Day 65-Part One, Tinkering With Some Cliffs

May 22-16.1 Miles-Daleville southbound to McAfee Knob

Nature Boy shuttled us to Daleville this morning so we could hike southbound back to Four Pines to allow the flooded creek to go down (we’ll cross it tomorrow). we got on the trail at 7:20. 

There was still a lot of water on the trail, but it wasn’t raining. 

I rolled up my pant legs, and trudged on through. 
 
Soon we were climbing away from the majority of the water, but still had to negotiate some mucky spots. For awhile, it seemed like my shoes might dry, but then I stepped in a splooshy bunch of leaves and they were soaking wet again. 

We had some views looking east (?).

Fog slowly lifting

Not sure what river this is. 

We were going to eat lunch on Tinker Cliffs, but SF and I ended up eating at Lambert Shelter because it was 12:30, and we were hungry. Dusty was waiting for us when we finally got up to the cliffs. 

Tinker Cliffs is a 1/2 mile section of the trail where you walk along the cliff edge. There are big flat rocks. The view is spectacular! Here’s some photos. 



See the white blazes?



In this photo, if you look across the valley to the high point, that is McAfee Knob. It is 5.9 trail miles from Tinker Cliffs. That’s where we were headed. 



Just lounging on the cliff. 

I’m almost there!

Dusty and Sure Foot. 

Pano of the view. 

I also saw a few critters today (Dusty saw a snake...I’m glad I didn’t).
Turtle #1

Little Eft 

Turtle #2

Little toad. 

We made it to Campbell Shelter. Originally, we were going to camp at the campsite (actually Pig Farm Campsite), but we decided to be rebels, and camp up at McAfee Knob so we could watch the sunset AND the sunrise. As we were leaving Pig Farm Campsite, after getting water, it started to rain. The weather forecast was spot on because it said it was going to rain at 5:00. It was 5:00. But, unlike the last three days, it wasn’t cold. We put our pack covers on, and our rain jackets to hike the last .6 miles uphill to McAfee Knob. 

Stay tuned for Part 2-McAfee Knob


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