Date: 2004-05-03
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 515.3.049:45pmZeroed again. Surprise, surprise. Good day to stay put. Very cold and windy. Might have been nice to hike in, but camping tonight? Not me. Especially since I parted w/ my fleece liner today. Twas a bittersweet moment indeed. Will be sorry for the lost warmth on chilly nights, but my pack will be very roomy. Opens up a lot of room, getting rid of that bulky thing. Also shipped home my zip-off pant legs (haven¢t worn ¢em in a month), one Patagonia shirt, my Nalgene (replaced w/ a (lighter) liter pop bottle), a bunch of receipts and notes (for trips down Memory Lane next year), my digital camera card (150+ photos), my GSMNP map (don¢t know why I was still carrying that), and a few other miscellaneous items. Meant to ask at the P.O. exactly how much it weighed. Probably und 3#. But, weight is weight. Course, I picked up the wildflower book, which is likely a pound. But, it¢ll be worth it to be able to definitively ID some of these plants. I did try and dump some of the food from my food bag. Left a box at the outfitters that I¢ll pick up at Trail Days. I figure if I haven¢t eaten it after a month, I probably won¢t be eating it. And, I¢ve been toting around way too much food. So, I¢m shooting for 5 days worth, to get me to Atkins. Hoping I roll in w/ less than one day¢s worth of food left. It did feel good to send stuff home, even if it wasn¢t much weight. Even if I can¢t feel the difference on my back, I¢m sure my legs will.Did quite a bit today, considering I pretty much stayed still. Moved from Dave¢s Place to The Place. Pretty full house. Probably 40 beds, 38 of which are full. Trying to list everybody -- me, Pablo, Laura, Bear Tracks, Beatbox, Chris, Elly, Jabberwalk, Yippy, Sauerkraut, Sanguine, Benny, Franco, Tinker, Zippy, Pokey, Indy, Switchback, Taiwan Jon, Reada, Showa (British guy), Lalooka, Zack, Willy Wallace, Crash!Bang!, Andrew, Coyote, Saltlick, The Honeymooners, Pirate, Padre. Others, I¢m sure. Lots of folks putting in big miles. The 2 Brits did 33 miles! I¢m acquiring my trail legs, but I don¢t think they¢re prepared for that kind of mileage yet. Stuffed myself at dinner at Sicily¢s. Eggplant parm. Not mom¢s cooking, but good enough for a hiker. Ate w/ Walking Stomach and Little Tree, who rolled in this morning. Mouse too. Spent a lot of the day chillin¢ in the library, surfing the web. Actually was able to e-mail people personal messages. What a novelty. And a luxury. Found out that Sweetleaf just got on the trail again, in Erwin, yesterday. So, she¢s about 5 or 6 days back. Well, I should see her at Trail Days. Total surprise, today, in MRO, as I was talking too Little Tree, who popped his head around the corner¢¦ Eagle Eye! Hadn¢t seen him since Neel¢s Gap. Seems he¢s been holed up here in Damascus for 4 or 5 days w/ a bum shin and his hiking partner (Pooka from Fontana Dam and Zak) w/ a bum ankle. So, I may see him tomorrow. Apparently Blue Bell has been paired up w/ them too, and is now only a day or two ahead. It¢d be nice to spend a little time w/ them, since they were 2 of the first people I camped w/. I absolutely have to escape tomorrow. Too many folks have been sucked in to the black hole. Which is funny, in a strange way, b/c there¢s really not much of anything to do in Damascus. Odd, isn¢t it, that a place that would normally not appeal to most any hiker becomes such a magnet for us all. Personally, I like the small-town feel, but D. is small even by my standards. Under 1000, what the librarian told us. Other updates from trail buddies -- Skirt and Dingle apparently 1-2 days back, Cuppa Joe the same, as for Kickstand and Yertle? Who knows. No sign of Slow Walker, or Papa Bear and Badger for that matter. Well, I¢ll see ¢em when I see ¢em. Sorry for such a bland (and unnecessarily lengthy) entry. Reading others¢ journals online, I realized how boring mine is. Not humorous, witty, amusing. Oh well. It¢s purpose is to be able to jumpstart my memory and also to record the more mundane aspects of trail life that would otherwise be forgotten and/or relegated to the deep recesses of my brain. If this journal keeps me from forever losing some of these memories, then it¢s worth the time I devote to it. But for tonight, that time is at an end.