Date: 2003-07-09
From: Catawba, VA VA 311

To: Lambert's Meadow Shelter
Miles today: 10.2
Weather: broken clouds

We were all up early,(what choice do you have when there's a bunch of people and six dogs?) and we all squeezed into a big Bronco with the 4 Pines Hostel stenciled on its doors for a ride to the trail. Due to Joe being a responsible, tax paying, contributing adult citizen he was at work in the morning so we were left to ask his 15 year old son, who didn't have an official liscence yet but had his permit to take us to the trail. Josh, being a sport took but didn't look too happy to be up at 9:00AM. That is, didn't look too happy until Mt. Mike slipped hime a twenty. Then his face lit right up. (Side note: Josh's heroic drive was legal however, due to Two Dogged accompanying him on the drive both there and back. So don't get all in a huff.)As soon as we got to the parking lot Mt. Mike and company took off up the trail and I sat down on the pavement in the shade of a parked car. It was 9:00 and it was already really, really hot.We did end up hiking, and it was hot, but it was made manageable by all the blueberries within plucking reach and the meticulously maintained trail. Thanks Roanoke Trail Club! We passed by the family at the first shelter, steered through a cool narrow section of large, garage sized boulders, and reached McAfee knob by noon. As soon as we reached the open vista of McAfee we noticed huge dark anvil shaped storm clouds looming to our right and getting closer. We dropped our packs, whipped out the camera, and quickly snapped photos of the AT's most photographed place. Thunder quickly began to roll along with fat drops of rain. Mt. Mike showed up with Pumpkin just as we were about to leave, disappointed that Canteloupe and Matt wouldn't be able to see the views.We raced down the trail to lower ground just as the storm passed overhead. Soon we were soaked to the bone, an oddly familiar feeling, and racing toward the shelter that was listed close by.We all gathered and ate lunch while the sun came out. Canteloupe and Matt ended getting to the knob after the storm after all. While getting water about 3/10 of mile away I found a large tick on my leg.Probably 30 minutes after heading out from the shelter a second storm hit with twice the ferocity that the first had. It came from the side, blowing up the mountain, bringing the smaller trees almost to the ground, blasting our faces, tearing the leaves off of limbs, and sending bolts of lighting that too close for my comfort. It got so dark and loud that for a second I wondered if a tornado was near. Erin and I said nothing and continued trucking.Eventually, unlike the storms of may and early june, it actually subsided, leaving everything dripping, foggy, and cooler. Actually a kinder hiking environment than the heat. We stopped and changed our socks, wrung out our underwear, and hiked on.We went back up one more time, traveling on a narrow ridge of rocks called 'Tinker Cliffs'. It was beautiful and open, a better attraction I thought than McAffee knob. (But much further away from the road. If Tinker and McAfee were switched then Tinker would be the most photographed spot. My theory.) The trail traveled right along the rim of the cliff, at some points only a half a foot away from the fifty or so foot drop, and it gave me a bit of virtigo at times.We rolled into Lambert's Meadow Shelter, (which isn't a meadow at all, just a densely vegetated lowland by a nice stream) and set up camp. The family was already there eating dinner and talking in the shelter. They welcomed us in, they'd saved us a spot but we wanted to tent it. It would be our first night in the tent.