ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 22, 1996 TAG: 9601230002
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
On that special day of the week, usually a Thursday, Olin Waldrip has a routine. He rises promptly at 4:30 a.m., does 30 minutes of rigorous calisthenics, then drives to Catawba Mountain and hikes north on the Appalachian Trail to McAfee Knob.
The hike to the knob - a 3,197-foot upheaval of Silurian sandstone in Roanoke County - is a seven-mile round trip. Waldrip's goal is to complete it 100 times by April 2. That's his 85th birthday.
``I am within three of it now,'' he said, from atop the knob on an early January day, as a breeze sang in the pines and combed the tough clumps of growth that somehow survive in the rock crevices.
The recent snow put Waldrip's almost weekly trips on hold, but he has no doubt he will reach his goal, and after that, keep on trekking.
``As long as that old knob is there, I'm going to hike it,'' he told his wife, Louise.
For his fellow residents at the Brandon Oaks retirement community, Waldrip has given ``over the hill'' a new meaning.
``You can't do this, if you don't have good legs and arms and a good set of lungs,'' he said, as he climbed a rocky stretch of trail, pushing himself along with two walking sticks.
``I was born and raised the hard way on a farm in Texas,'' he said. ``I've never been sick. I've had a good body.''
A bit too much body, he admits, when he initiated the knob hikes amid splashes and streaks of autumn color the fall of 1992.
``I was in pretty good shape, then, because I had a farm and was out there with cattle and building fences and cutting trees,'' he said.
``But I had 200 pounds of weight and that was about 20 more than I needed. On level ground, you might get away with it. But you can't take it up here.''
When Waldrip, a retired Baptist minister, moved into Brandon Oaks in 1993, he began a one-hour, daily exercise ritual that includes walking, working out with barbells, push-ups and sit-ups. ``At the end of everything, I ride five miles on a stationary bike.''
The days he hikes to the knob, Waldrip cuts the exercise time in half.
On his most recent trip, Waldrip paused to read the trail register and record a new entry. There had been few messages since his previous trip, when he wrote: ``This old hiker pledges once again this year to do only that which will be good for my fellow hikers. Will each of you shake on that? God's speed - and keep your socks washed.'' It is signed, ``Mountain Man, 96th assault on the knob.''
Waldrip often closes letters, birthday cards and messages in trail registers with, ``Keep your socks clean.'' Feet are pretty important to a hiker, he explained.
``It means this: clean mind, clean heart, clean hands and clean feet. The symbol of it is keeping your socks clean.''
The trips to McAfee Knob aren't a search for lost youth; rather, Waldrip goes for the joy of hiking and the beauty of the setting.
He moves along at a pace that would leave some people half his age dizzy with panting. Yet he travels with a keen eye for detail, pausing to admire a hole excavated in a gnarled tree by a woodpecker, searching the understory for berries that become food for birds, pointing out a couple of blue humps on the distant horizon.
``That's the Peaks of Otter,'' he said.
Then there is the sand under his boots.
``These sandstone ridges are wearing down. I want to hike them before they are gone,'' he said with a laugh.
Sometimes, Waldrip appears to see beyond the mountains.
``You remember old David in the 121st Psalm?'' he said. ```I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.` I was always an admirer of David, even if he was a cuss.''
On most days, Waldrip makes the trip alone, leaving a flight plan with his wife, especially those times when he extends his hike by another mile or so. If he isn't home by 5:30 p.m., his wife has names of hikers to call.
No special celebration is planned by Waldrip when that 100th trip to the knob is reached.
``I always make a little celebration out of every one of them,'' he said.
Then Waldrip sat on a rock, with a God-like view of scenic Catawba Valley stretching out to infinity beneath him. He took out a knife, the long blade glittering in the sun, and carved a notch on his walking stick - the 97th.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: BILL COCHRAN. 1. Olin Waldrip, 85, moves along at aby CNBrapid pace on the Appalachian Trail. 2. He is within three trips of
reaching his goal of hiking to McAfee Knob (below) 100 times.
color.