Date: 2015-05-11
From: Damascus, VA

To: Lost Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: scattered clouds

Today we hiked again, in new shoes. That is, Yoda and I did, Cherokee just has new insoles.We got up early and left for Damascus at 7, to get there about 9. It was interesting to see how much different the town vibe was on Monday morning compared to a hopping Saturday.Our first stop was the coffee shop, conveniently located next to the outfitter where Yoda was going to look at shoes. The weather was beautiful but it promised to be pretty hot later. While Yoda got her shoes sorted, the three of us had bagels at the coffee shop. I had seen that they had bagels and lox and decided that would be a great start to the hiking day. Cherokee agreed but after he had ordered, they told me there wasn't enough lox for another order. Bummer! I decided to go back to my original biscuit plan and didn't order anything. But! When they brought out Cherokee's bagel, they said they had enough for a half bagel and did I want that? I did! So I did get my bagel and lox after all. I thought that that was very nice of them and it was a great version too.Then it was to the post office to ship home some minor things, the outfitter to get freeze dried dinners and Cowboys to get those biscuits to carry out for lunch. We ran into Cap and Star Crunch (of Traveling Circus fame) and I also briefly chatted with HVAC and Lorax, who I hadn't seen since Hot Springs, and with Two Step.But finally there was nothing for it but to put on the packs and get going. My food bag is so big I had to put my crocs on the outside. It will only be for a couple of days though.Naturally the trail started with a climb, and before we were a mile in, I was dripping with sweat. But later it evened out a bit and we even got a little break on the Virginia Creeper Trail (which is a rail-to-trail and therefore flat) because of a detour due to a washed out bridge.None of us were very hungry so lunch wasn't till the first shelter at 8 miles, at three o'clock. It was a beautiful spot but the gnats were ferocious. We decided to go 6.4 more miles to the next shelter and then see if we wanted to stay or go another couple of miles to a tent site.I'm sorry to report that despite the new shoes and definite improvement, my feet are still sore (I think that just happens) and the next few miles seemed to go very slowly. For a fairly brief section, the AT and VCT are the same and it's a wide gravel path. I thought I heard something and turned around. There was nobody and no animals or anything like that, but there was a rapidly approaching very dark sky. I was still walking in the sun though. I had heard rumbling in the distance for a while, but with blue skies and birds chirping, it didn't seem very imminent. Eventually it did catch up with me (you can't out walk a thunderstorm apparently) and the skies opened just as I decided to put on my rain suit. I'm glad I did because it was a deluge that lasted long enough to completely soak me if I hadn't. During this time it was as dark as if it were dusk, but I never saw lightning so I wasn't too worried. There was plenty of thunder but nothing very violent. It seems I was walking towards lighter skies when the trail turned, seemingly following the rain. Hmph. In the end, I got to the shelter where Yoda was already waiting and because it was 7pm already, we made the executive decision to stay without waiting for Cherokee's vote. It was still raining (now fairly lightly but you still get wet if you stay in it long enough!) when I set up my tent.I started hors d'oeuvres in my tent but moved outside when the rain stopped and we all basically had 'lekkere hapjes' (translates to 'tasty bites') for dinner. I managed to use up a couple of heavy things from the food bag, so hopefully the pack will feel lighter tomorrow.It was a late evening (it's 9:37 now!) but we'll still try to get up early to beat the heat. The forecast is for good weather through Thursday, then rain on Friday. Of course we were surprised by today's thunderstorm, so who knows what Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?