4/30 Sunday: Stan Murray Shelter to US19 Mountain harbor B&B (10.4mi)

What a night!!! Between Steve snoring and my feet and nose freezing, I didn't get much sleep... We woke to near freezing temps and misty skies and decided the only way to warm up was to get going... We were off by 0730 and stopped into see the Overmountain Shelter, a large converted barn that could sleep up to 20 hikers... The only one of its kind on the trail and apparently use as a backdrop for a movie years ago called "Winter People". They weren't any more comfortable there overnight with the wind blowing between the boards causing quite a draft... There was a number of good camp sites here though and a precious privy...the only one available for miles around... So yes we've been doing a lot of squatting in the woods over a hole.... LOL... After taking a few pics we were again on our way in time to feel the first of many rain drops of the day... Its still in the 40s and now its raining and were headed for a series of bald mountains. So with our rain gear on we set out to cross the balds... An estimated sustained 60mph wind was blowing the rain mixed with SLEET... That hurt... My fingers were frozen from the start and by the time we ended our trek across the balds, I could no longer hold my hiking poles with my hands. I tucked them under my arm for our descent and after being out of the wind for a hour, feeling started to come back... Steve and I had planned to get a hot meal off the US19 road but decided to stay the night to get the chill out of our bones... We found that we weren't the only ones to do so with the B&B filling up that night... We met "Steech" on the way to US19 and got into the B&B about 1300 and had a very pleasant evening there. Steech, Steve, and I all shuttled up to the nearest restaurant for a very nice meal. Steech headed back on the trail while we relaxed at the B&B warming up and drying out.
PICTURES:
1. The Overmountain Barn shelter and camping area...
2. Inside the 2nd floor of the "Barn" at Mountain Harbor B&B... Pretty nice accomodations... Thats Steve in the loft which sleeps 4.
3. Outside pic of the actual "Barn" that we resided in. Our entrance was in the back. Nice deck back there also..
4. Pic from the deck of the 3 horses that would come and go from the pasture...
5. Approaching view of the Mountain Harbor complex..