Date: 2018-04-24
From: Damascus, VA (Lazy Fox B&B)

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: light rain

DAY 49Woke up, and once it was after 7:00 am we went out for a cup of tea. Ginny & her helper, Joe, were busy preparing breakfast for everyone who had spent the night. As we waited for breakfast we sat in the living room area with Papa Dale, Kingsman & Tabasco watching an old western on TV. When breakfast was ready Joe rang the bell and we all headed to the table. Jorgen (Spirit), Ron (Donut), Doug (Two), Kristin (Jo), Dave (Kingsman) Dale (Papa Dale), James (Tabasco), Alan & I were all at the table which had an amazing spread of food all ready waiting. There was bacon, sausage, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, Cheese Grits, Pineapple Southern Baked, Baked Apple, Cinnamon buns, Biscuits and gravy, Apricots, Prunes, Pancakes, Fresh fruit (Kiwi, Strawberries, Cantaloupe, melon, and bananas), along with grape jelly, currant jelly, butter and syrup. We passed all the dishes around until everyone had what they wanted on their plates and Papa Dale said grace. Then, we all proceeded to eat the most amazing breakfast, the best we've had on the trail. They do this breakfast every morning no matter how many guests they have. I'm sure they adjust the amount they cook based on the number of guests. After breakfast Papa Dale mentioned to Alan that Ginny was fast asleep on the couch. She is 93 years old and gets up at 6:00 am to start cooking with Joe to have everything ready for the guests by 8:00 am, she is simply amazing!We had to get to the post office to mail our "winter" gear back home. Asked at the post office if they had a box, but none big enough. So, we went to the outfitters, the only box they had was pretty big, but, we did pick out a couple post cards to send home to our grandsons Caiden & Kable. So, off to Dollar General where the nice lady working there found a box and emptied the contents so we could use it. Packed up our winter sleeping bags, base layers and a few other items we no longer need and sent the package and post card on their way. Now, it is time to get back on the trail.As we headed down the trail out of town we came to a Subway. It was not quite lunch time, but Mary was already hungry even after the big breakfast we enjoyed. We each grabbed a foot long sub and ate half, packing up the other half to enjoy later. When we came out we put on our rain gear and pack covers and headed back to the trail.As you head out of Damascus the AT follows the Creeper trail for .4 miles and then heads up going from just over 1900 feet to over 3300 feet paralleling the Creeper trail. With the mist/light rain the trail was slick and Alan almost fell when he slipped on a rock and started sliding toward the downhill side. Luckily he caught himself with his trekking poles. Eventually we did have some sun and we were able to remove our rain gear which makes hiking more enjoyable. We didn't see any other hikers on the trail until we arrived at Saunders Shelter. "Spliff" was stretching in the shelter when we arrived and said he was going to move on to the next shelter. Since we had gotten a late start out of Damascus and knew rain was expected we decided to stay at the shelter. We swept out the shelter and got all set up for the night, and enjoyed the rest of our subs. Alan hung the bear bag, and even though we expected other hikers might arrive to sleep at the shelter as well, we had the shelter to ourselves for the evening.Note from Mary: I'm writing some of the entries. We are behind on our journal and for many days have just jotted down notes. When it's cold we don't get time to write as we head to the tent and into our warm bags. When it's warm we spend time chatting with other hikers and the journal has to wait. We hope to get caught up soon!