there, Hummingbird was too! 2 members of my eventual trail family, 2 of my closest friends from this incredible journey. It was a damp, dewey night, but totally worth the big miles it took to get here.
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