Date: 2009-04-15
From: Damascus Public Library

To: Virginia
Miles today: 122.7

VIRGINIA!!!I walked into Damascus, VA, officially completing my stint in Tennessee and beginning my journey through state number 4.First off, hiking in the snow is both very tiring and absolutely exhilarating. The day that I left the hostel in Erwin, it had stopped snowing and all but a fraction of an inch had melted. However as I quickly learned, snow sticks around quite a lot longer at 6000 feet than it does at 2000. Most of the next 3 days I spent in the snow. In some places there were only a few inches on the ground, but at the higher elevations over a foot had fallen, and then piled up into drifts. This meant hiking through knee-high snow drifts in many places, which gets exhausting very quickly. Thankfully, other people (most notably Boomer and Hightop) had blazed the trail ahead of me, so all I had to do was step in their postholes and I would get where I was going.By far the best snow experience I had was on top of Roan Mountain. It's similar in height to Mt. Washington in NH, but since it's down here the summit is covered in an evergreen forest. Wondering what it looked like? Picture that scene in the Chronicles of Narnia movie when the kids first step through the wardrobe. Just like that. Cool, no? I'll attempt to post some pictures, but no guarantees since the library computer is being annoying.My mileage has really been picking up as of late. I did my longest day recently - 24.9 miles in about 10 hours. I'm not sure whether it's primarily because I'm getting stronger, the terrain's getting easier, or some combination of the two, but it feels good to bang out 20+ mile days.Despite the fact that the terrain has been getting easier, and isn't supposed to be bad through much of Virginia, I have come to realize that there is no such thing as an "easy" day of backpacking. Easy terrain means more miles per day, but at the end of the day my back is still sore and my feet still hurt. In some ways, I almost find easy days harder. Flat terrain hurts my back more than uphills, and is also less interesting. I find that when I'm doing long climbs, I get in "the zone," and time flies. It's also a wonderful feeling to summit a mountain, look out over the world below you, and think "I climbed that!" I've been doing this for over a month and have not yet gotten even remotely tired of that feeling.My time on this computer is running low, but I'll say just a few words about the people out here. There are probably few other places in the world where it is commonplace to meet a total stranger, sleep right next to them a few hours later, and become their friend within a day, yet that's the way things work out here. I have a bunch of friends that I have met, and the way it usually works is that we'll see each other for a day or two, then one of us will get ahead of the other, and then we'll end up meeting again in town a week later. I basically have a constantly evolving circle of good people surrounding me wherever I go. Truly a wonderful thing.Addendum:Also a wonderful thing: some of those cool people also have journals! A couple of them:Cascade - This is her second thru-hike. She's just out of high school. She did her first one when she was 11. Holy shit. www.trailjournals.com/Cascade Leadfoot - He's also from Massachusetts and taking some time off between high school and college. A fast hiker and all around good guy. www.trailjournals.com/leadfootIf I can find more, I'll post them as I go along.Almost to the point where I can truthfully sing that Proclaimers song,