Date: 2004-05-27
From: The Place - Damascus, VA

To: The Place - Damascus, VA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

The morning of the 27th was sunny. That was exciting. The guy in the bunk below mine was gone when I woke. The others had all been here the night before too. They were doing a slack pack today. One of the outfitters in town was going to drive them to a road crossing about 20 miles north and drop them. They will then hike the trail south carrying not much more than water and snacks. Hence the term slack pack. Their ride would not leave till 9am so they went out for breakfast. At least they would be hiking on this gorgeous day.My missions for the day included: All You Can Eat pancakes, Laundry, Groceries, Coleman fuel, Crocks and a few other things. Wearing only my rain pants, rain jacket and boots, I headed north to the Laundromat. Only a thru-hiker would dress like this on a sunny day. Across the street from the laundromat was a little eatery offering AYCE pancakes. It was nice to join a few other thru-hikers as we ate entirely too many pancakes. Two of the guys left to catch a ride with the outfitter for a slack pack. Back at the Laundromat after waiting for the dryer, I changed out of my rain gear into my now clean shorts and T-shirt. Now it was back to The Place to drop off the laundry and pick up the fuel bottle. The outfitter in town was fairly well equipped. High on the right wall just below the ceiling a mural of the local AT mountain scape ran from the front to the back of the store. It was pretty cool and included various points of interest. My experience in this store was a bit strange. Fuel bottle in hand, I wandered about the store. There was a female thru-hiker with foot issues trying on a myriad of boots. The outfitter guy was full of advice and help. The other guy was locked in an interminable conversation with someone near the check out. I like to think of my self as patient. Eventual I stood by the check out watching the conversation. They didn¢t pause. I couldn¢t interrupt. It must have been 15 minutes. It was as if I was invisible. Finally he showed me the fuel can from which I filled my bottle out on the sidewalk. This cost a whole dollar.The library was just a few doors down the street. It was a tiny library, but inside there were four computers. Other thru-hikers came and went but my Email Update 4 connection time wasn¢t rushed by anyone for a change. The locals were happy to have us there.Camp Shoes:Camp shoes have never been very high on my list. On various hikes I have packed sneakers, moccasins or river socks. The thing is that my custom Limmer boots have been so comfortable that there was no need or desire to change into camp shoes. Therefore camp shoes would stay at home. Certainly, considering the weight, they did not make it on this trip. My Merrill boots are not nearly as water proof as my Limmers, may they rest in peace. In fact a single drop of water on the top of the boot will soon find my foot. It has been a wet spring and my boots and feet are often wet at the end of the day. They may dry relatively quickly but it would still be nice to take them off at the shelter. On a wet day the shelters tend to be surrounded by mud. At the very least bare feet get filthy. Personally, putting dirty feet into socks and boots is a bad idea. My feet are pretty tough but they don¢t like foreign stuff rubbing them raw in the boots.Crocks:Lately, lots of other thru-hikers have been packing these really silly looking shoes called Crocks. These really are the stupidest looking footwear. People wear them all the time. For the last few days I have been asking folks if they liked them and why. Folks would go nuts about these hideous things. "They are really comfortable." "They make great water shoes." "They can be worn with or without socks." "They¢re great for going for the water or to the privy." "They make good shower shoes." Finally someone tossed one to me at a shelter. I almost dropped it. It was just amazingly light. It¢s just a hunk of molded foam. And number one in my opinion, they are apparently made of ¢no-weightium¢. That was what sold me. Who cared what they looked like.So my next mission was to find and purchase a pair of Crocks. The outfitter had some but none that fit my feet. There were plenty of other possibilities in town. There were bike shops, kayak shops and rental shops. All totaled there had to be 4 or 5 outfitters in town. They all sold Crocks but none had any in size large except for the place all the way at the north end of town. They actually had 2 pair in large. One pair of nasty red ones with no heal strap and a pair of white ones with heal strap. The heal strap made sense to me. Who needs go-aheads. White seemed to be silly in such a dirty environment. Then again all the colors these things are made in are pretty outrageous. With a price tag of $30 I just left empty handed.Now it was time for groceries. The supermarket was in a shopping center that was well outside of town on the south end. It was hot by now. Hitching in town is never easy and there were no rides to be had. I walked all the way from the north end to the south end of town. My birthday would be the day after tomorrow. Some Ben & Jerry¢s Cherry Garcia would sure help the celebration but there didn¢t seem to be any dry ice in town. After finding all the groceries, it was time to check out the bakery section of the store. I settled on a 10¢ devil¢s food cake with white frosting. It was packaged in this plastic dome thing that looked like it could take a bit of a beating. Out in front of the store the empty pack was loaded with groceries including a pint of Cherry Garcia for tonight. The cake was gingerly tucked in to the top of the pack. This was exciting.Now it was time to hitch or walk back to The Place. It was way hot now. The thought of walking all the way back on scorched pavement was not a pleasant one. Lucky for me a woman picked me up almost immediately. She had two little ones in the back seat. As it turned out she had seen me walking into the store. She had also hiked the trail with her now husband many years ago. It was fun talking. They lived in town now. She dropped me at The Place. It was great.Damascus is a fascinating town. The names of most of the businesses in town include the word hiker or trail, even the hardware store. The town bills itself as the most hiker friendly town on the AT. A couple of weeks earlier, Damascus had been host to great hoards of hikers during Trail Days. They open parks for tenting. Vendors and gear manufacturers set up booths all over. It sounds like a sort of giant hiker fair/party. Thru-hikers get off the trail and hitch into town from all up and down the trail. Thru-hikers from past years show up too. There's a hiker parade. One outfitter told me that they had over 700 pair of Crocks at Trail Days and all but about 10 sold. That was just one outfitter. No wonder, all of a sudden, everyone on the trail had Crocks. I have to wonder how this town would survive without the trail.Some construction guys were working on the back porch roof at The Place. Upstairs the great food repackaging took place on my bunk. The ice cream was wrapped in my puffy jacket and buried under my sleeping bag to help keep the heat out till tonight. Now there was actually some free time. How strange. I hung out on the porch on the front of the house doing some more stitching on the old gaiters and keeping the solar charger in the sun. Other hikers read or talked on the porch. Across the street, a typical day in the life of a family unfolded. Dad worked the wheel barrel. Mom worked the garden. The kids played with the dog. Neighbors stopped by and chatted. That life seemed like such a contrast to the lives of us thru-hikers here at The Place, yet there it was just across the street. I smiled and just kept watching, stitching and writing.There had to be about 20 or 30 folks staying at The Place on each of the two nights of my stay. Most of them were probably there for two nights. It was nice to have the chance to talk with some fellow thru-hikers without the self imposed pressure to needing to get on the trail. Surprisingly there were a few folks who had been here for several days. One twenty something woman was suffering from shin splints but seemed quite comfortable with the notion of just hanging out and reading. There was another who was sick with some nasty bug and was looking for a ride to a motel so she would not infect the whole trail community. That was mighty thoughtful. People were here from all walks and ages of life. We all probably were getting different things from the trail too. It was dinner time and the pizza place called once again. This time it was a vegi pizza. Back at The Place my pint of Ben & Jerry¢s Cherry Garcia ice cream awaited still well chilled in its little nest on my bunk. It tasted so good as I sat in a rocker down on the porch. It was around bedtime for me now, around 9 or 10pm. A man with his two young sons showed up looking for bunk space. They were to begin a section hike tomorrow. The kids were probably around 10 or 12. They all seemed pretty excited to be hanging with the ¢hard core¢ thru-hiker gang. What a great introduction for these guys. So that was my first zero day. It would have been beautiful weather for a hike but things got done that needed getting done.