Date: 2006-06-10
From: Damascus, VA "The Place"

To: View Entry
Miles today: 172.0

We just arrived in Damascus this morning, after waking up at 0500 and hitting the trail at 0545. At one point Fire asked Whisp if he was wearing hiking boots or running shoes? - that's how fast we were moving. Our motivation was that we needed to get to the PO to pick up our mail and since it's Saturday we had to hustle. Thanks again to the Moore family, we knew you'd be all over that :-) Thanks also to Dee, Mama J and of course to the Parkers for our usual food drop with additional goodies. Seems like Hot Springs was a long time ago, 190 miles! We've been picking up the pace and covering lots of ground. When we left Hot Springs Fire's leg started feeling much better, never realized how happy you could be to be able to walk without pain!!! Unfortunately Ice's shins started hurting, you could feel a weird springy vibration when she moved her foot. So she got shuttled ahead and hung out at the Kincora Hiker's Hostel for a little R&R while Whisp and Fire trekked up there. We had some great views from the Beauty spot, the balds after Roan, and Hump Mountain. Almost froze on Roan mountain so we pushed on to Overmountain Shelter (made for a 22 mile day), it's an "big red barn" serves as a huge shelter with awesome views of the valley out in front!Now...I know you're asking yourself, what really happened since our last posting? Well, lets talk about how switchbacks going down to Hot Springs make a 1 mile journey last about 3 hrs, and you can see the town the whole time, smell the pizza, and FEEL THE TORTURE. Anyways, getting to Hot Springs was lovely, because Whispy was waiting for us with PB&J and bread! SCORE! We stayed @ a lovely little B&B called Elmers' where Elmer himself made some AMAZING vegetarian fare. Ice's trekking poles contracted Leprocy, and parts just started falling off, so she'd ditched one of them. ...and the other is also sans many parts..and bent. Sweet. In Hot Springs we also met Edge and Nobe(his dog) @ the Paddler's Pub over some questionable food - perhaps taken directly from the freezer section @ Costco. Sweet. Even starving hikers can sense when they're being ripped off! Whisp and Fire also found a lovely swimming hole where they dipped for a bit to cool off from the hot North Caroline sun (Co-ed rules of course...). Meow!Ice enjoyed a vacation of sorts @ the VERY hiker-friendly Kincora's in Hampton TN. Bob and Pat's hobby is the hiker hostile and it shows! Definetly feels like a second home, minus the smell of soap, Glade plugins,..or anything clean smelling for that matter! Nevertheless, Ice managed to have a wonderful time healing her shins and filling her belly. Edge and Nobe stayed for a few nights, which was a great time, bedtime stories and all. Puck Finn, '04 thru-hiker stayed a night as well and Edge kept us well fed with some yummy lasagna and ice cream! We all helped Bob and his trail maintainence crew with the finishing of the Maintainer Falls shelter and fire pit. Beautiful shelter and AMAZING rocks drainage system outside the shelter (yeah that was Ice's pet project...dont miss it!). Just after heading out from Kincora's we came to Laurel Fork Falls... a sweet waterfall! Of course we both had to jump in despite the fact it was 10 am and the water was freeeeeeezing... got close enough to the falls to feel some mist on our faces and current by our toes... stayed there about long enough to have a picture snapped! So beautiful :-) Speaking of wild animals, we spotted the group of Mallard ducks that have been following Fire quite closely the past couple of days on the trail. Loud little buggers. Seem to be especially roudy after a meal Soul Food. Well, we've just arrived in Demascus, feels great to have another state conquered! Thanks to Kennedy and male companion (sorry, forgot your name!)for the FOOOOOOOOOOOOD last night. Oh bread. Oh oatmeal creme pies. Oh...FOOD. Oh yeah, we hiked our longest day yet, 23 miles two days ago. We are cool. Marathon day planned sometime soon. Thanks for all the funny postings on our guestbook, keep them coming!The morning we were leaving Kincora's we read a quote on the wall saying "My hiking is getting in the way of my trail experience" so along those same lines we came up with our own top 10 things that are geting in the way of our trail experience...10) The last mile into town feeling like 209) The last mile into a shelter feeling like 1008) Non-privy shelters... w/ shit minefields7) Groups of 10+ who take over shelters6) Payphone surcharges... 35 minutes knocked off for every call ****5) Rain... no wait it's the tall grass that's always wet and soaks your feet 10 minutes into the hike4) My pack & all the rocks someone put in it 3) Gnats who's sole purpose in life is to land on you or in your food and DIE2) Feet ... very sore and tired feet1) Constant desire to eat something!**Disclaimer** Any accounts written by Ice may contain exaggerations, fairy tales, blatant sarcasm or flat-out lies. Take it with a grain of salt, but...enjoy the ride!