Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 60, Sunday, 5/15 – I hiked with Birthday Sandwich and KJ into Daleville today. Over the past few days, I hiked Dragons Tooth, McAfee Knob, and Tinker Cliffs. These are the well known highlights for the area, so I really wasn’t expecting a stellar view on the hike today.

As I was hiking along, I was looking down the ridge through the trees, and all I saw was white. It was hard to make sense of what I was seeing.

Then I got to an overlook. I was looking into a valley that had been blanketed by a sea of clouds. The clouds were motionless in the valley below. Once again, I find that it’s the clouds interacting with the landscape that makes for the best views. This was breathtaking.

Hiking out, I saw a turtle and two snakes. The one below is a corn snake, and the other was a garter snake, so neither of the snakes were venomous.

Birthday Sandwich, KJ, and I all hiked 9 miles to the road (mile 730), and saw that a BBQ restaurant was 0.3 miles away and had great reviews. We all walked our way over to Three Little Pigs, and were met by Genie, Splitzy, Dillan, and Broadway. I didn’t hold back with my food order; I got a whole slab of ribs. The food was ridiculously good. Definitely one of the best meals on trail.

After lunch, we had all discussed getting a ride to Roanoke. Between the 6 of us, it wouldn’t have been an expensive Uber, but hitching is part of the AT experience, so we walked to the main road and put our thumbs up.

It wasn’t long before Jason stopped with his pickup truck. I sat up front while Genie, Splitzy, Dillan, Birthday Sandwich, and Broadway all sat in the bed of the truck. We all got to Home2 Suites in Roanoke, where we’ll be staying for the next two nights.

I’m glad I hitched, Jason loved giving rides to hikers. It was his way of being a part of the AT community. He gave us his phone number and encouraged us to give him a call if we needed anything. I tried to tip him for the ride, but he wasn’t interested so I didn’t push it. What a nice guy.

I’ve heard from past thru hikers that there has been much less hitch hiking on the AT in recent years. This is almost certainly related to the emergence of smart phones. It’s almost too bad, not only is hitching fun, but it seems like a great way to include more people in the experience.

It was a low key afternoon and evening. We went to Michaels so Genie could get some art supplies, got food at Walmart, watched Dr. Strange in the room, and soaked in the hot tub.

I’ll be honest, I’m excited to not be hiking. My legs and feet are sore. I also need a day off to recharge mentally. I love hiking, but anything can start to feel like a chore when its done all day every day.