Date: 2003-04-30
From: MCQUEEN'S GAP, USFS 69

To:  DAMASCUS, VA (WATER ST.)
Miles today: 11.1
Weather: few clouds

Today is April 30th. We went down and had their continental breakfast at Super 8 in Abington,VA.It¢s the 14th day of Trail hiking this year, the last day this trip. At 8:00AM we are parked on FS 69, McQueen's Gap road and hiking 11.1 miles into Damascus, Va. We are going to need to do the hike pretty fast to get our rental car back to Knoxville airport. The suns up , its overcast and cool, hopefully it wont rain for about 6 hours. Were off.We left Abington gap shelter at 8:26, stayed there just 15 minutes, drinking one soda, no snacks. We read in the register that Iron Toothpick had been there last night. I don¢t know how he got up and left here so early that we missed him this morning. That¢s the only name in the register that we have talked to on the trail. We wont catch him before Damascus. We are off now and don¢t know any features of the trail for the next 5 miles. We will enjoy the walk, its now a totally clear day. Earlier today it appeared to be overcast but the sun wasn¢t up.It's 9:44 and we have had a good hours walk from the shelter. Cindy says we have 8 miles to go. We are taking a banana and water break now, then we will go another hour. That will be progress. We are on a ridgetop today, with small up and downs, staying on the ridge all the way to Damascus. This is a stretch where hikers really get there daily mileage up. Cindy says the stripped Maples are taking over the forest here. I have seen a lot of them and a lot of woodpeckers. Hikers had seen a bear around the shelter recently.Passed Bob and John on the trail. Johns wife is hiking the entire trail one day at a time, like us. He drops his wife in the morning, drives around to the end point and hikes to meet her, then he walks with her to the car. She gets to hike the whole trail and he hikes half the trail twice. They are 5 years into their plan with many miles completed. They also like to hike other places like France and Ireland. They have the good life, like us. Its 10:43 and John is off to meet his wife. They might still Meet, turn around and pass us before Damascus. John says he is only 1 12 hours out of Damascus. We passed the backbone rock trail at 10:46. We are hiking on til 11:00 for a lunch break. Its 11:21 and we are leaving our lunch break. We are going to walk to Virginia now. The state line is about 12 mile. In 2 miles is a campsite with a blue blaze, where we will rest again, and then have just an hour to go. Its 11:42 and we are at the Virginia sign on the trail, taking pictures. Maybe its all downhill from here. Its sunny and getting warm today, must be hot down in Damascus. 3.8 miles to go. Its 12:27PM on the trail with about 1.8 miles to go. We are at that blue blazed campsite for a 15 min break and then 1 hour to the car. Its going to be good. We can relax and we may get home to Belleville early tonight, or should I say not extremely late.12:39Pm and we leave our final rest stop. There are suddenly dark clouds in the sky. Its much cooler also. Hope there is no rain. We are in to Damascus at 1:15PM because of Cindys record pace. It started raining 5 minutes after our break , a lite sprinkle all the way to town. We barely got wet, Cindy did not use her rain coat. Lightning struck over our heads one time. Really loud. Cindy ducks down really low, her safety maneuver. Then she springs up and says,¢ why do you have us out here?¢ Like I have some control over the weather. So we are off to shuttle cars and go home. and it started pouring down rain after we got off the trail. And we got in the car, went to get the other car, and we drove to the interstate again. it took us 2 hours to get back to Knoxville airport, drop the rental car off, and now we're on our way home. We are going to have supper in the car. Just some more lunch meat. And bananas and oranges and whatever else we have in the car.