Date: 2018-05-05
From: Damascus, VA

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 9.3
Weather: clear sky

We had breakfast at the hotel and headed to the tiny town of Damascus, ¢the friendliest town on the trail¢. The AT goes right through the town and I made Jan pull over when I saw a white blaze. She couldn¢t figure out what I was talking about - she thought at first I meant the white Trail Days festival banner hanging across the street, then she thought I meant a white traffic sign, and then I showed here the rectangle painted on a telephone pole. She said ¢It¢s so small!¢ and then, ¢I¢m gonna take picture!¢ I wonder if it might be the beginning of white blaze fever for Jan?It¢s so great having Paul to hike with, because first of all I would have headed off to Tennessee and not north, and also I¢m not scared of bears the whole time.We started our first ascent out of town. We had had some pretty dire forecasts of thunderstorms for today but although we heard thunder fairly often, we only got sprinkled on a few times. The trees are leafing out, but there isn¢t enough canopy for protection from the sun so I was glad we had cloud cover.After about 5 miles, we descended to a road crossing where we were supposed to meet Jan. She had a hard time finding us. She had the exact GPS coordinates but I guess she was expecting a trailhead sign with a parking lot, and although there was a small AT sign, you could easily pass it and not be aware that the AT crosses there. As she said, ¢I¢m a city girl!¢ We had lunch in the car during the only real downpour of the day.For the next few miles, the AT runs along right next to the Virginia Creeper Trail which is a rail-to-trail bike trail. There were tons of people out biking and I was a little jealous of how flat their trail was and also how little they had to carry on their backs.We ran into a Ridge Runner (the Appalachian Trail Conference hires a few dozen each season to constantly hike back and forth across sections of trail to check on hikers and conditions). We also ran across several section hikers and a few thru-hikers. We talked to one thru-hiker who started in Georgia March 10 about what a rough spring the thru-hikers have had - snow, ice and cold. There was a family hiking the opposite direction with the parents and 6 kids, the oldest of which might have been 12. The kids were all well coached on trail manners - they each greeted me and wished me a good hike. Paul and I were both glad they were hiking the opposite direction because otherwise they probably would have passed us so we were spared that humiliation.One of the thru-hikers asked Paul how he was doing and Paul said it¢s not as easy as it looks in the YouTube videos, which made the other guy laugh. Paul also is commenting on every uphill, but I sort of don¢t notice. Partly because since my last section hike on the AT in 2012, I¢ve done long hikes in the Sierra Nevadas, the Himalayas, and the Pyrenees, which have higher ascents. But I think it¢s more that I¢ve done enough long distance hiking that I¢m mentally and physically accustomed to long long hours of doing something hard and miserable. And even though the AT doesn¢t have as much elevation gain as some trails, you are always going up or down, just many times a day.Anyway, the afternoon was a long ascent with lots of switchbacks. I thought Paul would be excited when we got a sign that said Saunders Shelter was in a quarter mile, but he just said in his usual deadpan way ¢I thought you were going to say you want to go to the next shelter¢ (6 miles away, also on the sign). That¢s how I knew he was really OK.We got to the shelter but set up our tents on nice pine needle carpets. I usually prefer my tent over the cramped shelter with all the mice and snoring.One man complimented my bright gaiters and I said since you look at your feet a lot, you might as well have something that cheers you up. Another hiker (who also has Dirty Girl gaiters) said some people like to get them with the pictures of French fries and pizza. We both agreed that this is a mistake.After we set up our tents, we got water (spring a quarter mile away *sigh*), and made dinner. Paul hung our food bags from a tree in a nifty PCT bear hang that I have to have him teach me.I was all settled in my tent when the wind started to pick up and the thunder got closer. We had a terrific stormy downpour for about 20 minutes but Paul says his new tent did fine.It ended up that there are 4 guys in the shelter and 2 other people tenting here - a mix of section hikers and weekenders. I just heard allthis banging and commotion from the shelter - I guess the mice have made an appearance!Now for Paul¢s take on the first day of hiking:5/5/2018 From: 469.9 Damascus, VA to 479.6 Saunders ShelterFor a first day on the trail, this was different than I was expecting.  I think I wasn¢t too surprised by the ups and downs but the rock obstacles on the trail were somewhat unexpected.   I had heard comments in a number of the AT vlogs that people don¢t tend to film the tougher terrain (preferring to video on the flat smooth sections) because you really have to concentrate to avoid tripping on rocks and roots.  I appreciate that better now.  I was down in my sleeping bag at about 1900, but didn¢t get to sleep for another three hours.   I was totally OK with that.  Nice to just relax and watch/listen to the thunder storm roll in.