Date: 2009-05-14
From: Virginia Creeper Trail near Damascus, VA

To: Tent City, Damascus, VA
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: overcast clouds

Camp Dizzy BatWe spent two nights on Whitetop Mountain with an occasional foray into town for a meal or exploring the nearby wilderness. Each morning we awoke and walked up to the road to see full 15 passenger vans pulling trailers of bikes and people up to the Creeper Trail and empty vans and trailers heading back down the mountain. The vans passed back and forth all day. On Thursday morning we got up early and headed into Damscus because it was the first day we could get into Tent City, the "city" that grows out of the thousands of hikers that come for Trail Days. We wanted to snag a good spot. It was located on an old fair grounds and included four large open areas and many more areas along the creek in the secluded woods around. By the end of the festival, it would serve as home to thousands of tents for the 10,000 odd festival goers. There were also serveral vendors setting up at the same time who provided free gear repair for thru-hikers (much needed), although much of the vendors set up in the city park where the main action was for Trail Days, about a half-mile away. Ten Sticks, Giggles, Liz and I found a nice area by the creek back in the woods to set up. It already had a fire pit and plenty of fire wood around and tons of shade. Most people set up in a large grassy field with no shade at all in blaring sun. Before long, Ezra (Tapeworm), Heather, Odin, BJ Charlie, Junior, Muscles, Father Time, and others set up in our area as well. As we were getting settled, some festival organizers came by and asked what we name our area so that other hikers could track down our space. After a short debate, we decided "Camp Your Mom" was a good fit because of our constant running "your mom" jokes in our crew. After setting up camp, we headed into town, about a mile walk from Tent City. The festival provided a regular shuttle but it wasn't scheduled to start until Friday. Liz and I stopped by the local outfitters to look into getting a bug net for our Black Diamond Megabug Tee-pee tent. When we bought it at Neel's Gap, Alpine had told us that the net would probably be around $75 and 7-8 ounces of added weight. So we were pretty dismayed, to say the least, to find it cost $250 and weighed 3 pounds. We looked into other options but there was nothing else that would fit the design of our unique tent unless we got two individual bug nets which would've been a big hassle. So we decided to wait and see if some of the Trail Days' vendors might have something that would work. Pepper, a salesperson at the Sundog Outfitter, was incredibly helpful and understanding of our frustration. So we promised that we'd return later that weekend if we didn't find something at the fest.After the outfitters, we stopped by the hiker-friendly First Baptist Church that was hosting a series of incredibly generous hiker feeds. All day they were having eating contests - so I entered the cake eating contest to see if my hiker appetite was up to the challenge. I figured that with free cake on the line - it was the text book definition of a win-win situation. Giggles got in on the action too. Despite giving it my best effort and with a beard full of blue icing, I came in 4th place. I walked away empty handed but with a massive sugar high. When we got back to Tent City that afternoon, it had already begun to fill up even though the Trail Days didn't start until the next day. We hung out some but just to kill time before we hit up the famous annual home cooked hiker feast at First Baptist. This was one of the largest buffets I've ever seen, with 35-40 different dishes, all home cooked and handed out by volunteers from the church. They must have fed 1000 hikers that night. Serious Trail Magic. The folks at Tent City didn't waste any time starting the weekend party. BJ Charlie - trying to rename himself "Tech Support" instead but it just wasn't sticking - had been carrying around a plastic wiffle ball bat on the trail that he picked up at WalMart. The bat was for a game called Dizzy Bat that involves chugging a beer, then spinning around with your forehead on a bat for as long as it took you to chug the beer, and then trying to remain standing long enough to hit the can you drank when pitched at you. The game caught on like wildfire. Everybody in our camp had had at least one round at the plate and it was still early. Our camp started to draw a huge crowd who came to see what all the loud counting and laughing was all about. At one point, we turned our headlamps toward a crowd of people watching our Dizzy Bat games to see 60 - 70 people watching and cheering, including the police officers patrolling Tent City. BJ Charlie egged on the crowd to come in and have a turn, and the game soon became a requirement for entry into our camp. That night we renamed our area Camp Dizzy Bat. Our game was the talk of the town the next day. Liz received her trail name that night. At first hesitant to join in the game, she finally stepped up to the plate and cracked open a Coors Light to chug. Halfway though 22 spins, she vomited, got right back up to finish her spins, hit the pitched can and promptly vomited again. She was officially the queen of Dizzy Bat and after nearly two months on the trail, finally had a Trail Name.