Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 83 – The Virginia Triple Crown
17th october 2024
Daleville (1468.1) - Campbell Shelter (1483.5)
Daily miles: 15.8
Total miles: 1492.8
I had a nice sleep, I curled up into a ball and when I went to straighten out again I was met with resistance… Berkeley the dog had jumped in my spot! So I had a foot warmer for the rest of the night.
Berkeley taking up half my bed and I’m not md about it
We had breakfast, cooked by Eleven, Gordon Ramsey eggs, very good, and then we were off back to Daleville at 8:30am
Eggs for brekkie
It feels super sketchy being in the car and on the major roads without a seatbelt on. It’s stupid really and it’s definitely something I want to avoid in the future.
Back at Kroger it was time to resupply, not doing it hungry is wise, however I still struggle every time. But Kroger actually has really great choices and I was happy to see they had my favourite noodles so I’m going to be happy with my dinners for this stretch. We were resupplying for 4 days but one of those days was the rest of today so I’ve definitely got too much food because I know I won’t eat that much today.
A shopping cart full of resupply
Hikers being hiker trash outside the grocery store
I can only just get all my food in my food bag which is crazy as I never remember having this as a problem before. What did I eat before? It can’t be that different? I didn’t care about price because I’m under budget for this trail so if I liked it and wanted it I threw it in. I had to rotate my food bag sideways to get it in my pack.
We had seen a few posts on instagram about snow in The Smokies which has got us all worried. I am not prepared for snow! I went to the outfitter and got some more substantial gloves. A little more than I wanted to pay for them and they are a bit big, but they will hopefully keep my hands warm and dry, importantly they are wind proof. It was hard to imagine the cold weather as it was pretty hot in this concrete jungle when the sun came out.
The others went to get coffee and I hiked out first. I needed to get going and I knew it was going to be a bit of a slog because of my heavy pack. I’ve no idea how it’s so heavy and how I seem to have so much stuff. I’m only carrying stuff I’ve carried in the past. I don’t know. It’s weird.
Smiling through the pain of the weight of my bag
After a 0.4 mile walk along the road to get back to the trail I turned into the trees and it was instantly colder in there. I really should have bought some long legs. My shorts just aren't going to cut it when it gets cold.
The first part of the day was great. Got up onto a ridge and they’re were lots of nice views (once I got past the power lines!) and the trail was nice. There were lots of nice pops of red and yellow, lots of massive rocks and boulders and a few bits of slab rock which made me grateful it wasn’t raining.
It got a bit chillier as I went uphill and I was on the edge of putting my fleece on for a while. I saw quite a lot of people today, lots of day hikers and a couple of section hikers and I saw one guy with a dog, and I thought the dog was familiar. He then said he saw me at a river crossing in Maine. I remembered him now, we arrived at opposite sides of the river at the same time, he crossed first with his dog which he held above the river in a harness and the dog did doggy paddle in the air the whole way across! Really cute.
Railway crossing
That nice smooth trail
Pylons
Worth the climb
Couldn’t get enough of these views
Loved walking along this ridge
Rocks are cool
I moved on to Tinker Cliffs which are, for us the first point on the “Virginia Triple Crown”. Has this Virginia Triple Crown thing always been a thing? I’ve never heard of it before.
The cliffs were really cool with some nice views and lookout points. The trail follows it for about half a mile. It was chilly and my fleece went on and stayed on for the rest of the day.
The sun making those colours pop
Beautiful views up here
Yes! Autumn is doing its thing
We had planned to go to a shelter the other side of McAfee Knob and be at the Knob for sunset. I took a look at the maps and the weather and text the group to ask if anyone fancied staying in the shelter before the Knob tonight and going up there for sunrise. Everyone was in agreement.
The shelter has been the location for a bear taking its chances and trying to get food from hikers so there is a warning to put all smelly things in the bear box. I slowed down because I didn’t want to get to the shelter and be there on my own, so I had a very pleasant stroll through the forest this afternoon. I could have been at the shelter a bit earlier but there’s no rush.
Just can’t get enough
Half a mile of views
Puff Puff on a rock
Puff Puff on another rock
Ridges
Soaking it all in
A very handy gap in the rocks
I saw something running across the trail and it was raccoon! I didn’t think I’ve seen a racoon on the AT before.
Lemonhope, May Queen and Toe caught up to me when the shelter was in sight. There were a bunch of other people already there, a few tents set up, fire going and someone had a dog so I wasn’t too worried about the bear activity. Surely it will sniff around the tenters first!
It was nice to be in camp early and have time to eat dinner without rushing. We had to go a little off trail to get water which was trickling through a pipe. It took about a minute to fill up a litre bottle.
I had a double noodle dinner because I’ve got a lot of food and I added chicken breast to it so it felt like an actual meal. I also ate some Pringles and cheese and turkey which is what I would have eaten for lunch today had I stopped and eaten anything. I just ate a Twix and a few sweets from my fanny pack throughout the day.
A very enjoyable dinner
We have decided to get up at 5:30am and start walking the 0.7 uphill to McAfee Knob at 6am. It’s going to be a struggle because the temperature has dropped a lot and I’m not going to want to get out of my bag.
