Date: 2017-05-06
From: Iron Mountain Shelter

To: Damascus
Miles today: 27.2
Weather: light rain

We woke up to frosty breath on this cold morning and promptly rolled back over and burrowed deeper into our sleeping bags. Last night was a bit cold, I ended up putting on my puffy and pants for some extra warmth since my sleeping bag (which is rated for 20deg, but that's the temp at which it will keep you alive) wasn't quite cutting it. It would've been nice to have had my long johns that I had sent home from Hot Springs, but it wasn't worth carrying them for this one night I would've used them.  Lookout pulled down the weather for the nearest town and they were at 34deg, so it might've even been a bit colder than that since we're higher in the mountains, but our water didn't freeze, so it probably wasn't below 32deg.We finally roused ourselves from our bags and packed up as quick as possible to get moving before we got too cold. We started hiking at 930 with a long day planned, a marathon would get us to Damascus. It wasn't raining as we started hiking but the trees were still dripping the water they had collected overnight.A couple miles in, at a road crossing, we came across a pop up tent. Could it be?? It had been so long... TRAIL MAGIC. Indie and Packman were manning a semi-permanent encampment (they planned to hang out for at least another week) and offered us fruit, beer, juice, and snacks. They also fired up their grill and made us bacon and then cooked us some pancakes in the grease. Soooo good. We hung out there and chatted with them for almost 45 min, during which time Tarzan caught up and joined the party. Also, I don't think it's going to stick, but Classy suggested changing my name to Dora (as in, the explorer) since I always know where we are and where we're headed since I have AWOL on my phone within easy reach during the day. As soon as we started hiking again we found ourselves hiking through a cow pasture. Dodging the pies, we walked right past the grazing caddle as Classy rattled off the names of the colorings of the cows. Back into the woods, I stopped to eat a quick lunch while the other two continued on. Not too long after than, we ran into more TRAIL MAGIC at another road. We had just passed FarmGirl and Docks before the road and it turned out that the angels were FarmGirl's parents who had been driving through the area and had been convinced to bring Burger King, beers, and homemade cookies for hikers. We all grabbed a burger and beer and chatted for a little bit until the rain that we had been expecting all day started and kicked us into action. 14mi to town.The rain quickly escalated and the temperature dropped noticably. We took a couple minutes of rest in a tiny shelter (which had once been an emergency refuge for a fire warden who had manned the top of McQueens Knob) as a couple waves of sleet/hail came through. The shelter roof eminiated alternating heavy "plunks" and thousands of pins falling as the rain and sleet hit.As we continued the weather did as well, but I was actually having a great time. Most of the time hiking is a Man vs Self conflict, to borrow from literary analysis. It's putting up with the aches and pains, ignoring tiredness or coldness after a long day, and still finding the fun in those experiences. But when he weather or terrain turn rediculous, for me the conflict becomes more Man vs Nature. Putting up with whatever nature is throwing at you which would probably stop most people... and I'm up for a challenge.Eventually the rain subsided as we continued to hike, weary from the many miles already covered. Thankfully the trail down into town was the nicest yet... As an old forest road it was flat, even, and made from soft dirt. We caught sight of buildings only shortly before we emerged from the woods and onto a street. We found some TRAIL MAGIC, clementines in a bag left on the trail for hikers. Classy and I split the penultimate clementine, to leave one for Lookout . We walked into a park which contains the often-photographed arch sign in Damascus and once Lookout arrived we took a tramily photo.Of course, as soon as we got into town the clouds parted and the sun started shining down on us which just made the feeling of reaching Damascus even better. Earlier in the day I had called Crazy Larry's hostel and gotten a room for the night, so we headed there to freshen up. In case you were curious, heaven is a hot shower with great water pressure, warm clothes straight from dryer, and a reclining chair after 30deg rain all afternoon. We headed into town, grabbed some dinner/beer from Bobo's and then headed to bed. All and all, great day. We hiked 27.2mi (more than a marathon) in suboptimal weather conditions. We were joking that we did the easiest section of trail we've yet hiked in hardest way possible, in 2 very long days in not great weather. We could've taken them slower, we know many people who are, but it does feel good to be in town and we've earned the two zeros we're going to take. Also, it's a pretty good day when you could've eaten all your meals from trail magic.We've been seeing some pics from various social media... The Smokies got 6in of snow from this storm and Tex and NotBad (among others) had snow and 80mph winds going over Roan Mt, so many people were hiking through worse conditions than us today. Hopefully spring kicks back in soon.