Day 28: April 25, 2022
AT mile 377.1 to 392.3
Hiked: 15.2 miles / 24.5 km
AT miles hiked to date: 17.9%

We wake when the sky first lightens at around 6:30 and after a quick breakfast of either muesli or a Granola bar we pack up the tent and set off. This morning we were heading up to the top of Roan Mtn through a pine forest. The pine needles coating the ground silenced our footsteps and we enjoyed the early morning quiet of the shady forest.

Then it was down along what must have once been a road but now is a track of uneven rocks. We passed a stone chimney with no explanation of what it belonged to.

After Roan Mountain descent we came to a line of balds (mountains with no trees on top) and enjoyed the views of surrounding countryside and hills – our reward after the steep climbs.

Although it is only 3 pm we have decided to set up camp and in the morning we will have just a short 3 miles to a road and then to the bed and brekky place which we booked for tomorrow night. The forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow so we will enjoy a clean up and break along with a resupply for the next short section. Given I (Ros) have a pain in my calf (? small soleus tear) I am glad that tomorrow’s hike will be short.

For the last 100 miles or so we have been bouncing to and fro between N Carolina and Tennessee. The state border runs pretty much along the mountain ridge for quite a distance. Our camp ground is right on the border so we are now sitting in Tennessee and leaving North Carolina for good.