McAfee Knob day hike 8/14/14

Dave turned 50 on 8/13/14. We had a white water rafting trip planned originally, but scheduling snafus caused us to postpone it. I wanted to do something experiential and physical to celebrate, and since we wanted to go back to The Homeplace for dinner, we decided to "earn" that caloric indulgence by hiking back up to McAfee Knob. We dragged Jordan with us against her will.

We headed down after Dave's birthday dinner on the 13th and spent the night in Roanoke. We figured we could get an early start that way, which would give us more time to get to the top and back. We hoped to be able to get the 8.8 miles done in a maximum of 8 hours, allowing me plenty of time to rest and limp and for a decent break. We planned on having a late lunch at the top.

One concession we made for time and my crippled fatness was taking the fire road. We knew it was an easier and possibly slightly shorter hike. This sounded GREAT to me after June's backpacking escapade. Since this was an out and back with a dinner deadline, we wanted to be sure we could get it done.

 

We arrived at the parking area around 9:00 a.m. Jordan was not speaking to either of us except for snarling, so we knew we were in for a pleasant day. We found the fire road with no problems and started up. It was a hundred times better than the trail itself. It was fairly steep in places but without those miserable steps I had a much easier time. Also, the difference in full pack weight vs. day pack weight was amazing. I still had to stop and rest periodically, especially on the steeper bits, but we made great time to the spot where the fire road meets the AT.

We took a short break there with packs off. Jordan was beginning to be civilized again since it was now past 10:30.

The top 1.3 miles was just as hard as I remembered--actually, it was a little harder than I remembered. Jordan hikes much faster than me and Dave was pleased to have someone who could go faster than me. They would go ahead, then wait for me to catch up. The last ten minutes, though, they decided not to wait for me but to push on to the top without me. I eventually arrived at the knob to see them sacked out eating their apples. I was not amused, but I got over it. I mean, glorious scenery, right?!



We took some pictures and then had lunch. We were a good two hours earlier than we had estimated, which was nice. It gave us a chance to have a really nice long time at the top.

The trip down was uneventful. The fire road is nearly all downhill, unlike the regular trail with its constant ups and downs. There were only a couple of spots where we had to go uphill at all, and we made record time to the bottom.



We were off the mountain by 3:30 and had some time to kill before dinner, which was delicious, if not quite as good as it was the first time when we were literally starving. (Funny how sleeping outdoors and skipping breakfast makes everything taste better.)



I was very pleased that we were able to complete the whole hike as an out-and-back, considering how long it took us last June.