May 19

Trail Days continued

Still at Trail days for the festivities on Saturday.  I went to a talk that Jennifer Pharr Davis was hosting.  She was an excellent speaker.  Talked a lot about her first thru hike, then about her record of setting the women's supported record.  Only talked for a little about her recent record of overall supported hike.  I went for free hotdogs at Sundog Outfitter.  Then was the hiker parade.  Trail Days is really like a reunion for former thru hikers.  Many of the core group of people I have been hiking with this year didn't go.  On the other hand, I did see a ton of people I had met on the trail this year, some of which I hadn't seen since NC.  For the parade, current and former hikers lined up at Sundog.  Police and Fire Department crews had the road blocked off.  A fire truck siren sounded and the mob of hikers started their progression down the street.  When I come back one day, I'll be more prepared.  Costumes are a plus, and offense/defense for a water fight is a must.  Town folk lined the streets, cheering and waving....then pelting us with water balloons.  Some people even stretched out their garden hoses to spray the hikers.  Toward the end, near the middle of 'downtown', some people were even posted on rooftops showering us with water.  The smart hikers, who had heard about this, or veterans from previous years, had retalliatory water ammo and fought back against the townies.  The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes or so, and I had a blast.  Afterwards, in the town park, was the hiker talent show.  Pretty entertaining.  Several acts preformed music, but I think my favorite was the guy who was breathing fireballs.  That night, I went back to tent city for a big gear giveaway, but I didn't win anything.  I caught a late slideshow that Warren Doyle put on about some of his 'expedition' groups on the AT back in the 70s and 80s.  Then back to tent city.  Hung out in the woods for a bit to see what all the bonfire/drum circle fuss was about.

Starting the hiker parade

May 18

Trail Days

We got into Damascus late last night, actually early this morning.  A hiker from Germany (there's been lots of them on the trail so far) was riding down with us too.  We parked on the outside of town at 'tent city'.  Police were there to check us in, they work 24/7 for Trail Days.  There was still plenty of space in the fields.  The officer we talked to asked us what we were looking for, and we smartly set up in the 'quiet' section of tent city.  Woke up this morning and got breakfast at a coffee shop in town.  So far today has been great.  I've walked all around town.  There's arts and crafts, tons of concession food, pony rides and facepainting for the kids, free food/internet/showers sponsored by the Baptist church in town, lectures, gear repairs, vendors, etc.  I talked to Gene Espy, who was the 2nd person ever to thru-hike the AT in 1951, at the outfitter downtown.  I got a signed copy of a book he authored.  Really cool!  I mentioned I grew up near Shenandoah, and he told me about his hike through that section, when he stopped at Skyland.  I went to a presentation on the history of Damascus and the surrounding area this morning.  I checked out all of the gear rep's tent, and Big Agnes is repairing a couple holes in my tent's mesh right now for me for free!  Plans for this afternoon:  I want to go see this presentation about the Israel National Trail, and tonight I'm going to go see a movie about some people that thru-hiked last year.  So far it's been really fun, and informative here.  The field we are set up in is filling up fast.  Literally hundreds of tents all around.  From what I hear the late night atmosphere can get pretty wild.  Bonfires, drum circles, until the wee hours of the morning.  There is a huge police presence to keep things from getting out of hand.  There's definitely a kind of rock concert type of vibe in certain areas.  It might be fun to observe things for a moment, but I sure am glad to be on the quiet side of things.  Definitely using the earplugs tonight, haha!

Me and Gene Espy at MRO in Damascus

***special update***

I just got out of the presentation on the Israel National Trail.  This is on the to do list now.  I remember from my travel to Italy several years ago, being overwhelmed by the history there.  The presenter described the Israel Trail as a daily history lesson.  Instead of visiting as a tourist, you should go walk the land.  Walk by Jacob's well, walk where David slew Goliath, walk were Moses led his people through the desert.  Sounds amazing.  I'm only 600 miles into my NOBO hike, and already the wheels in my head are turning....what's next?  SOBO?  PCT?  I hadn't even thought about international trails.  The world is such a huge place.  And the best way to see it is to walk.

May 17

Going back to Damascus

I didn't stick around for breakfast.  Picked up the box of food I had mailed there to myself and hit the trail by 8am.  I wanted to make it to Pearisburg by noon.  There was a little bit of a climb coming out of the hostel, but not too bad.  Nice hiking along the ridgeline, and I had some nice views.  There was a long section of trail that went through rhododendron tunnels, and they were all bloomed out in cotton-candy pink flowers.  Amazing!  I took a quick break at Angels Rest, which overlooked the town and valley below.  I could see the New River in the distance.  Coming off the mountain, I took a sharp turn around a tree and fell down a steep section of trail.  No harm.  Fifty feet later someone had left trail magic, and I scored a Gatorade.  I made it into town, and I saw BamBam drive by.  He turned around and picked me up and took me to McDonalds for lunch, to the ATM, and to the public library.  And here at the library in Pearisburg, I finally got caught up on my journal entries.  Now I am waiting on my friend Angie, that I met last summer in Shenandoah, who is picking me up to go to Trail Days in Damascus.  Let the hippie hiker-trash fest begin!

Angels Rest above Pearisburg, Va.

May 16

600

I got a good start this morning and headed down the trail.  Sun shining.  Life is good.  Shortly down the trail, I passed the 600 mile mark!  Someone had made the numbers 6-0-0 out of pine cones right in the middle of the trail.  Awesome!  I did a little bit of climbing, but nothing to bad.  This section of trail was the land of 1000 spiderwebs.  Tunnel-web spiders maybe?  They were everywhere, glistening with dew in the early morning light.  I'm trying to push another big day, 21 miles, into Woods Hole hostel, to set myself up for a short 10 mile day into Pearisburg on Thursday.  Unfortunately, the big day yesterday, in wet shoes, left a 3 inch hot spot on the arch of my left foot.  It hasn't blistered up, and looks more like a bruise.  Just from a long day of wet friction.  I went over Kimberling Creek, which was quite wide.  The suspension bridge that let hikers cross the creek was impressive.  Next was a road crossing.  Decision time.  I could go into Trent's Grocery for treats.  I decided not to, since I had stopped in Bland.  The hike north of there passed Dismal Falls.  I didn't take the 0.3 mile side trail.  Oh well.  I'll have to come back, maybe when I go back to Grayson Highlands again in good weather so I can actually see the views.  For the next few miles I was walking on pine straw, through rhododendron tunnels, right along the creek.  Awesome.  I stopped at Wapiti shelter for a quick break.  There were several hikers there that I had met before.  They had bought tacky dress clothes, full suits, ties, and vests at a thrift store, then gone to buy beer, and were playing beer pong at the picnic table next to the shelter.  Awesome.  It's one thing to hike out several cases into the middle of the woods, but to do it dressed to the nines...awesome.  I just stayed long enough to grab some water and a quick snack, since there was more hiking to do.  I had a tough climb coming out of the shelter, but once I was on the ridge there was a nice spot to take a break with spectacular views.  This is what I love about hiking in Virginia!  The terrain has been pretty nice, but still rugged.  Views, pastures, forests, balds.  It doesn't get old.  I hiked on to the gravel road at Sugar Run Gap, and took it 0.5 off the trail to Woods Hole hostel.  I was just in time to take a quick shower, and get dinner.  The bunk house was full, and so were the rooms in the main house.  All together, there were about 25 hikers there tonight.  For a fee, we chowed down on beef stir fry, salad, and fresh baked bread.  Before the meal, we all joined hands for a moment of silence, then went around the circle introducing ourselves and telling everyone one thing we were thankful for.  The main house at Woods Hole dates back to the 1880's.  The owners there run a hiker hostel and a farm.  They grow a lot of their own produce, and source local farms for meat and other foods.  They hold a yoga session, offer massages, and nighttime meditation.  And of course there's hiker treats like soda, candy, and ice cream.  Incredible place.  I set up my tent in the tenting area just up the driveway.  I had four sodas.  This is a place worth coming back to.  One day, one day.

Woods Hole Hostel.

May 15

3 hrs to Jenny

The rain had stopped by morning.  Still had to pack up a wet tent fly, and put on wet shoes though.  We passed a side trail called 'Trail Boss Trail'.  Wonder who that guy is.  I posed for a picture beside the sign, and the arrow was pointing at me, so I guess I'm the Trail Boss, haha!  We made good time this morning, and had a couple nice views of the clouds rising out of the valley below.  We had the town of Bland, Va coming up, and we all wanted to stop in for lunch.  I was good on resupply, but I couldn't resist a burger in town.  We got really lucky with a shuttle and a hitch, in and out of town, and were back on the trail fairly quickly.  We walked over a road that crossed Interstate 77.  We got a trucker to honk at us.  Score!  We arrived at Helveys Mill shelter around 4pm.  Tink, Apache, and Slims all wanted to stay there.  I needed to push on though so I could get to Pearisburg in the next couple of days.  So on I went on my own.  I did the next 10 miles to Jenny Knob shelter in 3 hours.  Flying.  The trail was still wet and muddy, but it was mostly just a ridge-walk, so I cruised.  Ys Guy was there too.  I set up my mat and sleeping bag in the shelter.  Used my bear bag line to string up a clothes line to let my tent and wet clothes dry out overnight, hopefully.  Got water, way down hill.  Cooked dinner.  Went to bed.  19 miles today.  Awesome!

Like A Boss.

May 14

Beach day

We reluctantly left the safety of the shelter, and headed out into the morning rain.  Everything was soaked.  Tinkerbell and I were in pretty good spirits in spite of the weather.  Today was beach day.  We hiked all day rockin' our shades.  We had our full rain gear on, but underneath, I was just wearing my synthetic undies, and Tink was sportin' her bikini.  I didn't want to hike in wet shorts again, and they ended up drying pretty well in my pack throughout the course of the day.  Hiking in rainpants was hot and sweaty, but at least my shorts would be dry for tomorrow.  Although the material of the shorts is 'quick dry' the waistband never seems to dry out.  From the weight I've lost, my pack hip belt, and my shorts, don't fit very well, and in the constant days of rain and sweat I've been getting some nasty chaffing around my waist from everything rubbing against my skin all day long.  Even though the weather was nasty, it wouldn't phase us.  This is our beach day, haha!  I didn't take many pictures, and we didn't take many breaks due to the weather.  Around lunchtime the rain finally stopped.  We thought about stopping at Jenkins shelter for an short day to dry out, but we heard there was a problem bear there, so we pushed on.  At mile 580 we crossed an nice footbridge over Laurel Creek.  My shoes were still soaked, so I walked right out into the creek with them on to wash off all the mud.  Everyone else did the same.  Bandana baths.  My Dr Bronners soap did an okay job washing the funk out of my socks.  They still stink, but have a slight peppermint odor.  Haha.  We set up our tents at a really nice site, just a few hundred feet north on the trail.  The rain started back up again.  Sigh.  We still managed to get a roaring fire going despite the rain and wet wood.  That's 'cuz we're awesome!

Laurel Creek.

May 13

Sardines

Got off to a bit of a late start.  Rainbow Eyes was hiking back to the road 2 miles, so he could meet his parents today.  Slims, Apache, and I had a nice morning hiking, crossing a few streams.  There was a particularly nice footbridge and tentsite at Lynn Camp creek, where we stopped for a short break.  We trudged up the climb over Lynn Camp Mountain.  Saw yet another black snake on the trail.  Early in the afternoon, we were coming up on a really long, big climb up Chestnut Ridge.  Near the top there was a small spring-fed pond, where we all filled up on water.  Then the grey clouds opened up and started dumping a cold rain on us.  Hooray.  We made the last mile or so up to Chestnut Knob shelter, where surprisingly there was plenty of bunk space left.  This shelter was really cool.  It actually had four walls, and a door.  And a picnic table inside, so we didn't have to cook out in the rain.  We all got settled, started dinners, and hikers started coming in one after another.  Apollo and Pops caught back up with us too, so that was awesome to see them again.  Thirsty had a bottle of Beam, and Pops had the bright idea of mixing it with hot chocolate.  Everyone chipped in hot chocolate packets from their food bags and water from their water bladders.  Crazily enough, Pops had a bag of marshmallows too.  So all of us in the shelter got to sip on hot chocolate and bourbon with marshmallows, dry and toasty in the shelter, while the rain poured on the roof, and the wind howled.  Awesome!  This shelter was only supposed to sleep 8, but we ended up with 18 hikers crammed in there, and 1 dog.  There was a hammock strung up, someone on the picnic table, someone under the table on the floor, and several others on the floor under the bunk platforms.  Pretty impressive.

Chestnut Knob shelter.

May 12

Happy Birthday!

We stayed late in the room, but finally headed out to the trail.  Tink had left earlier to get a head start.  There were plans in the works.  Today is Apache's birthday.  Apache and I walked to the post office to take care of some things.  Everyone else hitched back to the trail.  The car that dropped them off, turned around and came to pick me and Apache too!  We all hiked together under Interstate 81.  I found a couple Busch's in the grass just a bit further.  Score!  Gotta love beer magic.  We passed an old cemetery, checked it out briefly.  We stopped for lunch at a campsite that had a privy.  This was an old shelter site, but the shelter had been removed for some reason.  Hiking was really nice today.  We were now in cow country.  We walked through several pastures.  Much of this stretch is on private land, but the landowners have given hikers allowance to pass through.  Amazing rolling fields, full of wildflowers and grasses, cows grazing.  Slims had 2 ticks on him.  We all did a tick check at the next road crossing, haha!  Toward the end of the day, we crossed another road, and came to some coolers of trail magic left by a local church.  We all got a cold soda to power us up the next mountain to the shelter.  We hiked ahead, and we had Apache in the back so he would be the last one into the campsite.  We came over a ridge, and could see a campfire.  Just as we came out of the rhododendron thicket, into the campsite at the Knot Maul Branch shelter, Tink had strung up a "Happy Birthday" banner!  She also had a "Birthday Boy" button for Apache to wear.  Slims had been hiking for the past 2 days with a glass bottle of margarita.  BamBam was up there with us too, and we all had a great night.  We even had a fire-cooked chocolate chip cookie, with candles in it.  Later in the night we started playing a game of hot-potato with embers from the fire.  Not a great idea, but it was fun, and as long as you kept it moving quickly it wouldn't burn you.  Good times.  Apache had an awesome trail birthday!

The AT crosses through farmer's land in SW Virginia.

May 11

Late start

Rainbow Eyes got up early, and headed into Sugar Grove to pick up a package.  The rest of us headed into Marion on the transit shuttle.  50 cents one way!  Awesome.  I didn't really need to go into town, but I wanted Chinese buffet for lunch, haha!  Everyone else did their resupply at the grocery store.  We all sat out front in Adirondack chairs, charging our cell phones and cameras.  I bet we looked like a bunch of bums.  The 1pm shuttle was full, so we had to wait around until 2.  Rainbow Eyes had started down the trail hours ago, headed for Atkins, Va.  We got in touch with him, and we all agreed that we wanted a hotel room for the night so we could shower, so he was going to scope things out for us in town.  Deep, Slims, Apache, Tink, and I didn't start hiking until almost 4pm, with 11.6 miles to go.  We were flying down the trail, racing against nightfall.  We did take a short break at an old school house from the 1800s.  It was open to the public, and there were signs encouraging hikers to stop by and sign the register book there.  We hiked to the road crossing near Atkins and unsuccessfully tried hitching into town to stay at the Comfort Inn.  Tink got a hold of BamBam, who was in the area, and we got a ride.  Subway for dinner, shower, and a hotel room.  Awesome.  Another hiker, Snafu, showed up later and called up to our room.  We were already over capacity for room with 6.  Tink, Deep, and I scattered, and the hotel manager brought Snafu up to the room, with a roll away bed.  After the coast was clear, we ended up sleeping 7 in the room that night.  Hikers are certainly resourceful.

Rolling mountain farmland near Atkins, Va.

May 10

Orion's big day

So, leaving the shelter this morning, I led our group, simply because nobody else wanted to lead.  With me in front, Slims, Apache, Tinkerbell, and Rainbow Eyes set out with a big day planned.  19.7 miles to Partnership shelter, where we hear you can have pizza delivered to the visitor's center 0.1 miles from the shelter!  Game on.  Passed some nice streams early in the morning, and went through some rhododendron tunnels.  The pink flowers were starting to bloom on them.  Really pretty.  We crossed a gravel road, and found sodas hidden along the trail (later we would find out that BamBam is the one that left these there for us).  We entered the Racoon Branch Wilderness.  Didn't see any racoons.  We stopped for lunch at Trimpi shelter, which was a really cool spot.  The white flowers of mountain laurel are starting to bloom.  We walked out of the woods after lunch, into an open pasture.  In the book it said this is where the old abandoned school bus is supposed to be, but we couldn't find it.  Later we heard that it was removed from the site.  Bummer.  Late in the afternoon, we hiked through what must have been a mile, of rhododendron tunnels.  I thought it'd be a great idea to try to make a kilt out of the leaves at some point.  Tink has costume design skills, so she's on board for the idea too.  Haha!  We finally made it to Partnership shelter.  Big day.  Nice shelter.  We took over the second floor, of course.  We made it in just after the last shuttle into town had left.  Some other hikers were telling us stories involving ice cream and AYCE Chinese buffet.  Everyone else stayed to cook hiker dinners, Tink and I decided we had to go to town.  After 30 minuntes, my hitchin' buddy and I, finally got picked up and got into Marion, Va.  We hit up the liquor store for some after dinner treats, pigged out at the Chinese buffet, and I stopped by the gas station to pick up a lemonade to mix with my airplane size Firefly, and a coke to mix with my airplane size Jack.  Getting back to the top of the mountain was a different story.  It was getting late, and we didn't have our jackets, or head lamps, so we caught a taxi for 9 bucks each.  There were a couple dozen hikers at the shelter tonight.  Several new hikers I just met, and some others I hadn't seen in a few days.  We had a great fire going and stayed up late.  Late-late night, Yukon, Squatch, Boomer, Tink, and I went down a couple hundred yards off trail to a nice spot to watch the stars.  We were on a earthen dam that separated two ponds, nothing but clear sky above us, totally still and quiet.  I couldn't find Orion though.

Beautiful day for a hike, near Marion, Va.

May 9

Pony lovin'

We all headed out as a group, the 'party floor crew', into the foggy, drizzly, cold, mountain morning.  After about a mile we crosses through a fence stile, and were greeted by dozens of ponies!  There were even some brand new baby ponies that could barely even walk on their own.  Awesome!  We then came to a cool rock outcropping that had awesome views, of nothing but white/grey fog.  Haha.  We went through another grassy open area, and saw dozens more ponies!  Tink was reluctant to pet them, but she was so happy after she tried it.  All of a sudden one of the ponies started making a lot of noises, and ran off.  One of the ponies decided it was a good time to mate.  Right in front of everyone, haha!  It was like being on the set of a Nat Geo documentary or something.  Needless to say, the wild, wild pony, (ahem) episode, provided us with an endless amount of amusement for the rest of the day.  We passed through a tunnel that went through a rock face, called 'fatman squeeze'.  Then through another pasture, not full of ponies, but actually long horned cattle.  Didn't stick around there too long.  We hiked into Wise shelter, where we saw Y's Guy again.  The shelter was at exactly the 500 mile mark!  Another wilderness area, Little Wilson Creek.  Crossed Pine Mountain, at 5000 feet.  Still in a cold, wet, foggy, drizzle.  When the trail wasn't more like a stream, it was nothing but mud.  We pushed on past Old Orchard shelter.  The rain started to let up.  It was getting late in the day and we were coming up on Hurricane Mountain shelter.  Not only was the shelter empty, but it was a really nice one too, constructed in the last few years.  The rain stopped, the sun poked out of the clouds just in time for a beautiful orange sunset.  And as a bonus, I found my 3rd model taped to the wall of this shelter.  Haha.  Kudos to whoever has been providing this 'trail magic'.  Looks like we're getting back into the swing of things, putting up a 15 mile day.

More wild ponies!

May 8

Party floor

We left the cabin this morning.  I had a visitor in the night.  A big wet dog.  We were served up a great breakfast of huge pancakes, coffee, and omlettes made from fresh eggs right from the hen house.  They even gave us a ride back up to the mountain.  All this hospitality for just some gas money!  Awesome.  Well we started hiking up toward Mt. Rogers, the highest peak in Virginia at 5729 feet.  It was cold and the sky was grey.  We got to the side trail that led 0.5 miles to the summit of Rogers.  I had wanted to go there, even though there's no view, just to be at the highest point in Virginia.  But right then, a cold rain had started falling again, and the shelter at Thomas Knob was only half a mile away.  Skip the side trail.  We got up to the shelter and surprisingly it wasn't full, yet.  We claimed our spots up on the second floor of the shelter, and spent a lazy afternoon around the shelter after 4.9 miles of hiking.  A wild pony came up to the shelter.  It would come right up to you and lick your legs.  I guess they have a taste for salty hiker sweat.  A lot of us took turns getting a pony bath.  The shelter quickly filled up with cold, wet hikers.  Tinkerbell showed up too!  She had hiked to the shelter to catch up with us, since she didn't have a tent anymore.  She was picking up a new one in 4 days, and was hoping the weather would be okay, or that she could find shelter space.  We made room up on the second floor.  With a few other hikers from the 'younger' crowd, we had 9 people upstairs, and dubbed it "the party floor".  We stayed up late talking, telling jokes, and laughing hysterically, so happy to be out of the cold, miserable weather.

The wild ponies in the Grayson Highlands are not shy.

May 7

Life on a commune

Nice hiking this morning, parallel to the Creeper trail for a while.  Saw another black snake, right on a long foot bridge we were crossing on.  This morning we were walking in a really nice area, full of streams.  We took a break at Lost Mountain shelter, and there was another page from the Victoria's Secret magazine taped to the wall.  Okay, so now it's game on.  I'm now on the lookout for more supermodels along the trail.  It seems they like to gather at shelters, so they should be easy to find.  I wonder how many I will find.  It was too early for lunch at this point, so we decided to hike up to Buzzard Rock.  The climb up was really tough.  Just before the top, the weather started to turn.  Still had some nice views though.  As soon as we set our packs down, and reached for our food bags, a cold, wet rain started falling on us.  So much for lunch!  We kept hiking to get out of the exposed clearing, and eventually made it up to the top of Whitetop Mountain.  After a 12 mile day, we came to a parking lot, and all huddled up under the overhang of the bathroom roof to get out of the rain.  The situation was bleak.  We were 4467 feet up, at Elk Gardens, miserable, wet, hungry, and cold.  Cell phones had no service.  It would be 5 miles, and up another 1000 feet of elevation, to the next shelter.  In this weather, we knew it would be full already.  After about 45 minutes of waiting around, and no success hitching a ride from the 2 cars that passed by, a passenger van from Sundog Outfitter in Damascus pulled up in the parking lot.  They had been dropping off people that were biking the Virginia Creeper Trail back into town.  We got an $8 shuttle back to Damascus to regroup.  Coming down off the mountain, the sun came out and the rain stopped.  Figures.  We got back into town, and every inn and hostel was full.  Crap!  Now what were we going to do?  We decided to start walking down Rt 58 toward Abingdon, Va, which is a larger town, thinking we could get a hotel room, and get back to the trail in the morning somehow.  About a mile down the highway a red pickup truck pulled over and gave us a ride.  We had a young hiker from Germany with us at this point, named Deep, so all five of us, packs and all, were whisked away down the highway.  The guys that picked us up are former thru hikers, and they have a farm just outside of town that they let us stay at.  They even cooked us a great dinner of beef tacos, with iced tea, and chocolate cake for desert.  Our accommodations for the night were away from the main house, in a 2 story cabin that they had built from the ground up.  It utilized solar panels, so it was completely off the grid.  We all stayed up watching the stars, and listening to the guitar, from the second floor balcony.  The farm had dozens of goats, hundreds of birds (ducks, geese, and chickens), a horse, and several dogs.  They had a lot of land, and a grand plan for turning this place into a sort of commune for hikers.  People could come and go, help out around the farm, etc etc.  Most of their projects were largely unfinished, but it was a cool concept if they get some more help and are able to see their ideas completed.  We all felt like we punked out by coming back into town to get out of the rain.  But things turned out way better than we could have imagined.  Only good things happen when you hitch a ride with strangers, haha!

M R goats.
 M R not goats.
 O S A R goats.

May 6

Rainbow Eyes

Packed up at the hostel this morning ready to hit the trail.  Tink shaved her head.  Awesome!  Only KB, Slims, Apache, and myself headed out today.  We lacked motivation to leave town.  Stopped at Subway on the way out for lunch.  Then by an ice cream shop.  We finally left town and headed down the Virginia Creeper Trail, which the AT follows for about half a mile.  Upon entering the woods again, KB had an announcement for us.  He said "Hey guys, I passed this girl when we were coming up the stairs.  She was clearly stoned.  And she said, Wow! You have rainbow eyes" (referring to the multi-colored tint of KB's sunglasses).  And so, Rainbow Eyes was born.  Today would turn out to be some of the most fun I have had hiking so far.  The four of us guys started breaking out in song, and the time passed by quickly.  The frustrating part was none of us could even keep any song going past the first verse or two, or sometimes we could only remember choruses.  Finally, after a few hours of singing merrily down the trail, we completed a full rendition of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  Good times.  We passed a few hikers throughout the afternoon.  They definitely could hear us coming, haha!  We stopped for the night to set up camp at a small pond along the trail after successfully escaping 11 miles away from Damascus.

Sad face, leaving town.

May 5

Cinco de Mayo

Ya que hoy es un día de fiesta, decidimos quedarnos en la ciudad.  Algunos excursionistas más de nuestros amigos llegaron hoy.  Es bueno ver a Apache, Pops, Earthling, Apollo y Tink nuevamente.  400 Millas de Georgia, y estamos todos juntos de nuevo otra vez!  Nos alojamos todos en la barra de nuevo para cenar y tomar cerveza.  Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Apache, Slims, Apollo, and KB
 hablando de equipos at "La Lugar".

May 4

The Tennessee Turnpike

Started packing up at first light, and I was on the trail by 6:30am.  I passed an really odd tombstone.  This man lived from 1851 to 1923, and the epitaph read:  "lived alone, suffered alone, died alone".  Just before a road crossing, I got some trail magic that a church youth group had left.  Little Debbie cake and a Mountain Dew.  About 400 calories to power me through the next few miles!  After crossing the road, I hiked through a nice stretch of the trail that was actually graded to be handicap accessible.  It passed through nice rolling meadows and fields, and by some old farm buildings.  I then had to hop a fence stile, and walked right through a cow pasture, full of cows.  I mooed at them.  They weren't impressed.  Refilled my water at Double Springs shelter, and took a mid-morning snack break, just about 8 miles in for my marathon day.  Crossed another road, and saw a sign at Low Gap that said Damascus was 14.8 away.  Woohoo!  I got to Abingdon Gap shelter around 1:15pm and took a late lunch break.  Someone had written a Bible verse in the shelter log that was appropriate for the setting.  Acts 9:3-4:  "As he (Saul) was traveling and nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him.  Falling to the ground, he heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Then a smiley face and a warning to watch out for bright lights on the way to Damascus.  Haha.  At mile 463.2 I crossed the Virginia state line.  I'm home!!!  That was a really cool feeling.  I saw my first snake of Virginia too, a 5 foot long black snake.  I must have waited 5 minutes for the thing to move off the trail so I could pass.  After another 3.8 miles from the border, I was walking through the middle of Damascus.  By the time I made it to Mount Rodgers Outfitter in the middle of town, I had successfully completed my marathon, by 4:30 in the afternoon.  Ten hours from start to finish, plus I had taken 1.5 hours of breaks during the day.  I did an easy 3+ mile per hour pace.  This past 30 or so miles of trail is referred to as the "Tennessee Turnpike", since hikers fly through this relatively flat section to get to town.  I would actually do a bit more than the 26.2, to make it to "The Place", a hostel hosted by the Methodist church in town.  All of the bunks in the 2 story house were full, so I tented in the back yard.  The 'dirt line' on my leg is pretty gross.  Got a nice shower inside the hostel.  I met up with KB, and Slims, in town and we headed to Quincey's for dinner.  There were a bunch of other hikers there that we knew too.  Pizza for dinner, and $2 mugs of Natty Light.  Oh yeah!  There was live music too, so we hung out for a while at the bar area listening to that, playing pinball, and enjoying cheap beer.

Welcome back to Virginia!

May 3

Adriana Lima

Crossed over Watauga Dam this morning.  Blazes were kind of hard to follow, but I got going in the right direction.  Entered an area through the Big Laurel Branch Wilderness.  Not sure what the 'wilderness' count is up to, but it's pretty cool to go through so many of them.  Saw another snake, not sure what type.  It was smaller, and sort of brown and yellow-ish.  Stopped for lunch and Vandeventer shelter, and there was a nice view behind it.  In the shelter, people had written all sorts of funny things about Bob Peoples, in the style of 'Chuck Norris-isms".  Ie:  "Bob Peoples gives his boots blisters", and "Bob Peoples was bitten by a zombie.  After a few days, the zombie turned back into a human, and started building switchbacks", "When Bob Peoples sleeps here, the mice bring him food", etc, etc.  I got to Iron Mountain shelter early in the afternoon, and I had noticed in my AT Guide that from this point, it was exactly 26.2 miles to the middle of town in Damascus.  I decided that I would stop short for the day, and do my marathon day into Damascus tomorrow.  I wanted to sleep in the shelter, even though the weather was nice, so I wouldn't have to pack up my tent in the morning.  When I rolled out my mat, I noticed on the wall next to me, a picture of Adriana Lima, that someone had taken out of a Victoria's Secret magazine and duct taped to the wall.  Awesome!  It just so happens that she is my most favorite model in the world.  Absolutely stunning.  I was destined to stay here, that settles it.  A few other hikers pulled in throughout the evening.  I got a nice video of Kokopelli playing his native flute at his tentsite.  Very relaxing.  Brightflower said she was an early riser so I asked her to wake me up so I could get an early start on my big day tomorrow.

View behind Vandeventer shelter.

May 2

The return of Apache

Left Kincora, headed back to the trail, and into the Pond Mountain Wilderness.  The first spring blooms of rhododendron were starting to come out along this section.  Before too long I came to Laurel Falls.  There was a huge black snake on the trail on the way down to the falls, and a cool looking dark blue salamander too.  Laurel Falls was impressive, best on the trail so far.  Next I had a huge climb up to Pond Flats, which wasn't really flat, it was just two and a half miles of climbing up a giant mountain, then three miles down the other side. I came out of the woods, to a road at the Shook Branch Recreational Area, and there were some fellow hikers there along with some trail magic.  Tom, twice a former thru-hiker, had brought chips, crackers, popcorn, and sodas, and talked with us for a bit.  We went down to the sandy beach swimming area across the road at the lake.  I went for a brief, cold swim.  KB stayed for a few minutes, but decided to push on to do some more miles.  Soon after, who pulls up into the parking lot, but Apache (Joe)!  His ankle is healed up after a couple weeks of rest, and he's getting back on the trail.  His mom went back into Hampton and brought us fresh fruit - a huge watermelon, strawberries, and oranges.  Second trail magic of the day!  After a lazy afternoon enjoying the lake we hiked another 1.8 miles to the Watauga Lake shelter.  I set up my tent behind the shelter and Apache was hammocking right next to me.  He said the ankle felt good, so that's great news.  Shelter log says there's a bear in the area, so everyone made use of the bear pole to hang their food.

Laurel Falls.

May 1

May Day

It was a nice sunny morning leaving the shelter, and the trail was pretty flat.  After a few miles we came across a bench that looked out over some nice views.  There was a sign on a tree, pointing back southbound on the AT, that said "Springer Mnt 404 mi".  Nice!  I saw another one of those cool orange salamanders.  There were lots of stream crossings early in the day.  I took a lunch break at Hardcore Cascade.  Giggidy.  Refilled my water too.  Water was very plentiful today.  I passed a side trail that went down to Coon Den Falls.  Before long I came out to a road crossing at Dennis Cove Rd. and walked up to Kincora hostel.  Kincora is a rustic hiker hostel, hosted by Bob Peoples.  Bob is legendary on the trail, for many reasons, including the trail maintenance crews that he leads.  This area in Tennessee is full of Bob's and his crews work, whether it's metal mesh on the logs that cross streams to help the hikers' traction, or the many switchbacks that make climbing some of the steeper sections in the area a bit easier.  Slims was at the hostel tonight too, so it was good to see him again.  He had been here a couple nights ago, hiked on northward, then shuttled back to the hostel to see if any of us had caught back up yet.  Baltimore Jack was here at Kincora too, helping Bob.  Apparently it's been an extremely busy hiker season so far this year.  Bob gave us a ride into town to resupply.  I made a quick grocery store run, and then hit up Arbys.  $10 of food on the dollar menu.  Crushed it.  So I then went to Little Caesars and got a pizza.  I ate half of it back at the hostel, and would save the other half for breakfast.  Among the other hikers that filled the place to capacity, were 2 girls from Europe (Germany and Poland), that had an amazing story to tell.  They had "hitched" on a boat crossing the Atlantic, from Spain.  Gone to Miami.  Hitchhiked to New Orleans, and ended up on a shrimp boat somehow.  Now they wanted to see the Appalachian Mountains, before they needed to be in New York City, to return home in 2 weeks.  They had backpacking gear, and were hitchhiking in North Carolina, where Baltimore Jack and an employee from Mountain Crossings back in Georgia, saw them, picked them up, and brought them to Kincora.  They played a nice rendition of a Bob Dylan song for us on the guitar, on the front porch of the hostel.  A few of us stayed up late playing a rousing game of Monopoly.  Oh, and I did a load of laundry for the first time since Erwin.  Didn't shower though.  Kinda gross, but oh well.  416, the miles are just melting away.

With Bob Peoples.

April 30

Penthouse Suite

Woke up to the sunrise coming up over the ridge.  I was packed up and out of the shelter quickly.  The trail started climbing right away, up a grassy slope that looked back onto Overmountain shelter below.  Beautiful.  I was back into the woods briefly, then popped out onto a huge meadow, begining the climb up Little Hump Mountain.  Totally open views all around, at over 5400 feet.  At the top, the larger summit of Hump Mountain came into view.  The trail didn't make a B-line for Hump though, and banked off to the right back into the woods for a bit.  I then came back out onto the meadow at the base of Hump Mountain.  I was laughing with excitement.  The climb up to the 5500 foot summit was long and tough.  Under tree cover this climb would have been miserable.  This climb was actually fun.  Nothing was on this massive mountain except grasses, flowers, and huge boulders.  William Wallace running through the high country of Scotland in the movie Braveheart came to mind.  The views at the top were stunning.  Best in the Roans, and possibly the best on the trail so far.  I took a good break up there with several other hikers from the shelter last night.  I hiked down the back side of the bald, almost stepped on a small brown snake.  Baby copperhead?  I've seen 3 black snakes so far.  They're starting to come out now.  Descending further, I passed by Doll Flats, and heading into Tennessee officially.  See ya North Carolina!  The past 200 miles or so that is shared along the border had been amazing.  I made it to a highway that the trail crossed, to take a water break, and KB came up shortly after.  We hiked together in the afternoon, climbing again.  It was HOT.  We were exposed in a meadow at one point with the sun just beating down on us.  A cool breeze started blowing in, and at the top of the climb we entered some pine trees, and it was quite nice.  We crossed another road and got some water from the faucet outside at a church, in the middle of nowhere.  If we come across any vampires, at least we have some holy water!  We started descending again, and black clouds began to surround us.  We could hear thunder getting closer, and before too long, rain started hitting us off and on.  Pack covers on.  Rain gear on.  We were 6 miles from the next shelter at this point.  We covered 3 miles or so, quickly, trying to beat the rain.  But by the time we bottomed out at the Elk River, the storm had caught us.  I came across several hikers of the "Wolfpack", who let me take cover under their tarp.  KB pushed on.  I waited out the worst of the storm, which include some more hail.  Gotta love the hail out here.  After about 30 minutes the storm started to break and I made a run for it.  I covered the 3 miles to Mountaineer Falls shelter in no time.  The waterfall, for which the shelter was named, was awesome.  I stopped for a quick photo, but I hurried in the drizzle for another tenth of a mile to the shelter.  This is a pretty new shelter, and it is amazing.  The water source is actually the top of the waterfall.  I had managed to only get a little damp in the storm, and quickly changed into my dry bedtime clothes.  The best part was that this shelter had 3 levels.  The third story loft slept 2, and I set up my mat and sleeping bag up there.  Another awesome, awesome day on the AT.  Oh, and by the way, right before the shelter tonight, I crossed the 400 mile mark!

The climb up Hump Mountain.

April 29

Roan, sweet Roan
Had a steep climb right out of the shelter this morning, up to Little Rock Knob.  KB probably had the right idea to get this out of the way last night, haha.  I got some really nice views from several rocky cliffs at the top.  From my elevation at 4900 feet, I descended down into Hughs Gap, for a loss of 900 feet.  Now the tough part would begin.  The assent of Roan High Knob.  I would be climbing up to almost 6200 feet in the next 4 miles.  To my surprise, the trail at the base of the climb had recently been relocated.  In some places you could see where the old AT used to be, in a direct assault of every bump, shoulder, and elbow of the mountain.  The trail now is smooth and meandering, slowly up and around the sides of the mountain.  It adds distance to the trail overall, but makes the climb much less brutal.  After what seemed like forever, I finally got up onto a ridge.  The sun was in and out of the clouds, so it was nice and cool.  The trail was really pretty here, lined in grass, with wild flowers everywhere.  Mistakenly, I thought, "wow, Roan wasn't that bad".  This wasn't Roan though.  I lost some elevation again, going down into Ash Gap.  I checked my book, and realized I still had Roan in front of me.  Sigh.  At least the trail has been nicely graded.  But that's where that ended.  The trail past Ash Gap was a tough, steep, rocky, rooty climb up and up for about 900 feet.  At this high elevation, the evergreens came out again, and it reminded me of the forests in the Smokies. Near the summit, I passed Toll House Gap, hoping that somebody would have some chocolate chip cookies, haha.  I finally got to the top of the mountain.  There was a parking area that wasn't open for the season yet.  I learned from from signage in the area that this used to be the location of the luxurious Cloudland Hotel, back in the late 1880's.  I started back on the trail, with another thru-hiker, Margaret.  Coming down the other side of the mountain, we both missed the sign that would have directed us to the highest shelter on the AT, Roan High Knob shelter.  Guess I got distracted somehow, oops!  We didn't realize our error until about a mile past it either, and didn't want to back track just for a photo.  She stopped for lunch on a rock, but I was out of water so I pushed on to some streams ahead at Carvers Gap.  Out of the gap, I began climbing Round Bald.  The summit of this mountain is at 5800 feet, and is the first of three balds that were lined up one right after another.  I had picked an outstanding place to have lunch!  360 degree views, on a grassy mountaintop.  I could see Mount Mitchell in the distance, the highest peak in NC, and the highest peak east of the Mississippi in fact.  I kind of wish the AT went over it.  Margaret caught back up and we hiked over the smaller Jane Bald.  Awesome!  Then we started up Grassy Ridge Bald.  The AT split off to the left halfway up the climb.  We took the 0.5 mile side trail, off the AT, up to the summit.  Totally worth it.  From the top of this massive, bald mountain, we could see forever in every direction.  I feel like there aren't adequate words to describe the views.  Several hikers I knew were planning to camp up here.  What a great spot!  I wasn't done for the day though, and pushed on down off of Grassy Ridge Bald toward Overmountain shelter.  At the shelter, Margaret caught back up with here hiking friends, Laffy Taffy and Fonsworth.  Fonsworth was hiking wearing a bowtie, pretty funny and unique, haha.  The shelter at Overmountain is incredible.  It's just a big red barn, that has been converted for hikers to sleep in.  The lower section of the barn has 2 platforms to sleep on that accommodate about 5 hikers each.  From this spot, you can look out into a gorgeous valley below, flanked on either side by huge mountain ridges.  There were several fire pits, and a picnic table.  Perfect setting for dinner.  A staircase would take you to the upper level, where the entire floor of the barn could accommodate dozens more hikers.  The book said this shelter could sleep 20, but realistically it's more like 50.  Not to mention the massive amount of tenting locations.  This is a unique shelter, in a postcard perfect setting.  The terrain I covered today, and stopping for the night here, has turned out to be probably the best day on the trail so far.  Spectacular!

View from Grassy Ridge Bald, looking back across Jane and Round Balds
toward Roan High Knob.

April 28

Unaka

Came down off of Beauty Spot down into a gap first thing this morning.  Then I began a pretty sizable assent on Unaka Mountain, at 5180 feet.  This was a beautiful mountain and a beautiful hike.  The forest changed back into spruce and fir again.  Although the trees were dense, this area was different from the evergreen forests in the Smokies, in that there was no understory or shrubs.  The only thing on the top of the mountain were spruce and firs.  As far as you could see it was just a maze of tree trunks that you were walking through.  If it weren't for the white blazes it would be easy to get lost.  The trail was nothing but soft needles that had fallen from the trees.  The forest was dark and moist.  Lush, dark green moss covered the ground.  This was a magical place.  At the summit I rounded a bend, and caught back up to KB.  He had pushed on further last night, so he had been ahead of me all morning.  Coming down the mountain, there were small Frasier firs everywhere.  It looked like a Christmas tree farm.  The air smelled great.  The rest of the day there were a few small ups and downs.  Entering Iron Mountain Gap, there was a really nice, new sign showing several distances north and south of that location.  Apparently I am now in the section maintained by the Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club.  I made it to the Cylde Smith shelter and decided to stop for the day.  Apparently shelters in Tennessee are lacking in privies, and this on was no different.  There was only one other hiker there tonight.  KB had decided to push on to find a tent site.  Looking forward to hiking into the Roans tomorrow!  

Sign at Iron Mountain Gap.

April 27

The great escape

As it turned out, it would have been really tough to get to Boone, so that idea quickly went away.  Left the comfort of the hotel, full on sausage gravy and cinnamon rolls, headed a mile back down the highway toward the trail.  I waited around at Uncle Johnny's for a while, drinking a soda, while some of my friends were waiting on the store there to open.  The proprietor was out on a shuttle run, and didn't come back until 2:30.  Left from Johnny's, crossed the road, and got back on the trail.  Crossed the Nolichucky River bridge, and popped back into the woods.  I made it to the Curley Maple shelter after 4.7 miles.  Many hikers were already there setting up.  There was a challenge written on the shelter wall:  Two hikers, with only one backpack, had to leave the shelter after 5pm, go to Rockys Pizza in town (waayyyy across town) and get 2 large pies, and then get a case of beer, and get back to the shelter in the fastest amount of time, all while never splitting up.  Two hikers there did it.  I later heard they beat the record.  Under 2 hours.  There may have been transportation help from Janet, but I'm only assuming.  I didn't feel like staying there so I kept going, and made it to Indian Grave Gap around 6:00.  Janet was going to pick hikers up from here tomorrow morning to take them to the bluegrass festival in town.  I checked my cell phone, and of course, no signal, surprise, surprise.  Apparently Verizon is what you need on the AT, and I'm not a customer.  So I'm not going back into Erwin for that festival either.  Oh well.  I filled up my water bladder at the road crossing, and raced the last 3+ miles uphill toward Beauty Spot.  The sun was starting to set as I reached the top of the mountain.  I came out of the woods, and into the expansive rolling meadows at the summit, at an elevation of 4333 feet.  There were some other hikers tenting on the summit as well, and they already had a nice fire going.  I quickly set up my tent, with the door facing east, so I would get a nice sunrise.  A photographer from Netherlands came up to talk to us for a while.  He had some great pictures to show us, and also told us he had seen a few bears in the nearby woods.  I would end up sleeping with my food inside my tent.  We stayed up talking around the fire for a long time after dark, but it was fun.  The clouds broke for a bit and the wind died down.  Under the stars I could see in all directions from my campsite.  It's incredible how much light is produced at night down in the cities and towns.

Tenting on Beauty Spot.