Date: 2009-05-13
From: Pond/ Campsite 

To: Elk Garden/ VA 600
Miles today: 12.1
Weather: few clouds

Bark and I woke up with the sun today, a pretty common experience out here on the trail. By the time 6:30 rolls around you feel like it is at least 10am- until you look at your watch of course. So, we didn't waste much time since we knew we would have a few good climbs ahead of us. We packed up our tent and our packs and headed north towards Elk Garden- a major road crossing where we planned on getting a hitch back into Damascus. Our hike was absolutely beautiful for many miles today. The weather was sunny and breezy and we found ourselves hiking a couple miles along the Virginia Creeper Trail, right next to the river. All of the rain fall in the area has made for great white water in the rivers and full water sources. We ran into a lot of Southbounders today. A few of our friends who we had previously hiked with, hitched a ride about 75 miles north of Damascus and hiked south back into town for Trail Days. We finally got to see them! Sassy Sunshine, Daddy Long Legs and Bonesy were all hiking within about 5 minutes of each other when we saw them. It was great to catch up and here how they have been doing and where they are now in their hike. It will be nice to see them again once we get back to Damascus- we'll be tenting pretty close by. We continued on and saw several more southbounders that we didn't recognize, but we knew they were all headed to Damascus. As we approached our big climb of the day to Buzzard Rock and Whitetop Mountain we ran into Gorgonzola and Denali, a couple here on the trail we spent some time with at Kencora Hostel. We had a few minutes to chat, but they were pressing on for 24 miles South and we knew we had a big climb ahead. We planned to meet them later and will no doubt see them around town for the next few days. We really enjoy their company and have had a lot of fun getting to know them. Well with the big climb underway, Bark took the lead after a bite to eat and then we got a big surprise. Ahead in the distance Bark saw a familiar face, but couldn't figure out who this hiker headed towards us was. We got closer and Bark said, "Hey, what's your name?" To our surprise he replied with "Brownbag!" We met Brownbag over a year ago on our honeymoon in the Smokies. He was thru-hiker last year and needed a hitch up to the trail head at Newfound Gap- we just so happened to pick him up. He was just doing a section hike for few days and then heading to Trail Days by Friday. It was so fun to see him and remember how all of this got started for us. After chatting with Brown Bag for a few minutes we were ready to finish out our hike. We crossed over the balds of Whitetop Mountain and almost got blown off in the process. It was an incredible view of the rolling hills of Southern VA, but we bolted off pretty quick. The rest of the hike was fairly pleasant. Once tucked back into the trees we were blocked from the high winds and eventually made our way down to Elk Garden/ VA 600. We were under the impression that this was pretty heavily trafficked road, however, when we got there, things were pretty quiet. We saw a couple of other hikers nearby and asked them which way to Damascus. They then turned to a man who was cleaning out his car and asked him. In the process of him trying to explain that Damascus was about 15 miles from that road crossing, he decided to give us a ride down! Praise God for his provision! Turns out "Cool Breeze" was an '08 thru hiker who had returned to that section of the trail to do some maintenance work for this area's conservancy group. We had a very interesting conversation on the way down the mountain and back into town. He has a great passion to see the parks and forests preserved and maintained. We may even see him again up north on the trail as he is wanting to finish out his '08 hike by finally summiting Katahdin. Bark and I made it back into town and looked for the campsite where Denali and Gorgonzola had decided to camp. When we couldn't find it we returned to The Place to look for our tent crossbar and pick up our mail packages we had stashed the day before. As soon as we got back we found both! We were very glad to have our boxes, but we were especially glad to see our crossbar. We got all of our stuff unpacked and set up and then we all headed out to do some laundry. Dinner was being provided by the First Baptist Church of Damascus and what a dinner it was! They had cheeseburgers, hamburgers, soy burgers, chips, fresh fruit, swiss rolls, oatmeal cream pies, baked beans. asian slaw and amazing sweet tea... delicious! We all gorged ourselves- the volunteers were fabulous and were so helpful with everything. The church seems to really enjoy this time when they can interact and serve the thru hiking community.