Thanks to everyone's suggestions on the forum my husband and I hiked through the Roan Highlands last weekend (August 12thish) and we loved it.
Friday we drove down to Kincora hostel and stayed overnight with Bob who drove us to Carver's Gap on Saturday. The balds the first day were beautiful and the weather was perfect. Several thunderstorms popped up but they all missed us.
We hiked the balds all day Saturday and camped at Doll Flats in a clearing. We used our new Steripen to purify the water and it worked great (as in we didn't get Gardia!). It was so fast too, it took 10 min to fill 6 water-bottles and purify. The clearing was perfect for hammocks, unfortunately a big storm rolled in around 2am. My husband's hammock stayed dry but mine got wet - the ridgeline of my tarp leaked so I got up and used an emergency mylar blanket to deflect the water. I also had a bit of a cold butt, it got a bit colder there than we anticipated.
The next day we hiked to the Mountaineer shelter. The trail on the second day had less grand views but the forest was so nice. We passed a lot of sections of pine forest - I love pine. By the time we got to the river we were tired though and wanted to reach the shelter. We hung our hammocks on the second story as it was going to and did rain heavily that night.
We hiked to Dennis Cove the third day - it was a long and hard hike that was mostly downhill. It was my least favorite section, but mostly because our backpacks were both broken by this point (we purchased new Ospreys as soon as we got home). We took a shower at Bob's and drove home.
It was a great trip! Thanks to everyone who recommend it and gave us the info. My husband liked it so much that he has decided he wants to section hike the whole AT - something I have been wanting to do for a long time.
Some closing pics.
Bookmarks