Date: 2005-04-29
From: Damascus, Virginia

To: Elk Garden (VA Route 600)
Miles today: 23.8
Weather: light rain

DAY 49 I didn¢t sleep well on the floor. But who cares: I planned on taking a delicious Zero Day here in Damascus. The bunk on the floor cost me $4 for the night. The other occupants who had beds will pay much more of the $75 per night rental for the house. It seems pretty reasonable to me.Right away in the morning Rocky started in with ¢Come with us on our slackpack back into Damascus¢. So I asked her, ¢How far?¢ ¢Twenty three miles¢, she replied. My response was, ¢Are you crazy after yesterday. I¢m taking a Zero Day¢. Also it was a lousy day and it was drizzling already. That ended the conversation, at least for the moment. A crowd of us from the rental house went to a nearby local restaurant, the ¢In the Country¢, for breakfast. It was a very enjoyable breakfast due to the crowd of us. When we returned to the house, Rocky kept urging me to join her on the 23 mile slackpack with Sowega and The Blondes. Despite the insanity of the idea and considering we couldn¢t leave until late morning, I finally gave in and agreed to go. Rocky can be persistent.Our shuttle didn¢t get us to the starting point at Elk Garden on VA Route 600 until 11 am. It was kind of a late start for a 23 mile hike. As we got out of the shuttler¢s vehicle, Rocky took off at a run. During the course of the hike I walked with all four of the others at different times. I knew Rocky from earlier times on the Trail, or I thought I did. I got to know the other three of our group. Sowega is from Bainbridge, in South West GA. Hence his trail name. He is a recent electrical engineering graduate of Auburn University, although he has yet to start his first job in engineering. It¢s probably a wiser choice to do his AT thru hike now before he gets started with a career, than at retirement like I am doing.The Blondes are delightful. The constantly sing. Even in conversation. Both Jukebox and B-Money are college graduates in geology. However, only Jukebox has actually worked in the field.This was going to be a long day. I was afraid that darkness would fall before we got back to Damascus. Rocky and the others don¢t seem to mind night hiking. To me night hiking is asking for trouble. I constantly looked at my trail map so that I could be aware of bail out points if it got too dark. At Lost Mountain Shelter we stopped for a brief rest and a snack. Then we were on our way again. At this time of year it is getting dark around 7:30 pm, and that is about when we reached the outskirts of Damascus. We walked in darkness to the swankiest restaurant in Damascus. There we found Hareball with Pathfinder and Grey Walrus. They were having an elegant dinner with wine, after they had taken a Zero Day today. We thought the place was too expensive for us, so we walked to a small Mexican restaurant, the ¢Baja Cafe¢. It was a good choice and we all enjoyed our Mexican dinners. After we left the Baja Cafe, we started walking in the wrong direction for quite some distance. Eventually we realized that we were walking south out of Damascus. We didn¢t need the extra walk after almost 24 miles on the Trail. We are pretty beat up, now that we are back in our rental house. The floor is going to feel good tonight. I have walked over 49 miles on the Trail in the past two days. This doesn¢t count the walking around Damascus and the wild goose chase after leaving the Baja Cafe. Actually, all in all, despite my earlier qualms I enjoyed today¢s hike. It was a great group to be with. I hope we will be hiking together tomorrow.