Dennis Cove to Moreland Gap Shelter 16 NOV 15

In preparation for my upcoming AT hike, I have been looking at all the videos on YouTube, reading all the blogs, and looking at AWOL's AT Guide. Much of my gear has been purchased, and much of my plan has been completed, but before this week, I had yet to actually step foot on any trail marked by white blazes. Much of the AT in NC, TN, and VA is about 4 to 4 1/2 hours from me, so there is plenty of trail available for hiking if I am willing to make the drive. After a bit of research, I decided to drive to Roan Mountain, TN to park and catch a shuttle to a starting point about 24 miles away, and hike back to my car. The people at Mountain Harbour were more than accommodating when it came to providing parking and a shuttle. They also have a hostel, a B&B, and a general store for anybody who may end up on 19E in Tennessee on a hike. The shuttle dropped me off at Dennis Cove just past 1 pm, and since it was only a 1.3 mile hike in the opposite direction to Laurel Falls, I decided to make the trip. The hike down was pretty steep, and the hike up was even steeper. The round trip to the falls and back was just over an hour. I talked to some hippie kids from Florida in the parking lot for a few minutes, then I headed across the street to start my 5.8 mile trip to Moreland Gap Shelter. Just across the road, I ran into a real life Tennessee mountain man, and we talked for a bit about the local area. As it turns out, he grew up in that area, and he showed me in the open field where his family used to plant their corn, potatoes, and where his grandmother's garden used to be. He has been walking through these mountains hunting and living for 78 years. That day, he was out on the mountains looking for wild honeybee hives, but it turned out that it was too cold, so the bees weren't out flying. After our conversation, I was finally on my way just before 3. With sunset coming at about 5, it was important to keep a brisk, steady pace to make it to the shelter before dark. The first 3 miles was all uphill, with an elevation gain of about 1500 feet. That isn't a big deal if a hiker is in shape, experienced, and has plenty of time before sunset. None of those things applied to me. My trip seemed to be walk 50 feet, stop to catch my breath and rest my legs, and repeat. At one point I just took off my backpack and sat down for about ten minutes while shoving a Clif bar into my face. If I wasn't walking, I wasn't going to reach the shelter, so I eventually got up and continued up the damn mountain. 5 pm was quickly approaching, so I started going over my options in my head. My first option was to just hike until reaching the shelter. Option two was to hike until dark and set up camp for the night. Option three was to bust out the headlamp and hike until a certain time. I went with option three, sort of. At about 5:15 I started using the headlamp and decided to hike until 5:30. At 5:30, I bumped the time up until 6:00 because I felt OK, and there was enough light for me to safely hike. 6 finally rolled around, and still no shelter, so I found a decent spot on the side of the trail that was flat, and cowboy camped for the night. I slept great until 2:47 in the morning when a deer decided to come by to see what was going on. I could see her in the light of my headlamp about 15 yards away, just frolicking like deer do. She's lucky that I didn't have my bow with me. The sun finally woke me up around 7 in the morning, and I crawled out of my sleeping bag and started packing up. When looking around to see what the area looked like in the daylight, I saw it. Just about 75 yards farther down the trail was the Moreland Gap shelter. Yep. Had I kept walking for another minute, I would have found it. Since it didn't rain, it was all good.