Total trail mileage: 703.7
Starting location: Campsite after Catawba Creek
Ending location: Campbell Shelter
Weather: raining last night, cloudy and foggy in the morning, partly
cloudy in the afternoon, a few showers at times throughout the day, 58
degrees in the morning, 70-75 degrees during the day, breezy
I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.391101,+-80.029139
I went with plan 2, but not for the reasons I had anticipated. It had
rained fairly hard last night. Not quite a thunderstorm but close
enough. When I got up it was still quite cloudy. I packed up and
headed down to the road. At the road crossing, I ditched my pack in
the woods and made the 1.3 mile road walk down to the Homeplace
Restaurant. I got there a little early and they hadn't opened yet, so
I sat outside on one of their benches and read my book a little.
The restaurant was not quite what I expected. There were a bunch of
people as soon as they opened (I thought I was going to be alone at
that time) and there had to be 150 people around the place by the time
they left. It was all-you-can-eat food, but I didn't think there was
any way I was going to be able to eat the food that the waitress first
brought out. Well, I honestly surprised myself by eating everything
(fried chicken, roast beef, buscuits, pinto beans, coleslaw, corn,
green beens, mashed potatoes, apple butter, and a pitcher of sweet
tea) plus seconds and thirds of a number of the items. Then, I had
peach cobbler with ice cream and coffee for dessert. One waitress
even said I was one of the most pleasant smelling hikers that has come
into the restaurant (go figure, I thought I was pretty bad).
The food was really good, but the amount of food didn't hit me until I
walked out the door. I had to sit on the grass outside for a while
before I could walk any further. Then, I started the return trip and
had to stop a couple times. Then I got back to my pack and had to sit
there in the woods for a while longer. Finally, I was at the point
where I could put the pack on, but I was crawling up the trail. I
hadn't counted on the aftermath of an all-you-can-eat. It almost did
me in.
Well, I finally made it to McAfee Knob after stopping at both shelters
and the spring along the 3.7 mile stretch. Despite how the day
started and the showers along the way up, it was fairly clear of
clouds at this point, and the views were spectacular. I was then
surprised by the arrival of Cookie Monster, Sock Burn, and Mellow
Yellow, who I haven't seen for a couple days along with Switchback and
Dr. John, new faces in the group. I stayed at McAfee Knob a long time
with them and we took turns taking pictures on the iconic rock
outcropping.
At this point I was still going to try to make Tinker Cliffs by
sundown even though I arrived at McAfee knob much later than
expected. But then a couple day hikers started talking to me and it
turned into a fairly lengthy conversation. In this stretch you can
only camp in the designated camping spots, so it was either stop at
Campbell Shelter or night hike past Tinker Cliffs. Everyone else
stopped at the shelter, and I wanted to play around on the cliffs (and
not at night), so I also stopped.
So, I have a longer day tomorrow into town than I had hoped, but it
was well worth it. This day couldn't have turned out any better.
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