Day 50: McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs

Cowboy camp last night was amazing! It was nice and cool, below 40 degrees, and there were no bugs or disturbances of any kind.

A hole thing

I started my morning a little after 7am. I made myself some coffee and indulged in some of the mini chocolate donuts I bought at the gas station for breakfast yesterday. While I did that, I quietly prepared for the day. In that process I noticed that I had a several-inch hole in the crotch of my shorts. It looks like the seam just came out, as the fabric didn’t tear at all. Fortunately, MasterChef had a sewing kit and was willing to sew it for me in exchange for a mini donut. I hope that lasts for a while since it’s the only pair of shorts I own…

Hiker, blogger and short film producer extraordinaire, MasterChef!

McAfee Knob

It was a quiet morning because we had a shorter day planned. The triple crown area of ​​Virginia we were entering required you to stay in designated shelters and campgrounds. And the last shelter was about 16 miles away, or we would have to go all the way to Daleville, 25 miles away. Which was more than we wanted to do today. It’s a long way to say it, I didn’t start walking until after 9am

The trail began briefly in the woods before emerging into pasture hills for a mile or two. There were cows walking around, which meant keeping an eye on the trail to make sure I didn’t step on any cowpies! Following the pastures, I again had a moderate climb to climb back onto a ridge. The trail along the ridge had a couple small rocky sections, but other than that, it was pretty peaceful! I even had a pretty good reception and caught up on a few things and queued up a blog post. After a few miles, the AT merged with a blue blaze from the parking lot and I was immediately inundated with hikers. This section of the trail was pretty easy and very well maintained which made for easy hiking. I stopped for a break at Catawba Mountain Shelter for an early lunch and to fill up on water, as the next water source was well off the trail a few tenths of a mile away. Fueled up and ready to roll, I headed to McAfee Knob. The hike to McAfee Knob from the shelter was just over a mile and 900 feet in elevation, but it was a fairly well-maintained trail and relatively easy to navigate. Which I did in a short time on the climb. I was also blasting Kickstart My Heart but Motley Crue, which certainly didn’t hurt!

When I reached the top I saw a blue flare and an arrow pointing toward the overlook, which I followed after leaving my backpack at the trail intersection. I got to the viewpoint and the view was stunning! Friends, it’s been a while but we’re back. Best view of the trip so far! Drink.

McAfee Knob ladies and gentlemen

I took a few minutes to marvel at the view before Fozzy took a few photos and then returned the favor.

As I looked to get back on the trail to get to my backpack, a hiker started down the pass back to the trail and gave a very surprised yelp. He apparently came within a couple of meters of a rattlesnake sunbathing on the trail. It wasn’t too far behind him, so I took a cautious look at it and it looked like a pretty good sized one. I’m not sure how long it was, but it was a thick snake. It also blended in nicely with the brush on the side of the trail, which was very disconcerting as it very well could have passed by 5 minutes earlier. Needless to say, even when the snake seemed to slither away, I found an alternate path back to my bag.

There is a rattlesnake in this picture…

Tinker Cliffs

After all that excitement, I headed to Tinker Cliffs, the third and final of Virginia’s Triple Crown, which was about five miles away. The hike went smoothly and flew by. The trail for the most part was smooth and well maintained, and outside of a small steep section, it was never more than a moderate incline or descent. I had some service and also took the time to call my mom and work on some plans for her to send me some things from my replenishment stash. When I was a couple of miles from Tinker Cliffs, I came across a man shouting in the woods, which I thought was curious. Well, he couldn’t see them yet, but he was yelling at some of his cows that had gone up the mountain, not sure how, and he was trying to shoo them back down. Then I start seeing cows on the trail and everywhere just hanging out grazing, largely unfazed by my presence or the man yelling at them. But he seemed to be making some progress before I moved out of earshot.

Not a worry in the world

In just under 2 hours I made it from McAfee Knob to Tinker Cliffs, which seemed like a pretty solid pace for that time of the afternoon. It may be obvious, but Tinker Cliffs is a series of cliffs and not a single overlook. There are literally dozens of rocky cliffs that you can stand on and enjoy views of the valley and surrounding mountains. And, frankly, almost all of them are amazing. So much so, and I hate doing this twice in one day. But some would say the best view of the trip so far! Drink.

I again did my due diligence and spent time soaking up the views, as well as swapping photo-taking duties with Fozzy.

After filling up, I started down the less than 2 miles to my final destination of the day, Lambert’s Meadow Campsite. While descending, I also called Beach Hill B&B/Hostel and got a bunk for tomorrow night. The rest of the descent to camp was fairly smooth and uneventful other than encountering some deer grazing along the trail.

Hello!

I arrived at camp a little before 7pm and started setting up my tent. While I was working on it, I heard a crunching sound up the hill. At first I didn’t pay attention to it, since the squirrels often move frantically among the leaves making a racket. But when I heard the noise approaching, I thought it sounded a little bigger than a squirrel. I looked up the hill and 150 feet away there was a black bear running down the hill toward me. At first I looked around to see if anyone else was watching too, but the only man next to me was in his tent and the people in the nearby shelter were out of my sight. I then started yelling «the black bear is coming» as I thought people should probably be aware of its presence. As soon as I started screaming, the bear stopped dead and stared at me, then tucked in his tail and ran. He ran about 100 feet away, stopped, turned around and stared at me reproachfully for a moment and then slowly walked away.

I just wanted some honey bread…

With the occasional glance back to see if it was still there. Part of me wishes I had waited to yell until he was a little closer and I had my phone out so I could take some better photos, but it was probably better that I didn’t bring him any closer. It appeared to be a younger bear, as it wasn’t very big, probably a teenager who had just left its mother in the last year or two. Overall, a really great experience!

It’s hard to keep up with that, but the rest of the night was less hectic. I had dinner, got ready for bed, and went to bed relatively early in preparation for an early start tomorrow morning to get to Daleville for lunch.

Statistics for the 50th day:

15.6 miles

3,707′ ascent, 3,471′ descent

Camping at Lamberts Meadow Campsite

0 DSLC…

Stove use times: 9

Snakes seen on the trail: 6

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