BevoHi - Appalachian Trail Journal - 2016

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McAfee Knob

Day 48: Daleville VA

I hiked 19.8 miles today with a 1963 ft elevation change in 9.22 hours from Catawba VA 311 - Daleville VA to Daleville VA. At this point, I have hiked 727.5 total miles averaging 15.16 miles per day (including 0 days).

McAfee Knob

We woke at 5:45AM to check the weather to see if we were going to risk another day like yesterday. It was confusing because Ren was also looking at the weather. His report showed a 70% chance of rain most of the day, but my weather and Secret Agent's weather showed about a 20% chance of rain all day. We took a quick vote and decided we would go for it. This turned out to be the right call.

Rubix had contacted us yesterday asking if she could ride with us to the location we got picked up yesterday (mile 707.7). We agreed that we would let her know if we were going, so we did. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and picked up Rubix shortly after 6:30AM. We had a tight fit with 7 of us in a 5 passenger car. We told Marci thanks for driving us out there and started our 19.8 mile hike. The first 4 miles were mostly uphill about 1,500 feet on a steady grade. At that point, we reached McAfee Knob.

This was incredible, because we were the only people there for about 20 minutes. We took lots and lots of pictures. Everyone got solo shots. We did group shots and had a final shot with all 6 of us on the knob. This was definitely 1st degree fun (fun in the moment). The wind was blowing hard towards the cliff. I almost lost my hat on my first approach to the knob. The shots with the backpack on were the best in my opinion. There are more pictures in this iCloud shared album: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0RJtdOXmG80yRU

Rubix went her own pace after McAfee knob and ended up cruising pretty fast back to town. She beat us by about 2 hours today.

A few miles later, we reached Tinker Cliffs and took some more pictures of the group. The clouds were out, but so was the sun. It was a great day for pictures!

Ren was a real trooper by hiking nearly 20 miles with us on his first day. He did great until about mile 18 when his knees decided they were going on strike. We were on a final descent into Daleville. We slowed down and he took some vitamin I. We had some great group discussions about how power lines work, green energy, 240V versus 110V power, AC versus DC power, and how different states have different methods of dealing with power distribution. Some have monopolies, others are free markets. Stitch was very interested in how it all works. Most of these discussion were in the last two miles when we really slowed down, and were sparked by the high voltage lines we passed under several times. We could hear the power loss in the crackling under the power lines. We got back to the hotel about 4:30pm.

After we got back, everyone came over to Ren's motel room and watched a slideshow of the McAfee knob pictures. My hands were sweating just looking at the pictures because I am afraid of heights.

We took showers and headed over to the "3 Li'l Pigs" BBQ joint about .4 miles down the road with Rubix, FisherMan. We sat outside because the wait for a table was about an hour and we were hungry. Thru-hikers get a free desert of banana pudding with Nilla waifers.

I'm spending the night in Ren's room to give the other three hikers a bit more space since Marci has gone to see her sister in West Virginia for a couple of days. I spent a little time drying my tarp, hammock, and sleeping bag and repacking it into my backpack from yesterday's rain before writing the journal entry for the day.

We plan to take our 0-day tomorrow and rest up. We may need to make Secret Agent watch "The Princess Bride" tomorrow. Rubix and Fisherman are heading out on the trail tomorrow to try to reach Waynesboro by Friday. We will probably get there on Sunday and take a 0 next Monday.

First: Ren hiked nearly 20 miles with us. We fit 7 people in a 5 person car.

Equipment: I dried a bunch of my wet gear from yesterday's rain. Stitch used her new "Stitch" visor today.

TMI: While the slideshow was running, I took at look at my feet for the day. As I pulled the Leuko tape off my left foot, it tore the skin on a blister and sprayed my upper arm with blister juices. I wish my feet would stop blistering and just callous over finally.

Life is having great weather and capturing awesome pics for McAfee Knob.

Entry 57 of 156
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