2021-March: Our Appalachia Trail Adventure
Mar. 29, 2021: After finally getting packed up, we drove about 1.5 hours through the sunshine from Nathan’s house in Forest, VA to the parking lot at McAfee Knob trailhead. The beginning of the trail is steep and feels like you’re walking straight up. When you reach the first level spot, you are at a split where the actual AT goes on a lower level, and walking straight ahead you are on a dirt service road. We took the dirt service road on the way to McAfee Knob and the actual AT on the way back the next day. The bugs (little black flies) were already bad on the service road, disturbing our lunch break and hiking. Ruth Ann put on her bug hat. After about .5 mile of the service road, there was a chain across the road and a sign saying “2.5 miles to McAfee Knob” and pointing to the path going up the mountain to the left. We had been seeing many hikers pass us on their hike back down. We were hiking in the late afternoon. Clearly others had started their day hike to McAfee Knob e