Date: 2004-04-15
From: Damascus, VA

To: Pearisburg, VA
Miles today: 162.7
Weather: clear sky

4/5/04 MondayI finally got out of town! After three days in Damascus I was going stir crazy, and then the sun came out. Ahh, hiking again. I almost forget how.I also don't journal well while in town (you know, with all that extra free time), so let me sum up what's happened in the past three days. On Saturday a former thru-hiker, Bull, showed up to bring his sister and her friends to the Trail for a week-long trip. He found Hustler and me at The Place, and insisted on buying us lunch. Trail magic! That morning, Stiffarm (who is know calling himself The Mighty Malyuh Man 2 (don't worry if you can't pronounce that; neither can anyone else)), Pa Kettle, Cairo, Yahtzee, and Valentyne all hiked out into the cold. Later on, Tell It Like It Is and Redbeard showed up with horror stories about hiking through the snow from Kincora. Mike, who is hereby dubbed Death By Cotton, arrived in Damascus to start his thru-hike (he'll hike north, then "flip-flop" to end his hike back in Damascus). Death By Cotton first thru-hiked the Trail with his family in 1980, when he was six years old. Now he's going for the second time.On Sunday nothing much happened all day until the evening, when Pilgrim Soul, MoonPie, Captain Hook, and Sunshine hiked in. People are catching up! We all went out to dinner, and chatted about what's been going on since we parted.This morning, after breakfast, I left Damascus. The others are staying in town for the night, but I'm hiking slowly with the hopes that they can catch up again. Lulu, Redbeard, and Hustler are ahead of me now, and I'm here tonight with Brer Rabbit and his dog, Chase.Oh yes, I got a hammock. I'll have to take pictures of it, but it's too cold to use comfortably at the moment.Monday, Part the Second: In Which Haiku and Brer Rabbit Go Night Hiking, and the Adventures They Have:After arriving at the shelter early, Brer Rabbit and I decided to night hike, since it was a full moon, and the sky was clear. We napped for a few hours, then ate dinner and stood around a fire until after dark and the moon had risen. Then we set forth, starting around ten o'clock.The first thing I noticed is that the Trail is obvious. Maybe I've gained an intuition about where it will go, but I was able to follow it without a problem. Then I discovered that my feet could feel the Trail more clearly - or at least that I noticed it. I could feel subtle changes in texture, from dirt to sand, for instance. There was one intersection of trails where my feet found the right direction before we found a blaze to tell us we were correct.The moon was bright - bright enough to read the guide book by - but everything was in black and white, with no colours showing. It created a surreal atmosphere in which to walk, one where trees and hills cast huge swathes of darkness, interspersed with bright pools of moonlight.My steps were slower, more deliberate. I didn't trip or kick anything (remember my propensity to do that), and my eyes cast around at the scenery or the Trail ahead, not glued to my feet. We never used our headlamps, even in the darker places, trusting our feet to find the path before us.Six miles later, we reached the next shelter, and we bedded down away from the shelter, so we didn't wake the people sleeping there.4/6/04 TuesdayAwoke to find Hustler, Walk On, Waterfall, Heald, Redbeard, and Lulu at the shelter. We all headed out separately as we got ready.Shortly after the shelter I passed a family out for the week (one of several groups from Ohio, this must be prime Ohio-spring-break location), and the mother asked if she could take a picture of me in my kilt, with her two daughters. I agreed, of course.Continuing my hike, the elevation began to climb, and I reached the snowline. Soft, slushy snow covered the Trail, and it seemed like I slid backwards nearly as much as I stepped forwards. I cross over Whitetop Mtn., a prophetic name in this instance, and then to Mt. Rogers, the tallest mountain I'll encounter until Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire.I ended my hike just off of Mt. Rogers, at Thomas Knob Shelter. This shelter is unique in that it has a solar panel on its privy, to aid in composting. Unfortunately, no one's figured out how to give it a heated seat. The solar power also makes it the only privy on the Trail which hums.4/7/04 WednesdayWoke to cold! But at least that meant the snowy Trail wasn't slushy. I walked on top of the crusty snow, avoiding the deep, icy footprints beside me, happy that my feet were dry.I passed through the Grayson Highlands, an expanse of grass and rocks where wild ponies roam. They're friendly, since tourists and hikers often have food for them, so one let me pet it (even though I didn't have food). I also saw a newborn foal nursing just off the Trail. For once, wildlife that doesn't run away!The Trail went up and down a few times through the snow line, but finally dropped below before the next shelter, at 4,000', 1,400' lower than where I was last night. Hopefully tonight will be warmer, and I think the Trail tends to stay between 2-3,000' for the next few hundred miles. Oh! Speaking of which, tonight I'm at 498.8 miles - tomorrow morning I'll pass the 500 mile mark. In just a few days I'll pass 543 miles - one quarter of the way finished. Piece of cake!I'm trying out my hammock tonight. It feels warm enough now in the sun (I still have to get used to the sun setting later with the time change), but we'll see how it goes tonight. The reason the hammock doesn't work well in the cold is because there's no insulation beneath it. Sleeping on the ground is far warmer. Well, if it gets too cold I can just move to the ground (or to the shelter, but then I'm asking for mice to disturb me).4/8/04 ThursdayHammocking was successful! Comfortable, and dry in a little sprinkle of rain that passed through in the night.The morning was overcast, but with flat terrain and warm air, the hiking was enjoyable. Eventually the sun came out, and with it, the bugs. It's now just like it was a week ago, as if that early spring storm had never happened.The shelter tonight is a solid stone affair, with a fireplace - rare to see that outside the Smokies. In front is a large grove of forsythia, bursting yellow. There are little green buds on the trees, and lilies are beginning to push their leaves up through the dead leaves on the ground. Yes, spring is here.At the shelter tonight are Shadowman, Brer Rabbit, Pilgrim Soul, and Tell It Like It Is. We built a fire in the fireplace, and Tell It Like It Is and I cooked on the fire (a first time for me).4/9/04 FridayThe hike today was easy rolling hills for ten miles to Partnership Shelter. Partnership is a shelter among shelters: it has a hot shower built into it, and just aroun the corner is a phone, where you can order pizza delivered to the shelter. Now that's the life!Brer Rabbit, Tell It Like It Is, and I hitched into the town of Marion, where we hit the AYCE (all you can eat) pizza bar at Pizza Hut - I had a salad, garlic bread, about fifteen slices of pizza, cinnamon bread, and five pieces of pie. Mmmmm! We collapsed on the grass outside for a few minutes to digest while we planned how much food we needed for the next stretch of Trail, then waddled across the street to the supermarket. I want to experiment with raw food instead of pre-packaged dinners, so I got some lentils and rice for the next five days. I hope it works, or I'll be hungry for a little while.As we arrived back at the shelter, Captain Hook and Sunshine came up. They hitched into town while we talked with Simon, a southbound Quebecer, about growing sprouts on the Trail, something he's passionate about. He gave me some pointers, then moved on.Captain Hook came back, but left again - he ran into someone in town who not only bought him lunch, but is going to house and feed him for two days in exchange for some painting work. Cool, but that means he won't be hiking with me. Oh well.Mello arrived just before dark, so it's nice to see that some more people are catching up now. I haven't seen him since the Smokies.I have my lentils in to soak for the night and all day, so stay tuned to find out if I can eat them for dinner tomorrow.4/10/04 SaturdayI must have entered a time warp when I left the shalter this morning, because even though I thought I was moving slowly (with a full load of food for the next 100 miles) I covered the first seven miles in two hours. Wow. Sunshine and Mello caught up with me and felt the same way.The second half of the day went more normally. I passed the Settlers Museum living-history farm, a reconstructed farm as it would have been a hundred years ago. The Trail passed right by the old schoolhouse, which has a list of the number of lashings for certain infractions, such as boys playing with girls (3 lashes), or playing in or around the mill (6 lashes). The desks had primers on them, in different levels. The stories in them were fairly simple, even for the higher levels (of course, I'm sure this wasn't a high school), with strong moral lessons, and containing words which we couldn't consider using in a fourth-grade text, such as "languor." Words from a different generation.The shelter tonight has no water source, but is otherwise very nice. It includes a dream catcher, so my sleep should be untroubled....Well, it turns out I decided to hike a few more miles. I stayed at the shelter for three hours, cooking dinner and resting. My lentil experiment worked - after a day of soaking, I easily cooked lentils and brown rice, with fresh onion, garlic, scallions, chives that I picked on the trail, and mushrooms and peppers. Delicious! It actually felt hearty, and filled me, and is far better for me than MSG-laden Lipton dinners. I'll have to experiment more with whole foods.I hiked another five miles after dinner, and am now camped exactly (or as closely as I can estimate) at the one-quarter mark of the Trail: 543 miles. I'm sipping some green tea, enjoying the darkening woods, knowing that I can hike this same amount three more times. This is the life.