It's been a long and interesting slog since I last checked in but I am pleased to report that I made it to Damascus yesterday morning at about 11:00 am. Will provide some updates in some additional posts, but here are some headlines:
- Damascus is in Virgina! So I have left behind GA, NC and TN. Great country along the way but thrilled to make it into VA. Damascus is a huge town for the A/T...hosting a very large and popular trail days event in May. Thousands of hikers (current and past) come into Damascus to celebrate and get in all sorts of trouble. The town is very hiker friendly.
- Crossed the VA line about 5 miles just before Damascus. We were all told that there is no marker on the trail to announce our arrival so I tried my best to estimate where it would be. Bird (Jay Tews) had requested that I take a picture of the state line since that's the only one he missed when he did the AT last year. So I made my best estimate and then took a bunch of sticks and made my own sign on the path "VA...TN", took a picture of it for him. Thought it was pretty cool. Went on my merry way and about 25 meters down the path was a beautiful sign post noting that we are entering VA. Who would have thunk? Anyway, BIRD - I have two pictures I will email to you via iPhone if my AT&T coverage ever works. Thought it was a pretty darn good estimate.
- Did my first "over 20 miles" day two days ago, covering 23 miles on what they call the "TN Turnpike". Nice and flat and since it was a miserable, rainy and foggy day we decided to "crank out" the miles to make it possible to maximize a "nero-zero" in Damascus. It gave us a short 10 mile day into Damascus and we were here by 11:30 am yesterday, just in time for a big chicken fried salad and a half pound cheese burger with onions and bacon (and two dark beers).
- Weather over the past couple of days on the trail was what I was expecting all along. The 23 mile day fully tested my rain gear. Only failure was my pack cover...soaking my gear at the bottom of my pack. My Marmot Oracle and Marmot rainpants held up very well but, man, it was a tough day. My boots were absolutely soaked on the outside, but socks were dry. When we got to the shelter, Pilot and Shira were huddled in the bags trying to warm up. Shira and lost her raincoat and Pilot's gear and gotten soaked the night before so they jumped into the shelter and in their bags trying to get warmed up. Fire Fly's waterproofing failed so her sleeping bag was soaked and her feet as well so she jumped in her sleeping bag right away in an attempt to have her body heat dry the bag out. It was my first experience of being in a situation where someone might have been in harm's way but the rain stopped late in the evening and while nothing dried out, we didn't get any rain blown into the shelter. The next day, we packed our water logged gear up, Fire Fly used some ziploc bags for socks and we took our ten mile hike into Damascus.
Thank you for making the effort and taking the pictures. I was so excited about getting into town last year I did not want to stop to get out my camera. We stopped at the same shelter. At least the last 10 miles are down hill. Hard to feel too bad with town that close. Can't believe your feet stayed dry! I may have to give boots a second try. You will be doing 20+ days all the time now.
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