After Dragons Tooth we came to some of the most beautiful overlooks the trail has to offer. McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs. After waking up, we only had a 2 mile hike to McAfee Knob. It was a beautiful warm morning. See picture below. The only complaint was that the sun was still near the horizon and we could not take good photos. Afterwards we hiked several more miles until we took our lunch break on Tinker Cliffs. In the afternoon w
e resupplied in Daleville VA at a Kroger. This time we got orange juice and icecream for our special snack. After eating our snack, we hiked 2 miles to rt 11. There we were planning on hitch hiking into Troutville where there was a park and a volunteer fire department that had free camping, showers, and laundry. Before we could even try hitch hiking, a couple came up and asked us where we were going. We told them and then they invited us to stay at there house for the night. Homer and Theresa through hiked in 2002 with there 2 kids. They spend a lot of their free time going out on the trails to keep them clean and maintain them. We got our showers, did laundry, and then watched a movie with them. They told us to make ourselves at home and they gave us popcorn to go with the movie. Best trail magic so far!
The last 2 days we followed the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRPW). We cross this road about every 5 miles. This makes hiking easier since we follow the ridge. Today (Thursday) we were away from the BRPW and had some huge elevation changes. We started at 3,073 ft then went down to 678 and then back up to 3,372. Due to the difficult terrain and us needing a break, we only went 18 miles today. Just in case you are curious here is the mileage we have been doing recently starting with today's.
18.2, 24.1, 23.5, 19.3, 24.5, 21.9, 21.5,17.2, 21.4, 27.6, 22.9
Tomorrow (Friday) we will resupply in Buena Vista VA. We should be able to resupply enough to get us to the Shenandoah.
You sure do meet some really nice people along the way.
ReplyDeleteThe photos are awesome.
That is really cool sitting on the edge of the cliff like that. I don't think I'd be brave enough to do that though. : )
Love, love these pics. Keep going guys.
ReplyDeleteMy blogger pal Happyone put me on to your blog, and I have finally caught up. I am hiking vicariously through you while I go to work. ;^) You have met a lot of kind and generous people. More of those stories need to make the news.
ReplyDeleteI had a 3 night circuit to that area, to include Dragon's Tooth, planned for last fall. But I had to cancel because of work. I can see that I need to go there for sure.
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