his year, so we packed up our backpacks and drove up to Roan TN. Where we hiked from Carvers Gap to 19E. I had called the Mountain Harbour B&B and set up a 10am shuttle. They also kept an eye on our car for the night. We reach a foggy trail head around 10:45am. and the first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was a the chilly wind, slapping my face and arms. I had checked the weather before I left and was expecting an 80 degree day and 60 degree night. So when I saw that the temperature on my little thermometer was hovering around 60 degrees I was a bit worried. I had on short sleeves, but thank goodness I had on long pants. Boo and I pulled on our rain jackets for added warmth and started th
e climb from Carvers Gap (5,512).I love how we enter the Spruce forest at the beginning of the trail. The huge trees remind me of some magical, Christmas tree scented, fairyland and the trail is so soft from all the pine needles on the ground. We make it through the enchanting forest and over Round Bald (5,826). We then descend a bit down to Engine Gap and climb up Jane's bald (5,807), only to go down again and up to Grassy Bald (6,050). All within 2 miles, leaving my hiking legs loose and warmed up. Boo and I decide to have lunch at Grassy bald. It's still pretty foggy and chilly, but we bust out the tortillas, spread cream cheese on them, and layer on the Canadian bacon. Since we didn't bring much water (because the AT companion guide says lots of springs along the trail) we sip on our water and make it a point to refill at the first spring.
After lunch, we strap on the packs and start our descent down to Stan Murray Shelter (5,050) and hopefully a blue blaze that will take us to some water. We see a bunch of ATC volunteers re-routing the once straight and steep trail, into switchbacks. Boo and I take the time out to thank each volunteer, cause this is some hard work! We know from experience. The trail is sooooo much better with the switchbacks, it makes a nice gradual descent. We get to a full Stan Murray Shelter and it looks like another group of hikers had the same idea, to stop, take a load off, and chill for a while. We say our hello's and keep going down the blue blaz
e trail in search of some water. The water situation was pathetic. Just a trickle into what looked like a puddle. It was bad. I still tried to filter some water, but ended up filtering up mud. We decided to just keep going to the campsite and hopefully pass some water along the way. After a few more miles we pass the turn off for Overmountain shelter (4,682). We've stayed at the "red barn" before, so we have no interest in taking a 1/3 mile detour to see it. But if you've never seen it, it is definitely worth a peek. Set in a hidden little gap with an amazing view. We continue and start ascending up Yellow Mountain. Towards the middle of the ascent I turn around and check out the view. I can see the balds we hiked over earlier that morning, the gap we descended down, and the Barn (Overmountain) shelter tucked into the valley below. What a feeling of accomplishment, just to see how far we've come already. Not to mention the views!
We continue climbing up and over Yellow mountain and descend down it's back side into a forest. Afte
r emerging from the forest we have one last mountain to climb before we reach our campsite. Little Hump is a bald, grassy mountain with views all around. By now we are all exhausted, and that 60 degree temperature, well it decided to start dropping on us. Personally, I would rather have a climb first in the morning, then have a climb the last part of the day, but hey, we made it this far, and it's just one last climb. We get to the top of Little Hump (5,459) and are greeted with 35-40 mph winds just whipping thru us. We both drop our packs and lay down next to the dogs to rest for a minute. I would of stayed down longer, but the wind is making the already low temperature really chilly. I start pulling out the thermarest sleep pad to blow up and Boo starts to assemble the tent. It's obvious that he needs me to help him, because the tent and rain fly are wildly flapping all over the place, so I throw my pack on top of the thermarests and help. We stake the tent down, clip in the rain fly, throw the pads, pillows, and sleeping bags in the tent, and climb in. I was so cold that my teeth started chattering, so I drape in my down bag around me to warm up. Boo changes into warmer dryer clothes and ventures back out to secures our packs and hiking poles. I start arranging the inside of the tent and start pulling out the food bags. Boo then starts to boil the water for our freeze dried Lasagna, which was yummy goooood. (Probably b/c it was so cold outside the hot food just tasted that much better. )We decide to call it an early night, (not even 8:30pm yet). We zip up the vestibule of the tent and let Thing 1 sleep there, and little Thing 2 is pushed into th
e back of our two man tent. It's a tight fit, but at least we are all going to sleep warm tonight! Around 10pm, we heard loud popping sounds, so we peeked out of the tent and catch a bit of the fireworks show from all the surrounding small towns below. It was pretty neat. We couldn't bear the cold any longer, so we jumped back into the tent and had a fitful night of sleep on the ground. (I missed my hammock!)
e trail in search of some water. The water situation was pathetic. Just a trickle into what looked like a puddle. It was bad. I still tried to filter some water, but ended up filtering up mud. We decided to just keep going to the campsite and hopefully pass some water along the way. After a few more miles we pass the turn off for Overmountain shelter (4,682). We've stayed at the "red barn" before, so we have no interest in taking a 1/3 mile detour to see it. But if you've never seen it, it is definitely worth a peek. Set in a hidden little gap with an amazing view. We continue and start ascending up Yellow Mountain. Towards the middle of the ascent I turn around and check out the view. I can see the balds we hiked over earlier that morning, the gap we descended down, and the Barn (Overmountain) shelter tucked into the valley below. What a feeling of accomplishment, just to see how far we've come already. Not to mention the views!We continue climbing up and over Yellow mountain and descend down it's back side into a forest. Afte
r emerging from the forest we have one last mountain to climb before we reach our campsite. Little Hump is a bald, grassy mountain with views all around. By now we are all exhausted, and that 60 degree temperature, well it decided to start dropping on us. Personally, I would rather have a climb first in the morning, then have a climb the last part of the day, but hey, we made it this far, and it's just one last climb. We get to the top of Little Hump (5,459) and are greeted with 35-40 mph winds just whipping thru us. We both drop our packs and lay down next to the dogs to rest for a minute. I would of stayed down longer, but the wind is making the already low temperature really chilly. I start pulling out the thermarest sleep pad to blow up and Boo starts to assemble the tent. It's obvious that he needs me to help him, because the tent and rain fly are wildly flapping all over the place, so I throw my pack on top of the thermarests and help. We stake the tent down, clip in the rain fly, throw the pads, pillows, and sleeping bags in the tent, and climb in. I was so cold that my teeth started chattering, so I drape in my down bag around me to warm up. Boo changes into warmer dryer clothes and ventures back out to secures our packs and hiking poles. I start arranging the inside of the tent and start pulling out the food bags. Boo then starts to boil the water for our freeze dried Lasagna, which was yummy goooood. (Probably b/c it was so cold outside the hot food just tasted that much better. )We decide to call it an early night, (not even 8:30pm yet). We zip up the vestibule of the tent and let Thing 1 sleep there, and little Thing 2 is pushed into th
e back of our two man tent. It's a tight fit, but at least we are all going to sleep warm tonight! Around 10pm, we heard loud popping sounds, so we peeked out of the tent and catch a bit of the fireworks show from all the surrounding small towns below. It was pretty neat. We couldn't bear the cold any longer, so we jumped back into the tent and had a fitful night of sleep on the ground. (I missed my hammock!) The next morning we were up early enough to catch the sunrise, see the fog float in between the valleys, and catch a glimpse of the mountain we would climb. Hump Mountain. Wow, how intimidating did that thing look. It was HUGE! We admired the views from our campsite one last time then took down our tent, fed the dogs, packed our pack up, and ate some Kashi bars for breakfast before descending down into a forest. After a mile or so we emerged from the forest and on the the base of Hump Mountain. We crossed the grassy bald at Bradley gap (4,960)and started our ascent up Hump Mountain (5,587). About half way up there was a nice set of rock outcroppings where we decided to enjoy a PB&J snack and admire the views. I checked thermometer and it read 43 degrees. Nice brisk morning for an uphill hike in July! Seriously, 43 degrees in July. Anyways, we got back on the trail and rounded the top of Hump Mountain. The 360 views were impressive, but I still thought the views climbing up it were better. This place is known to have long horn steer roaming around, but we didn't see any this early in the morning. We started our descent and decided to take a water break on a small roc
k cropping. As we were sitting there, the same group we ran into at the Stan Murray shelter came along, two couples and two dogs. We exchanged hello's, they continued on while we continued lounging on our rock watching them disappear over the ridge. We finally got up after 30 mins. and continued descending. All of the sudden Boo goes, do you smell that. I look down and see 3 or 4 dried up cow patties and before I can answer, Boo goes, "uuummmm the strawberries smell so good." Then the sweet scent of wild strawberries hits me. Yum :) I bet they taste just as sweet and juicy too. Funny how the smallest things can make such a big impact on you when your hiking. I think I thought about those berries the rest of the way down the mountain.
k cropping. As we were sitting there, the same group we ran into at the Stan Murray shelter came along, two couples and two dogs. We exchanged hello's, they continued on while we continued lounging on our rock watching them disappear over the ridge. We finally got up after 30 mins. and continued descending. All of the sudden Boo goes, do you smell that. I look down and see 3 or 4 dried up cow patties and before I can answer, Boo goes, "uuummmm the strawberries smell so good." Then the sweet scent of wild strawberries hits me. Yum :) I bet they taste just as sweet and juicy too. Funny how the smallest things can make such a big impact on you when your hiking. I think I thought about those berries the rest of the way down the mountain. We finally make it thru the fence gate and say good bye to the bald hiking. For the next 5 miles, it's all downhill forest hiking. Might sound easy, but most if it is steep, downhill, on rocks hiking. You have to slow down to place your foot just right, otherwise you could slip, twist your ankle, fall, or all three. Not good. So it was slow going and did I mention we still haven't found water yet? All of us were getting pretty dehydrated, especially Boo. He tends to slow down, get a bit disoriented, and grouchy. So I knew we needed water ASAP. With around 3 miles to go we ran into an elderly couple, decked out in ATC gear, out for a day hike at the Doll Flats (4,560). I say elderly because they had to of been in their late 70's. Which I think is awesome by the way. I hope to be hiking well into my 70's too! . The first thing I asked them was if there was any water in the spring that was suppose to be there. The wife was so helpful and told me that yes, there was a spring, but they did not actually use it. I asked her if there was a stream, that I had remembered reading in the companion book, within a mile from here. She said yes, she remembers passing a stream. The husband gets all grandpa on us and scolds us by saying that HE makes it a point to never day hike with out adequate water. I smile and politely thank them for the info. He must think we're total rookies out here. I guess I could of told him that we are backpacking and have water but are conserving b/c our companion book is outdated and has been entirely wrong on all the water sources. But I don't. I just grin and 
mind my elders. I'm just happy there's a stream in our near future! We agree that we can make it one more mile for the stream, if we stop to rest and grab a snack. So in the middle of the steep, rocky trail, we stop and eat some beef jerky and sip on our remaining water. We load back up and hike down the rocky, sketchy trail and then we hear it. The dogs hear it too. The Stream! I have to hold the dogs back while Boo climbs down, off the trail, with our filter to check it out. He clears us and I just drop the leashes, the dogs tumble down into the stream and lap up the water. I go and get Boo's bladder and nalgene out of his pack to fill up. As soon as he has one nalgene full of cold, refreshing, filtered water he hands it to me to drink. I down the liter in under a minute and hand it back to him to refill. He refills and downs a liter himself. By the way, the dogs are still lapping up water. We finally get cameled up and hop back on the trail. For the next two miles, Boo blazes down the trail like he is on fire, we make it to the Apple Mountain Shelter in less then an hour and decide to take a break cause our feet were hurting a bit. From the shelter it's only a mile and 1/3 to our car, so we take our time relaxing. I given the dogs their peanut butter dog biscuit snack and some more water. After about 30 minutes the promise of a cheeseburger and a HUGE icy cold diet coke motivate us to finish up. We walk the mile down to 19E (2,880) and then scurry across the highway for the last 1/3 mile to the Bed and Breakfast for our car. We made it! Section hike crossed off the list! I can't wait to take off my boots, slip into some flip flops, and have an icy cold diet coke! Off we go in search of a cold drink and tasty cheeseburger. Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!!!
mind my elders. I'm just happy there's a stream in our near future! We agree that we can make it one more mile for the stream, if we stop to rest and grab a snack. So in the middle of the steep, rocky trail, we stop and eat some beef jerky and sip on our remaining water. We load back up and hike down the rocky, sketchy trail and then we hear it. The dogs hear it too. The Stream! I have to hold the dogs back while Boo climbs down, off the trail, with our filter to check it out. He clears us and I just drop the leashes, the dogs tumble down into the stream and lap up the water. I go and get Boo's bladder and nalgene out of his pack to fill up. As soon as he has one nalgene full of cold, refreshing, filtered water he hands it to me to drink. I down the liter in under a minute and hand it back to him to refill. He refills and downs a liter himself. By the way, the dogs are still lapping up water. We finally get cameled up and hop back on the trail. For the next two miles, Boo blazes down the trail like he is on fire, we make it to the Apple Mountain Shelter in less then an hour and decide to take a break cause our feet were hurting a bit. From the shelter it's only a mile and 1/3 to our car, so we take our time relaxing. I given the dogs their peanut butter dog biscuit snack and some more water. After about 30 minutes the promise of a cheeseburger and a HUGE icy cold diet coke motivate us to finish up. We walk the mile down to 19E (2,880) and then scurry across the highway for the last 1/3 mile to the Bed and Breakfast for our car. We made it! Section hike crossed off the list! I can't wait to take off my boots, slip into some flip flops, and have an icy cold diet coke! Off we go in search of a cold drink and tasty cheeseburger. Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!!! 
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