VA Route 624 (1,810 feet) mile 704.5 to Lamberts Meadow Campsite (2,060 feet) mile 721 for a 16.5 mile day! We ascended 4.012 feet and descended 3,792 feet!
We left the hostel, walking down the highway to get back on trail. We got about 5 miles in for the day when the sky decided to open and reveal how much rain the clouds could hold before letting go. I’m here to tell you, it was a lot of rain!!
Today we would be coming to the second crown in the Virginia Triple Crown, McAfee Knob. This is the most iconic photo on the Appalachian Trail, and because of this, lots of folks want to get there for the best photo ever, the sunrise! Well, there is no camping at the Knob so there are two shelters within a mile or so of each other, I believe to give more space for tenting and sleeping, to make that walk early in the morning! Because of this, we had our pick of shelters to go into to dry ourselves off. We chose, Johns Spring Shelter, the closest of the two to the highway we started from. Here, we were able to dry off and it had stopped raining so we could also hang our stuff out to dry, which all of mine did!
After drying off a little, we pressed on to McAfee Knob. I am not sure why I thought this would be an easy hike, I guess because there are a lot of signs for this place and parking, and day hikers, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought, but it was oh-so-rewarding!!
We marched on towards Tinker Cliffs in hopes to enjoy the views that we have heard so much about, and then the thunder started! Today was the second day that we heard the thunder roll and saw the lightening strike! We had roughly three miles left to hike until we got to the shelter so we could at least have somewhere to stay dry while we ate dinner. Well, we walked as fast as we could passed Tinker Cliffs but I managed to stop and grab a picture or two and what did I see, the big dark rain close pushing hard towards us!!
And ya know what, God was good to us, it did not rain on us at all!! This is a great thing because at the shelter earlier today, all of my clothes dried out! Haha
Mad Scientist, out!
Hiking Realtor 