Accessing the trail from Roanoke

[Hoofit]

Anyone familiar with Roanoke?
Just wondering which is the closest place from Roanoke town centre to access the AT?

[Gambit McCrae]

McAfee Knob is only 13 miles from Roanoke. 4 Pines hostel can pick you up and take you to the trailhead. If you chose to do this I would suggest starting just south of there and go include dragons tooth in your hike. Dragons tooth, Mcafee Knob and Tinker Cliffs is known as the triple crown of Virginia...kinda the highlight of central Virginia

[Lone Wolf]

12 miles to Daleville/Troutville

[CalebJ]

On the North end you can access at 220 (Daleville), somewhere along Rt 11, and Mountain Pass Road.
You can climb the Andy Layne trail to Scorched Earth Gap and hit the AT close to Tinker Cliffs.
Further down, the trail crosses 311 with a large (but frequently crowded) parking lot 3.9 miles south of McAfee's Knob.
It then crosses another road (Blacksburg Road I think?) before hitting Dragon's Tooth, which can also be accessed by a parking lot off 311 and a short side trail walk.

[Slo-go'en]

Are you arriving by bus? There is a city bus which goes to a votech school a couple of miles from the HJ and trail crossing on US220. I was looking into how to get to the Roanoke bus station from the HJ, but then met someone who offered to give me ride. Google maps will give you the options.

[Hoofit]

Anyone familiar with Roanoke?
Just wondering which is the closest place from Roanoke town centre to access the AT?

Thanks for all the suggestions...lots of good input!
Heading south to redo Virginia's 'Triple Crown' and continuing on to Asheville.
Already done over 2000 miles north including the whole of the South end of the trail....as I remember, Dragon's Tooth really kicked my ass!
Definitely a beautiful part of the trail..arriving by plane and hoping for a fairly quiet start...April 28th...before I run into too many northbounders..Hey, the view is always different going the other way, right?
Thanks again!