Grassy Ridge Backpack

The weather Saturday morning was ominous. As we pulled out of town (around 10:40 AM), dark clouds hung low in Knoxville. When we reached Elizabethton, dark clouds gave way to light rain and fog. A lunch break in one of several Elizabethton Mexican restaurants along Highway 91, did little to cheer us up. We all considered Plan B (bailing), but kept our thoughts to ourselves as we returned to our cars and headed to Carver’s Gap, the starting point of our winter backpack. Looked like we were in for just about the worst possible weather for camping on an open bald, rain (with no place to pitch a tarp) and temperatures just above freezing. Could be a long afternoon and evening trapped in our tents.

A 3,900′ climb on a very windy road is required to reach Carver’s Gap. Much to our surprise, the higher we drove, the drier the road became. Somewhere along the road, we broke through the clouds and the traces of rain disappeared completely. Although we piled out of our cars and smack into a brisk wind, the sun was shining and we could see big patches of blue sky!

Carver’s Gap, elevation 5,512′ is located in Tennessee at the crossing point of the Appalachian Trail between Roan Mountain and Round Bald. It is the low point in the Roan Mountain ridgeline and just a few steps away from the North Carolina border. We parked in the Gap and picked up the AT headed north, our hike would take us across the first three balds beyond Roan Mountain.

Our group crossing over Round Bald. The beginning of the climb to the top of Jane’s Bald is located on the middle left of the photo (the grassy mountain side)

Picture from the top of Jane Bald looking back toward Round Bald (the 1st visible grassy bald)

Rhododendron and the mountains of North Carolina

The trail was muddy from several days of rain and our boots quickly became heavy with the dark, black soil. We crossed the first bald, Round Bald (5826′) at a fast pace, stopping at the top to take pictures of the panoramic views….low hanging clouds floating in and out of mountain ridges, as far as the eye could see. The wind remained brisk so we hurried down the back side and up the next bald, Jane Bald (5807′). The AT turns to the left on top of Jane Bald but we took the right fork toward Grassy Ridge, our destination for the evening.

Blue skies, low clouds and sunshine from the back of Grassy Ridge. A mountain range peaks above the clouds in the left side of the photo, just above the pine trees.

After stopping for more photos on the back side of Grassy Ridge, we hiked to our campsite for the evening, an open field with a vicious wind blowing up the back, over the top and down the other side. Level campsites are plentiful but a person is really “out there” with the weather. We were lucky, the temperature remained around freezing although the wind chill took it down to the 20’s.

Bill gazing at the ever changing clouds

Our campsite, beautiful but exposed.

Andy and Jonathon

We arrived around 4:00 PM, set up camp and spent time gathering wood. We never did use the wood, the wind was just too strong and flying embers would be risky. I stayed warm and toasty until we settled down for dinner. Hand warmers kept my hands warm, an assortment of fleece, down, wool and wind resistant fabrics kept my body warm, but I still had issues with my feet. Other members of our group were a little colder and pealed off for the comfort of their sleeping bags around 7:00 PM. Bill and Silke headed to their tent shortly after so John and I packed up our cooking equipment and returned our tent.

Me, gathering wood for the fire we didn’t burn. It will be a nice surprise for the next group of campers 🙂

Sunset from our campsite

John in the tent

Oh, 7:30 PM is too early to crawl in the tent! John lay outside on the ground for a while and gazed up at the clear sky filled with bright, sparkling stars. It was such an incredible sight! We finally settled down a little after 8:00 PM. Amazingly enough, we slept most of the night but were quite really to get up around 7:00 AM.

The wind really blasted against the walls of our tent around during the early part of the night. Somewhere around midnight it stopped but resumed an hour or so before we crawled out at 7:00 AM. We ate breakfast with the wind hitting our backs, it was a chilly affair. We hit the trail a little after 9:00 AM, retracing our steps of the day before. Another lunch, this time in Johnson City and the return drive home. I have been hungry and chilled since. I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep, but hopefully not starting at 7:00 PM.

Headed down Round Bald and back to the car. The low frost line indicates a low cloud line

From right to left: Bill, Silke, Jonathon with Andy standing behind Jonathon.