Miles Hiked: 18.8
Miles Left: 1461.3
Ending Location: Mile 724.0, Super 8 Motel in Daleville, VA

Today was easily one of the more scenic days we’ve had on the trail. We started out by climbing up to McAffee knob which is the most photographed part of the AT. When you check out the pictures below you’ll see why. That was the whole reason we night hiked the day before because on a Friday if we didn’t get there early the pictures would have been the same except with the addition of about fifty people in the background eating their lunches. We spent a good bit of time there horsing around and enjoying the views.

Then it was on to Tinker Cliffs which also had great views even if they weren’t as photogenic. It was another hot day and we all took the opportunity to shed some of our clothes and air out. It was not a glamorous sight but there was a breeze and rocks to rest on. I hadn’t expected to heat to affect me as much as it did but I find myself thinking back nostalgically to all the snow when we started out. Coming from a Hawaii kid that’s tough for me to admit.

We stopped by Lambert’s Meadow shelter for dinner and to dodge a bit of rain that had started falling. We didn’t have a good feeling about staying there though so Owl and I decided to push on to town instead. This meant another round of night hiking but we didn’t run into any nasty surprises this time. In fact we had a very pleasant second dinner sitting on some rocks overlooking Roanoke. As we got closer to town we started running into more and more graffiti scrawled everywhere. The worst was this one kid wrote a yes/no checkbox everywhere asking a girl out to the prom. Say no Suzzie, that guy’s a looser!

We arrived into town around 11:30pm and luckily were able to check into a Super 8 motel for the night. I mistakenly offered to grab McDonalds before realizing you had to traverse the intersection of death to get to it. Basically I had to run along a road with no shoulder where tired truckers were pulling off I-81 onto. That may have been the most dangerous thing I’ve done on the trail yet, but that Big Mac and fries were worth it. The best part of the night by far though was that shower. I never appreciated running water so much before!

This is why I have a tent instead of cowboy camping!