Date: 2003-04-21
From: Double Springs Shelter

To: Damacus, VA
Miles today: 18.3

Well, I feel asleep at about 6:30 last night and woke up as 4 people were leaving to camp farther north (Aurelius, Puff Puff, Sparky? And Emm, and The Brits (the Brit with dreadlocks). Then I fell back asleep again (leaning against the shelter wall with all my clothes piled up against it). As I slept, mice crawled over my head (about 6¢ away) a few even peered over the edge at my head (I had a hat on) I got all this later from Wench, she was journaling and glancing over at them from time to time. I still woke up a few times in the night, but managed to get 8 hrs. or so of sleep before my cough came back (a wet and mucousy cough this time). Then I was awake from 5:30 a.m. on. In the middle of the night, I saw a mouse climb down from the rafters and go into Wenches pack (hanging from the rafters). I woke her up and told her, and then she kicked the pack. The mouse scurried out on to the pack and she kicked it again. The mouse got launched into the air and landed on her sleeping bag and scurried away (as she ducked back into her bag REALLY quick!) Pretty funny¢¦and now it is 7:25 a.m. and the rain is coming down fairly hard. Looks like another rainy day in paradise. We finally said the heck with it and started hiking, we hiked for a few hours and stopped for lunch at the Abington Gap Shelter (the sun came out). After lunch we hiked without rain jackets (for 5 minutes until it rained again), then put them on and continued. Did I mention we did 8+ miles before lunch? The terrain wasn¢t too hard today so it was easy to do big miles. Finally, it got sunny and we hiked in shorts and t-shirts, nice. It was really cool hiking into Damascus¢¦One minute in the mountains, the next minute hiking down the main street of town. Before town is a park with a AT/Damascus Welcome sign built by scouts (a shelter, too). We took pictures there and continued into town to a drugstore for a cough suppressant, then an Italian place for lunch. After lunch we visited (and took pictures) the famous hostel ¢The Place¢. Afterwards we saw Smoothie, Sonic and ¢Guana walking down the street and said hi! (Well, Sonic wasn¢t walking at the time, she was busy tripping in a gutter falling down. Ankle was sore, hopefully ok by tomorrow). We walked back to their hotel, called around town for a room, then ended up in a suite at their hotel (Old Mill Restaurant/hotel). Very nice room, very large¢¦Tonight I sat around, drank a couple beers (not good for congestion or hydration), now I am coughing and chugging water¢¦sigh¢¦Did I mention the room is huge? 2 Queen size beds, a sleeper sofa, a cushy chair, huge coffee table and end tables, a dining table and chairs, big bathroom? Huge! 30+ feet by 25 or 50. Cool Tomorrow we will go to the Side Track Caf© for breakfast and internet access, then the P.O. for mail drops and back to the hotel to sort them out and set up our bounce boxes and such. I¢ll write more tomorrow, but tonight I need to keep drinking water and trying to breath. Bronchitis is still bad, lung capacity is way down. Doing so many miles lately hasn¢t helped. 18/14.1/18.5 now we are camped in a field by Dickey Gap close to the road but not next to it.