Day 35

Origin: Campsite at the Orchard
Destination: Overmountain Shelter
Today's miles: 19.5
Total miles: 383.9

Biggest day yet. We had an easy morning, with cool, partly cloudy weather and rolling terrain. Right before lunch, we had a short but strenuous climb up Little Rock Knob. Knowing we had a big climb up Roan Mountain, I was not amused with the AT planners for finding it necessary to have us climb seemingly every single summit in the Appalachian range and I muttered to myself that there better be a view up top. Thankfully, there was and it was great (picture below). It was also the last view we'd have until we finished our 19.5 miles.

From Little Rock Knob, we could see the hulking Roan Mountain was enveloped in clouds. I hoped it would clear up because we've missed views from many of the big mountains lately. Just as we started the ascent, the clouds went away and I thought we got lucky. Not so fast. By the time we reached the top, a thick fog rolled in with high winds. We saw nothing at Roan High Knob, the last 6,000 ft mountain we'll climb on this trip (those doing the whole trail won't meet another until Mt. Washington in New Hampshire).

I thought the tough part of the day was over, but I was wrong. The Roan Highlands has the longest stretch of grassy balds in the Appalachians and we had to walk through it. Normally this would be nice, but with high winds and no trees, we took a pounding. Several times, we had to steady ourselves to stay on the trail. It was easily the strongest wind we've hiked in so far.

Around 7pm, we finally pulled into our destination, a barn converted into a shelter. It was a very quaint shelter with a great view (pictures below) but we were too tired to enjoy it too much and the wind was getting colder. We made dinner quickly and got into bed.

We have a shorter day to Mountain Harbor Hostel tomorrow.