The Workout:
Bike from Elliston to Mcafee Knob parking lot (22 mi)
Hike to Knob and back. 7 mi, (1200vft)
Sunday, Lonnie cooked a big southern style big omelet breakfast with biscuits and sausage gravy. Jason and Lisa had to split so we ate at 7am. I got suited up and rode my mountain bike into town. 419 was hilly but predomintately downhill as it loosely followed the Roanoke River down to Salem.. The weather was good and the legs felt great. I hoped on Wildwood Rd. and wound around the foothills over to highway 311. Around mile 15, I stopped at a little convenience store and filled up on Gatorade and a few snacks and headed on out to Catawba Valley. With the exception of narrow margins and a couple of big 4x4s towing motorcycle trailers, the ride was peaceful. I made it to the base of Catawba ridge and cranked up the modest 700vft climb. Feeling pretty good, I rode over the top and down into New Castle. I made it back up to Mcafee parking lot around 11:30. Bethany wasn't due to pick me up until 12, so I stretched, relaxed, ate and took a nap. It was lovely. I woke up to a mock gruff voice saying "Hey You! You can't sleep here!" and Bethany laughing her head off from my expression as I jumped awake. (If I had been on the edge of something, I would have promptly fallen off). We walked up the fire road, through a tunnel of leaves in the peak of their transformation. There was a fairly even mix of radiant greens, yellows, oranges and reds with the kind of crisp bluebird sky that only comes in the fall as a backdrop. We took a bunch of pictures and chilled at the top for a while.
On the way back we got a nice surprise by coming across the biggest rattlesnake I have ever seen. He was about 4' long and cruising up the fire road in the track where I was walking. I jumped sideways and corralled Bethany off the side of the road. Bethany wasn't quite sure yet what "We" were scared of yet but she was hopping around with me on red alert. Finally I found the words and pointed BIG BIG BIG BIG RATTLE SNAKE!
We hung out with it for a while and watched it cruise happily on its way down the path not paying us any attention. The rest of the hike was uneventful but we were mostly enjoying the one on one time.
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