Date: 2003-05-12
From: Damascus, VA - Dickey Gap

To: Damascus, VA - Dickey Gap
Miles today: 49.2
Weather: broken clouds

Damascus, VA - Dickey Gap49.2 miles (508.1 total miles)I had an excellent zero day in Damascus. I got all my chores done by early afternoon. I bought myself a new pack, one that doesn't poke me in the back mile after mile after mile. My water filter works like new again. I got my mail drop (thanks!), a care package from my brother's family (thanks!), and a cool package from Cougar (thanks!). I met Cougar for only about a day, but she heard my story and sent me a homemade pepsi can stove. Thanks so much, Cougar! We met Cuba's husband, who drove us to the movies. It was a fun zero day. Damascus is great! I was awakened at 5am on day 40 by the sound of police radios. I saw flashlights in the hallway, and heard heavy boots coming up the stairs. What was going on? I was sharing a room in The Place with 5 other guys, only 1 of whom I had even seen. The police came into our room, and turned on the lights. They had a guy in handcuffs. It turns out that one of the guys in my room was wanted in Florida for armed robbery. The police tracked him to the room I was sleeping in. Eventually the police left, with their man in custoday. I never fell back asleep.Damascus was crazy. It was the first sign of the annual Trail Days Festival, and there was a town-wide yard sale. We walked down to The Old Barn for breakfast, and listened to Patsy Cline on the jukebox. Town got so crowded that we were glad to leave. It was a long, hot climb out of town. We went over some PUDs, and ended at a shelter by 7:00. It was 17 miles on the day - not bad for coming out of town, and hiking with Cuba's husband Mike, who had fresh legs.Day 41 looked horrible on the maps. It looked like we'd be going up all day. It was cold and rainy. We climbed and climbed. We got to a shelter at about 12:30. The shelter was less than a mile (off the AT) from Mt. Rogers, the highest point in Virginia. We dropped our packs and climbed the gradual mountain. There was nothing worthwhile on top, but we now had bragging rights.We waited at the shelter for the rest of the group to arrive. Everyone seemed pretty beat. We decided to call it a short day. It was a nice shelter, although very windy. Backpacker Magazine recently ran an article on the 10 most scenic privies in the country (really!). The shelter came in at #2. We played cards all afternoon, and I made chicken tortillas for dinner.As usual, I was up first on day 42. I got my pack off the wall, and quietly brought it outside. I was concentrating so hard on not waking anyone up, that it wasn't until I was outside that I saw the 2 deer standing next to the picnic table 30 feet away. They watched me pack my stuff, then wandered away. It was a blustery cold day. We walked through some open boulder fields, trying hard not to blown off the trail. At one point the trail even went through a small boulder cave. At the end of Grayson Highlands State Park, we saw a bunch of wild ponies grazing in the grass. What a sight!We walked back to a lower elevation, and waited for the rest of the group to show up. The shelter options were not good. We weren't sure what to do, but Mike came up with a great idea. He would slackpack us for the last 8 miles of the day. In other words, he would shuttle our packs ahead while we hike with only a daypack. I know I lose some purity points for slacking, but my rules are to walk a continuous path past every white blaze. Slacking was great! It was like walking with helium balloons tied to my back. We did 21 miles on the day, and ended with Mike buying us all dinner. We celebrated passing the 500 mile mark. What a productive day.Tomorrow we have a short day to Partnership Shelter. You will see in my next journal entry why that is so great. From there we are about a day from Atkins, our next resupply point. The weather should be fairly nice. Life is great out on the AT.