Hike to McAfee Knob

I had done hike to McAfee Knob  on 20th October . It is located in Virginia State and along the Appalachian trail(A.T.)
Hike Location
Name: Mcafee Knob
Distance: 65 miles from Lynchburg(approx)
Total hiking distance: 8 miles.
Hiking Experience:Started around 6:55 am in the morning. Had Breakfast(pancakes only veg available) from McDonald's around 7:00. Started from McDonald's at 7:15 am towards the destination. Reached the destination by 8:30 am. The parking lot is on the right side of the road. The trail starts on the left side of road and there is a sign board at the start of the trail which says about the mountain height and distance of the trail.It is a well maintained trail. Most of the trail is along the Appalachian Trail. Trail is narrow and wooden steps along the start of the trail to prevent erosion. The trail is covered by trees on both sides. It was a sunny day and soon the morning coldness withered away and forced to remove the Jackets. Along the trail, every mile there is an Appalachian Shelter. There are small wooden bridges to cross the rock patches. There are five bridges. As this is the fall season , the leaves on the trees were very colorful.                                                          Huge white rocks on the way add to the scenic of the area. As we ascent, we experienced cold breeze. As we reach the top of the hill we could see valley to the left and was an amazing view of trees, base of the mountain and barren land. We reached the McAfee Knob around 10:30 am. At the top there is a huge rock which is exposed to the valley and get very good view of entire valley and other hills like otter. Also runway of Roanoke can be seen.  Had theplas and fruity at the top. It is approximately 2000 ft high. It was cold at the top in spite of Scorching Sun due to cold breeze. Started descent around 10:58 am. On the way we have seen small lizards. The trail is very clear and no trash at all. There were many fellow hikers along the trail. The trail route is easy to identify as there were white markings along the trail and only single place where there is diversion. Reached the parking lot by 12:34 pm. There is a trek register as well. Went to Roanoke, had lunch and reached Lynchburg by 3:30 pm. All is Well.

                                   

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Hike at Grayson Highlands

I had done hike at grayspon highlands on 4th May . It is located in Virginia State and can reach to Appalachian trail(A.T.)
Hike Location
Name: Grayson Highlands
Distance: 185 miles from Lynchburg(approx)
Total hiking distance: 8 miles.
Hiking Experience:Started 6:00 am in the morning. Had breakfast(pancakes) from McDonalds around 6:10.Started towards grayson highlands. Taken a bio break at a restroom house around 7:35. Reached the state park entrance around 9:40. Paid the parking fee, parked the vehicle and strated for hike around 9:56 am. The temperature is around 38F, much colder than the expected(as per forecast above 50F). There is a narrow trail starting from the parking area which leads to Appalachian trail(approx length of this trail is 2200 miles). The narrow trail is AT Spur trail. Through the trail there are blue markings providing the directions. The trail has huge trees and plain grass on either side of it. It passes along the small water streams with cold water. there are wooden bridges to cross the streams. The climate is very cold, windy and covered with fog covering the scenic view of the nature along the trail. The trail is flat walk initially for about a mile then stlope increases. The spur trail is ended and continued the hike on appalachian trail. There are white marks along the trail for directions. The trail also passes through water streams. There are beautiful ponies(small horse) along the trail. Also there is a trail register for safety and emergency purposes.
                                 The temperature reduced, wind speed increased, the slope increased, making it little tough to proceed further.  continued along the trail. Fog still prevailed along the trail. traversed along the hills and coninued further until we reached the junction(one route leads to Mt Rogers- highest mountain in Virgina, one leads to horse trail). Had lunch at the shelter over there around 1:00 pm. Planned to do camping in the night, however due to drastic climate change decided to cut off the trip for one day. After lunch started back to the starting point by 1:20 pm. still the temperature reamined the same. Reached the Wise shelter  around 2:55 pm and took a break. The shelter is made of wood. Met few fellow hikers near the shelter. There are two type of hikers section hikers and thru hikers. Thru hikers are the ones who do the entire appalachian trial(which take few months) and section hikers, just do hiking for few days targeting to cover few miles. Started from shelter around 3:27 pm. reached the point where we need to take diversion and cut off from appalachian trial by 4:30 pm and take A.T. Spur trial. on the way, temperature slowly increased, saw sun for the first time for the day. Slowly reached the parking lot by 5:05 pm. Left to home by 5:30 and reached home by 9:00. This was the first hiking in US and thouroughly enjoyed it. All is well.

                                 

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