Date: 2010-05-21
From: Catawba, Va

To: Campsite South of Daleville, Va
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: few clouds

Day 75. This morning the owner of The Homeplace opened up the back door and let us in to fill our water bottles and to use the bathrooms. I was a bit slow packing up mostly because I had a full charge on all my batteries and was spending to much time surfing the web on the Droid. I eventually met thin mint and green dog at the grocer/gas station where green dog hitched us a ride to the trail. The plan is to hike 17 or so of the 20 miles to Daleville today then hike in early tomorrow for showers, laundry and hot food before hiking back out the same day. Seeker and her brother Rich already have a motel reservation and offered us the use of their shower. So off we went into the Green Tunnel that the AT has become.Our first stop was McAffee Knob, probably the most photographed spot on the AT. Its a rock ledge that juts out away from the cliff face where many people will sit dangling their legs out over nothing. There is a great spot on a nearby ledge to take the picture. I was here 2 years ago and was able to sit on the edge of the ledge but couldn't get the courage to dangle my legs over. This year there wasn't any fear whatsoever. Walking 700 miles in the mountains puts you on many ledges and it just becomes second nature. Not only did I sit on the edge dangling my feet, I also did it with my pack on and my trekking poles in my hand. What a thrill. We took plenty of pics, but only a couple with the Droid. I'll have to wait until the others get their pics from their cameras to a computer. I do so love the Droid and its quick updates.It was now after noon and we still had 14 miles to go. The next stop would be Tinker Cliffs 6.6 miles away where we would have lunch. I led off across the cliffs at McAffee Knob assuring the others that it would reconnect to the AT. The hike to Tinker Cliffs was pretty nice except we were all worried that the AT monkees would come down from their nests and steal all our Snickers bars. Don't scoff, they are out there and its said if you can track them you can find their horde of candy bars. The trick is too follow a rainbow under a blue moon. These are the things you learn from actually thruhikng that you'll never read about in the guidebooks. Tinker Cliffs is another cliff wall with a great view of the valley below. We stopped to eat our lunch and ran into Freeman whom greendog and thinmint already knew, but I met for the first time. Below the rock I was sitting on was a ledge with a very shallow pool of water on it. Since I already had my shoes off (any stop of 10 minutes or more and the shoes come off) so I climbed down and splashed my feet in the cool water.   It felt awesome. After lunch we headed down the mountain to fill our water bottles at the next shelter. Our campsite that night would not have water. It was also calling for 70% chance of rain.We passed the first powerline shown in AWOL's AT Guide and since that meant we were within 3 1/2 miles of town we started looking for a campsite. We found a great one right next to the trail underneath a very large overhanging rock. Out of the potential rain and awesome looking to boot. The pic should be in my web album. Freeman arrived and decided to tent with us and now we had a 4 tent town . After some fun conversation over dinner we all went to bed.Good night and Sweet Dreams to everyone out there not living the Dare Devil Rock Sitting Dream.