Date: 2008-04-28
From: Braemar Castle Hostel in Hampton, TN

To: Abingdon Shelter
Miles today: 31.3
Weather: drizzle

I don't have a paper entry for this day yet (you'll see why soon), so I'll just wing it on here.Today was a huge mileage day. Here's what happened. I got on the trail at about 8:00am (Sutton drove me to the trail) then saw the brothers from Seattle and Bravefoot at the first shelter. Love running into those guys. It was raining and when I got to the next shelter I was really wet and really cold. There were a bunch of people there who hadn't even left yet and were just waiting out the rain. I figured - what the hell? And got out my sleeping bag too and joined them. It was a good decision actually, the weather got worse and we just layed there, joking and eating. I'm so glad I stopped to meet them. They are hilarious. They are Pearl and Trainwreck (married couple) and Nest. I love people who have no inhibitions against making fun of strangers right off the bat. I'm not sure who started it first, but I remember near the beginning Pearl sat up, saw my ukulele and said "More like uku-GAY-le!" I'm sorry, but this is the type of humor I love. I was making fun of them because they wanted to do a 33 mile day and it was already getting near 2:00pm.Around this time, we somehow got it into our heads that we were going to WALK TO DAMASCUS, THAT DAY. This is somewhat insane for them, especially at that time, and very insane for me, since I had already done about 9 miles. It would put my total at about 44 miles for the day. So we get psyched up about it and we're like "Oh man...what if we REALLY DID IT?" We get a hilariously late start at about 3:00pm (the weather had mostly cleared) and tear off down the trail. The only reason I was able to get them up this early is I played "Eye of the Tiger" on the ukulele...I love this because the power chords at the beginning of that song sound rediculous on a Hawaiian folk instrument. We stopped for dinner at about 9:00 when it had just gotten completely dark. At this point we still had 18 miles more ahead of us. I had done over 20 already, so I felt like I was done, I couldn't believe I was basically starting my day. So we put on our headlamps and started walking. This was instantly a problem because my headlamp obviously needed new batteries and was too weak to really illuminate the stuff in front of me. I wasn't the only one rolling my ankle and swearing all the time though. Trainwreck started to get dizzy and had to sit down a few times, he said his legs were refusing to work. I was the only one with water (we had cut weight by eating all our food and drinking our water at dinner), but I was sharing because I wasn't all that thirsty. The weather was mostly calm but four about 5 minutes we got hit with a CRAZY storm - lightning, thunder, violent winds, and HAIL. The pieces of ice were flying at us sideways and stinging our faces. It was brutal, but it passed quickly. For some reason we were talking a lot about the old movie The Goonies, and when things got tough, we'd say "GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!" When we arrived at the next shelter at 1:00am, still 10 miles short of Damascus, we knew we could go no further. My feet were being crucified, I had to stop. Trainwreck was definitely done. I think Nest and Pearl may have been able to go on, but we were all thankful to stop. I signed the register "Goonies never say die! - 'The Goonies' (Bones, Trainwreck, Pearl and Nest)."Still, an incredible mileage day for me.