By John Carlin
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: February 11, 2008

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The day was supposed to be a hard one.  Just not THAT hard.

The plan was to leave Troutville at 9:30 and run/hike the Appalachian Trail to route 311 near Catawba.  It’s a 20 mile venture with three significant climbs – Tinker Mountain, Tinker Cliffs and the backside of McAfee’s Knob. 

The route is about as hard (but 11 miles shorter) as the Bel Monte ultra marathon that’s coming up on March 22nd.  Training partner Troy and I thought it would be a good way to test our fitness with just over a month to go.  What a test.

The profile of our trek from Troy’s GPS.  It really was uphill the whole way.

The forecast was for windy conditions.  “It will be awesome up there,” Troy said on Saturday.

“Awesome” may not be a big enough word.

It was windy when we started, but not crazy.  We made the top of Tinker Mountain and thought, “Well, it’s always windy on top.” The focus at that point was running as much of the trail as possible, because that’s why we were training.

As we changed directions along the ridge line, either the wind picked up, or we were more exposed to it.

As we climbed the back side of Tinker Cliffs, my cell phone beeped a text alert from WSLS.com; “High Wind Warning.”

A few minutes later we struggled to the edge of the valley and watched as the pine trees bent over double.  We stayed well back from the edge.  It was hard to stand up.

Then the leaves became an issue—and not just an issue, but amazing.  As we traversed the ridge between the cliffs and McAfee’s, we saw leaves drifting like snow.  We waded through piles up to our waists, and in one place, our chests.

The ridge acted like a dam at the end of Catawba Valley.  The wind came down the valley unimpeded, and slammed into the ridge where we were trying to run. (Heck, walk!)

The wind knocked me around so I had to hold onto trees, while the leaves pelted us in the face.  Ever been hit by a leaf traveling upwards of 60 mph?  It hurts!

As we hit various clearings we could see smoke from several fires, most notably the one in Roanoke County.  The wind was blowing them away from us, so we were not in any danger.

In the meantime, the reality of 20 miles on the trail began eating into my legs.  My quads began cramping as we climbed the backside of McAfee’s now at a slow walk.  It had already been 5 hours, our initial goal for the entire trek. 

But we persisted, and made the top, where we could see smoke from 3 different fires.  We took pictures with the cell phone, and started down the trail where the wind promptly blew my sunglasses off my head and into a pile of leaves 4-5 feet off the trail.  (Thanks to my friend and co-worker Patrick Tonkinson who happened along just then and found them for me!)

It’s downhill from McAfee’s to the car and that made the difference.  We finished exhausted and happy to have survived in 6:03:43.  Quite a day.