April 4th - Day 31 - Overmountain Shelter to Mountian Harbour
Well, I get out of my sleeping bag to cook, eat breakfast, and watch the sunrise. 3 Mile, Mama Bear, and Halfmoon follow suit. I may have hyped the sunrise a bit last night. It's still park, stars are out as I lay out my cook set and food bag. It's a little chilly an there's a slight breeze coming up from the valley. It's very silent in the woods. So when the first bird calls out, its sound pierces the morning air. Slowly getting brighter. My expectation far exceeds the truth of the sunrise. By 8 when everyone is up and I am headed out on trail the sun has just peaked out Hump mountain. for some reason I thought it would rise through the valley all picturesque like. But the Overmountain shelter was in a valley protected form the mourning sun, one of the last places to get light this late winter morning.

The Overmountain Shelter

The hike today is another one of the many great hikes on the AT. Through the Roan Highlands bald, up and over Little Hump and Hump. Up on Hump with Dan and Live, we watch a small heard of deer crossing the bald below us.

Live-n-Learn and Handsome Dan hiking up Hump Mountain.

Just as we are nearing the treeline, Tree Frog and Squirrel caught up to us and noted that there was a thunderstorm coming in. Sure enough the clouds were upon us and the our pace picked up a little on the decent.

At the road, with the rain still threatening, we took a three tenths road walk Mountian Harbour. Fresh Grounds had heralded this place as having the best breakfast on the AT. Coming from Freshy G himself, these words hang heavy in our mind as we checked in. Yes, I'll have the breakfast. Blink, Rambo, Live, Halfmoon, Dan, Mama Bear, Cheeseburger, Baggie, Tree Frog, Squirrel, took the shuttle to get BBQ in town and re-up on snacks. It was still afternoon as Rambo broke into the collection of VHS in the hostel, Braveheart is up first. Squirrel and I hitched to go get PBRs. Cheeseburgers bithday is tonight, so these cause to celebrate... not as though we needed one. Finally got my mail drop that was bounced from Hot Springs. Another great night on the Appalachian Trail.