A Warm-Weather Trail Party

February 7, 2009. Appalachian Trail from Va. 311 north on the Appalachian Trail to McAfee Knob and back. 7.6 miles.

On the warmest day of the winter to date, pretty much everybody and his hiking buddy or honey squeezed into the lot where 311 reaches its highest reach on Catawba Mountain – to the point that more cars were parked along the side of the highway down toward Salem. And it makes for a different kind of hike when this many people are out – a sort of linear party full of greetings and exchanges on the weather, the trail, the summit and, in the case of one older couple, a deep lament at all the fair-weather walkers. "We were going to be out here ANYWAY – no matter the weather," the lady asserted. No, it wasn't Gail and me; we enjoyed all the company this day, including fellow Leisureite James Richerson, his wife and a few pals from middle school making their first trek up to the coolest overlook in the area.

The precipice was literally covered with people – nearly all twenty- and thirty-somethings with cameras and cliff-edge poses to go into them. We ate lunch on the far end of the formation, looking down onto Roanoke and across the valley to Brushy Mountain. The Greatest Day Hiker Of Them All spent a considerable amount of time asking about various puppies' ages, toward the day when little lab-mix Cookie – now up to 29 pounds from the 16 when she arrived with a month ago – will be able to climb mountains.

The way back down, as always, was easy and enjoyable, to the point that Gail talked about "the old days," when our sons were boys and this was kind of a long hike. On this day, she got good-naturedly impatient several times when she ran up on the back of hiking parties that were a little slow to move over and make way for somebody who... just... walks... fast. She drug us up the 1,200-foot climb in an hour and a half flat and down in 10 minutes less. A great walk to a great place on a great day.