Date: 2003-05-09
From: Dennis Cove - Damascus, VA

To: Dennis Cove - Damascus, VA
Miles today: 50.4
Weather: broken clouds

Dennis Cove - Damascus, VA50.4 miles (458.9 total miles)It was a wet hike from Kincora to Damascus. Kincora was great, but it was nice to move on. I got an 8:30 start in the drizzle. We walked along the river, and followed the trail down into Laurel Gorge. We met up with a trail maintainer, who suggested that due to all the rain, we should take the blue blazed high water trail instead. But I wanted to follow the official trail (I'm a purist) and see the falls, so it wasn't even an option. We hiked down to the beautiful falls, which would have been great to swim in had the weather been warmer. Then we followed the trail through the gorge, which was actually kind of dangerous. One false move on the slippery rocks, and I would have been in the river.The trail then climbed up and over some unimportant mountain to Watauga Lake. It was raining, but we stopped at the picnic area for lunch anyway. The lake was overflowing. Much of this area was polluted by trash. The locals call the AT the "government trail", and spread their trash around. A maintainer told us that if it is cleaned up, more trash will be there within 24 hours. What a shame. Another 2 miles brought us to the shelter. It was only 9 miles on the day, but we decided to stop because of the weather. But by the time we got settled in, the sun came out. So we had a nice, relaxing afternoon in the woods.The morning of day 37 brought more rain. 2 miles brought me to Watauga Lake Dam. Then the trail wound up the mountain to a shelter by some cliffs overlooking the lake. We tried to have lunch on the cliffs, but it would rain for 2 minutes, followed by sublight for 2 minutes. We finally got chased in for good.We continued on in the crazy weather. I accidentally stepped on a small snake. We also saw a deer run right across the trail in front of us. We hit our destination shelter at 16 miles on the day. There we met an 81 year old thru-hiker named Batch. He started 5 days after me. What an amazing guy. As we were eating dinner, 2 deer came out to graze right next to the shelter.Day 38 was our marathon day - literally. We were 26 miles from town, over supposedly easy ground. I slept horribly that night. Due to various factors, I only got between 2 and 3 hours of total sleep. I left at 7:04, and did 7 wet, miserable miles to the first shelter. I didn't bother eating breakfast, as I just wanted to get away from my sleepless night. I thought I'd barely make the shelter, never mind town! I trudged in, and waited for my group. They felt great, and took only a short break before moving on. I followed.Perhaps a little food and company woke me up, but I started moving faster. I started feeling good. We hit the next shelter at about 1:00. I made some Tang, and had a full meal. The sun came out. We had done 16 miles on the day, with only 10 more into town. Could we do it? Of course. We cruised the final miles, crossing into Virginia, my 4th state. A short walk across town got us to our hostel. I had just finished my third 20 mile day, a complete marathon, on only 2 hours of sleep. I felt good.We passed a sign welcoming us to Damascus, the friendliest town on the AT. Cuba flagged down a passing car and asked them to take our picture, as she didn't want anyone missing from the picture. We walked to The Place, a great hostel owned by the Damascus Methodist Church. It holds about 30 hikers, and it's just 3 bucks a night. We showered, and celebrated our day with calzones and ice cream.I am looking forward to a zero day in Damascus. I might try to buy a new pack, as mine is bent and keeps poking me in the back. I also need to fix my water purifier, as it takes all my effort to get one bottle of water. Then, of course, I have to do my laundry, get my mail drops, get a haircut, catch up on correspondence, and fill up on all the junk food I have been craving.I will leave you all with a joke I read in a shelter register today. There are a lot of slackpackers on this section of the trail. I apologize that only hikers will get this joke. And please, this is all meant in good fun...How does a slackpacker count to 10?1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 4, 7, 8, 10, 9.(hehehe)