Date: 2003-05-28
From: Damascus

To: Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Hello from 2/3. In just a week and a half we'll resume our hike in the Shenandoah's with high hopes to head northward. 1/3 is well ahead of us as she continues her thru hike and is doing well. Last weekend, 3/3 and I hiked from the Partnership Shelter to Atkins VA, 11.6 miles. The best thing you can say about our plan on this hike is that there's no plan at all! We had intended to just hike around 7 miles to the Chatfield Shelter, making it an easy day. When we got there, it was way too early to call it a day, so we decided to hike on to Atkins. The closer we got to town, the more we realized there weren't any good tent sites and it was too far for me to make it to the next shelter (which would have been 14+ miles). The plan was to tent, but we ended up checking on a room at the Relax Inn, just off the trail in Atkins. Turns out, they were full-up. A nice gentleman at the Texaco station offered us a ride back to the Partnership Shelter so we could get our car. By the time we got there Mt Rogers recreation area was closed and the gates were locked. The shelter was full of hikers and the weather was getting nasty. We saw Smoky and the Bandit, Seiko (3/3 knew him from his 1999 thru hike), and others. Lots of pizza was being ordered for delivery to the shelter. I ordered a large Sicilian pan pizza, never realizing how huge it would be. It probably weighed 8 lbs! We managed to eat half of it, then gave the rest to other hikers in the shelter. Because of the weather and large numbers of people in the shelter and in tents, we ended up sleeping in the car, which really wasn't bad at all. The next day we hiked a 10-mile loop trail. Half was on the AT near Damascus and half was on the Virginia Creeper Trail. The AT portion was really tough for me. It went up and up and up! The Creeper Trail is flat, mostly used for bicycling. We found a great campsite on the Creeper Trail by a beautiful stream and the sound of the rushing water lulled us to sleep.On the hike between Hot Springs NC and Sam's Gap just outside of Erwin TN, I left my $400 pair of glasses sitting on a log at the campsite. I was wearing contacts and by the time I realized my glasses were gone, we were too far away from the campsite to walk back, especially since I was experiencing a lot of fatigue and wanted to get to Erwin to rest. I could just see them sitting there on that log! Yesterday, 3/3 went on a search for the glasses. He made it back to the site (a 10+ mile hike from Log Cabin Rd), but they were gone. Along the way, a very friendly chocolate-colored, chow type dog ran up to him like he was a long lost friend. 3/3 said it seemed that the dog was smiling at him! The dog walked along with him for awhile, then left when some other dogs off in the distance got his attention. How lucky is that dog to have all those wonderful woods to wander in and to have hikers to meet along the way!Weather permitting, this Friday we plan to hike the rest of the Creeper Trail from Abingdon to Damascus, a total of 15.5 miles. The trail is 34 miles long and we already hiked 18.5 miles of it on day last week. Thanks for keeping up with our journal. We have had quite an adventure over the past couple of months. We send best wishes to our daughter, 1/3, who has certainly made us proud!!   Happy Hiking   2/3