AT Day 24

2014/4/24 Mile

Its so much easier getting up when the temperature outside your sleeping bag or bed isn't 50 degrees.

So many of the conveniences of modern living go overlooked: coffee maker, fridge, clean water, toilet, etc. Needless to say, not living out of my pack this morning was really nice. Hot Sauce kept chatting through breakfast and while I packed; finally Ron said "Looks like Spice is ready to hike, why don't you go get packed."

Hopped in the Casper (the white van) and hit the post office and dump before getting to the trail at 10.

Lost Hot Sauce pretty early and just kept trucking. Nice view from an unnamed cliff made all the uphill worthwhile. Hit the gap before Roan Mountain at 1300 and there was trail magic: 3 teachers were giving out cokes, turkey sandwiches, brownies, chips, and fruit. I sat and ate lunch with talking about all sorts of stuff before heading up the mountain. The sugar boost was a huge win.

At the top two hikers told me there was more trail magic at the next gap. I needed water so I pushed on but the magic must have ended because nobody was there. Filled up with some of the folks I met at Rob's van the day before and we talked about heading to Overmountain Shelter, an old converted barn that I stayed at my last trip.

Hiked up two balds and got some great views before heading back down into mostly deciduous woods down the aide of the mountain.

Overmountain had about 30 people in it and I was going to tent but weather reports were looking bad for the night and in the morning. Probably just going to take it slow tomorrow and not try to leave if its storming.

Cooked and hung out before crawling into the bag. First test of the liner + summer bag combo in what will probably be 30-40's tonight. Should be fun.