Date: 2009-05-12
From: Damascus VA 

To: Pond/ Campsite 
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: overcast clouds

With our "Marathon" hike behind us Bark and I decided to take it easy for most of the morning. We woke up pretty early, and as usual, we woke up hungry. We weren't sure what was open at 7am in Damascus, but to our good fortune we ran into Kizmit who was just returning from Cowboys where she found hot coffee and breakfast. We made our way down the short section of the AT, that runs right down the sidewalk, and we made our way to Cowboys. The sign outside advertised their "Famous Blueberry Pancakes." We didn't want to miss out on a Damascus treasure so we ordered our pancakes and had a seat. A few more hikers slowly filtered through the restaraunt as we got ready to leave. We had more errands we wanted to take care of before we hiked today. We stopped at our tent to pick up and pack up a few things and then made our way to the Post Office to pick up some packages. It's been a much anticipated wait, but we finally received our delicious fudge (thanks Barbara!) and some wonderful homemade cookies and other treats (thanks Carolyn!). It is always a sweet surprise to receive cards and notes from friends back home and to hear how things are going outside of the trail. It is easy to get wrapped up in life out here and to begin to miss the day-to-day "going on's" of friends who are far away. Well, we consolidated a few boxes and headed back to The Place (hostel) to share our goodies with a few hiker friends. Chatter, Denali, Cas and Gorgonzola were all in a room upstairs and were very excited to see our bags of cookies and containers of fudge! We had so much and could not eat it all ourselves, besides, what hiker isn't longing for homemade sweets? We left a few snacks for the group and then came outside to our tent to enjoy some sugar ourselves. Hatchet and Hold Out joined us and we all had a piece of fudge together. As Hold Out was biting her fudge, she all of a sudden spit out a piece of metal! We had no idea what it could have been and we immediately made sure her teeth were ok. After ruling out a few possibilities of something sneaking into the batch of fudge we finally realized it was her filling! We felt so bad and knew she would have to have it fixed pretty quickly. Needless to say, she loved the fudge, but the missing filling was quite a downer for her day. After sharing the wealth of our packages we knew it was time to pack up and hit the trail if we wanted to get very far, but first we wanted to have a farewell lunch with Kizmit. Bark has been craving Subway for the past several weeks, but we have not been in a town where one was available. Finally, right here in Damascus Bark got his wish. We loaded up everything and walked down the AT (sidewalk) and right into Subway. We had a great conversation with Kizmit, then said goodbye as we headed off down the trail with very full stomachs. The A.T. heads out of Damascus by first following a short section of the Virginia Creeper Trail. We walked a little ways until we saw the ever so familiar white blaze across the street and then the steep ascent of wooden steps heading back into the woods. I would be lying if we said it was easy to leave this town. Even though we know we are only headed out for a couple of days and then returning, we also knew several other hikers would be coming into town to set up camp for the next several days. We just didn't want to miss any of the action I guess. With all of that said, our hike could not have been better. We had a challenging climb with many switchbacks, but overall it was wonderful. The trail followed a loud river below which made for beautiful views through the now green and leafy trees. With only a few miles left to our planned campsite we saw a familiar face up ahead. It was Flatlander! We were so excited to see him as it has been almost 2 weeks since we last saw our old hiking companion. Turns out Otter was only a few minutes behind him too. It was such a bonus to an already great day. We spent a while catching up and hanging out right there on the trail. They were headed Southbound to the next shelter and so we crossed paths, but agreed to meet up and spend some time together in Damascus during the festival. We hiked on and about an hour and half later we were setting up our tent around Freebird, Dr. Bob and Red Shoes. I visited the water source to get a little water for boiling and Bark began to set up our tent. When he was finished he joined me up the hill for dinner. While he was setting up, he realized we were missing the cross bar for our tent. It would have been a much bigger problem had we been facing a rainy night. The crossbar helps our rainfly to stay out and away from the netting of our tent. Since we knew there was no rain in the forecast (or at least we hoped) we opted to have a saggy tent and sleep with a clear view of the stars! I said a little prayer for no rain...