Apple Orchard Shelter (5-2-10)

Last night, I slept at Roan High Knob shelter, which was near the top of Roan Mtn, above 6000 ft. It was a pretty sweat shelter with a door (which almost closed), a couple windows (which almost closed) and an attic. It was built by the CCC for the fire warden, but went out of use in the 40s, I believe. It was the first time I actually slept well in a shelter.

Coming down from Roan Mtn in the morning, I crossed a parking lot and followed an exposed ridge for a few miles. It was some of the most enjoyable hiking I've done this whole trip. The Mtns are scenic to being with, but what made it so great were the rain clouds flying right over the Mtn (w/o dropping any rain, btw). After a couple days of climbing and sweating and mostly just enduring, I was having a blast just trying tyo stay on the trail. The wind gusts were so powerful, that I was having to walk at an angle just to stay upright.

After the first few balds, I caught up with Funky Monkey and Lorod, who were looking for ramps to add to their lunches. I had no idea what ramps looked like and I had assumed that they were hidden in patches far from the trail, but in fact they are pretty common - at least on this section of the trail. They have two verticle leaves and a purple stems and if you smell them, they smell a bit like onion. I picked one leaf and took a bite. "You can eat these raw, right?" "Yes, but that's normally the sort of thing you ask before doing."

From AT 2010

I was planning on staying at a hostel tonight, because the most convenient shelter (Apple Orchard shelter) is supposedly dangerous to stay at. Back in the 70's, the ATC apparenly had to resort to eminent domain in order to keep the trail sufficiently wild. The locals (understandably) did not like tis and have ever since held a grudge againts the AT and hikers. Another hiker was telling me that the shelter gets vandalized and was even burned to the ground once.

From AT 2010

Late in the day, I ran in to a couple who were saying tyhat the hostel was all booked-up and also that there was a big thunderstorm on the way - so, I ended-up up staying at Apple Orchard anyway. For most of the evening, I had the shelter to myself, so I got to practice some camping skills w/o an audience. I hung a perfect bear bag - even though it's supposedly safe to keep your food in the shelter here. I also built a fire too, even though it was warm enough w/o a fire. Yup, I'm the real deal.

My next re-supply point is one and a half days from here and it's supposed to rain early tomorrow, so I plan on sleeping in late tomorrow.