Campbell Shelter to Va. 624, Southbound

Campbell Shelter to Va. 624/4 Pines Hostel, Southbound

Day Sixteen – Tuesday, April 8, 2014

10.3 miles

7:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.

 

We left Campbell Shelter at 7:30 and were at McAfee Knob by 8:00.  It was not very bright, but at least the fog had mostly dispelled and we had a pretty good view of the valley below.  We snapped a few pictures with our cell phone, but most of the good ones we took with our camera which I later lost.  Unfortunately the cell phone pictures were from north pointing south, so I do not have a good picture of us on the famous McAfee Knob from the south view.  SOOOO disappointing!  It is one of the most photographed places on the trail and we don't have our picture there!  But at least we did have better weather so that we could see it, and it WAS beautiful. 

 

We met Thunderfoot and Tumbleweed as we neared the end of our trail.     The trail was beautiful running along a stream in pasture land.  Then one nice Max Patch-like hell comingout of the forest before we reached Highway 624 and made our way back up the road to 4 Pines Hostel and our car. 

We drove back up to Troutville to Karen's house.  As we were talking to Karen in her basement, we began to talk about exit points along the remainder of the trail and the possibility of slackpacking it.  And if we could slackpack it, maybe we could cover more daily mileage and finish in three more days!  Yay!   She helped us work it out, and we decided to do just that! 

Troutville to Campbell Shelter, Southbound

Troutville/U.S. 11 to Campbell Shelter, Southbound

Day Fifteen – Monday, April 7, 2014

16.9 miles

8:20 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Karen "Hikermom" Bennett followed us to 4 Pines Hostel where we left our car and she shuttled us back to begin our hike at Troutville--headed south.  We left Troutville/US 11 at 8:20 and had a pleasant hike to Lamberts Meadow Shelter.  It was 40 degrees and raining and foggy all day.  On the way, we caught several glimpses of the meadows below but really couldn't tell much about what was down there because of the fog.  Too bad we did not get to see the view.

As we hiked we met Pilfer, a girl from Michigan, for the first time.  We also met Caribou from Alaska. They were both headed north. We don't meet too many hikers on the trail these days.

It was 2:30 when we got to Lamberts Meadow where we orginally had planned to spend the night.  We rested for 30 minutes then decided to push on to the next shelter because we had plenty of time.  It was an easy hike except right before Tinker Cliffs.  We had heard so much about the view from Tinker Cliffs and McAfee Knob and were so looking forward to seeing it.  But alas, as we reached Tinker Cliffs, the fog was so heavy we coudn't see anything. 

We continued on to Campbell Shelter to spend the night, hoping to wake up to better weather in the morning before we reached McAfee Knob.  It was dark when we reached the shelter and we were surprised to find Dr. John already there.  He said he had zeroed the day at the shelter due to a stomach issue he had after eating pizza from the Quick Stop while at 4 Pines.  The shelter was not very big and he had claimed one side of the platform, so we claimed the other side and tried to find a dry spot. We stayed mostly dry throughout the night and awoke to more rain.  Too bad for McAfee Knob.                          

 

Brush Mountain to Va. 624

Brush Mountain to Va. 624

Day Thirteen – Saturday, April 5, 2014

12.7 miles
7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

 



Audie Murphy Monument (Photo by Bryan Turner)

We broke camp at 7:30 and started on up the mountain, expecting to see the Audie Murphy Monument in a short while.  Forty-five minutes later we saw it.  On the way up, we had speculated how hard it must have been to build the monument way up here on top of the mountain, then when we got there, we saw that there was a road coming up to it.  Good thing, otherwise, there would be very little visitation to the monument, I believe. 

 

The monument commemorates Audie Murphy who was the most deocrated American soldier of World War II.  His single-handed capture of a large number of German soldiers made hima legend. After the war, he starred in many Hollywood war and western movies.  He died in a 1971 plane crash near this site.  (Thru-Hikers Companion)

 

After the long, hard climb up the mountain we were pleased to find upon leaving the monument that the trail followed a nice, wide rut road on top of the mountain for a while.  We were now looking forward to reaching Dragon's Tooth.  As we came around the side of one mountain and looked to the next, I was sure that we could see Dragon's Tooth on the top.  As we reached that point, I thought we had reached Dragon's Tooth and was very under-impressed.  Obviously, I did not know about Dragon's Tooth, because I thought we had surely reached it about four times before we actually did.  By the time we got there, I was wondering, "Just how many teeth does this Dragon have???"  We crossed peak, after peak, after peak, then suddenly heard people talking below us.  Looking down, we saw lots of people on the trail coming up the mountain from the north side.  We wondered what that was all about.  Then we encountered the sign for Dragon's Tooth. 

 

Oh!  Now we know what Dragon's Tooth is.  It is a huge boulder sticking up into the sky like a - well, like a Dragon's Tooth, I guess.  The Hiker's Companion does not say much about Dragon's Tooth but obviously it is a very popular day hike for the locals.  There were people all over the place, going up and down the rock faces like it was no big deal (except for a few wary ones).  But to me, it was a big deal trying to get down the path of boulders with a backpack.  It seemed very dangerous and quite tricky to keep from falling face first off the enbankments.  In several places, there were hand grips inserted into the boulders which did help some.  

 

When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain, there was a big camping area where some tents were set up and a short trail to the parking lot.  But we still had 1.5 miles to go to get to Highway 624.  It was more rock scrambles, but nothing like we had already done. 

 

We reached Highway 624 then walked about a half mile east to 4 Pines Hostel.  While walking there, Dr. John from North Carolina came up behind us walking lickety split.  He was going to stay at 4 Pines Hostel tonight and continue on hiking to Harper's Ferry.   

 

When I took my boots off and removed a piece of tape that I had on the top of my foot where it had been rubbing, the skin came off with the tape!  Ouch!  Now I had a pretty bad spot to worry about. 

 

We showered and changed at the hostel, then headed out intending to eat at the Homeplace Restaurant, famous among hikers for the All You Can Eat meals.  However, the number of people waiting in the yard of the restaurant encouraged us to continue on to find a quicker place to eat.  I believe it was the Catawba Quick Stop where we had sandwich and pizza.  Not like Homeplace, for sure, but it filled us up.   

 

We then drove up to Troutville where we spent the night in the Quality Inn. 

 

 


Dragon's Tooth (photo by Bryan Turner)

Dragon's Tooth (photo by Bryan Turner)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(All photos on this page courtesy of Brian Turner.)

Pearisburg to Groundhog Trail

Pearisburg to Groundhog Trail

Day Nine – Tuesday, April 1, 2014

12.9 miles

9:00 a.m. to 6:10 p.m.

At 7:30 we were waiting on Don Raines to pick us up for a shuttle down to Pearisburg to hike north to our vehicle left at 4 Pines.  He showed up at 8:00, apologizing for being late and later gave us a $10 discount on the ride because of it. 

The temperature this morning was a mild and beautiful 66 degrees.  What a change!  We reached Lane Street in Pearisburg at 9:00 and began hiking north. 

Overlooking West Virginia from Rice Field Shelter

It was an uneventful day, very nice compared to the recent days of hiking in the cold and snow.  We took a break at Rice Field Shelter, another one where the privy had no wall.  Strange!  I don’t mind doing that so much when no one else is around, but what if there were other people at the shelter with you?  I wouldn’t like that at all.

The view in front of the shelter and along the path for awhile was awesome—looking  down into West Virginia.  We were on top of Peters Mountain on the Virginia-West Virginia state line.  It was, at times, hard to follow the trail—it did not look well traveled like the trail usually does so we had to search for the white blazes as we walked through the woods. 

We stopped for a break and water supply at Sims Gap Meadow before continuing on to stealth camp at Groundhog Trail. We enjoyed the day. 

 

           

Zero Day in Wytheville

Zero Day in Wytheville

Day Eight – Monday, March 31, 2014

We slept late at the Best Western in Wytheville, enjoying the warmth of the comfortable bed.  The complimentary breakfast was a treat.

We spent the rest of the day doing laundry at a Laundromat, buying some resupply things at Walmart, and trying to find the leak in my air mattress to see if it could be patched.   After determining that the split was in the seam, we then started looking for a sporting goods store to buy a new one.  Alas, Blytheville does not have such a place.  So we headed up the interstate to Roanoke and Gander Mountain where I settled on a Thermarest sleeping pad.

After a filling lunch at Cracker Barrel, we drove to 4 Pines Hostel close to Catawba, Virginia to get ready for our next leg of the journey.  Joe Mitchell has created a hiker hostel in his garage.  It is a large room filled with two beds, numerous couches, a kitchen area, a wood-burning stove and a bathroom/shower in the corner.  Other than it being cluttered and having an odor, it was okay. 

The two beds were already claimed by Chainsaw, a thru-hiker, and Hutch, who was hiking a section from Damascus north.   We each chose a couch and set up our bedding area.  Mine unfortunately was the one where the cat wanted to sleep; I repeatedly had to push him off of me throughout the night.