Date: 2005-05-11
From: Trimpi Shelter

To: Partnership Shelter
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: clear sky

Today was a good day to be alive. OC1 and I, as has become the usual, were on the move by 7 o'clock. While we were walking, he said something about wanting to go back to Damascus to get summer gear and send his winter gear home.   Last night he sweat his ass off in his winter sleeping bag. It went from winter to summer over the Grayson Highlands, all of the sudden, it's hot. No spring, all of the sudden it's 80 degrees. Time to get lighter stuff.He wanted to go back to Damascus and switch his gear. By the time we hit Patnership Shelter at 10:30, we already had a plan. We went to the payphone and called Jeff at Mount Rogers Outfitters.   We wanted to get a shuttle and he was having a hard time trying to get us in. When we explained that we would be spending about $800.00, he managed to arrange for someone to pick us up within 15 minutes. We ran back to the shelter, which is about 1/10 of a mile from the Mount Rogers Headquarters.   We hung his tarp and sleeping bag to dry, so that he could pack them and send them home. That shelter had a shower, so, OC1 jumped in the shower. I used the sink on the outside, stuck my head in it and washed myself the best I could. I sat around for a few minutes with the people who were at the shelter. There was a whole family there, all dressed in kilts. There were two 12 packs of beer leftover from a party they must have had the night before. Someone had gone and got some beer. That was a little bit of Trail Magic.While we were sitting there, Cycle Hiker walked in. This guy is carrying an 18 pound bicycle with him, along with his backpack. He rode to Georgia from Illinois. He is carrying the bicycle on the AT with him. When he gets to a road near a town, he puts the bike together, and rides into town gets his supplys, disassembles the bike, and puts it back in his pack. when he gets to Maine he intends to ride the bike back to Illinois. Interesting way to hike.Slap Happy walked in while we were there. We said a quick 'hello' then we walked over to the road in front of Mount Rogers Headquarters. We waited for our ride, it turned out to be Forever North. He was the guy who was helping Berry with the trail magic before Albert Mountain in Georgia. He was in town waiting for Trail Days, like many other past hikers. He drove us back to Damascus at rediculous speed. I knew that OC1 was nervous in the back seat because he started to whistle, I had never heard him whistle before.We made it into Damascus alive. Forever North dropped us off at Sundog Outfitters. That was where the tent that OC1 wanted was. It's a really cool tent, a Big Agnes Sarvis 1, under 3 pounds with a breathable vent material. We got the tent really quickly there. The guy gave him 10% off because the floor model was the only one left.   We walked down to Mount Rogers Outfitters, where Jeff and Tom helped OC1 out for several hours with a backpack, fitting it to him, he ended up getting the same pack I have, the ULA P2. He also picked up a summer sleeping bag, also the same as mine, the Western Mountaineering High Light, it weighs only 15 ounces. He got a pair of high gators because we are now getting into high grass and we have to start worrying about ticks and water from walking in wet grass in the morning. He got a new food bag, the old one was leaking; some lithium and double A's, and a Western Mountaineering vest and got Jeff and Tom to ship his old gear back home. We had to arrange a shuttle for the morning because we missed the 3 o'clock shuttle to get back to Partnership Shelter, so we were not getting back tonight. We went ahead and paid for the shuttle. It was going to be $45, but they cut us a deal because we had spent so much money there. I got a new fanny pack and a couple of other little things while I was there. From there, we walked over to Sicily Pizza. We each had a 10 inch pizza and some garlic bread. We walked down to The Place in Damascus, where we had stayed a couple of nights before, and set up our tents. By this time, there were tents everywhere. People were there for Trail Days, it has already started, but it will be in high gear on Friday. It was tent city there, there must have been 30 tents there. I left OC1 there to play with his gear. He wanted to set up his tent different ways to figure out how to use it. I took his dirty clothes and mine and did our laundry. I went back to try to take a shower, but with that many people there, there was no hot water left, I had to take an ice cold shower. There was no soap, I had to take some Dawn dishwashing detergent from the sink and shoot some into my towel and take an ice cold shower. A very traumatic experience.I went down to Dairy King to meet OC1 for ice cream. We sat there eating our ice cream and talking about mail drops when some smart ass voice from a table behind us said, "How do you expect to make any miles if you're never hiking?" It turned out it was Schemer, who I had hiked with in 2003. He was in town for Trail Days. He was doing his own Trail Magic thing by shuttling people around as much as they wanted to. It was a great thing. He asked us if we wanted anything from him. We said, "Sure, we could use a ride to Partnership Shelter tonight", which he did. We lost our $20, but we got back to Partnership Shelter tonight. I had a good talk with Schemer. It was good to see him. I saw him quite a bit in 2003, he's quite a character. We got back to Partnership Shelter and it was just getting dark. OC1 set up his tent. I decided to 'cowboy camp', which means I just laid out my Therma Rest on the ground and slept out under the stars.I had purchased a bottle of Sutter Home Cabernet Sauvignon and poured it into one of my Platypus bottles. I pulled it out and decided I was going to share it with the people who were there. Snow Man walked in with his wife, Spark Plug. She didn't want any, but Snow Man, Free Radical, OC1 and I sat around drinking in the dark. It was the perfect way to end the evening before we went to bed.