Date: 2008-05-23
From: Damascus

To: Back to Damascus
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Owl had a rough night. She wasn't able to keep any water down throughout the night. Then the bug progressed into those other nasty things we don't like to talk about. By morning she really looked drained. It's definitely time to execute the emergency plan.After several phone calls to Greg, Tigger, Granny and Poppop we worked out a plan. My Dad (Poppop) is on his way home from Florida today and will change his route a bit to swing by Damascus to pick us up. He'll take us home to Kentucky and drop us at Granny's house (Greg's parents). Who will then on Sunday, assuming Owl is fully recovered, drive us down to Kencora Hostel where we will meet back up with Tigger, Soaring and Roo.After working all that out I thought, wouldn't it have been simpler just to stay at Damascus and get a shuttle down to Kencora. But Lydia is thrilled about the idea of getting to see her grandparents at least for a day.My two concerns... I've read in other journals how hard it is to get back into the trail when you take a trip home. Of course this isn't exactly going home, but in a way it is. Maybe just a day won't be too distracting.Second is the location of our return. I was really looking forward to hiking through the Laurel Falls area. Can we get back in time on Sunday to hike from Hampton through Laurel Falls to Dennis Cove? I don't know. If not we will definitely be working a make up hike in this summer between our Georgia finish and Maine start.AND there will definitely be a make up hike out of Damascus. We only got about a mile up the hill. We have 2.8 miles left to finish Virginia. Just 2.8! That would really bother me not to get back here and hike those miles.Meanwhile... as Owl felt up to it we started packing up. She did manage to eat half of a banana and kept it down. We took it slow and easy. As we were approaching Damascus we met a couple carrying trail magic up the trail. It was a box full of Gatorade. Hmmm.. just what Owl needed... if she could keep it down. I actually had her drinking Propel yesterday, but she didn't like the strawberry-kiwi flavor and didn't get much down. This time she was able to finish the Gatorade.We decided our first stop would be the laundry. The night had been rough on sleeping bags and bandanas... again, you don't want to know. We decided a clean fresh start would be good.That's where we are now...washing all our clothes. Even though we don't have many clothes it takes awhile to wash them all because it has to be done in shifts... wash what we're wearing, then wearing what we washed. After several trail town laundries we are getting the knack of it.We heard from a NOBO hiker a few days ago that there are public showers available in Damascus. I thought that was just at FBC during Trail Days, but she said no, and told us where to find them. If we can, that will be our next stop. It would be nice to be picked up later all clean. Then if all goes well Dad will pick us up at 7:00 at the gazebo in the park. Hopefully before then I'll convince Owl to eat something.This is certainly an adventure! Thanks for following along.Rabbit, Owl and RooJoshua 1:9