Day 50, Monday, April 2. Roan Mountain, TN, Doe River Hostel—8.7 miles

Stickers set an early alarm so we would be awake in time for the sun to come up. We were expecting to be “wowed” since this location is known for magnificent sunrises, but not so much today. The sun did come up (which is a precursor for a good day), but is was more of an “oh” than a “Wow.” We hit the snooze and hoped for a little more heat to soon follow.

Nick from Iowa packed up and gone before the first snooze even went off. He is intent on getting his daily mile average up over 20. We will be patting ourselves heartily on the back when we reach 10. Nick is a red shirt. We will probably never see him again.

Bunny and I were next to leave the barn, but only after all the other red shirted fast bubble hikers had already packed up their tents and vamoosed. This is one of the many reasons we like hiking with Stickers and Lady Bug—they are so laid back and unrushed that we seem like “go getters.” I always hate to be last out of camp. I know it’s not a competition, but I hate to come in last anyway.

We climbed the hill beside the barn and were able to look back and see them still in the shelter. We could spot Lady Bugs coat from over a half mile away. We knew we had to get about a mile ahead of them so we would all arrive at Roan Mountain, TN at the same time.

We were climbing Little Hump Mountain. Lady Bug had told us that we would come upon several “false summits” on the way up. We really lost count of the number of times we thought we were at the top but then only realized the trail turned and there was still more climbing. When we finally made the real summit after climbing 800’ we were struck with a few things: the beauty of another Bald, a strong wind blowing in rain clouds from the southwest, and the realization that we had an even bigger mountain to climb next that was over 300’ taller than this one. No summit is reached without a massive decline following.

We proceeded down, down, down to Bradley Gap (I used to work with Jeff and Dixie Bradley and wonder if this is somehow related—after all, we are in the south, and Dixie!). By the time we were about half way up Hump Mountain, we were in gale force winds. The hood on my rain coat was pummeling my head (no sense was knocked in). With the cold air temps and strong winds, Bunny demanded her gloves back from me (she had rolled my liners up in the sleeping bag this morning so she lent me hers when I got cold—no hair=being colder).

A light mist started on us once we made the top but it didn’t matter because Bunny lived up to her name and started making tracks downhill. It definitely looked like a storm was rolling in and everyone knows how Bunny acts in thunderstorms. I was worried about Stickers and Lady Bug getting caught in a storm on a Bald and Bunny was worried about Bunny getting struck by lightening which has happened so many times in her life.

We made it to the safety of the trees before the rain started. It was a cold rain, but light. No storms actually came in. The rain was sporadic at best. The trail was a bit rocky but not bad. We checked her phone to determine our location and discovered a quirk with Guthook—when picking points along the trail, the app will give you actual trail miles to the destination; but if you pick a point off of the trail, it gives you “as the crow flies” miles. We mistakenly thought we only had less than 3 miles to go.

An hour later, we thought we had only a mile to go when some sobo hikers passed us. We asked how far to the road and they told us 4 miles. “Inconceivable!” “I don’t think that means what you think it means.” How could we have walked 2 miles and be a mile further away? Guthook bug!

We quickly crossed out of NC and dropped the 3,000’ down to the road over the next 4 miles. Even though it was all downhill, it took its toll on us. The trail crossed several boulder fields and had lots of tall steps to go down. So much for an easy 9 mile day.

Waiting at the road was a man in a pickup who offered me a coke right when I walked up. David was doing more than trail magic, he was offering information about the area and a free shuttle anywhere we wanted to go. I had my coke finished by the time Bunny made it to the road. She got a Mountain Dew and we were ready to go wherever David would take us. We had already decided we wanted to stay at his hostel tonight.

Sleeves was next up to the road. He was trying for a 25 mile day, but was really craving some “town food.” We quickly talked him into settling for a 17 mile day and a burger at Bob’s Dairy Land in town. We were feeling confident that we could change Stickers’ and Lady Bug’s minds about where to stay, especially once we mentioned free beer.

In the end, we all went to Bob’s to eat. While there, David brought in Dirty R and Grape Stomper. Next up was back to David’s house for showers and laundry. True to his word, he (or his wife) drove us wherever we wanted to go including the pub in NC (since Roan Mountain, TN is a dry city—what year is this?) and to the grocery store to resupply.

Back at the hostel, we got to catch up with some people we hadn’t heard of for a while. Scars was there who we hadn’t seen since Nature’s Inn. He’s waiting for a new pair of shoes and is going stir crazy. We also got to meet Vagabond Jack (Little Blue’s mother has been following his vlog). We have to agree with Blue’s mother—like her, we prefer Vagabond Jack to Little Blue.

EFG