Date: 2005-05-10
From: Mile 430.9

To: Shady Valley, TN
Miles today: 13.8

Up and gone by 8 AM this morning. Most of the folk from last night were just hanging out or slowly packing it up. I decided to move on out at an easy pace. Nice not to worry about anything but the trail. The word was that as you came in to Damascus, the terrain would get easier and it did. The last half a dozen miles before Damascus were like coming in to a landing at an airport, as one hiker put it. Problem was I was still quite a few miles away from the last six. I passed through some beautiful country though and the trail meandered its way through old farms and big woods. About mid day the weather started to turn worse again. A storm was on the horizon. I was able, for some time, to be able to either stay ahead of it or to let it pass by. With the general direction of the trail going North and the storms for the most part going from West to East, it was easy to do.    This worked fine until I was about a mile from Low Gap, (US 421) once there if you went right for three miles, you went in to Shady Valley, TN. The storm I was dodging came in and stalled over top of me, I was in a bad way.   There I was, caught on a ridge with a lightning storm hammering the heck out of everything. It reminded me of the night I stayed outside of Franklin. Here we go again I said to myself. There was no where to go and staying in one spot was out of the question. I put it in high gear and ran away from it. I was literally running down the trail as fast as I could. The trail soon became a rushing stream. I was making some good distance based on the increase of time between flash to bang. At first the two were instantaneous. Forty five minutes later and after passing by four other running hikers, I was at the Gap. I covered myself with dry fleece and hitched a ride to Shady Valley. A young lady was dropping of one hiker and asked if I needed a ride. The other hiker was from NJ and earlier that day was dropped off by a taxi a few miles East of here. He had no idea where he was. He was there for the party and wanted to camp for a few days South of Damascus and then walk in for the fest.   Shady Valley is a small town at a "cross" intersection and consisted of two restaurants and a small store with a gas station. I went in for the usual, a cheeseburger and dried out. Afterwards I went to the other eating establishment to see what they offered. There inside was Spoonman, Newman, Lizard and Hot Pants. They all hitched forward from further down South to avoid the storm I just ran from. They could not believe I was out in that thing, they were watching it from a covered porch at the time. They told me that they had made arrangements to spend the evening under a Car-port out back. I asked if I could join and they gladly allowed me too. Carroll, the owner, was a former hiker and he liked it when hikers stopped in from the trail. I asked him if he was willing to allow my daughter and I to set up a tent there if need be. He said it wouldn't be a problem. I figured just in case there was no room in Damascus that this would be our "Plan B". That was the nice thing about having a car during a planned Nero day, you could make plans away from town.   Hot pants and I meet while we hiked along Wautauga Lake. We talked as we walked basically. Has was contemplating then on leaving the trail. He said it was getting boring and it was not what he expected. Eventually and I believe it was just after trail days, he did leave the trail. The last I saw of him was when he picked me up while hitch hiking up North on the way "out" of Troutville, VA. He had an open bed pickup truck and piled hikers in like a cord of firewood. (Thanks again Hot Pants, you da man).   We all had supper at Carroll's place and soon after settled in for the night. We shared a few beers and just relaxed. I noticed my ankles were swollen and looked like two softballs were connected to the end of my legs. The cost of running with a back pack on no doubt. Soon we were passing around photos of what we looked like before the trail (old Drivers Licence's, permits, I.D. cards and the like). Talk about your change in appearances. Loss of weight and full beards seem to be the biggest changes of all. I had more hair on my head and Spoon man had less. He cut all of his off for the trail and I hadn't had a hair cut since December 03, 17 months earlier. I left the military soon after December and promised myself not to get a hair cut for two years. I am happy today to say I still haven't had it cut and am only a few weeks shy of two years as I type this entry. I had them all laughing when they asked me if I ever planned on getting it cut. I told them it kind of fits if you know my future employment plans. Simply put, the next job I have I do not want to be told to get a haircut, wear a uniform or pee in a bottle. Of course I will take a urine test to get the job but after that leave my body fluids alone. "Bold talk coming from a one eyed fat man......" I guess time will tell.