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.