Date: 2014-05-02
From: Fox Creek, VA 603

To: Fox Creek, VA 603
Miles today: 0.0

My leg is too sore to hike today and I fear I will have no luck hitchhiking back to the trail after yesterday's experience with the locals. With no resupply here and given my newest injury I realize I can't make it to my next resupply point without hiking a day without food. So I walked to a little drive-up bank branch and called Gypsy Dave, a shuttle driver to drive me back to Damascus, my nearest resupply point. No cell phone service in this little place. I provided a little trail magic to the others in the hostel and paid for the trip to the trail head for them because they also feared for their lives on the road. This Baptist Church Hostel is a strange hostel. We left without ever seeing anyone from the church or a caretaker. We put some money in the donation box and wrote a thank you note in the registry. Other than the bank teller that let me use the phone, I didn't meet anyone and only saw one other person, a guy in the distance mowing his lawn. While waiting for the shuttle in Troutdale I studied the mountains. At lower elevations the trees are green and pushing leaves. As the elevation increases the color of the mountains also changes. They fade from green to a grayish brown at the peaks. I will continue to keep my winter gear for several more weeks. The days are warm but the nights still get near freezing sometimes.My wife is driving into town today or tomorrow, depending on how many miles she is able to drive before she stops for the night. I will just spend time recovering while waiting for her. Then we pick up my son at the airport in Johnson City. As soon as possible, my son and I will start the trail near Troutdale and hike as long as we can before he needs to return to California. I am so looking forward to hiking a part of the trail with him. I will also start using my camping stove. I have learned that eating dry food all the time soon feels like deprivation. I want hot meals at night and I am sick of bagels and peanut butter and the other dry food. I will still carry some of it, but a stove will greatly expand my food options and stop me from dreading meal time despite the hunger pangs that start the second day back on the trail. I just don't seem to be able to carry enough food anymore after a day of hiking. I am carrying more food than when I started and running out of food quicker. In the evening I force myself to only eat my rations and sometimes go to bed hungry. The same meal 40 days ago would have been way too much food.   The weather in Damascus is so much warmer than the mountains. I went from a long-sleeve shirt and jacket to shorts. In town I am running into a number of hikers I haven't seen since the beginning of the trail. I saw GEO and Colorado. I didn't expect Colorado to still be on the trail, but he is here trying to drink all the beer in town before hitting the trail. The German girl Stargazer that fell and was so injured in the Smoky Mountains is also in town. Everyone is catching up to me that was injured and many people that started a week or two after me and have stayed health are in town now. When I start hiking with my son on May 6th, I will be about 80 miles behind where I thought I would be or 6 days behind schedule. For those that planned to hike certain parts of the trail with me north of this location I regret to inform you that I will be far south of where we agreed to meet and hike.In Damascus I checked into The Place, a hostel run by the local Methodist Church. It is only $6 a night, and you get what you pay for. I couldn't get into the Hikers Inn, which is where I stayed earlier in Damascus. It is little more expensive at $25 per night but a world of difference in quality. The Hikers Inn has beds, heat, is clean, and has a modern bathroom and wonderful proprietors.   The Place is just a run down old house that has rooms full of wooden racks for people to sleep on in a crowded unisex bunkhouse environment, no heat, and one tiny bathroom that everyone must use. The only sink is in the kitchen. A sign in the building says the building does NOT meet current building code standards for electricity and plumbing.The caretaker lives in New Orleans, Louisiana and only comes to Damascus for a few months to run the hostel in the spring and summer.RW Means: Riding not Walking