Day 40 - 10th May, 2010 - Greasy Creek Gap - Roan Mt - Stan Murray Shelter - 13.3 miles

We leave the hostel and climb back to the trail and meet up with Mountain Camel again. Mountain Camel is trying to organise some 'trail magic' for hikers by providing a free barbeque lunch, which is going to be delivered by his partner Delilah, at Carver Gap. We look forward in anticipation.

We stop at the Clyde Smith shelter early in the day to read the log book. Crafty has written that Samantha, her hiking partner [Snickers] has left the trail and gone home, leaving Crafty on her own. Samantha was doing this as a school project, and now that school has finished, she has terminated the walk.

We find three cans of beer left on the trail - with a note to wish us well on the climb up Roan Mt. Digby and I share one between us - yuk - warm light beer at 10.00am in the morning. The things hikers do to themselves and I don't even like beer! Mountain camel drinks one and we leave one for those coming behind us.

Alison drinking a beer with Mountain Camel

Can of beer with note

It is a long climb up Roan Mt., but the weather is clear and we make good time. Halfway up we step aside to let Jason move on through - a young fit man in his stride. As I watch in awe at the speed he is hiking, I make a crucial observation - he is using two hiking poles, and he is using them as you would use ski stocks in cross country skiiing. They are powering him up the slope as much as his legs. Up until now I have only been using one pole. I realise this is a big mistake - I am missing out on the power of my arms to propel me up the slopes. I make a note to myself to buy an extra hiking pole at the next town. This observation is to change my whole hiking speed to be much faster.

The top of Roam Mt is an old resort from the 1880s.

Summit of Roan Mountain

Chimney from the old resort

We follow the old horse trail down the mountain - it is very rocky and eroded and we get bruised feet.

We arrive at Carvers Gap expecting a free barbeque lunch courtesy of Mountain Camel and Delilah. There are eight other hikers waiting for Mountain Camel to deliver lunch - it is now 3 pm and he has not turned up. We don't hang around. We never see or hear about Mountain Camel again.

We cross the road at Carvers Gap and climb the first two balds. The weather is closing in and it is very windy so we decide to stop at the Stan Murray Shelter to camp. The hikers following us decide to continue to the next shelter another 3 miles along the trail - Overmountain Shelter which is an old barn and quite famous as a film set.