Wow what a day. 700 mile mark. The Dragon’s tooth, and perhaps the most iconic spot on the whole trail – McAfee Knob.
I was walking through blue blazes on the way back to the AT by 8:45 already knowing it was going to be a long day. 17.5 miles planned and lots of hilly ground to cover. Objective number one was the Dragon’s Tooth. Wasn’t quite sure what it was but it sounded cool and the book showed a parking lot and a local trail just for that so it had to be cool. The morning weather was fantastic – overcast, cool, and breezy. More rocky trail was the only thing slowing me down. The Tooth was just over four miles in, and it turned out to be pretty much what you’d imagine: a large triangular rock formation jutting out from the side of the ridge. I was able to climb almost to the very point of it, the tip was just a bit too narrow for comfort especially with the wind picking up. Got there just in time to even go that far because rain started falling and the boulders grew slippery.
Slippery rock turned out to be a bad thing today. The mile and a half coming down from Dragon’s Tooth was by far the most technical terrain yet. I threw my poles down several feet of rock in multiple spots needing my hands free to grab onto the boulders. In some spots there were a couple rungs of metal footholds bolted to the rocks as there was no other path.
Strider, Wilderness, and I all made it down to the road about the same time. We were sitting on a wet log about to pull out the food bags for lunch when Wilderness pointed out that Catawba Grocery (pizza,hamburgers, snacks) was only 0.4 miles down the road. Walking an extra 0.8 for real food is always worth it. I ended up eating too much again, gotta figure out a way to not eat a whole pizza when there’s hiking left to do. With a stomach full of food I still had climb up a couple hills and walk several miles of a sun-bathed ridgeline. It took a few hours to digest the food enough to feel comfortable again. After the ridge I was finally getting close to the McAfee Knob climb. This is one of those places that defines the trail. It’s impossible to look at AT websites and not see pictures of McAfee. The only pictures more iconic than looking out over McAfee are the ones of people collapsing onto the sign atop Katahdin as the entire journey ends. It was hot, I was thirsty, but still the climb up wasn’t as steep or as hard as it looked like on the maps. Maybe it was because of the adrenaline and anticipation of such a cool place but the trail flew by. The knob was every bit what I thought it would be, and it was made even more spectacular by partly cloudy skies and broken late afternoon sunlight illuminating the rocks and the valley. Lots and lots of photographs. Some of the landscape, some with me, some with the whole gang, some sitting, some jumping, all with McAfee jutting out over the green below.
The shelter was only a mile downhill from the knob so we were considering staying for sunset. It had been a long day though, and we wanted to relax and sit and eat in peace and out of the wind. We went down to the shelter around 7:15 and were shocked to find it empty. Campbell was the only place with water nearby and so close to McAfee, I thought it would be crowded, happily I was very wrong. Fireflies came out in abundance as it got dark and I’m trying to get some sleep; big plans tomorrow!