Date: 2007-05-06
From: Roanoke, VA

To: Daleville va
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: clear sky

We wake and pack up our backpacks. CB's friend has offered to take us to the trailhead at VA311 in Catawba. There is a section about 20 miles long into Daleville from this spot. Pegasus, Caboose and CB will slackpack and CB's friend will pick them up and drive them back to Roanoke. Flick and I are continuing our hike. This is a bittersweet day. The weather is perfect - deep blue skies framed by the new light green leaves just out to celebrate the perfection. There's a nice breeze and the temperature is about 55. I can walk uphill at a good pace and not overheat. I am now sure I can hike to Daleville today. That is what we will do. There are four shelters in this sections, three of them in the first 4.4 miles. The trail to McAfee Knob is pretty easy even though it goes up 1200 feet. When I came out and saw the view from the Knob I was very impressed. The air was clean and you could stand on the edge and see for miles. Just beautiful long views of mountain ridges in every direction. The greenness was vivid and seemed to glow. We all gathered, CB, Caboose, Pegasus, Flick and me, and took a group photo. Then one by one we took turns posing on the edge. This is the spot where many AT photos are made and are used to represent the whole trail. After we satisfied ourselves with photos, we headed on to equally beautiful knobs and stopped to survey the walk ahead, which could be viewed clearly from the next knob. We would go down, then along a long ridge with many small hills. Then we would reach Tinker Cliffs, then down and up many little ridges until we would go down into Daleville. Now that we could see what was ahead it was time to do it. We hiked as if we had many miles to do today. We stopped at Tinker Cliffs where we found Beach Bum, Backyard Boogie, Low Gear, Walnut, Ninja and Big Gulp. They were spread out on the big rock and we joined them for lunch. Beach Bum was sporting a new Hawaian shirt. He looked happy and truly like a beach bum. All were in good spirits. This is a nice group. After lunch we started back hiking, soon passing the last shelter then up and down over many rocky summits, each one a very interesting section. Finally we descended into Daleville where I waited for everyone. As they came out of the forest, Pegasus and Caboose posed for photos of their last steps on the trail. This had been Caboose's hope to see McAfee Knob and Tinker Cliffs before she had to leave, and she made it. It was very moving. I had thought all day about this being their end. I thought about how many miles, how many days, months that we had been together. Every day, every mile, every smile. We had many smiles - we had a blast! I am going to miss them terribly. As I write this I am crying. But we all kept our composure as we told each other how much we loved each other. I told them that this hike means so much to me and it is more special because of my time with them. I wished Caboose and Pegasus much success and hope we will keep in touch. We went to the local Mexican restaurant (one more time in one more small town) and enjoyed being together for the last supper. We hugged and parted. CB, Caboose and Pegasus went back to Roanoke (CB will be back out soon) and Flick and I stayed in Daleville.