Would-be hikers who didn’t check the blog schedule missed out on Saturday’s adventure: nearly 13 miles on the Appalachian Trail west of Roanoke. Three of us (Marian Styles, Dan Ralston, and Dan Funkhauser) left Charlottesville at 8 a.m. and met hike leader Iva Gillet and Bill Holman at the Dragon’s Tooth parking lot. We left one car there and took another to the end of a dirt road near the Audie Murphy Monument.
The monument is near the place where Audie Murphy died in a plane crash in 1971. The inscription on Murphy’s monument notes that he was America's most decorated veteran of World War II. He served in the European Theatre, earning 24 decorations, including the Medal of Honor, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Service Cross, and three Purple Hearts. Murphy followed his war service by a successful movie career that included To Hell and Back, which was based on his autobiography of the same title.
Following our history lesson, the fivesome took off along the AT, stopping for lunch a couple of hours later beside Trout Creek. Even though the temperatures had eased from the heat of the previous couple of weeks, the post-lunch 1,500-foot climb to Dragon’s Tooth felt uncomfortably warm. A cooling breeze and some clouds provided some relief, but it wasn’t until a thunderstorm hit at 4 p.m. that we really cooled down.The rain stopped before we hit the rock scramble, but the wet rocks led to increased chance for slipping. We made it, though. The long distance, combined with a late start, found us finishing the route at 7 p.m. We piled into Bill’s van and left Iva and the two Dans at the Home Place restaurant in Catawba so they could hang out with the other diners waiting for a table.
Meanwhile, Bill drove Marian back to retrieve her car. The last 3.5 miles of the journey consisted of a rutted, rocky, hilly dirt road, which proved quite the adventure in Bill’s rear-wheel van. We were grateful that with some encouragement from Bill, the van made it, and we were spared having to park the van and hike to the car.All of us eventually made it to the restaurant to enjoy delicious fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, beans, cole slaw, and biscuits, capped off with peach cobbler and ice cream. (Are you hungry yet?)
Iva and Bill headed back to their campground to rejoin their traveling companions and rest up for canoeing on Sunday. Needless to say, the three returning to did not get home early, although if we’d arrived 45 minutes later, we could have said that we got home early—early in the morning, that is.
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