Overmountain Shelter
6-2-12
AT miles hiked today: 14.5
Total AT miles hiked: 382.7
Today was the coolest, strangest, most awesome day. I was later getting out of the shelter than normal and it was a chilly morning. I headed up Roan Mountain in a cold wind and almost right away I heard Crazy Beard calling down the mountain. "I have a deer following me, a baby." I stopped and waited and sure enough I saw him coming down a side trail with a teeny fawn stumbling behind. It was so young it couldn't really even stand up on its feet. He didn't know what to do with it, so I suggested that he take it back where he found it and run away so it couldn't follow. Then I scratched it's ears and petted it because I couldn't resist its cuteness.
Rockin Robin came along and picked up the baby while Crazy Beard ran down the hill to the road and asked the passing car for a ride to the top of Roan Mountain to where he thought a ranger station must be. In the meantime I took pictures of Robin and I with the fawn. I was upset because the camera on my phone stopped working as I tried to video the fawn following Crazy Beard. It hasn't worked again, and I don't know what to do. I won't be able to share pictures on my blog without the camera on my phone. I am still taking some pictures with my "real" camera but I won't be able to upload them like I was. My blog is also behind because I hadn't been able to get the app to upload my entries even when I rarely have had service. But I'll email my entries now. They just may not have pictures.
Anyway, I took pictures with his camera while he was gone. When he came back he said the driver wouldn't take him up the mountain. So he decided to carry the deer up the mountain to the Ranger station himself. Rockin Robin helped him fashion a sling and I headed up to see if I could find help. I met two guys coming down the mountain who said there was no ranger station on the top. I asked them to tell that to Crazy Beard. They would know him by the beard and the baby deer. Then I hiked to the top, wondering what had happened. At the top I saw the other women I've started hiking with and they said they had seen pictures with me and the fawn, and Crazy Beard was over at the parking area with bagels he had gotten from the bike race that just ended.
He told me that he had met the two hikers heading down the mountain and they offered to help him with the fawn. They all went back down to the road and because this time he was holding the fawn, Crazy Beard got a ride right away, with a family with two kids and a dog. They went to the ranger station down the road and the ranger said another doe would adopt the baby most likely. So he left the fawn with the Ranger and got a ride to the top of Roan mountain and beat me there.
After Roan mountain we headed up some beautiful balds, that are part of the Roan Highlands. The Rhododendrons and Azaleas were in bloom and I had a great time with my camera. The day ended at the shelter, which is a barn with an amazing view. The guys lit a big fire and played some music (they hike with a drum and banjo) and we watched the nearly full moon rise right in front of us. It was stunningly beautiful and my favorite shelter and favorite views so far. I would hike those balds again anytime, but especially in early June when the flowers are in bloom.