Date: 2004-06-05
From: Damascus; The Place

To: The Place
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

"The Place" HostelStart: The PlaceFinish: The PlaceMiles: Zero DayWeather: Overcast and CoolBreakfast: Mountain House GranolaLunch: Hamburgers, chips, Water, Hershey¢s Special Dark Chocolate barDinner: Homemade Tuna AlfredoTrail Conditions: N/AAnimals: NonePeople: Desperado, Bluebird, Mickey & Mallory, Smack, Terrapin, Goofy, Lamby, Spider, Brother, Silky, Bilbo, Belle, Kiwi, 2C, large church group of hikers, Group of women hikers guided by a lady from Kalamazoo, MI.About halfway through the night I got a terrible headache that literally kept me from sleeping. By morning it felt as though someone was trying to bore a hole in my head. I got up for about an hour and felt totally sick to my stomach, so I returned to bed. Around noon I forced myself to get up, stumbled down to the library where I ran into Spider who happen to have Extra Strength Tylenol on her. Around 2:00 PM the headache finally began to dissipate and I could start my day.I ran down to Mt. Rogers Outfitter and bought a 2 liter Platypus, new water filter, iodine tablets, and got my bent Leki poles fixed. I went across the road where Jeff (owner of MRO) was grilling burgers at his hostel. I think I ate like 5. I then made a run to the laundromat and did a combined load of my clothes and Mickey & Mallory's. I also called the folks and caught up on the times. Marcie has now officially graduated from CBI. I am very proud of her. After laundry I made my way back to the hostel and loafed around waiting for the slackpackers to return. Atlas had a car and offered to drop people off 17 miles up the trail so they could slackpack back to the hostel. Terrapin, Goofy, Lamby and Smack decided to go. Consequently, they will also be a day ahead. The slackpackers rolled in around 5pm. I cooked up some dinner with Lamby and a bunch of us sat outside and shot the breeze for quite some time. The hostel really filled up with a large group of women ¢ out for a first time weeklong hike, through an adventure program, hikers, and a large church group camping outside. There were probably a good 30 people at the hostel. In the evening Hans & Brittany gave Lamby a haircut leaving him with only a Mohawk. It was hilarious to watch and I filmed some of it and took pictures. Lamby's New CutAfterwards I walked down to the bar with some folks and we met a bunch of other hikers there. I really didn¢t care for the scene and went back to the hostel and ended up sitting at the community table and talking with some great folks. Turns out one of the female guides for the women¢s group is from Kalamazoo, MI. That was neat. Around 11:30pm I decided to call it a night and went to bed.As I began dozing of to sleep around midnight I heard a series of loud blood curdling screams from outside the hostel. The scream was not in good fun, and my police instincts quickly kicked in. I hopped out of my bed, donned my Waldies and ran outside. Spider, Lamby and Brother were outside, however, weren¢t overly concerned. I told them to come with me so we could check it out. We went to the house behind the hostel and I could see some activity through the window. I shouted to the figure in the window if everything was okay. There was no response, so I shouted it again. Again there was no response. Suddenly the front door flew open and a lady, screaming and crying, began desperately pleaded for someone to call the police. As Lamby called 911 from his cell, the female party came running out of the house crying hysterically, holding a clump of her hair and saying the male party had a knife and was threatening to cut her. The guy then came running out of the house toward me, as I was trying to get info out of the lady. I turned to the guy and in a loud authoritative command announced myself as a police officer from Michigan and I commanded him to stay in the yard. He kept coming so I repeated the command and commanded him to put his hands in the air (I couldn¢t see if he had a knife). He looked at me, then turned and reentered the house. As he did so, the Damascus Police arrived. As I told the officer what was going on, the guy came back out of the house holding two crying kids. The kids were able to squirm free and ran to us. With a knife in hand, the officers drew down on the guy, removed the weapon and it took three officers to cuff him. Once in the cruiser the guy proceeded to head butt the car window repeatedly and then tried kicking in out. With things under control I returned to the hostel and went to bed. The Crime SceneOne Year Reflection