The three of us at Cherry Gap were all in sleeping bags ready to sleep, it was after 9 and the last light was fading when someone new showed up at the shelter. I didn’t find out until morning but he goes by High King. The first thing he did was light a cigarette, then spent easily 30 minutes messing around outside with his headlamp on before finally going to bed. Luckily, those are the type that are easy to leave quickly behind, he was only planning on about six miles today.
I had that covered by about 11, the first part of a big day. The first 12 miles were pretty standard, multiple small ups and downs, but the last 4.5 was the big climb up to the Roan Highlands. It was long but mostly reasonably graded, the exception being the final mile to the summit. The climb was made more enjoyable by some of the best forest scenery yet. Dense green all around, at higher elevation the spruce forest reemerged. The Roan Shelter is in the spruce area, and it is the highest shelter on the AT and the last place before New Hampshire over 6000 feet. The shelter is rather upscale, complete with a fourth wall, windows that close, a second story loft and a door. The company tonight is a church group, a couple teenagers, a college age guy, some parents. They have the loft, Strider and I are downstairs. The church group had a fire going which is nice as it’s pretty cold this high up.
Feels amazing to have knocked off back to back 5000+ foot climbs and be almost to Virginia. 32 days in and the next day that looks like it will be as tough as these two is close to 500 miles away. Even these days didn’t seem too bad, especially without those boots! Strider and I are looking forward to catching up to DJ again and meeting Raven. I got a text from DJ and apparently he met her, told her that I had been going by Raven. At the same shelter where I had lunch had turned on my phone to see DJs message I checked the logbook and Raven signed it, “the real and only Raven.” We figure we’ll catch them in a few more days, haven’t seen anyone else doing 16+ miles/day through this section.