Because of the cold and winter weather, I hadn't been able to hit the trail, but that changed on Saturday with a trip to the Roans. The reason I went up to Carvers Gap was to take advantage of the recent winter weather, for a little snowshoeing.
Well, to my surprise there wasn't a lot of snow, but plenty of wind. I knew there was a good chance of this, but being knowing this didn't prepare me for how had it was blowing. It had to be 35 mph, but as it warmed up slightly the winds went up to make up the difference. I almost tapped out at Round Bald (which had a new sign) but pushed on to Jane Bald (also had a new sign), but that is as far as I went.
Instead of heading up to Grassy Ridge Bald, in the howling wind, I decided to head back to Carvers Gap and then up the Appalachian Trail to the shelter on the tree covered Roan High Knob. This proved to be a wise choice as this was a beautiful hike through Fir forest and a very icy and treacherous (that is why I had YakTrak). There was also still clouds hanging on Roan High Knob which earlier covered the Balds too.
When I finally reached the old shelter, it looked like it was sleeting, but it was ice blowing out of the trees. The return trip was a little more hazardous, but the ice was so beautiful. Right near the end, I decided instead of using the footbridge I would walk across a little creek that was completely frozen over.
There would be more ice on the way back as huge areas of frozen ice covered rock faces on the side of the road down from Carvers Gap. As for the day if not for the wind I would have missed the trip up to Roan High Knob, so it turned out to be a good windy day after all.
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