McAfee Knob (VA)

On October 4, I left DC early for the long drive to southwestern Virginia and beyond for my long-awaited three-day adventure to the fabulous Blue Ridge country between Roanoke, VA and Asheville, NC. Originally, I’d planned to visit Great Smokies National Park, which would be pushing it for a long weekend foray, but thanks to a government shutdown and closure of the parks, that option went out the window. Fortunately, there were plenty of tantalizing alternatives and I was feeling perfectly giddy about seeing some new country. My knee felt almost normal again and the weather forecast was summer-perfect. Yippee!

27. McAfee Knob: The first stop was just north of Roanoke, McAfee Knob, rated as one of the best summit hikes in Virginia. It is also a well known stop along the AT, which nearly passes over the summit. With the national parks being shut down, I presumed I’d have plenty of company on the trail. Instead, I nearly had the place to myself. It helped that it was Friday. I pretended not to see the “area closed” sign stapled to the trailhead marker at Catawba Summit. I’d read online somewhere that the rangers would not likely be booting people off the AT, even those sections managed by the National Park Service. I marched on. The four-mile trek to the knob was scenic and enjoyable, passing a camp shelter, a briefly annoying powerline corridor, and some giant boulders in the woods, while gaining about 1,700 feet along the way.

At the summit, one is greeted by an impressive slab of overhanging rock and a perfect view of the Catawba Valley and long ridges of still-green forest extending out to the horizon. A young woman offered to snap a hero shot for me and suggested I sit on the edge of the ledge for a really cool picture. I politely declined. I found a shady spot, devoured a bagel and soaked up the scenery for an hour before finally heading back down. Summit 27 was in the proverbial bag.

Miles (RT):  8.0 miles; elevation gain: 1,700 feet
Cumulative mileage and gain:  125.8 miles / 35,350 feet