Day: 047
Date: Saturday, 10 June 2023
Start: Cove Mt (AT Mile 699.5)
Finish: Daleville (AT Mile 730.3)
Daily Kilometres: 54.3 (Ascent 6063', Descent 7306')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1233.0
Weather: Warm, sunny and humid.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Bacon & egg roll & fries/Sausage & egg roll & fries.
Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich.
Dinner: Pop tarts/Trail mix
Aches: Dave - very tired and a few niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: Many highlights, but picking one, McAfee Knob (3156') was very special. It was a large rock shelf on the northern edge of the mountain top, bathed in sunshine with commanding views to the west, east and north of valleys and mountains. Being a sunny Saturday we were sharing it with many hikers, but there was plenty of space and it didn't seem crowded.
Lowlight: We ended up hiking an hour longer than hoped because of a lot of technical rocky trail in the last six miles that slowed us down. As a result, it was 11;50pm before we reached our motel which was a mile off the trail in Daleville. Dave regretted not booking the lower-rated motel which was much closer to the trail. Then, when we tried to get an ice-cream or thick shake from one of the nearby service stations to supplement our snack dinner on the trail, they weren't available. Then, we got our motel room the TV was not operational, so we had to change our room (for Dave's peace of mind).
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We made an earlier start, 6:00am, partly because we stopped earlier last night, and partly because we planned to complete the Virginia Triple Crown, 20 miles that incorporates the Dragon's Tooth, McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs, three notable high points. Apparently doing them in a day is a thing, and we did meet a few day-hikers going for that goal.
Dragon's Tooth was first on our list after a lovely, if a little testing, hike along a high ridge as the sun rose on a warm day that was already humid. The jagged rock projecting skywards lived up to the hype and there were good views. We didn't attempt to climb to the top, as many do, for both (Dave's) safety and time reasons.
The steep descent from the Dragon's Tooth was very challenging, including narrow ledges, huge step ups and downs, and hanging on with hands in many places. Certainly the most challenging of the trail so far and, though interesting, was very slow for a long period. It delayed our breakfast at the Catawba Grocery, 0.3 miles off the trail at the next road crossing, until after 9:00am. That detour was well worth it and we enjoyed our breakfast seated at a table outside chatting to a couple of college student thru-hikers who had been doing 30 mile days (so they can finish before college resumes). They were planning to get to Daleville today, which we expected to reach tomorrow morning. The previous day we had met some other thru-hikers doing a 30 mile day, including hiking at night, so they could see the sunrise at McAfee Knob. The seed was sown in Dave's mind.
At the point where we left the trail to walk to the Grocery, we caught up with the thru-hiking group we had heard about with the trail name of "32 Feet Up" comprising a mother and 15 children, some biological and some adopted and as young as four years of age. Not sure what we think about such a venture and the responsibility the mother has assumed. They are travelling very slowly, so we won't see them again.
On return to the trail from the Grocery we had a pleasant, but very warm, hike in the sunshine across some meadows with abundant wildflowers before climbing to another long sawtooth ridge that offered filtered views of the valleys far below but involved repeatedly climbing and descending knolls.
Along the way, Dave broached the idea of hiking all of the way to Daleville today, which would mean a 30 mile day and a very late arrival, but save us setting up and taking down camp, and give us showers and a soft bed tonight and a full day off tomorrow instead part of a day.
At the end of that ridge, we reached the very full carpark at the trailhead to the popular McAfee Knob where we took a break for lunch on a rock in the shade and enjoyed the excellent sandwiches we had bought at the Catawba Grocery.
The climb to McAfee Knob was long, but not particularly hard, though Dave was sweating big time. We have decided that Julie runs cool while Dave runs hot.
McAfee Knob was fantastic (see above) and we took a break there enjoying the sun and views before continuing north towards Tinker Cliffs, a journey which involved a long relatively gentle descent before a very hard climb that just kept on giving with many false tops. Even though it was nearing 5:00pm when we reached the Cliffs it was still very humid and very sweaty.
The Tinker Cliffs did not disappoint and gave commanding views back to McAfee Knob and the ridge we had followed to get there. After a brief break we continued on along the clifftop for a while, checking out the views every now and then, before descending to a camping area which was our initial goal for the day, arriving around 6:45pm.
Dave was keen to try and reach Daleville, even though, with 9 miles to go, it meant likely hiking until after 11:00pm, though if the trail was good maybe a bit earlier. Julie wasn't so sure it was a good idea, but agreed we could try.
The first couple of hours as the sun set were quite good hiking, and we had the big bonus of our first bear sighting of the hike. Julie was very excited! It was the size of a teenager and stood watching us for a while from about 30-40 yards away before bounding away into the woods.
We donned our headlamps around 9:00pm and about the same time the trail became more rocky and technical, slowing our progress. The trail was following a ridge towards Daleville and seemed determined to go over every rocky knoll along the way. As the minutes rolled by it became less enjoyable, though we did have the dubious benefit of audible country and western music drifting up from a dance in the valley far below in places and could see many lights in the valleys below on both sides of the ridge.
We were very happy when we finally started descending towards Daleville but once at lower elevations the trail just seemed to keep winding around in the dark forest without getting nearer the town. Finally, we emerged on a highway around 11:30pm and then had to follow along its verge, like one-eyed (our headlamps) aliens on a motorised planet to reach our motel nearly a mile away.
Finally, we reached the motel and checked in. The end of a very long day. Not sure if we would do that again, but at least we know we are fit enough to do it if the need arises.
At least Dave's new boots were at motel reception waiting for him, so that was a big plus.
