Date: 2015-05-20
From: camp site 697.1

To: Lamberts Meadow
Miles today: 21.6
Weather: broken clouds

We had a perfect spot camping last night.   We were up on the ridge line and had a nice breeze all night which kept us cool and didn't allow any dew to settle on the tent. We also had a great view of the morning sunrise.   We woke early and were on the trail by 0715.    We thought the morning's hike was going to be fairly flat but that turned out not to be the case. We were following the ridge line and it was up and down, the trail was all rocks. We made it to Dragon's Tooth rock out cropping around 0900 and took the side trail down to see it. We left our packs at the top of the trail. It felt very strange to be hiking without a pack. We almost forgot how to hike without a pack! Dragon's Tooth was quite impressive and the views down to the valley were wonderful. After leaving there we started downhill. The terrain was very rocky and extremely steep. There were iron handhold on some of the rocks to lower ourself down which is a lot tougher when you have 30 lbs on your back. Part way down we somehow missed a turn in the trail and it was 10 minutes or more before we realized our error.   We ended up climbing back up to get on the correct trail.    We then continued our steep, rocky downhill.   Count had another tumble on the rocks today and now has a skinned knee to go with his other injuries. After we reached the bottom the trail we followed along a stream for about a mile and then we went across a very large meadow back up to the forests. Once in the forest, we smelled a sweet smell. It was very powerful. Soon enough we found the smell. It was a huge wild rose bush. We then started another climb and took our lunch break at the top with a nice view of the valley below.   We finished up lunch at 1330 and we still had nearly 12 miles to go for the day. It was going to be a long day!    We started a 1100 foot climb up to McAfee Knob which is one of the most photographed areas on the trail. We were looking forward to making it here as we had read so much about this spot in AT books and blogs over the past couple years. The trail up was one of the better trails because a lot of tourist use the trail.   After 1 1/2 hours we made it to the top and were rewarded with fantastic views. The day could not have been prettier.   Blue sky, sunshine and the green of the forests made for a perfect view. We took some photos of the area and the one for today's journal is of us here. We took a nice break here and then had to move on. Of course we had to go downhill and we dropped over 1000 feet. On the way down were again treated to a wonderful aroma, it was lots of wild roses growing along the trail. We thought about rubbing some of the roses on our clothes to make us smell better but we figured there wouldn't be enough roses to make us smell any better.    We started our next big climb of the day which was 900 feet up to the Tinker cliffs. We were very tired by this time and we had a hard time making it to the top. Once to the top, the climb was well worth it. We walked for half a mile along the cliffs with great views down to the valley below. Again the great weather made this a wonderful view. We started another long descent of 1000 feet down to the Lamberts Meadow camp site. Tonight, we have to camp in designated camping ares. It is a shame as we passed so many places that would have been perfect stealth tenting. But, we stopped at Lamberts Meadow and quickly set up camp. It was 1845 and we had hiked 21.6 miles today. Our feet are so sore from the blisters. We are so looking forward to time off the trail the next 2 days. We only have 10 miles to hike tomorrow to get to Daleville!