McAffes Knob, Tinter Cliffs and Daleville.

From four Pines, it was a short Sunday stroll to McAfee Knob.
A surprisingly hard stroll...
But I got there and had some wonderful views! Spoiled only a little by a woman lounging on the iconic view point for at least five minutes, and so not letting others take photos from the iconic point. Ah well. The view isn't much different from the other promontories.
I then pushed on to Tinter Cliffs which had even more spectacular views, in my opinion. It wasn't quite sunset when I was there, but it was close. They probably weren't worth walking over seven hundred miles, on their own, but they were close.
Having seen absolutely no sign of others out for longer than a day, it was a big surprise to find the shelter completely filled and another dozen or so camping. All told, a nice Sunday.

Today is the 23rd, the following Monday. And I walked through the fires of Mordor. It was ten degrees hotter than it was yesterday. The knle consolations are that it was a short nine mile walk over easy terrain.

Well, it would be easy if I weren't melting...

I managed, eventually, to make it into town. Thankfully, a fellow hiker met me at the trailhead with cold water. He had already been there for a day or so. I've now checked in to a hotel, and just need to navigate a dual carriage way to get anywhere.

Four Pines

From my last day, finally, at Angels Rest on the 20th, I did a leisurely ten miles. There weren't many views or events of note.
The day after, technically International Hike Naked Day, I climbed Dragon Tooth. Thankfully I saw no one partaking in the holiday.
Dragon Tooth is a smaller mountain, whose actual name isn't dragon tooth but nobody cares
The Tooth itself is a prominent natural monolith nest the peak, that can be climbed. This offers some spectacular views.
The descent down was very rocky, with many scrambles. After doing the hard part, someone had put - as a sick joke - a sign warning of the danger and difficulty I had just travelled through. Great. Thanks. Luckily, I had arranged a slack pack with the nearby hostel so I didn't have tk navigate these climbs with a full sized pack, unlike some.
The hostel itself is.. OK. There isn't much to say about it. The bunkroom is in an otherwise unused garage, it has free laundry and showers, some hanging opportunities for my hammock, and a lot of field for tenting. I stayed there today on Saturday the 22, and plan to leave on Sunday the 23rd of Jun.

Angels Rest Hiker Haven

So. Angels Rest was... Interesting.

I hiked in on Thursday, had a wonderful zero on Friday where a bunch of us watchers The Lord Of The Rings, and then I hiked out on Saturday. Sounds nice.

.. I ended up going back on Sunday, after camping at a shelter and hiking twenty miles away. So I took a nearo on Sunday. Then another zero on Monday where I barely left my room and watched Star Gate. On Tuesday I did a 20mile slack pack, thereabouts. On Wednesday, we watched Outlander - it was surprisingly good and I'm a little hooked now. Today, Thursday the 20th, I am hopefully leaving again. For good.
Though.. I'm not sure I won't be phoning at the next road to come back.....
Goodness.

The Quarter Way Inn to Angels Rest Hiker Haven

As mentioned before I ended up at the Quarter Way Inn. I ended up staying the night, and had an amazing breakfast. One twenty mile slack pack later, I stayed another night and had another wonderful breakfast.

The twenty miles were wet, stormy and wet. Parts of the trail were basically rivers, again. The Quarter Way Inn was a warm refuge to return to at least.

It turned out, however, during the storm a tree a had been blown down and so we couldn't be dropped off at the same spot. Thankfully though, when we were dropped off it was sunny and remained so for the next day. There was rain over night occasionally.

Highlights included Dismal Falls, where I swam and/or jumped in water. It was fun.

The path eventually lead me to Pearisburg, and the Angels Rest Hiker Haven where I arrived on Thursday the 13th, and am now sat writing on the 14th as I take a zero.

Quarter way!

More rain. Is it day four or five that's raining? Is there such a thing as being dry?

The days have been uneventful since Marion apart from passing the quarter way mark. I did a short seven mile nearo to the next shelter and managed to hang around there from maybe one in the afternoon. It was a nice day of resting.

On Sunday, I planned to do a twenty mile ish hike. But still it rained. The mud was slippy, the rocks treacherous, the rivers high and fast flowing. I did not make it that far. I did, however, make it to the the Quarter Way Inn which is gorgeous.

Leaving the Highlands and heading for town

I was awoken on Thursday by the sound of ponies. A small herd of them had meandered over towards camp and then ended up in camp. They were surprisingly loud when I was trying to sleep. Once I grudgingly got up and started the day, they quietened down.
Not the nicest of alarm clocks...

Thursday's hike began with rain. It ended with rain. And there was rain in the middle too. It was just a damp day. I also did twenty miles in the damp rain.

Friday was similar but shorter. I ended up at the Mount Rogers Trail Headquarters. It has snacks and a few museum-y displays about the place. I also saw an Eastern Box Turtle along the way, which is very much a tortoise despite American naming customs...

Grayson Highlands

Wednesday started sunny. Then it got wet.

After a looong climb, because my pack is over full of food, I made it to a short climb. After the short climb, there was a bit of flat where I saw ponies in the mist.

The day continued in a similar way. I loved it. It was cool and wet and damp but not too soggy. And occasionally there were misty ponies.
Towards mid afternoon, the weather cleared. I also discovered there were free shuttles to a restaurant where one might have real food.

They also had a banana split....

One banana split, one burger, a portion of chips, a portion of mozzarella sticks, and two scoops of ice cream in a cone later (in that order), Hermes and I foot our free ride back to the trail and could barely walk. He through-hiked a few years ago, and is now out for a few days.

Grayson Highlands

Wednesday started sunny. Then it got wet.

After a looong climb, because my pack is over full of food, I made it to a short climb. After the short climb, there was a bit of flat where I saw ponies in the mist.

The day continued in a similar way. I loved it. It was cool and wet and damp but not too soggy. And occasionally there were misty ponies.
Towards mid afternoon, the weather cleared. I also discovered there were free shuttles to a restaurant where one might have real food.

They also had a banana split....

One banana split, one burger, a portion of chips, a portion of mozzarella sticks, and two scoops of ice cream in a cone later (in that order), Hermes and I foot our free ride back to the trail and could barely walk. He through-hiked a few years ago, and is now out for a few days.

Post Damascus

At Damascus I had a rather pleasant surprise. My two bounce boxes were there at the post office, but not only those: care packages from home had finally arrived along with a replacement battery! A small resupply of 8 dollars wort of spam, and an oversized lunch left me happy to continue. (I'm still not sure how I feel about the fact that I seem to like spam. I hope it's just hiker hunger..)
Having done that I marchés another six miles into the woods with an overly heavy pack.
And so ended Monday.

Tuesday was a short day to the next but one shelter. Not much of note happened beyond discovering my pack is very heavy and I wasn't just tired on Monday.

The 'Tennessee Turnpike' and Damascus

Having left Boots Off and made the climb up out of Hampton, I was well and truly on the 'Tennessee Turnpike'. So named because aside from a climb up out of Hampton and a climb down into Damascus, both of which are relatively easy; the 30+ miles between the two are some of the flattest, smoothest and straightest parts of the entire trail. There was even a Disabled Accessible portion of trail!

The only downsides are a lack of views and a lack of water in some place - a whole ten miles between water sources, gasp! How ever were we to manage. But I've now made it into Damascus for lunchtime this Monday. Hopefully the friends I was supposed to meet here won't be too long....

Boots Off

Having left the Station, I managed the 18 miles to get to Boots Off. There I found a Soulsurfer and Doc, who both persuaded me into taking a zero day on Saturday (partially to hang out, partially to not hike during a thunderstorm).
During that rainy Friday, I managed to teach Knockout Whist and Mao to a few people who subsequently became edited to the games.

It is now Saturday, as I write this, and I have finished a late lunch at my halfwayish shelter. I'm waiting on a handful of other hikers to hopefully then push on to the next shelter for the night.