Appalachian Trail Day 44 - Campsite to Damascus, VA - 3 Down, 11 To Go (Mile 464 to Mile 471)

We were all up by 7 am.   I had bizarre dreams about being trapped at work that were so strange, I am thankful I can get up and so I can stop dreaming this nonsense.  The temperature last night was almost too warm for sleeping comfortably and I had to kick off my top quilt several times. Were I not going home, I would send back either my sleeping pad or my underquilt after the Grayson Highlands just north of Damascus. Most hikers send back their colder weather gear before Damascus, but I have hiked enough to know that the Highlands can be brutally cold.  

The sun is shining as we break down camp, and a steady 15 mph breeze makes me shiver and pile on the layers up here on the ridge. I welcome the stiff wind since biting flies won't be able to dive-bomb me today.  I am scratching furiously because I was bombarded last night by black flies.  First, they attacked the back of my legs, face, and neck once we arrived in camp, then, once I donned my leggings they zeroed in on my ankles, on the small bit of skin showing between my socks and my leggings.  I also have several bites on the inside of my wrist, on the area between my long sleeves and fingerless gloves. I rarely feel the suckers when they bite, but the next morning the itching is enough to drive me mad.  I just have to make it to town, where I can buy some calamine lotion.  For now, I grind up some aspirin and apply it topically, which provides a little relief. 

We take very little time to pack up, as we are getting wholly efficient at the process.  I take bites of a Spam single and slug my coffee protein sludge as I shove things into my pack. We sling our packs on our backs and start the short walk to Damascus. My bag is so light this morning that I feel I am wearing a daypack.  I am rather proud of the fact that I planned my food exceptionally well for this section, and I am down to only two food bars and a small packet of almond nut butter.  In fact, I carry so little food that my trash weighs significantly more than my food.  

As we mosey north, I offer to drive Mochi to the Food Rite to resupply and take her out to lunch before we leave, which she accepts.  We are so close to town that we have excellent cell service.  Kodiak texts GG and me.  She somehow made it to Double Spring Shelter where we camped the night before.  She left early and will meet us in Damascus.  GG and I decide to stick around in town until we see Kodiak so we can say our goodbyes before we head home. 

Damascus, considered "The Friendliest Town on The Trail," is famous for its hospitality to hikers, and hosts the AT's (and possibly the world's) biggest trail festival called "Trail Days," which takes place each year on the weekend after Mother's Day.  I have attended many Trail Days in years past, and I absolutely promise it is a fun, wild, decadent, and well-planned weekend that is all about hiking.  

Psychologically, reaching Damascus is a huge milestone for so many reasons. Firstly, just a few miles before town, hikers cross out of Tennessee and into Virginia.  One more state checked off the list!  Secondly, we will be starting the longest state of the entire AT.  Walking through Virginia via the Appalachian Trail will add another 557 miles of wear on a hiker's feet.   The flip side is that once a hiker walks over the state line into West Virginia, they will have walked over 1,000 miles of the trail and be only a handful of miles to the halfway point!

Lastly, the one thing I personally look forward to with each "checked off" section is downloading and opening the new section of maps and waypoints in the Far Out App and then deleting the downloaded section of trail that we just completed.   We have been using the "Northern TN & NC" map since mile 239 at Davenport Gap, which is the first road crossing after Smoky Mountain National Park.   I don't know why the process of changing out the map makes me feel accomplished, but I really enjoy this simple act and makes the progress so concrete.

Three miles pass when I see a sign parallel with the trail. I walk up to it and see I am standing on the TN/VA state line.  I let out a "whoop" of accomplishment and take a couple pictures with one foot in Tennessee before I walk into Virginia.  Three states down and 11 more to go. 

Three states down!

I start the descent into Damascus and an hour later see Mochi waiting at the bottom of the hill as I emerge out of the woods.  We follow the trail to the famous arch at the end of the town park which welcomes hikers to Damascus and we wait for GG so we can all go under it together. When she arrives, we take pictures and walk to pick up my truck (which I am thrilled to see remains safe and sound), and drive over to Food City for Mochi's resupply, then drive to the Damascus Diner where we had an amazing lunch.   GG and Mochi have salads, and I have Nachos.  Maybe this should be my trail name, since that is all I eat when we go into town. 

Our last stop is the outfitters and Family Dollar, which are practically across the street from each other. hit the FD where I buy some calamine lotion for my multiple bug bites.  I am incredulous when I see J-13 outside the Family Dollar, sitting on the ground with his pack.  I didn't recognize him at first, as his face is now unshaven, and he has lost weight.  I can't believe he is here!  I thought he was going to zero for a couple days at Boots Off, but he couldn't stay put and hiked 16- and 14-mile days to get here.  He is limping as he stands up.   I give him a big hug.  We chat for a few minutes, and I offer to give him and Bilge Rat, J's hiking partner, a ride to The Broken Fiddle hostel just up the street. They jump in the back of my truck, and we cruise to the end of town.

J-13 and Bilge Rat check in at the hostel, and GG and I pay for showers.  The Broken Fiddle offers two showers: one interior in the bathroom, and a spacious and newly built outdoor shower.  GG takes the indoor one while I gladly take the outdoor shower.  I will never pass up an outdoor shower in the summertime!  The shower is amazing and possibly the best $5 I spent on this trip.  I even shave my legs for the first time in three weeks! 

We say goodbye to J-13 and wish him a safe and pain-free journey while Mochi works on reorganizing her pack, which now weighs 40 pounds, according to the scale at the hostel (I took a picture, but the digits were unreadable in the pic, so I drew them in).  She only planned to stop in town briefly for her resupply and head out of Damascus this afternoon, getting a few extra miles and saving her money by camping on the trail. Like GG and myself, she doesn't want to miss hiking any portion of the trail, so we drive back down main street to the exact spot where we detoured off the trail earlier to pick up my truck.  I hug her firmly and wish her "Happy Trails."

We saw Mochila and Kodiak our first day of this section back at Allen Gap, and it seems only fitting that we finish this section with them.  Ideally, I would love for all four of us to hang out tonight, sharing stories.  Unfortunately, we will have to take what we can get today.  Now that we see Mochi walking away down the AT, the only one missing is Kodiak.  Within minutes we receive the pings of a text message. She is coming down the hill!  We meet at the arch and take her picture, catch up for a few minutes, then give her one last hug and wave to her as she, too, walks down the street. She has a YouTube channel and takes pictures to include in her Vlog. 

With a sigh and heavy heart, we drive out of Damascus, closing this chapter of our adventure.  At least we can now follow along with J-13, Kodiak, and Mochi via social media.  Hopefully we can meet up with them as they get closer to our home, and we can provide them with some trail magic. 

Over the last 18 days since our walk out of Hot Springs, Tennessee, GG and I hiked 196 miles, and we accomplished over 44 thousand thigh-burning feet of elevation gain.  Conversely, we lost over 45 thousand knee-numbing feet of elevation.  We didn't take one day off, but we did have a few lower-mileage days to rehab our aching feet and legs. We spent the majority of our time at four thousand feet elevation, which is remarkable considering GG and I live at a very low elevation; in fact, my house is just 7 feet above mean tide.  

The most important part of this journey are the friends we met and the memories we made.  A friend of mine says frequently that "a stranger is just a friend you haven't yet met," and nowhere is this more evident than on the Appalachian Trail.  

Thank you for following along and joining me on this adventure! 

Today's Stats: 7 miles, 600 feet gain, 2200 feet loss

Trail Stats: 471 miles, 110,000 feet of gain

Appalachian Trail Day 43 - Double Spring Shelter to Campsite - Very Beary (Mile 452.5 to Mile 464)

 I slept fitfully last night, probably because I kept having dreams of something crashing on top of me while in my hammock.  I was surprisingly comfortable with my legs elevated.  My legs feel better from it this morning: the dependent edema from hiking is a constant out here.   For the last hour of sleep, every time I would think I needed to get up I would close my eyes and go back into a dream.  GG wakes me up by asking me to come get the food bag out of the tree, because it's stuck.  I ask if there is anyone awake at the shelter who can help, because I'm not ready to get up. She replies they are still sleeping, so I roll out of my hammock and rub the sleep from my eyes. 

I trudge up the hill to the shelter and GG calls down "it's okay, Mochi is up, and she is helping me."  We started calling Mochila by the shorter moniker of Mochi.

I grumpily reply, "I am going back to bed," but I don't.  I realize I need to get moving.  I pack quickly and walk up to the shelter and join GG and Mochi at the picnic table where I drink a protein and coffee shake. 

We are on the trail together at 8:15 am. The hike is absolutely gorgeous, and the three and half miles to the next road pass very quickly.  I reach Low Gap (not to be confused with another Low Gap 130 miles back) shortly before GG and Mochi and stop at a large cement picnic table next to the road to enjoy a snack while I wait for them, since sitting at a table to eat is a luxury out here. The peace is broken by a large group of motorcycles roaring by.  I realize today is Saturday and with the beautiful weather, lots of people will be out taking a drive through the mountains today.  

They arrive 15 minutes later, and I load up my pack.  We hike together for a little while, then decide to meet at the next shelter, which is only a few miles farther up the trail, for lunch.  I spend the next hour enjoying being in nature with no sound other than the wind in the trees, the birds singing, and the buzzing of bees and flies. 

I arrive at the McQueens Knob Shelter within minutes of Mochi.  Built in the 1930's, the McQueens Knob is one of the oldest shelters on the Appalachian Trail.  Also known as the "Holiday Inn," this isn't a proper AT shelter for sleeping but rather serves an emergency shelter only, as it's really small: only room for three people laying down or more if sitting.  Furthermore, it lacks chinking between the logs making up the walls, which means the shelter is permeable to rain, wind, and snow, so why it's considered an emergency shelter at all is a little confounding.  Moreover, the Abingdon Shelter is only one mile further to the north, and with the road 3.5 miles the opposite direction, I don't know why anyone would elect to stay here. 

While we wait for GG to arrive, I survey the numerous new blackfly bites spread over my legs.  The ground in front of the shelter is covered in jewelweed and Plantago, and I chew several leaves and slap the poultice on my bites.  Once GG appears, we enjoy a leisurely lunch in front of the shelter before heading further north.  The temperature cools enough for me to stop and don my long-sleeved shirt.  

There is no water here, and no water after Abingdon Shelter, so we plan to stop at the shelter and filter water there then continue on until we find a suitable campsite. GG and I hike together for the 30 minutes to Abingdon.  We both feel melancholy, since this is the last full day of this section.  We have been hiking for 19 days without one day off.  As ever, we are excited about going home and seeing our family and enjoying the creature comforts, but we will miss our friends and the rhythm of trail life. 

Abingdon Shelter

We arrive at Abingdon Shelter and shed our packs and pull out our water filters and bladders so we can filter enough water for camp tonight and in the morning.  Unfortunately, the app describes the water source as "0.2 miles steeply downhill," and since the app tends to gloss over the descriptions, we know it will be a hike.  Numerous daytime bear encounters have been reported here recently, so we are on guard.  We don't want to hike an extra half mile down and back up with our packs, so we decide to take turns getting water while the other stays with our packs at the shelter, guarding them against a bear incursion.  It is quite the trek down and back up again, and although we just had lunch, we decide to cook up our dinner and eat our big meal now, so we have less to carry to camp.   With the time it takes for water filtering and then eating dinner, we are almost an hour and half before we are back on trail.  

Leaving the shelter, we walk along a nice and relatively level ridge.  We stay together and Mochi is so much fun to talk to.  She has a podcast called "Hiking with Effie," the name of her dog and also a character from The Hunger Games.  She regales us with stories, and it takes my mind off my full aching belly.  

We step over the occasional pile of old, dried bear scat as we walk.  Very soon we see the piles increase in frequency and they look decidedly fresher.  Perhaps I was getting paranoid, but a couple of the piles looked like they may have come from a rather large animal.  We have now seen seven piles in the last half mile.  Bear corn on the edge of the trail has been ripped out by the roots and rocks have been turned over in a bruin's quest for food.  An anthill was recently shredded to pieces, the claw marks visible in the soft soil and ants are running every which way.  Bears love to eat bugs, and nothing says dinner to a bear like a big anthill. 

We decide to stay closer together because the afternoon was giving way to evening, and the likelihood of a bear encounter is pretty high.  I am taking a picture of a very fresh pile next to my foot for scale when I hear Mochi yell from just ahead.  Of course she was out of sight, around a bend just in front of me.  GG and I round the bend to see her sitting on a rock.  She said the bear was digging in the middle of the trail when she came around the corner.  Thankfully it was appropriately scared of humans and ran off without a fuss. 

We were going to camp here tonight, but we decide prudently to walk farther down the trail.   About one mile further we walk by a lovely, cleared spot next to the trail and we get set up just as some raindrops start to splash us. The rain ceases after a few minutes, so we sit on rocks around the cold firepit and chat until the rain starts again in earnest. We are excited because we are only 6 miles from Damascus. We say goodnight and retire to our respective sleeping places.  

Today's stats: 11 miles, 1800 feet gain

Trail Stats: 464 miles, 109,000 feet elevation gain

Appalachian Trail Day 42 - Ridgetop Campsite to Double Spring Shelter - Hello Friend! (Mile 441.5 to Mile 452.5)

We had an uneventful night last night, thank goodness!  No bears in camp, and our food remained unmolested.  I woke briefly to realize the foot end of my hammock was hung a smidge too low and as a result, my body slid enough for my feet to be touching the end of the hammock.  I briefly thought to myself "I should get up and fix this," but rolled over and went straight back to sleep.  And I slept so well.  The temperature is about 50 degrees on the ridge with no wind. 

GG is already up and packed and enjoying breakfast while I get my life together.  Thankfully we have nowhere to be and nothing to do but hike.  We have no agenda: we will decide where to stop when we feel like stopping.  Total and utter freedom. 

We collect extra water since the next two water sources are described in app as "take a 200-foot side trail to a water source."  That is code for "you will have to walk a hell of a long ways down off the trail and then hike back up with your heavy water bladder."  

Appalachian Trail Day 41 - Boots Off Hostel to Campsite - Bears and Butterflies (Mile 429 to Mile 442)

 I want to practice some self-love this morning and give a big shout out to my feet.  And my knees.  And my hips.  My hands for holding my hiking poles.  And my shoulders and back for holding my pack.  Looking at my Fitbit, I realize I have walked one-half million steps the last two weeks. 

We weigh our packs on the scale on the deck.  No way in Hell is GG's pack lighter than mine!  I am really in shock. Even with her fanny pack and all that stuff hanging off her pack, hers is lighter.  I am very happy for her for finally paring down some of her weight, but how did mine get heavier?  The cheese and extra water can't wait this much.  GG gloats as we hoist our packs.  

Appalachian Trail Day 40 - Laurel Falls Stealth Site to Boots Off Hostel and Amazing Outdoor Showers (Mile 422 to Mile 429)

 Good morning!  Last night was THE best night of sleep yet this trip!  The temperature is perfect for sleeping outside, and the stream provided the best white noise.  The second my head hit the pillow I was out, and I don't think I moved at all last night until 6 am when I woke to water the leaves.  I was surprised to find GG still asleep in her tent, so went back to bed and didn't wake again until 7:30.  

We have options for our hike today: Plan A, which is hike 16 miles and 4500 feet to the next shelter, or Plan B, which is hike 7 miles and 2,000 feet to Boots Off Hostel at Watauga Lake. We weren't planning on stopping again so soon after leaving the last hostel, but we are a day ahead of schedule, plus Kodiak is planning on staying there.  The comments on Far Out about Boots Off Hostel are overwhelmingly positive. The hostel is purported to have the hottest outdoor shower of the trail, and I am a sucker for a good outdoor shower. So, Plan B it is! 

Appalachian Trail Day 39 - Forest Road 293 to Laurel Falls Stealth Site (Mile 409 to Mile 422)

GG and I are both up at 6:30 am.  My stuff is mostly packed, so other than dressing, and brushing my teeth, I only need to stuff my down quilts and sleeping clothes in my pack.  I make some coffee in the kitchen and eat some breakfast.  

My backpack feels ridiculously heavy from the fresh resupply.  I now have five days of food in my pack.  To compensate, I will carry a minimal amount of water to save some weight. Fortunately, water is relatively abundant on the next section. 

Mountain Harbor Hostel

Appalachian Trail Day 38 - Forest Road 293 to Mountain Harbor Hostel in Reverse - Happy Memorial Day! 400 MILES!! And Back with Kodiak! (Mile 409 to Mile 395)

We are the first ones up in the hostel this morning.  It's surprising quiet, regardless of the number of people sleeping in this building.  I awake at 6:30 am when I think I hear a baby crying, even with my earplugs in.  Half dreaming, I think I am home and hear my infant grandson crying.  I wake up, remembering where I am. I investigate and find the old cat sitting on the landing between the floors, crying for attention.   I pett her for a bit and then curl up quietly on the sofa in my down top quilt, answering emails until other hikers wake.  A German Shepard comes in to say hello.