Date: 2006-05-22
From: Damascus, Va

To: North of Beartree Gap, Va
Miles today: 12.2

Stealth tenting I'm back in the forest!!! :-))) I rested up just like I wanted to since I had gotten off the trail and went home the end of April. I read 3 books and sat in a recliner and watched the Weather Channel for the most part. Now I feel rested and my arm is much better. It still hurts when I do too much with it, but I'm going to do lower miles and make sure my energy level stays up. I went to Trail Days and as always, it was great to see so many friends all in one place. The ol' Chief invited Hammock Hanger and her husband Jed and Shortcut and me over to spend the nights during Trail Days at his cabin.Christmas had been there since the first of the week. I originally planned on starting back on the trail yesterday, but with Trail Days and all that goes on with that, I decided to wait and start Monday. Shortcut and I hid a food stash in Grayson Highlands yesterday. This morning started at 5am at Chief's cabin. I went upstairs about 5:30 and put on a pot of Starbuck's and Chief came out of his room complaining about me turning on the lights so early.Since when is 5:30am too early for coffee?? :-))) He got over it when he realized that he could yell into Christmas' room and wake him up. :-))) I got to watch a beautiful sunrise off his back porch deck where the sky had turned completely pink. We got all packed up and left his cabin in West Jefferson, NC at 7am heading for the Visitor's Center of Grayson Highlands to drop off my truck. Shortcut is walking Grayson Highlands with me, then we'll decide what she's going to do. We dropped the truck off because she may follow me up the trail with the truck for a while and meet me at road crossings near the end of the day. We got to Damascus, Va at 8am and Chief dropped Shortcut and I off at Cowboy's. That's where I got off the trail at in April. Chief and Chistmas headed back to NC and Shortcut and I started walking. Chief, thanks alot...we all had a great weekend. Carlene called and thanked us for keeping you busy this weekend. She said she had a wonderful weekend at home without you. ;-))) Shortcut and I stopped at an outfitter first to see about an item that she wanted, then walked over and had a nice sit down breakfast.Hey, we already had walked about 1/2 mile by then and I knew that this would be the last restaurant food for about 6 days. :-((( We had a nice breakfast and I had more coffee before walking out and getting back on the trail at 10:30am. We saw Tacoma Ted and his wife walking along the trail heading back into Damascus right when we were leaving town. It felt fantastic to walk into the woods again. We started climbing right away. I let Shortcut set the pace and it was plenty for me. A short while later, we saw Waterfall and Pickle Toes heading north out of Damascus. We were seeing some rhododendrons, mountain laurels, flame and yellow azaleas along the way in the morning.The forest really comes alive this time of year. Four miles into the day, we saw a small snake about 2 feet long who didn't seem to be afraid of us. He finally scurried off into the woods when I touched him with my Leki. We came across a nice little stream and took a break. A nobo by the name of Breeze came walking by. I was sitting on a log that went from one side of the stream to the other and I was soaking my bare feet. I had just taken my feet out and put my shoes back on because my feet were going numb from the cold water when a guy walked by that I had met on my sobo hike last year. His name was Wookie. He was one of the last stinkin' nobos I saw last year. :-))) We walked on and in a while, I saw a log bridge and a girl trying to get back up on it. She had taken a 6 foot fall off the wet logs.She couldn't get back up on the bridge, so I grabbed her backpack from her, then helped her up. She said she slipped and fell head first about 6 feet. I don't know how she didn't get hurt really bad, but other than being shaken up, she seemed to be OK. Shortcut and I stayed with her until a couple of her friends showed up, then we walked on. We walked by the side trail to Saunder's Shelter without stopping. We did stop about 5 minutes later and took a break and ate some snacks. The rhodendrons at about 3,500 foot elevation are beautiful right now. Lots and lots of light pink and darker pink ones around. Still seeing some blooming azaleas too. We ran into Moonbeam and Swallow Tail about an hour past the shelter.We talked a while. They were heading south to the shelter for the night. We stopped to get water for night at a nice spring and while we were there, a nobo by the name of Fargo stopped and talked.She started getting her water and we hiked on. We came to a small campsite by a pond and Breeze and Weeks were staying there for the night. We talked a while and kept walking to look for a softer place to set up the tent. I found a nice spot in about 15 minutes. I ate a sandwich, then set up the tent while Shortcut was cooking her dinner.I got to use my new titanium tent stakes that I bought at Trail Days and they worked great. They are 8 inch tent stakes. I had never bought the 6 inch stakes because I didn't think they'd work as well. While we were eating, Timber and Popcorn came walking by. My tent is set up in a nice pine forest on top of a bunch of soft pine needles.I can't believe how much I missed being on the trail. It felt just like going home today. :-)))