Date: 2016-05-16
From: Trail Days

To: Beauty Spot (12 miles from Erwin, TN)
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: broken clouds

5/15 Day Thirty ?Don't send your winter gear home until after Damascus, that is what all the former hikers say, and for good reason... It's cold!!! Tonight I am about 12 miles out of Erwin, TN at 4,300 feet and I will promise you, it will be in the 30s! But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to wrap up Trail Days.Trail Days in Damascus was a very good experience. The entire concept is sureal as if both the towns of Mayberry and the Footloose town co-hosted a Rainbow Family Gathering (except hikers are generally dirtier than Rainbow folk). Damascus does their best keeping the event PG rated (within town) with exception to Tent City (conveniently located at the edge of town below the baseball fields in the woods). For a measly 5 bucks one has access to Tent City for the run. Damascus may host Trail Days, but the party happens in Tent City.But it's not a free for all! "Step out of line and the Man will come take you away". In this case the Man is the Damascus PD. And to show their seriousness (and also to get to once a year wear their "SWAT like" tactical gear purchased (I assume) with tax payers dollars), the boys monitor the shenanigans of Tent City almost as if there was a concern "the hikers" might revolt if left unwatched. I one point I saw a group of about 10 cops that looked like they just received a tip ISIS set up camp. All kidding aside the town and the cops were very tolerating of the event and within Tent City one could take it to many different levels of wackiness. The hi-light for me was not the hiking gear vendors or the tepid PBRs I drank in Tent City, no. It was the reunion of so many hikers that I have met in the short time as I hiked.It would take too long to mention everyone I saw there as well as new friends I met there. It was really exciting walking around seeing hikers that I may not have seen since my first night hiking (Huckleberry who I met on Day One and have not seen him since) and of course former hiking partner (Giant). Of course I saw Smoke (who also hiked with Giant and I earlier on). There was Trek, Feel Good, Magic Man, Pending, OSHA, Shon, Alex, Foxtrot, Sundog and many others. One surprise (or maybe not as he seem to "be in it" for Trail Days) was Ranger who came off his Franklin, TN hiatus to not only do up Trail Days big, but also secure the local source for moonshine.Also there was Squidward, Game of Thrones (GOT), Copper, Pancake, Mogley, Keg Leg, Sassy, Jules, Casey Jones, J, Peril, Hula Bear and her boyfriend (who bailed on his PCT hike to join her). Even Farmer Luke and Easy took a break from there marathon hikes seemed to be enjoying a few beers. I like Luke and Easy and Trail Days was bitter sweet as it is unlikely I will see these young fast moving cats again. There was some no shows including the Ultra Light brothers Ghost and Holy Diver as well as Mozy.One highlight was spotting Special K from a shuttle bus (Tent City to Downtown). I asked the shuttle driver to stop and I got off and gave her a hug. Her mom pulled me aside later on Saturday and told me it meant a lot to Special K that I stopped the bus in the middle of the road to say hi. I also found out she is now a day ahead of us here in TN!   We should catch up with her in a few days.I fm going to bed. Definately a "full mummy" night. Full mummy being where my bag is 100% zipped up. A very nice trail angel named Cindi Lauper gave us a ride from Damascus back to Erwin this morning. She was kind enough to buy us our all you can eat buffet at Shoneys (which was actually really good) and then haul our packs up trail so we could ease back into hiking via slack packing. Let's call the 12 miles the post Trail Days get back to the trail hike.It's cold, good night!