Date: 2006-04-26
From: Damascus, VA

To: Saunders Shelter
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: light rain

Nice day with a great finish. Woke up at The Place with every intention of being out of Damascus by noon. But every town stop smashes my best intentions.I started off with an all business attitude. Back to the Dairy King for breakfast. Pulled Parkay along with me. The place was hopping with hikers. The 2 women running the place at their customary speed so the line was long and people with big hiker appetites were waiting as politely as they could. Someone got the old juke box with real singles playing Bob Seager and the like. I had my bag of smelly laundry at the table with me. I only washed clothes 2 days ago but it had been humid and raining on and off so everything was pretty ripe. Crossed the street to the laundromat which had 2 more juke boxes. Stood outside in the drizzle to use the pay phone. Finally got a call through to hope. Damn, sounds like she's so ready to have that baby. All the nieces are excited. Haley's going down with Diana and Betty Ann for the big day. Emily and Mark are visiting a week later. Elle's asking daily when all these people are arriving. Stinky Uncle Boulder will arrive at some undetermined date in June. Whenever I get to Port Clinton.Laundromat to library to check journal and email. Sent messages to 42. The word up the grapevine is she has shin splints now and is laid up at Kincora. Guess I missed her by a day. Now I'm opening up the gap again. She sent a Cadbury bar up the line to me. I'll have to return the greeting.Business and intentions started to fall apart back at The Place. Got into a conversation about running and then climbing with a few guys. One of them went to Plymouth State so a 1/2 hour of Rumney talk followed. To everyone else's confusion we went on and on about Hinterlands, Jimmy Cliff, the Lucky Dog, etc. By then a zero day looked pretty good. I was only shaken from sweet lethargy when Caboose came in off the trail and said there was a big loud group of young uns coming right up behind. With fears of a Miss Janet replay I threw my pack together said see-ya-laters and headed out the door around 5:00. With 9 miles to Saunders Shelter I knew I'd be finishing in the dark. According to Wingfoot it looked like a lot of uphill. No matter. Tough as nails these days. Of course I was whining about it in my head but squelched that patr of me as quickly as possible.The first few miles were in the rain. I canceled the idea of just throwing my tent up near any fire ring on the trail. Besides, these days 9 miles is pretty close to nothing and I hate cancelling out big mileage days with zeros or nearos.Glad I kept on. The rain cleared as evening set in. It was still humid but with a nice breeze. Whole trail was an incline but a gentle one with lots of switchbacks. Sumo came up behind me and we leap frogged most of the way. He'd jumped ship at The Place and a few minutes after I did.As it got darker we could see lights from the town below and mist rising off a waterfall ahead.I navigated up the darkening trail by watching for white rocks and stretches of eroding sand. The night time light was enough to get me to the top. Sumo was trying to find the trail down to the shelter. The only time in 9 miles either of us lit a headlamp. Beautiful hike we both agreed. There are so many ways to see and do the trail.Heavy thunderstorms arrive just a I was falling asleep in the shelter.