Catawba To Glasgow Pt. 1

Embracing the suck of rain. LOTS of rain.

I hit the road for Glasgow Friday at noon. I hoped to arrive at Stanimal’s hostel around 8:00, but due to horrible traffic jams it was after 9:30 when I finally arrived. The hostel was fairly full, and quiet time (aka lights out) was 10 PM, so I had to hurriedly get unpacked and settled in to my bunk for the night.

My shuttle the next morning was scheduled for 7 AM, so I woke up at 6:00 and partook of some community coffee out in the carport with several thru-hikers, including K-Town, a cool Korean-American guy. It was drizzling, but gradually the rain increased in intensity. With each worsening burst of precipitation, a hiker would sit up and say “Yeah, I’m taking a zero today!” Thru-hikers have this option. Section hikers like me who are on a schedule don’t.

Just after 7:00, my shuttle driver Polar Bear arrived. We headed out into the rain, stopping once at a backcountry store to get a biscuit and coffee for breakfast. Along the way, he kept playing a song that became the week’s earworm- I Don’t Look Good Naked Any More.

He got me to the trail at VA624 in Catawba a little after 8:00, and off into the downpour I went.

Parts of the trail had turned into a flowing creek. Any attempt to maintain dry shoes was futile. And within an hour my rain jacket had wetted out.

About 1 1/2 miles in I entered a mile long stretch of pastures.

After a while I came to the first supposed “good view” of the day.

Fortunately, a little further on I met one of my spirit animals, which improved my mood.

As I neared the shelter, I encountered a very fresh and robust blowdown across the trail. It took some slithering to get through it. And at 6’2″ 235 lbs. I don’t slither that easily these days.

At around 2PM I arrived at Johns Spring Shelter, my planned stop for the day. Postman was already there, and we were soon joined by E.M.U. and Ambassador, and briefly visited by Tinker Bell and Peter Pan. EMU (from Eastern Mennonite University) was putting in 20 mile days because he had to finish before school started back up at the end of August. Postman was a SOBO who had dialed back his mileage while dealing with peroneal tendinitis.

Ambassador is a minor trail celebrity who has been featured on The Trek. She is from England, and was in the midst of her second attempt at an AT thru-hike.

I changed into my dry shirt and shed my wet shoes and socks in favor of dry socks and flip flops.

Another thru-hiker who stopped by briefly had lost a bet and was saddled with extra pack weight as a result.

Watching the endless rain finally became boring, so I prepared a dinner of loaded mashed potatoes, cameled up at the nearby spring, and went to bed before hiker midnight. Day 1: 7.0 miles.

It rained steadily throughout the night, and the rain continued into the morning. Nobody was particularly excited to go back out into it either. EMU was first to depart. Postman opted for an in-shelter zero to heal his ankle. I got back onto the trail around 8:30. The first mile had some slippery rock slabs to navigate.

There was a brief stretch of level trail before beginning the 1200 ft. ascent to McAfee Knob.

Early in the climb there was a spring bubbling out of the ground at the edge of the trail. I took the opportunity to top off my water bottles, as the next few miles were dry. At least as far as useable water anyway; the trail itself was soaked.

The climb turned out to not be so bad (I had expected worse), and before I knew it, there it was looming out of the fog- the famous McAfee Knob.

McAfee Knob is probably the most iconic photo on the entire Appalachian Trail. Thru-hikers typically get their picture made while sitting on the lip of it. Well, for starters, with my fear of heights I wasn’t going anywhere near the edge of THAT. And besides, in this crappy weather there wasn’t anyone around to take my picture anyway.

After hiking over and past the knob, the trail began a descent. Part-way down was the Campbell Shelter, where I took a break to get out of the rain and enjoy a cold-soaked lunch. Again, I was alone.

After lunch it was back into the gloom.

Roughly 5 miles beyond McAfee Knob was the quarter-mile stretch of the Tinker Cliffs, which along with Dragon’s Tooth and McAfee Knob comprises the “Virginia Triple Crown.” The welcome committee was waiting.

The trail skirted the edge of the cliffs, sometimes uncomfortably close to the edge. Once again, the usual spectacular views were completely obliterated by the weather.

A mile later I passed through Scorched Earth Gap, and less than a mile after that I reached Lambert Meadows Shelter.

A young couple named Buffet and Lifesaver were already there, and not long after I arrived a foursome joined us- Fridge, Mom, Donkey and Sriracha. And not long after that, the Pennsylvania Plattypus (yes, with 2 T’s) squeezed in as well. Close to 10 additional hikers drifted in later in the evening and had to go 0.1 mile further down the trail to a large campsite.

We somehow managed to squeeze 8 people and their gear into the 6-person shelter, all of us doing their best to dry out clothing and attend to other needs.

After dinner, I shared some bourbon with everyone, and then Fridge and Donkey offered up some herb for those willing to partake. And we traded trail stories, with me as the only section hiker more than content to listen to their 700+ miles of experiences. A highly enjoyable evening. Day 2: 9.4 miles.

The morning brought….you guessed it….more rain! But not as heavy as the previous 2 days. Everyone was excited to make it to town that day, but most of the other hikers were delayed by a “safety meeting” (their code for a morning blaze-up session), so in a shocker I was the first one back onto the trail. However, a mile into the day Plattypus absolutely blew by me, hiking at 4 mph.

I ran into another one of my spirit animals early on.

I also went through a stretch of trail that had clusters of Pink Lady Slippers right along the trail’s edge. They were unfortunately post-bloom.

A couple of miles into the day was an overlook, but given the weather there were no views to be had.

I kept waiting for the descent towards town to begin, but the trail had other ideas, continuing to dance around the rocky ridgeline. It certainly wasn’t trail built for a high mileage day.

At around 5.5 miles I stopped under the prodigious overhanging Hay Rock for a snack and water break.

The rain finally tapered off and the fog and mist started to clear. I finally got some views of Carlins Cove Reservoir from the ridgeline.

Along the rocky ridgeline were a few unusual trees that turned out to be big-toothed aspens. Virginia is towards the southern limit of their range, although there are disjunct populations in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The trail finally left the rocks of the ridgeline and began to descend, several times passing under large crackling power lines that kind of skeeved me out. However, it was a troll descent. The last half-mile or so into Daleville was actually a several hundred foot climb during which you hear all kinds of sounds of civilization, the sources of which you cannot see. And then all of a sudden you pop out onto US220. The Super 8 was right across the highway to the right.

I learned that normally you need to show a driver’s license to get a hotel room, but my wad of cash persuaded the nice lady at the front desk to make an exception for me. It helped that I had my license number and credit card number memorized.

I got into my room, spread out all of my gear to dry, and took a MUCH-needed shower.

After my shower, I filled the sink with soapy water and tossed in my dirtiest clothes. I then put on my “finest” remaining clothes and walked across the street to Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant. It was 5:15 and no other hikers were there yet. I found something on the menu called a Guadalajara Especial that had a lot of things on it, and enjoyed a margarita while I waited for my food to arrive.

I had told some other hikers to join me for drinks, and halfway through dinner I was joined by Fridge, Mom, Donkey and Sriracha. I treated them all to margaritas and we had a great time hanging out some more. Eventually though we realized that we all had laundry and other chores such as charging our electronics to attend to. I waddled back to the hotel, scrounged up some quarters and tossed my sink clothes into the dryer. I was finally ready for bed around 10PM but for some reason found it difficult to fall asleep in a real bed. Day 3: 9.6 miles.