Date: 2008-03-28
From: Double Springs Shelter TN 

To: Unnamed Campsite VA
Miles today: 16.4

Day 40 ¢ Friday March 28 ¢ Unnamed Campsite VA ¢ Miles Today: 16.4 Total Miles: 459.2While camping on the ridge last night and getting settled, we kept seeing a light flash and wondered if it was someone's head light or lightning. Turned out it was lightning in the distance. We had just a few sprinkles for a few seconds last night but not enough to wet the tent. This morning we awoke to 50 degrees. We had scattered clouds, fog and drizzle most of the day.   In between the clouds and drizzle, we had some blue sky with the temps reaching about 70.   It was really quite a nice comfortable day and the rain caused us no problem at all. We weren¢t sure about the water sources for this evening, so we cooked our main meal at lunchtime at the Abingdon Gap Shelter. Turned out to be a great decision, as the sky opened up and rained during our lunch break and then promptly stopped when we were ready to start hiking again.   We had a little drizzle in the afternoon but nothing to speak of although we did have our rain gear on and it did get a bit hot. We got to our campsite about 4:00, took a hike down the huge ravine to the little puddle called a spring and filtered. We tried to freshen up the best we could as we are entering civilization tomorrow and we don't want to scare Harry and Marian off. Ooh, and the other super duper news is we have now finished Tennessee and we are now in our 4th state - Virginia. When we crossed over into Virginia or what we believe was the state line (as there is no sign), we hollered out our huge Yahoos! I'm sure the Damascus town folk below heard us. We're just a couple miles out of Damascus. As you can probably hear, we're having a little bit of a rain again. It's now 7:50 and about 60 in the tent. We're enjoying the sounds of the raindrops hitting the tent and hoping for a ¢wind cycle¢ before the morning, which is the equivalent of the drying cycle when you're doing clothes. We just want a little wind to dry off the tent so we don¢t have to pack it wet. Tomorrow we have 2 miles into town. First stop is the Post Office for our food drop and then to the Outfitter. We need a new water filter, replacement pole section for the tent, camp soap, and a waterproof bag for the camera.   Then we're going to be whisked off by Harry and Marian to Tom's cabin for hopefully about 5000 calories of food a day.A summary of our North Carolina and Tennessee memories:  Swapping out the tent at Neels Gap because our single wall tent failed us.  Entering North Carolina, our home state, with high winds and snow. The winds were 70+mph, causing us to sleep in the shelter for the first time on this trip. We awoke in the shelter with snow on the foot of our sleeping bags. Subsequent days were followed with single digit nights. One morning was just 15 degrees (in the tent) with 30mph winds; we obviously stayed in the tent until the wind quieted some. We had 4 days of snow.   The flu bug in the Smokies causing us to be rescued  Ice on the trees in the Smokies  Mr. & Mrs. Brakeman¢s picnic lunch and dinner in Hot Springs  Being passed by a 3/1 starter (Brer Rabbit) right after Standing Bear Hostel  80+mph gusts in the rain on the balds  Our first Trail Magic - apples and chocolate from a day hiker  The illiteracy rate of North Carolina and Tennessee. For the blazes, there's no right or left hand turn signals - everything's a junction. Good night from our brand new state of Virginia! Still having a blast. We're loving it!!!!