Date: 2005-05-24
From: Damascus

To: Pearisburg
Miles today: 160.0
Weather: light rain

Hey Everyone! Geeeez, that was an awesome stretch of trail since Damascus, and today is my first zero mile day in over two weeks! I still feel like I am physically and mentally at 100% after Damascus since I have been doing easy days and not pushing myself to hard. I am in the zone now! I have totally changed my hiking style and it has been the greatest time ever since Damascus. I am having such a blast and it¢s incredible to finally be in Pearisburg Va, but even though I like being in town, I am having an awesome time while hiking now too so I am having an AWESOME time being on the trail or anywhere else I am. I have to hurry with my entries ¢cause there are people waiting for computers at the library, so I¢ll just give quick bits of each days events since I left Damascus on May 17. The past few weeks have been so different b/c everyone is in front or behind me and sunflower and so we haven¢t seen anyone else really, but it has been loads of fun, and we¢re meeting new people too that are cool¢¦First, here are some random bits of info I now answer to Snottle-Rocket, as I have perfected the snot rocket. The saying, "Its OK, I am a thru-Hiker", does not really exclude me and sunflower from the laws of any land, but it is fun to say,If you want to lie to someone, rub your nose while doing it and make it totally obvious, and it is funny, like, Geee your hair looks great-(that was from Tophat), Atkins va has a killer neauter and spay commercial, and the only lyrics are, "neuter and spay" if you hear it, it will be in your head for miles...Doing the cow moo yell will scare hikers in front of you if you aren't carefull...and freezedried blackberry cobbler SUCKS . May 17:I left Damascus finally after a great break. The climb out wasn¢t too bad. At the shelter I had such a great night, that I would be willing to say that it may have been one of the greatest nights ever at a shelter, just sitting in this big field with all of my friends, knowing that we wouldn¢t be together again for awhile since we were seperating for various reasons. At the shelter were the mostly the same crew I split a hotel room with the night before, Cold Feet, Wookie, Sunflower, Tophat, Saxy, and Navigator was there too. We all told scary stories around a fire that night and laughed a ton.May 18:Great day, I left camp early and met sunflower at a pond and we hiked up to the shelter together to wait for Saxy to say goodbye since she had to leave the trail for the weekend to be at her dads retirement. I met uncle silly for the first time today also. Saxy didn¢t show at the shelter and me and sunflower waited for a few hours so we took off for a campsight and got a pleasant surprise because it was the sweetest campsight ever, on top of a huge bald, overlooking tons of square miles so far away. There was huge rocky outcroppings on the bald that we watched sunset on. It was awesome, and the weather was fantastic even thought it was supposed to rain. We took a huge risk camping there, but were rewarded greatly. It was cool to cowboy it under the stars and it was the most amazing night yet on the trail.May 19:We woke up cowboy style to a great morning with this dog named Katy Daly licking and playing with us. It was funny. I was out of food after taking so much time through the section and got lucky when a group college kids we ran into was leaving the trail with xtra food. A girl gave me some oatmeal and jerky. The oatmeal said, ¢nutrition for women¢, on the package but it didn¢t hurt me, I guess! I finally got rain that night and camped in a pretty cool meadow, thankfully sunflower had extra dinner to share also!We got a crazy t-storm at night!May 20:The sun was out when I woke up after the crazy storm. Thank God. Grayson highlands was such a beautiful area, wide and open. There was a sign at a road that said that someone was bringing up beer for hikers, but we didn¢t know when it was placed so we left! Good thing too, b/c we found out later it was an old post. Pretty good weather, the rain held out, on a beautiful hike. We got a ride into town that night to stay at this Baptist hostel that was interesting. The town was troutdale, Va Guys and girls had to sleep in different buildings. There was only one store in town and it a consignment shop slash restaurant slash convenience store. Call me crazy, but instead of sleeping in the building I opted to sleep outside in this pavilion at the church- I slept great.May 21:Me and sunflower scored big time when a nice hiker named Story gave us her backpacker meals that were sent to her¢¦We got over $150 worth of backpacker freezedried foods that are supereasy to make and taste great. We laid around all day in the sun at the hostel and talked to people and finally left around five o¢clock after eating ice cream and getting another hitch out of town. It was only a four mile day out of town.May 22:Yes! Today was the day I was waiting for! Partnership Shelter! At this shelter, there is a ranger station close by with a phone and so hikers can order pizza! We couldn¢t get any beer, but the pizzas me and sunflower got were awesome, we got a big greek pizza and a big Hawaiian pizza and a large tuna salad. We spent nearly 40$ on pizza! It was awesome and it made for a great meal. WE ate more the half of each pizza and the salad too! Every shelter should have delivery! STEALTH~! (hee hee hee)May 23:Pizza for breakfast! How awesome! I was more excited today b/c the trail goes near a DQ so I can get a blizzard finally after talking about them for the past month and a half. The hike was great and beautiful into town, but dragged b/c I couldn¢t get the blizzard out of my head. It was so great when I finally got it, a double oreo and recces cup.. Me and sunflower had planned on passing through the town that the dq was in and staying at a shelter that night, but the hotel was calling our names and so we decided to feel the joy of cotton sheets and sleep in real beds that night. We got some beers and had a lot of laughs watching ¢The Full Monty¢ May 24:We didn¢t wake up until 10:50 and check out was at 11:00. Needless to say, we booked it out and barely escaped a late fee. I guess real beds cater to sleeping than wood shelters! At the dq, I got another blizzard before hiking out and I scored a sweet industrial garbage bag from this lady to wrap up my guitar since it was raining. At the DQ, there was a sign for frozen cakes, and the cake in the ad had a ball and chain and it said , You¢re Free!, it was hilarious, b/c who would buy a cake for that reason.We were tired hiking out of town, but then sunflowers pack knocked her over b/c ity was so heavy after she was putting it on after a break, and laughter rolled like thunder, it was really funny, and it gave us new energy.We did a great night hike going into the shelter.May 25:We joked about doing thirty miles today into town and I said, ¢Grab a poptart, Lets go¢, and so that has become a new catchphrase for anything. I heard a coyote howl last night that was awesome and it was like, twenty feet away it sounded like. For a few days I have been trying to stab a pine cone as I walk with my trekking pole, and I finally did it today, and beat the odds against me. Great day, and full of laughs and beautiful scenes.May 26:Today was another great day¢¦This campsite was amazing and it was empty since it was so far off the trail. It overlooked rolling farm fields in Va and it was awesome. It was funny because after sunflower and I ate the best enchilada dinner ever, we heard these cows going bonkers in the fields below. Mooooooooo Mooooooooooooo Moooooooooooo. It sounded like they were crazy. Yelling cows, hmph¢¦Carrot Cake for dessert, Yummy¢¦.Great day, even though we stopped short of our goal, it was worth it for an awesome campsite. May 27:Ummmm¢¦Colds stink. Hiking is rough when you¢re exhausted. We did 7 miles and stayed at a campsight instead of making it town for resuply like planned, but we had plenty of food for the extra haul, and at the campsight was trail magic, someone had left a cooler full of v8 and oj and apple juice, so it was awesome.May 28:Bland is a great town full of nice people and easy hitchhikes wherever you need to go. After getting sick, we decided to get another hotel room to rest and it was worth it, because there was a DQ right across the street, so the day was full of blizzards and rest. The guy at NAPA liked sunflowers, Git-R-Done pink t-shirt that she got at the gas station in Atkins¢¦it was funny. Bland also had something very funny, It was a day care / dental /center/ vacation bible school/ ministry center. Now it s the subject of many jokes, saying that they should toss in some tanning beds and video rental too. Mmmmmmm tasty blueberry donuts¢¦..May 29:Today I hit 600 miles~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How awesome!Some locals were awesome at dismal falls which is a short hike off of the trail that most hikers skip, but me and sunflower checked it out and then got free beer!!!! We jumped off the huge falls into water that was probably about 45 degrees¢¦I froze to death and sunflower punked me out b/c she was used to cold water from New Hampshire, it was funny, and I had a great day. May 30:Last night, this woman saw a dog and yelled bear, b/c she thought it was a bear, she woke everyone up and it was pretty funny¢¦.todays hike was a big climp in the AM. My body however, was questioning my massive prune intake. We got into town and put a hurting on some hardees and then went to a bar. Town is great¢¦and the hike in made the food taste even better,,,,it was a long day, and a good night.May 31:today was great, I got a haircut, did laundry, and now I am at the library.