Travel Rabble: roan mountain

Miles ~22
Total 1815

It was, at one point today, 35 degrees. And windy. It was very cold. Beautiful however. We were walking over the Roan Highlands. The hills were alive, with the sound of music. I would have been singing but, unfortunately, the sun wasn't out so it was quite cold. We were up there for a few miles though. I tried to get some pictures so you could get the sense of how gorgeous it was. The second set of balds that we walked over were far less windy and much more touristy but equally beautiful. They had patches of bushes that were turning red interspersed with vibrant green plants and the combination looked quite festive.
When we left the balds, the mountain changed completely. All of a sudden we were walking through a pine forest. It was such a shift we asked man that we hiked past if he knew anything about it (he had the look like he hiked here often). Turns out he's a botanist and did indeed. We were walking through one of only ten naturally occurring Frasier Fir forests. Then we asked him if the balds are naturally occurring or if they are manufactured. We were curious becuase we walked through some gates that were clearly meant to keep out animals and the grass seemed to have been mown. He told us that the question has been debated and that now people say it was naturally occurring since Europeans arrived. Meaning it's possible that previous peoples had cleared the land. And infact, now they use goats to keep briars and bramble from growing up on the bald. Our botanist turned out to be the man in charge of the goats. We picked the right man to ask about the forest!

Roan Mountain

It was very very cold up here.

Camping in the cold!

October 19
Miles: 25
Total: 1792
We were up at around 5:30 and enjoyed the pleasures of getting up in a hostel complete with a kitchen. After putting on some hot water for coffee, we enjoyed our breakfast of granola, bananas, orange juice, and milk (procured from the store the night before).
We were out and at the AT by about 7:10 when Jamie realized he forgot a piece of his sleeping pad (he uses it to improve the fit of his pack's waist belt), so after a jog back to the hostel we were finally moving by 7:30. It felt like waking up so early was sort of a waste, but on the other hand if we had been up when the other hikers were getting up we would have left a lot later- we like to chat as many people who read this probably know.
We made great time to the first shelter and had a cup of coffee to celebrate! We also took some time to take a look at our food situation and decided to forward our next food drop a ways and just resupply at the grocery store in town (we realized that if we had discussed this earlier that we simply could have bought more food the night before, but alas we are not good at looking too far ahead). We ended up calling the post office later in the day and they were nice enough to forward our package over the phone. With that all set and out of the way, we decided to book it the remaining 20 miles and hitch into town tonight to resupply so we wouldn't have to worry about it tomorrow (which is good because there are some pretty awesome views in store with Roan Mountain and the "balds"). To add to our "carrot", we had heard of "Bob's Dairyland" from our hiking friends The Birds, and a legendary burger was in store.
So we hiked hard. We came upon a bench right on the trail around lunchtime with a great view, dedicated to a long time trail angel by the name of Vango. While we ate, we met Scott, the proprietor of a popular hostel not far away, who was actually coming to fix up the very bench we were sitting on! We chatted with him for a bit and then continued on our way.
With fall in full force, it has become very noisy whenever we walk through the leaves, which are now all crunchy. This makes talking difficult. At one point we came to a pine forest and it was like stepping into the quiet of a snowfall. The difference was really stark!
We also took a quick detour to see Jones Falls. We don't usually take side trails, but someone had taped a little note telling us that we "couldn't miss it", so since someone went to that trouble we decided it must be true. It was quite pretty and we even took a picture to share with you!
Well, we finally made it to the road that lead into town at around 5:30. The road was super busy, but it actually took us about 25 minutes to catch a ride, I'd say one of our longest and certainly the most cars passing. A nice lady named Hope picked us up on her way to get gas (30 cents cheaper in NC vs. TN apparently). We resupplied in about 10 minutes at the grocery store (motivated by BURGERS!), and headed over to Dairyland. Jamie ordered the "Holy Cow burger": 3 five ounce beef patties, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce tomato, and onion rings). Shannon got the "Boss Burger", which was a toned down burger with 2 five ounce patties and no onion rings. We also managed a plate of chili fries and a couple of Dr. Peppers to boot.
By the time we were done, however it was 7, which means it was dark. Not easy for hitching! After a while a guy named Mark who was hanging out in his van just offered us a ride, very nice of him since it wasn't even on his way. We finally got on trail around 7:30 and continued on for about 15 minutes before we got to the site of an old shelter they just took down. Nice flat areas for camping though and a spring nearby. There are two section hikers here as well and one of them is currently playing a kind of flute. He is pretty good! I wonder if he'll take requests...
Anyways, that is it for tonight. Roan Mountain awaits us tomorrow so it is off to dreamland for us!