4/19

It rained again last night. I keep hearing that the warm days are coming, but all I have greeted the majority of the the time is more almost discouraging weather. Today is the day for a longer day, with hope that the rain was clear for the day I set out. A few miles down the trail a road crosses over and to my great surprise there was trail magic. 2 different couples had set up tables and coolers with different food stuffs. You would think arhat after gorging myself the day before I would have learned my lesson. There really is no overdoing food on the trail. Every hiker is gonna burn an incredulous amount of calories and to help fight that, we eat unnecessary amounts when it is offered free to us. So a list again of what I ate..

3 hot dogs with spicy mustard, onions, cole slaw 

Many handfuls of giant pretzels

1 yoohoo

1 purple powerade 

4 hard boiled eggs

1 bowl of cereal with whole milk 

A few handfulls of cheesy poofs

2 clementines 

1 natural light 

Now I will say this, we as hikers continuously joke about how we wish trail angels occasionally had beer. I almost passed up the beer because it was still very early in the morning. I also arrived at the magic first, so I didn't want to be the only hiker sucking down natural light. When the rest of the group showed up we all celebrated naturday properly.... 

The only problem I have with this trail magic is how inconveniently it is located. Right before a continuous couple hours of rigorous uphill climb. Roan mountain is one adversary to be contended with by itself, stuffed with trail magic it is a completely different demon entirely. I learned that until a few years ago it was a straight climb up the mountain, it wasn't until recently that switchbacks were added.  I have never been so thankful for switchbacks. I feel like I had the mobility of a pregnant woman with a bladder to match. The uphill climb althought gradual did nothing to initially ease my stomach. Maybe when I receive retail magic in the future I shouldn't treat my body like a trashcan I which to stuff calories.

Once I reached the far side of roan it had begun to rain some. After Roan there is a series of balds to cross. Usually I am sure they are very pretty sights, but the wind was whipping very hard and with not a strip of shelter it made for terrible viewing conditions. Just after passing the height of the bald it began to sleet. Matched with the wind I pulled my hood down lest it sting my face. Twice before I pulled my hood down I was caught in the eye by pieces of sleet. Both moments had me cursing a collection of furious words that would have scarred any small children passing. The trail only got mucky from there. I made it to over mountain shelter initially to eat a late lunch and then head on my way to a campsite. I had heard from both of my previous trail angels that it was a beautiful spot, and everything they said about the place was an understatement. The shelter is an old barn that has been reconstituted into shelter space sitting halfway up a rim of a valley. No other human scar can be seen from this place except at night where only a handful of I guts flicker in the distance. With sleet and wind still coming down although slower I would rather sit in  a beautiful shelter. The afternoon was spent jut enjoying the scenery.

2 guys who I had shared space in the super 8 with, big spoon and toast arrived soon after. The story with these 2 is, they both are I carrying a musical instrument. Toast carries a banjo and big spoon carries a fiddle. With the sun setting and the beautiful valley giving off a plethora of color from the sunset, the scene was only added to when they began to play. They played until dark after many rousing songs and lots of pictures from everyone. When the sun set just over one of the mountains, the rays still cast on the far side of the valley. The storm was being pushed out by the wind at the same time, revealing a double rainbow at sunset. The scene was magnificent all the while being serenaded by the duo. 

I have plenty of pictures now I think. I also have a few videos which I will have to figure out how to embed into the posts next town visit.