Date: 2004-05-15
From: Trail Days!

To: Trail Days!
Miles today: 0.0

No place nor any other event along the entire Appalachian Trail would've been more appropriate for me to halt progress on journal entries as I did than Damascus, VA and Trail Days.    Every year, MANY hikers get sucked into Damascus in one way or another.   Some spend a few more days than originally planned.   Some stay for WEEKS before heading back out onto the trail.   Some never make it back to the trail. Either Damascus breaks them down the first time through and they decide that hiking through 3 states is good enough, or it hits them the second time around when they're back in town for Trail Days. For the hiker seeking parties and socialization, Trail Days is the climax. Sure we had our good times before now: large groups of hikers congregating in the trail towns and hostels of the South.    Drinking at the Paddler's Pub in Hot Springs.   Eating breakfast with over a dozen other hikers at Miss Janet's House in Erwin, TN.   Monopoly at Kincora. Huge hiker dinners at the Sidetrack Cafe. Even some of the early shelters seemed like parties with all of the hiker bodies we had squeezed in and around them. But Trail Days was the last big party.    And on some level, we all knew it.   Saturday of Trail Days brings the highly anticipated Trail Days Annual Hiker Parade. Though mostly disorganized, hikers were supposed to be seperated according to "Year Hiked." People who hiked in 2003 would parade behind a sign that says something like...well..."2003."   Those who hiked in 2002....etc, etc, etc.   Those of us hiking THIS year and planning on hiking the trail in years to come were behind a big banner of a sign.   2000-Miler Dreamers.   But it didn't matter where you were supposed to be in this parade. The only thing that mattered was, "Would you be able to defend yourself?"   Because the streets were LINED with locals and people who were just in for the weekend...and they were armed and ready to attack.   I watched as a hiker runs up and pulls the trigger a few times on his miniature squirt gun, directed right in the face of a woman he doesn't even know. The woman exclaims, "Oh what the hell is that?!" as she pulls up her Super Soaker and unleashes what what probably a needed shower for the hiker anyway.   I watch as a little kid runs up to a man holding a basket of ammunition, points his squirt gun, and "holds him up" demanding of the man, "Give me a water balloon!" The man reaches into his basket and squashes one directly on his dome, dousing the deserving delinquent. I guess he got what he asked for.   A couple of locals think they've found refuge in their car parked further off the street. Unfortunately, it was too hot to have the top of their convertible up, and one observant hiker seized the opportunity with a good arm and impeccable aim. After the water balloon exploded inside the vehicle, on-lookers laughed and pointed their fingers. The man in the car showed off a finger of his own.   Wolfcookie comes up to me and asks if I have any quarters. I search my pockets but come up empty-handed. What could she possibly want with quarters, I wonder, as she goes off to ask other fellow hikers. My question is answered a couple minutes later when I hear shouting and laughter coming from behind me.   Wolfcookie is at the Car Wash and is spraying anyone foolish enough to come by with the hose she just pumped her quarters into.   It was one of the most surreal things I'd ever seen. The Trail Days Annual Hiker Parade was just an excuse for a town-wide Locals vs. Hikers water fight.   Today I also had the pleasure of meeting Heather's sister, Jenn. She drove all the way down from New Jersey to pick up Sasha because that poor dog has had a much longer walk then she probably expected when she left their house in Texas...2 and a half months ago. We all went to the Mill to hear Virginia Ground play, then went to the Omelet Shoppe in Abingdon just to get out of town for a while, and then went back to Tent City where we drank some beers and stayed up talking until WAY too late. Sure I was tired, but I was really enjoying Jenn's company too much to head to sleep.   No gentlemen, that is not code for anything. Truth is, she's already taken.    The good ones always are.