Date: 2008-04-26
From: Damascus VA

To: Damascus VA - "Zero" Day
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: few clouds

Hey everybody! Holy Cow! I am so excited! I found out I am AVERAGE! It took 6 weeks to get to Damascus VA (460 miles) and that is AVERAGE! I am also excited that I have lost 30 lbs. and that I have finally gotten my trail legs. Let me explain. Up until this week, I was the slowest hiker out here. Everyone passed me. The only person I passed was a 300-lb., 75-year-old smoker. A caterpillar and turtle passed me. People always knew where I was because vultures were circling overhead waiting for slow-guy to die. Hence I always hiked alone. Listened to my mp3 player/radio alot. Then this week, I tried keeping up with a guy named Sharkey. We got to talking, and although I breathed hard, my legs and my cardiovascular system came together and kept up. I was like a kid who finally gets the toy he has been waiting for. I could not believe it. I was able to finally go the average speed of just over 2 mph. I was able to fly up the hills rather than crawl. Thus, I was finally able to do my first 20 mile day (22.7 to be precise). I thought this day would never come. I was averaging 1.25-1.5 mph. Fifteen miles would take 9-12 hours. Long days. I was able to do the 22.7 in about 10 hours of hiking. I did one stretch of 3 1/2 miles in 1 hour, 20 minutes. Granted the terrain was closer to the end of the roller coaster ride than the first hill, but it was still up and down. To sum it up, getting my trail legs was like going from a 4-cylinder Plymouth Horizon to an 8-cylinder Pontiac Bonneville. I skipped over the 6-cylinder altogether. Both cars are old, but I love the Bonneville. I have been doing some massage on the trail. I vowed I would not do necks and backs, but would work on injured hikers and try to keep them on the trail. So far so good. The interesting thing is they all have that same question - "Is this the pain that is going to cause me to leave the trail?" We all have pains. Pain is a given. The people who could not not handle pain have already left the trail. We all take vitamin I (Ibuprofen) and/or Aleve. We just hope that one of our pains is not the big one. Roan Mountain. I have not heard anyone say a nice thing about it. We climbed it this week on a rainy, snowy and foggy day. It is the last 6000-foot peak until we get to Mt Washington in NH. It includes a 2200-foot rise in elevation and a lot of big rock steps. I believe that if I had done my shakedown hike last year on this mountain, I might not be here today. Glad it is over. Meeting lots of interesting people and getting lots of pictures. I tried to attach some pictures to an email message yesterday, and it took so long to upload the pictures that my computer timed out and I lost everything I had typed. I have to get to the post office today (Saturday) before they close at 11:00 o'clock, so I am going to go. After that, I am going to go fishing. I now have my fly rod. I fished last night, and the only fish I caught in the trout steam was a small mouth bass. Yes, Troutbum stood in a trout stream and caught a bass. Gotta catch a trout so that I can live up to my trail name. Again, thanks for all your support. Talk to you soon, Troutbum Troutbum called today from Damascus, said he is in cell-phone hell. He stood still, but had to shift from one foot to the other to maintain enough bars on the mobile so we could talk. He's lost 30 pounds & five inches off his waist. He feels like a new man. I'm very happy for and proud of him. p.s. If I manage to get the pictures posted, he says to ignore the hairy-wild-man look. -Troutbum's g.f.