Date: 2008-05-03
From: Damascus, VA

To: Damascus, VA
Miles today: 189.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Trail MagicAhhh, the beauty and power of trail magic. It always happens when you least expect it and when you need it most.This particular streak started off in Allen Gap in North Carolina. I was coming down a steep gap early in the day when a piece of paper was posted announcing waffles, banana splits, cokes, and more at a house 300 yards off the trail.Thinking I could use always use more food in my stomach, and wanting to see what this particular invitation was all about, I hoofed it over to where this announced food was. Since this is a small road in North Carolina, the houses around the area were small and poor which I thought wouldn't be the right kind of houses offering free food to hikers.Then I saw this huge house on a hill surrounded by trees. As I climbed up the driveway, which was as steep as climbing a mountain on the trail, you could see that someone places different artistic faces on the trees.When I finally reached the top of the driveway, I saw several packs and boots laying outside and I knew for certain that this was the right place, but was not prepared for what lay inside."Hercules" and "Fall" greeted with me warms smiles, a menu of drinks, and promptly served me my first course which was a luscious waffle with strawberries on top. After quickly devouring the waffle, they replaced my licked-clean plate with a hearty bowl of soup.During my eating feast, "Hercules" and "Fall" were telling their stories of how they hiked the trail back in 1999 and the near death experiences they had encountered, so every year they host this trail magic for the first 400 northbounders and first 50 southbounders.After I was done with my 2nd course, I had an array of options for desserts: Fudge Sunday, Apple Cobbler with vanilla ice cream, lemon mirange pie, or the banana split...I went for the banana split. Since they really wanted to celebrate a birthday, we pretended it was my birthday, so all the hikers sang happy birthday to me while I was thinking to myself, "How am I going to eat this enormous amount of food!"Well, I made my mother proud by finishing the entire banana split. Instead of walking back down the driveway, I just rolled on my side like a run-away tire because I was just too stuffed. By the time I rolled down the hill, onto the road, and back to the trail, I quickly shifted gears and was able to once again hike like a pinball.This energy allowed to catch up to a group that I had hiked with previously in the Smokies. When I caught up with them a great idea was being tossed around...Night Hiking.The moon was 3 days shy of being full, the sky had been cloudless all day, and I thought, why not. So a group of us ate dinner and relaxed around dusk until it got dark and hiked for a few miles guided only by the moon and stars.It was a great night hike as the moon cast an array of shadows from the leave-less trees in the valleys below us. When we came across a road crossing around midnight, we bumped into "Fat Chap". He was helping another old-timer section hike and was camping out at the road crossing for the night.Now when I mention old-timer, there is nothing derogatory about this label, in fact it's a great compliment. There are several old-timers that know these mountains like the back of their hands, recount hiking stories for hours on end, and can hike stronger and faster than most people."Fat Chap" told us that Miss Janet, another trail legend, would be cooking breakfast that morning. The 4 of us looked at each other, nodded our heads, and cowboy camped at the woods next to the road. With a full moon overheads, it was a perfect setting to sleep in.Miss Janet has been helping hikers out of the goodness of her heart for over ten years and asks for nothing in return. When the sun came up, we simply got out of our sleeping bags and walked 50 years to help Miss Janet set up to begin making breakfast.The egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches boosted us for another big day, but that's a different story.One of the epic trail magic's occurred a few days later. It was another long day, and we were almost done hiking for the day. As we came around a bend before hitting another road crossing the was this cooler on the trail with a string holding the cooler to a tree. Inside were a few cokes and a few beers.We all threw down our packs, sat down, and enjoyed a tasty cold beverage. I tell you though, that Milwaukee¢s Best tasted better than any Guinness, Fat Tire, or Sierra Nevada I've ever had. The concept of enjoying a cold beer on the trail is priceless.So I've been a bum in Damascus for a couple of days and will probably be a bum for another day or so before heading out. It took a while to switch from "must hike and do lots of miles" mode to "why rush such a great thing and enjoy the adventure along the way" mode.