Night Hike to MacAfee's Knob

A couple nights ago Jed and I decided to do a night hike up to MacAfee's Knob. We hadn't had any mother-son time in a while, and my days are usually pretty full. The weather was, of course, cold, but we decided that it was worth it to have some quality time together.

Now, Jed is not normally a talkative person (unless the topic is Alien Assault or World of Warcraft), but surprisingly most of the way up to the top Jed kept the conversation going with some really cool facts about the Cold War, Germany, Russia, and so forth. I was never a History buff in school, and have long regretted that fact. So now I actually do enjoy reading and hearing about historical events. The information Jed shared was pretty interesting, and I feel like I learned more in the 1-3/4 hour hike to the top than I would have in several weeks of school classes!

We took the Fire Road up from Hwy 311 to where the Appalachian Trail crosses it. There had been a trail re-lo since the last time I'd been to MacAfee's, so the new trail was totally unfamiliar to me. I was pleasantly surprised though, in that the grade of the trail was easier than the original, and we reached the top fairly quickly.





God blessed us with a relatively warm pocket of air at the top and we lay down on the rocks for a while and watched the clouds blow by while we talked some more. The trip back to the car went by quickly due to more good conversation, and we got back to the car less than 4 hours after heading out. Not bad for a 7 mile hike that included an attempt at night-time photos and a 20 minute rest at the top.

I'm so grateful for the kids that God's blessed me with. They are all grown, but they all find time to spend with Mom...without me having to beg them to do so... In fact, it's usually them calling me saying, "Haven't seen you in a while, Mom. You ever gonna come over and see us?"

Thanks, Jed, for joining me on the hike! I enjoyed it tremendously, and am looking forward to our next outing!