Uncle Johnny’s to The Station at 19E

Day 36 – Uncle Johnny’s to Cherry Gap Shelter: mile 344.2 to mile 361.4

Today was our hottest day yet with temps approaching the 80’s. The morning was pleasant and we made good time. We came across the day’s first trail magic at Indian Grave Gap. Brother Tom was set up where he is 5 days a week handing out hot or cold drinks, some fruit, and some home baked goodies. We rested, had a drink and some banana bread. He then told us there would be more magic a few miles further on.

When we got to Beauty Spot, a grassy bald, we had our second trail magic of the day. A thru hiker from 2020 was helping his niece slack pack through the area and providing trail magic somewhere along the section she was going through. We had hot dogs with chili, chips, salad, and homemade strawberry bread. Once again we did not have to consume our own lunch food, but we still had to carry it.

As we approached the top of Unaka Mountain, we met some officials from the ATC. Matt Drury,  associate director of science and stewardship, accompanied by a woman that was director of philanthropy and a grad student. They were there to look at the spruce restoration project near the summit.

We got to the shelter with little hope of getting a spot inside to avoid the overnight rain. We were right. The shelter was overcrowded so we setup our tent in a pretty nice site. It wasn’t long before many more people arrived and tents started popping up everywhere. We don’t understand why things are more crowded now than they were a couple days ago.

Day 37 – Cherry Gap Shelter to Roan Mountain Knob Shelter: mile 361.4 to mile 379.0

It rained hard last night but we managed to stay dry in the tent. The fly and the ground cover did get soaked. We got started at our usual time of about 7:15 am. At about 3 miles we got trail magic again from the same guy that served hot dogs at Beauty Spot. He’s been slack packing his niece and doing trail magic for a few days. He was going to back home the next day.

The hiking was fairly easy until we had to climb Roan Mountain at the end of the day. Even that wasn’t too bad as they did the 2200 foot climb over 5 miles of trail. It was above 80 yesterday and would be below freezing tonight.

Day 38 – Roan Mountain Knob Shelter to The Station at 19E: mile 379.0 to mile 395.3

We woke up (well, got up since we didn’t actually sleep much) to very cold temperatures but the sun was coming up and the skies were clear. We started our hike down off Roan Mountain (6270 feet) in hopes of getting warmer temperatures at the lower elevations. We were a bit surprised by the clear skies because snow was called for later in the day.

At about mile 3 for the day we entered the Highlands of Roan.  This is the longest stretch of grassy balds in the Appalachian Mountains. When we entered the highlands in the early morning, the sun was out and the sky was mostly clear. After getting through the first set of balds in the highlands, we came past an old barn that was once used as a shelter but is now too unsafe and is closed.  It was here where it started to snow!  The name of the location was Overmountain Shelter, in honor of the Overmountain Men from the Revolutionary War.

Shortly after leaving the barn, where we had stopped for lunch, we began to climb Little Hump Mountain, another bald of the highlands. Following this summit was a brief stint in the woods and then a long climb up Hump Mountain for the final bald of the day. The views on the last two peaks were not as spectacular due to weather.

By the time we left the highlands and started our descent to the hostel where we planned to spend the weekend, it was windy and snowing.   When we got to the trailhead, there was a car waiting that turned out to be the owner of the hostel we were staying at. Very convenient.

The hostel is a bit rustic. The bar does have a lot of beers and the food is pretty good. We’ve seen some hikers we’ve met before, including Pilgrim (Tim) from our time in Franklin and Logman that we just met this week.

Sleeping in our Tent

We hope to provide some insight into our life on the trail outside of the hiking and scenery. First up in this regard is a video about our tent (Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 3-person tent) and our sleeping system. Hope you enjoy it.

Day	Miles	Total Asc	Total Desc	Steps
36	17.2	4931	2634	46971
37	17.6	5643	3339	48559
38	16.3	2900	6085	47471