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December
9th and 10th - My good friend Mike Bounds
and I left out on Friday afternoon to do an
overnighter on the Appalachian Trail. Mike is
from Knoxville and hasn't hiked much in far eastern
Tennessee so I decided to take him across the Balds
of Roan (This was my 4th time on the balds in 2007,
also see
here,
here, and
here). I feel it's the prettiest hike
on the NC/TN border, and I wanted Mike to see it.
We
started at Carver's Gap heading north and were
surprised by the amount of snow on the balds.
In many places we were hiking in 6 or more inches.
Mike is an avid hunter so he pointed out numerous
animal tracks in the snow including deer, wild
turkey, and bear. Since I'm not a hunter his
knowledge of this made it very interesting for me,
and I would have walked right by the large bear
tracks (seen in photo below) without noticing if he
would have not been there to point it out.
With
our late start and limited sunlight we hiked only
about five miles on Friday, which put us right
around Yellow Mountain Gap. We explored a bit
around the Overmountain Barn and met a guy from
South Carolina who was staying at the barn for the
night. We then refilled our water and headed
on up the trail for another couple tenths of a mile
where we decided to set up camp on the exact spot
that I camped earlier in the year with Shannon and
the kids.
We had
a very windy evening, which made it tough putting up
our tents and getting situated, but we eventually
got our stoves and a fire going, so we ate well, and
stayed warm throughout the night.
(Click
all images for larger photos)
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Lots of Snow Near Round Bald and Jane Bald |
Mike With Roan
Mountain in the Background
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Bill Near the
Trail Leading to Grassy Ridge |
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We got
everything packed up and ready to go the next
morning around 8:30, and then began our climbs
across Little Hump and Hump Mountain (also see
here and
here
for my previous visits to the "Humps"). It was
another windy and cloudy day so the views were again
a little disappointing on the summits, but in the
gaps we were below the clouds so they were still
very good. As we were on the summit of Hump
Mountain, we were completely in the clouds, but as
we came down Houston Ridge we had some interesting
views with ominous clouds hanging just above us.
After
Houston Ridge we descended for a couple of miles to
Doll Flats where we ate lunch and refilled our water
in a very low flowing spring. It also started
to rain on us soon after, but it didn't last long.
We kept descending and eventually made it down to
19E around noon.
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Bear Tracks in the Snow Near Stan Murray Shelter |
Bill on the Summit of Little Hump With Clouds on
Big Hump in the Background |
Low Hanging Clouds Coming Down from Hump Mountain |
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We
kept going after we made the 19E road crossing, and
I had intentions of taking Mike on to Jones Falls
and then on a side trail to end our hike at Elk
River Falls. This would have been about 7 more
miles, but after the climb up from 19E I felt like
I'd hit a brick wall. I think the stomach bug
I had been fighting for the past couple of days
finally caught up with me, so we decided to quit
after a mile or so. We turned around and
headed back to the road where Shannon soon picked us
up, and took us back to my car at Carver's Gap.
Other than this glitch in our plans, we had a really
good hike and a very good time. I look forward
to hiking more with Mike in the future.
Total Miles Hiked: 16.0 |
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