Date: 2005-05-06
From: Iron Mountain Shelter

To: Damascus, Virginia
Miles today: 25.9
Weather: broken clouds

I got up at 6 o'clock and started packing. OC1 was pitched close by, he was also getting ready. We were both ready to walk by 6:45. While he was in his tarp last night, I kind of joked with him. I said, "Vern we can be in Damascus, eating a cheeseburger by 5 o'clock tomorrow afternoon" This morning, he took me seriously, he said he wanted to go into town.We started walking at 6:45 at a real fast clip. I started ahead of him and basically kept the pace. We got into the first shelter, Double Springs Shelter, at 9 o'clock, which was 8 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes. We were blazing the Trail.When we got to that shelter, Lion King was there. I recognized him right away, even though I had never met before.   I had seen parts of his video online, 'Walking With Freedom', a documentary of walking the AT he made in 2003.We hung out and talked to him for a few minutes, ate some breakfast, and hit the Trail again. Once again, I hauled ass in front of Vern. He was always right behind me. We hit the second shelter, Abingdon Gap Shelter, which is also 8 miles. Now we had covered 16 miles. We walked into that one right at noontime. When we got there, HazySonic and his wife Firefly were already there. They asked me if I knew who owned this compression bag they found on the table. It was Patch's Hubba Hubba tent. Apparently, he has taken his pack apart and left his tent on the table and took off. Hazy said he would carry it in. Vern and I sat there and ate. I was actually feeling a little low on energy, so I went ahead and cooked some sweet and sour pork and loaded it up with olive oil and sunflower seeds to add in some calories.We sat until one o'clock eating and talking. HazySonic reminded me that locals in the towns don't take too kindly to hikers. Damascus and a few other towns are exceptions. In general, they look at us as 'Hiker Trash'. It's kind of funny because we do come into town smelling bad and looking like crap. Alot of the guys make pacts that they do not shave until they get to Maine. By the time we get to Damascus, we tend to look questionable. Interestingly, despite what we look like, HazySonic is a record producer, Albert (EasyGoer) is a doctor, FreeRadical is a chemist. I met a guy named Doc this morning for breakfast, who is a psychiatrist in Maine. We have an active Wing Commander for the US Air Force who is hiking the Trail. I haven't met him yet, but I heard about him. Alot of people from all walks of life hike this Trail. Two sitting US Supreme Court Justices are past through hikers. I was sitting with Doc this morning at breakfast and we talked about how sometimes money doesn't mean anything. People don't understand when I tell them that being out here is really what living is all about. It may be hard and it may be dirty, but I get up when I want to, do what I want to do, stay as long as I want to, and generally, my needs are taken care of. As far as I'm concerned, that's what living is all about.When I walked into town, I saw Patch and walked up to him. I asked "Patch, what does my name stand for?" He said, "Sh*t, What Did I Forget Today?" And I said, "Your Hubba Hubba". I guess it was alot funnier in real life. So, Vern and I started walking at one o'clock again. It was only 10 miles into Damascus. It was pretty forgiving territory. There's still ups and downs, which is pretty rough for the average person, but by the time you've gotten to this point through hiking, it's pretty good stuff to walk through. About 4 miles out of town, I thought I had left Vern far behind, but I turned around and there he was, running at me, he passed me up and I took off behind him, keeping up, and we just flew. We hit the pavement at 3:50. Once again, that was 2 hours and 15 minutes for 10 miles. We walked into town together through the park. When we hit Main Street, Vern took off to the post office to see about his mail drop. I took off to the outfitter because I had 3 separate boxes shipping in. We met back up again and found out there was no room at Dave's place, which is the hostel directly across the street from Mt. Roger's Outfitters. So, we walked down to the hostel at the church which is called 'The Place'. We grabbed a couple of bunks in there. Damascus is just packed with hikers. There must be hundreds of them rolling around here right now, most of whom I have met at one point or another. Trail Days is next weekend and some of them are already set up and have decided that they will be staying here the rest of the week. I personally don't want to be at Trail Days, I feel that it's going to hurt my hiking to be off that much. We went back to The Place, got bunks and settled in there. I went back to the Outfitters' because I have alot of gear changes I want to make. The first is my pack, which I have worked so long on. I decided that I'm not too happy with it. I have had it for a long time and the suspension appears to be breaking down. It's kind of hitting my butt as I walk uphill, and causing me to use alot of extra energy. I ended up switching over to a ULA P2 pack. Also I have been having trouble with my cookware and stove. The Vargo stove sucks, it's been poorly designed and it doesn't function the way it's supposed to. The pot that I have been using is tall and skinny and doesn't seem to absorb heat as well as a shallow, wide pot does. I went ahead and got another one of those. I got another pair of gloves because I had left my good pair in my truck in Asheville. I also got another insulating hat. The one I have goes down over my eyes when I sleep with it. It's a good hat, but, it's just getting too annoying to keep pulling it up over my eyes. After I was done, I went down to the Old Mill Restaurant. Rumor was spreading around with the hikers that they had $1 Budweiser drafts from 4 to 7. Hikers were piled up in there trying to drink them dry, which we eventually did. I went back again to the Old Mill later with Vern and had the seafood buffet, which was excellent! Who ever cooks at the Old Mill is truly a great cook. It was well worth the $18 price. I had 3 heaping platefuls of everything and so did Vern. He's on a kick now to get more nutrition.I back to the bar again for a while and sat with a couple of permanent Trail residents. One of them was Pirate, who I saw in 2003. Apparently they are on the Trail non-stop. After that, I ran down to the hostel at about 9 o'clock. Patch was there, and had organized another Texas Hold 'Em card game. He's a serious poker addict! I watched them for a while and then I went back to play with my gear some more. I went to bed by 11 0'clock.