Date: 2005-05-12
From: South of Damascus

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 1.9
Weather: broken clouds

Up at 6:15 and gone by 7:30. I was actually 1.9 miles away from town. Stopping short the day before your destination was a good way to save money believe it or not. It avoided the cost of a room plus a meal and it gave you time to rest so getting your town chores done went easier (laundry, shopping and such). Timing was everything so there was no rush this morning. Most stores do not open till around 9 AM anyway. My goal was to try to find a place to stay for myself and my daughter plus, do a little equipment shopping. I found a spot at "The Place" to set up my tent on the lawn. The Place is a church owned Hostel in town that offered the basics for a inexpensive price. A lot of folks went down and set up at the town designated tent site area. Not for me though, once again too many people and I have lived in many tent cities before, I was not interested. After setting up and securing my gear it was time to go shopping. The town was full of familiar faces as hikers started filtering in. It was like a family re-union. I ran into people I knew on just about every corner. Later my daughter commented on that fact, she was amazed how many people I new and how friendly they all were. I had budgeted a change of equipment in to my trip and set aside some funds to do so. I remember telling some of my SF buds that there were tricks to this trail that I will learn as I go. One of the tricks of course was equipment, what worked and of course what things I did not even know about. It all depends on what type of hiker you want to become. For example, I believe there are different types of hikers on the trail which most people can agree on. Common knowledge however I will try to explain. First you have the camper, regardless of how much time they intend to spend on the trail, they go heavy and carry everything they need to be comfortable. In fact they do not go "far from the car", normally within sight of it. Then you have the Backpacker. This is someone who drops down on the weight they carry but still goes heavy. For example a backpacker will carry a two person five pound tent for a weekend and not think anything about it. A hiker goes even lighter then a backpacker, they carry just enough plus a little more. Just enough food plus a days worth, just enough clothes plus extra socks and just enough equipment plus extra items to get by for their adventure. A Thru-Hiker goes Minimalistic as I tried to explain before. There are those extremists who go so light that they look like a day hiker when they walk by however, here I wanted to find that happy medium. I wanted to go light and experiment with the gear available. New stuff, light stuff with different techniques in to using that stuff. Stuff collected together equals weight and the truth is the lighter it is the more it cost. Once again this was why I came to town early, to buy stuff.   I first went to the Sundog Outfitters (They carried Granite Gear equipment) and started to talk to one of the people there. All I got from him was a cold shoulder and the, "bring all your gear in" line as he walked away. That is not what I wanted to do, I knew what I wanted to buy and this person would not even take the time to talk to me so, no sale there. Then I went to the Mount Rogers Outfitters where I met Tom. Tom was a former thru-hiker atemptee that made it to Damascus a few years ago. He got a job and stayed (lucky man). I asked him if he had the time to talk and he did just that. He was handling three or four customers plus me at the same time. I said to myself that this is the man I want to talk to. Eventually I spent about a thousand dollars on equipment and got my base load, plus three days of food and some water down to about 25 pounds ( a drop from around 40+ pounds I carried till then). New Osprey Atmos 50 back pack, Montrose trekking shoes, Mountain Gear sleeping bag, Therm-a-rest short ground pad, Leki trekking poles, Aqui Mira water purification and even Nalgene water canteens. We took a total of two days to make the sale complete including making sure all my equipment fit in to the new pack. Afterwards I brought in my extra stuff and mailed it home. When I returned to the trail I walked North with ease. As I swiped the debit card I said to myself, "It will make a difference".   An interesting thing happened at "The Place". Fester, who I have not seen since before the day we were snowed in at the Smokies, came up to me and said he wanted to thank me for clearing the trail off the top. In fact I never saw him there because I arrived late (dark) and left early (while all slept in). He evidently was one of those sleeping bag blobs all cuddled up and toasty (nice place to be that day for sure). He and many others must have followed me out after I broke trail and he wanted to thank me personally. I told him about the fact that I took off because I was freezing my butt off and he laughed. I was about to go do laundry and he said, "I will do it for you as thanks". He was insistent and took the clothes from my hands. What a nice thing to do, never before had I received such kindness (thanks Fester).   I called Shannon and told her I was in town. I was happy that I was going to get to see her the next day. I left the trail with a short nero this day (12 May), we linked up on the 13th and I did not return to the trail until the 19th. A total of two nero's and six zero's. I remember the day I returned and recall that even with a late start, I put in a 17 mile nero easily. The weight of the pack DID make all the difference for me. Shannon and I spent only a few days there as we decided to go to her house for a restful visit, a vacation from a vacation as we use to call it.   That evening Blue Angel, Cloth Monkey and I got together and went to Dot's for a few beers. First we took a twelve pack and sat in the woods drinking and talking about the trail, our personal lives and everything. Cloth Monkey was a Bakery Chef for his family's business and Blue Angel's folks had a large Orchard in up-state New York that she worked at. I also found out that day just how old Blue Angel was. She was I.D.'d at Dot's and I caught a glimpse at her "Date of Birth" on her NY drivers Licence. I never told anyone as she made me promise not to, (you owe me still girl).