Date: 2016-05-12
From: Erwin TN

To: Damascus
Miles today: 84.0
Weather: clear sky

Monday ¢ May 9 ¢ Uncle Johnny¢s through Thursday May 12 Damascus For Trail Days ¢ 84 milesIn order to make trail days I needed to both make a couple of big days and also plan to hitch for part of the distance of 113 miles in four days. The plan was to hike to Lake Watauga Shook Picnic Area then hitch the last 40 miles into Damascus on Thursday. After Trail Days I intent to hitch back to the lake to complete the miles and get back into Damascus the following Tuesday.While at Uncle Johnny¢s several interesting developments occurred.Several of us met in Erwin for dinner Saturday night at a local Mexican place that had great food. I saw Ghostrider that I have not seen since Standing Bear. Ghost rider is a former Marine Officer and commander. He is well built in his thirties with a great level of humility and common sense. He told me that during the horrible weather the week prior that he took a fall and face plant into the ground. He got a bruise on his hand and head from the fall. After he got down a woman stopped to help him and he must have fallen in love as that is all he talked about. Apparently she is a nurse in Asheville and gave him her name but he was too shy to tell her that he had a hearing loss and did not ask her to repeat it. Now three days later he is desperate to find her. Finally socks came to the rescue as she lives close by and found who she was. I have not seen Ghost Rider since but being a tough minded marine I have no doubt he will find her. I joked that I expected an invitation.Vagabundo, the Virginia retired State Trooper arrived at Johnny¢s with bad news that an MRI revealed he has been hiking since Blood Mountain with two fractures in his leg and his trip is over. DQ arrived visibly shaken telling us a story that a man pretending to be a trail angel approached her as she climbed to Big Bald. She refused to state his exact words as she indicated they were too vulgar for her to repeat but that he chased her with the intent of sexually assulting her. DQ had pulled out her weapon, a 9 mm gun during this and ran down the trail to the hostel. About an hour bandito came in and wanted to after him but we talked him out of that.Not far behind comes in Heavy D, with a rattle snake he just caught and killed just short of the hostel. Several of the younger hikers including Brains, Pinky and Socks volunteered to work for a room and did a great job so the local maintenance man decided to cook them a fantastic dinner including cooking the snake. Bandito kept the skin to cover the hiking pole he was making.For dinner on Sunday we all decided to join DQ, Bandito and their mother that drove in to pick them up so DQ could go to her college graduation ceremony. After we ate we all wished them well hoping to see them both on the trail in a couple of weeks.I decided to collect firewood so we could have a campfire. The evening was perfect with clear skies and warm temps. About 30 people gathered around for the evening. After a while I began talking with Daniel, the individual who seems to love Riley and I know Riley loves him. Every time they see each other they wrestle for about twenty minutes and Riley has learned to be gentle especially when clamping down on Daniel¢s arms and hands. After a while Riley would be exhausted and literally fall asleep next to Daniel rather than coming back to me. Daniel would then just sit there and rub Riley.I met Daniel for the first time several weeks back around Max Patch. Daniel is a Native American who just turned 25 the week prior. A strong hiker and strong person, he well built and looks more like a linebacker. One of his favorite things is to sleep cowboy style at night so he can see the stars. As I talked with him around the campfire I sensed he is carrying a heavy emotional burden. He is very caring, considerate and very well in tune with himself especially after he told me about his upbringing including a mother addicted to heroin, etc. He apparently grew up in a terrible environment for any child yet somehow he was always positive and level headed. I could tell by his words that he had a lot of self doubt about himself, doubt that was unfounded. Being a military commander I saw many kids far less grounded and mature as him yet he seemed to not be able to see that in himself. I finally turned to him and told him that he should be proud of how good he is and how well he has come through this past. I went on to tell him that I would have been honored to have someone like him in my unit and to never let go of his dreams. He was silent and I assumed he had tuned me out so I looked over and in the glimmer of the campfire I could see tears running down his cheek. He turned and smiled as he left the campfire. After he left I reflected how many of us had come from dysfunctional families, yet here was an individual that used his past as a springboard to being a better person. I knew that someday he would find himself and seeing how he loved Riley that he would also be a great parent and a great person.I wondered if I was suppose to be on this trip for him, but quickly decided against. Both my spiritual and scientific beliefs do not support that we have specific destinies. Instead I believe that life always provides us opportunities and that a god does not interfere but rather have given us the skills to decide if and how we approach opportunities that are in front of us. I went to bed that night hoping that somehow I gave Daniel hope because I know his determination will take him places he never imagined as long as he never gave up. I will always wonder how Daniel grows and will always imagine a great life for him that he deserves.The next morning Riley and I are off to get to Shook Park. I got there Wednesday late in the day only to again see trail angels set up next to the beach with food and drinks. Even Riley got hotdogs and treats. There were about 12 hikers there. The next five miles were closed to any camping because of bears and required us to hike through without stopping. Wednesday was a big day for Riley and I and I did not have the energy to go further so I was planning to simply camp out next to the water as did several other hikers. Around 7pm a park ranger came up to let us know that the county ran the park and that the sheriff would run us out of we camped there. After she left we bantered on what to do with several of us including myself planning to stealth camp without the sheriff seeing us. We sat on a park picnic table when another hiker came in with a 12 pack of beer. We talked as it got dark waiting to set up tents after sunset. Next to us were teenagers ¢ 2 boys and 2 girls ¢ acting as you would expect on a beach with daddy¢s car. One decided to drive on the beach and ran his undercarriage into the ground and got stuck. His friends helped and they finally got the car unstuck. We then began to clap and laugh at them. Another hiker brought up a radar shot on his phone only to see a monster thunderstorm barreling down on us. WE decided we had no choice and to take a chance with the sheriff. WE grabbed out gear and headed for the park pavilion just in time as the rain began and lighting all around. Around 9 pm the sheriff arrived in the park and saw eight of us sitting on benches under cover. He just waived then drove further down. About a minute later the kids drove out with the sheriff right behind. As he passed he just waived again. About an hour later a pickup truck with two huge monster confederate flags hanging on the back bumpers only to be followed right behind by the sheriff. Again as he passed he simply waved to us. Again about a minute later out came the truck with the sheriff right behind and again he just waived. He had no intent of running us off and we appreciated his understanding as the storm continued into the night.For me this was a special evening as I never just sat around with seven other guys I never knew before, yet we all seemed like we knew each other for years exchanging stories and lies like guys do. Not one bad word spoken, only fun and bantering until we got out our sleeping gear, found a dry spot under the roof and went to sleep.We were awoken the next morning around 7am when again trail angels arrived to cook us breakfast of eggs and pancakes. Several of the hikers left to finish hiking into Damascus. Cool Hand apparently came in after midnight and had the same plan as I so we hiked to the main road and got a ride all the way into Damascus.