The weekend hikers: Gail and Kurt Rheinheimer stand on top of Rice Fields, a bald southwest of Blacksburg, Va. along the Appalachian Trail. They were photographed in May by a couple who were thru-hiking the AT with their two children.

Week 87- 10/9/05: Virginia's Appalachian Trail Triple Crown is all within an 18-mile stretch, with all three points having easily accessible trailheads from Roanoke. On this day-after-the-wedding, we decided to do what is arguably the most spectacular (and with the most convenient starting
point) of the three. While Dragon's Tooth does indeed have its big dual-molar and its good view to the east, and while Tinker Cliffs offers a great view westward and often places you in the face of a cool breeze from the same direction, it is McAfee Knob's sheer drop from overhanging rock – with the killer view of the Catawba Valley and the nifty breeze from West Virginia – that makes it perhaps the most popular hike in the Roanoke area. And the winner by an edge of the Triple Crown sweepstakes.

The hard-workin' Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club has recently re-routed the AT for the climb from Va. 311 to the knob, extending the walk from about 3.5 to about 3.7 one-way. The new route keeps you in the woods longer and almost completely avoids the rocky ravine along the ridge line that used to make up most of the last mile of the hike. The walk remains a good, steady climb, beginning with the series of odd little boardwalk sections along the steep slope of the mountain. A few switchbacks, a lot of good forest, a few more switchbacks and some more good forest, and you pop out onto the rocks where no hiker with a camera fails to get it out.

We were late starting Sunday, but even with a 5 pm arrival, we shared the rocks with at least a dozen people during our on-the-ledge lunch.
Two of those were our hiking companions for the day: Adam, the 21-year-old Virginia Tech senior and Susan, his friend, fellow Tech student and fellow triathlete. Conversation as we ate revolved pretty much around two things: Nutritional values of our food (far more nuts and jerky and vegetable dip for the oldsters than the youngsters); and how much time we had to eat in order to get back down the mountain before dark. We'd taken an hour and 20 minutes getting up, and walked at just about exactly that pace getting back down, having us cross 311 back to the parking lot at the very far edge of dusk as a mostly cloudy, completely pleasant day came to a close.

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