| Mile | 731.6 |
| Miles Since Last Update | 18.3 |
| Day | 62 |
Barely slept last night. No layers. No quilt. No pad. Just raw hammock. Still woke up drenched in sweat. Was supposed to rain but didn’t. Got up around 3 and caught tax collector already heading out but he can really move (and he has like a 10 lb pack). Fired up the headlamp, put on a liminal spaces playlist from Spotify, and walked into the dark pretending that I had died of hypothermia in the smokies and was living in some kind of hell/purgatory.
Got to McAfee knob at 4ish. This is supposedly the most photographed place on the AT and has crazy views so I’m sure the way I experienced it wasn’t the norm. It was kind of cool being the only one there tho. It gets incredibly crowded as soon as it is light out based on the day hiker traffic I saw.
You can see Roanoke from there too, with it’s very tempting airport that probably has flights to Fiji (where it is currently cooler than VA).
Hoped to clear tinker cliffs before sunrise but I hike slow as shit. Got there at 7ish and there was already a crowd forming and I could feel the heat picking up. Coming down from tinker cliffs I passed easily 20+ day/section hikers who were climbing up to it. Maniacs.
Tinker to Daleville/Roanoke looked like a pretty straight shot, so my hope was that if I was hiking that stretch in the heat, at least it would be flat and easy. Nope. Last 3 or so miles are an open sun scramble over very hot and apparently electrified rocks.
Got into town at noonish. This is by far the largest town/city the AT has brought me thru so far and it dumps straight into a very busy highway. Went to a Mexican restaurant within walking distance and saw kdot, who did the full triple crown yesterday. He said I look a lot younger than my age when I told him, which I’ve gotten a lot out here.
Booked for a zero at a nearby hotel. Need to hit the outfitter and probably swap my quilt and my sun hoodie too since it is shredded from faceplanting into rocks. Then to the post office to mail back like half my pack.
As much as this stretch has definitely made me want to bail, I do think I have some gas left in the tank still. Harper’s is close enough and the next several stretches have more frequent towns/stops if the heat gets too crazy again.