McAfee Knob Hike

Over the holiday weekend, my dad and I took a trip to Salem, Virginia to hike the McAfee Knob portion of the Appalachian Trail. I have hiked some really cool trails before, including Mount LeConte in Tennessee, but usually my hikes take place in the warmer months. When the idea was originally posed to me, all I could think was hiking in January is going to be cold and I do not have the proper attire. Fortunately, the weather was upper 30s. Which does not sound that warm but when climbing 2,000 ft elevation and bundled up, it's pretty warm. For most of the hike up, I only wore a hoodie as it became very warm with my jacket on. At the top, there was still snow on the ground and the wind made it quite chilly. I ended up bundling back up with my jacket, gloves and ear-warmer. It took us almost the entire hike back down to get to the point of being overly warm again. 

McAfee Knob is the most photographed spot on the Appalachian Trail. There are two routes to get to the top; the fire road or the actual Appalachian Trail. The actual trail did have a few more challenging spots as you would follow the ridgeline, which at times felt like climbing the stair climber at the gym. But overall, it was an easy hike. The fire road is about 6 ft wide and has a gentle climb in elevation the whole way up. At the top we ran into a family with multiple younger kids. The whole hike took us about 5 hours which included resting points and snack breaks. I would recommend it to anyone looking to get outdoors and have some socially distanced fun.