Day 34: 5/13/16 (Virtual AT 2020 Day 41)

So it’s Friday the 13th, but I’d say we actually had a pretty lucky day hiking. It started out a bit wet, so we kind of took our time packing up in the shelter since we were relatively dry in there… but the air was so wet that everything was just damp… even if it was covered and out of the rain. That’s just a reality of living on the trail.

The morning hike was foggy and wet, and the mud added an extra challenge to some of the steeper sections. It didn’t slow us down too much though, we just kind of slopped through it and pushed on. We knew we’d need to get a little dirty out here.

After lunch, the fog started to lift, and the sun finally burned through the clouds. It was glorious to feel a bit of warmth, and to dry out the packs a bit. The last part of the day was a nice long uphill hike up Roan Mountain. The terrain kind of reminded me of trails in the Adirondacks, rocky switchbacks with muddy troughs connecting them, all within a fir tree forest. Roan High Knob is pretty tall at 6212′, but there is a road that goes almost to the top, but it’s not open yet, as evidenced by the completely empty parking lot and locked bathrooms. Apparently back in the late 1800s there was a hotel up here, it sat on the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina, which the mountain straddles. There was a line in the dining room to let guests know which state they were in, and apparently also which side of the room they could legally drink in, as at the time it was illegal to drink in North Carolina.

We’re unfortunately not in a hotel tonight, and we’ve forgone the shelter to sleep in our tent again since it’s not supposed to rain tonight. We are camped out right next to Roan High Knob Shelter, which is the highest shelter on the AT, at 6194′. It’s a bit cooler tonight, and will be tomorrow as well. We did 17.5 miles today, and we’re planning on just over 16 tomorrow, where we’ll more than likely spend a night in a hostel where we should have a resupply waiting.