Trail Days - May 16-19th

Trail days is a huge reunion for current and past AT hikers. It is a yearly event hosted by the town of Damascus. Every year hikers swarm by the thousands to join the festivities. From the beginning I knew I wanted to check it out, however, I didn't know how I was going to get there. To force myself to go I had Christine (my support crew, if you will) mail my packages to Damascus, leaving me with no choice but to go.
Because I had left the group and started hiking on my own I knew that for me to get to Trail Days I was going to have to find another group to join up with. The problem with finding others to hike with was that just about everyone stopped in Daleville and didn't hike on. As a result I had only saw two hikers for a couple days, Gumby and Jerico. Neither one of them had any intention of going to trail days....I had my work cut out for me. I worked on trying to convince both of them to join me and hitchhike the 200miles from Glasgow back to Damascus. Jerico wouldn't budge. He had plans to meet his family in Harpers Ferry and nothing would sway him from this plan. Luck was on my side and Gumby caved. I now had someone to hitchhike with!!!!
To be honest I was a little nervous as now it was up to me to get the both of us to Trail Days and I really had no plan. On the 16th we woke up and hiked the last 12miles out to the road. Once we got there we started thumbing trying to get a ride into town (6miles away). An older gentleman picked us up and drove us past town to a gas station on I-81. From there all we had to do was catch a ride south. Simple right??? I think this exit was the quietest exit on the entire interstate. After sitting for thirty minutes and only having two cars pass us we decided to go down on the interstate and stand in the grassy V between the on ramp and the main road. Success! We stood there for about fifteen minutes, luckily no cops drove by, and a guy, who was also going to trail days, stopped. We had a ride the whole way!!!! Amazing!!! We got off the trail at 11:30 and we were in Damascus by 4, perfect! We actually made it to Damascus before other hikers who had arranged a ride in advance.

To house all of the hikers the town of Damascus set aside an area called tent city. Basically tent city was a giant field that you were able to pitch your tent in. The surrounding woods were also game and most people pitched their tents in there. I foolishly tried to find a "quiet" area and set up the furthest from the woods I good get. I would soon find out that there was no such thing as quiet.

The atmosphere in tent city was full of energy and chaos. The best way that I can describe it is...picture the craziest Halloween party that you can imagine. Everyone's true identity was safely hidden behind their hiker persona and as a result they were quite comfortable with throwing all normal social confines to the wind. The epicentre of everything was located within the woods. At one point there was a twelve foot high bonfire with about thirty people dancing around it to the rhythm of six drums and about a hundred people surrounding them. You could find almost anything in the woods; a social circle for just about everyone. There were gatiars, fiddles, Irish flutes, bag pipes, a rave section (including strobe lights), hillbillies, hippies, drum circles, people giving out free beer, people giving out free food, etc. It was the most unique collection of people I've ever seen.

True to the southern states the biggest supporter of the weekend was the local missionary. They provided free laundry and showers in a disaster relief trailer they had set up in tent city. They were also constantly giving away free food. Volunteers also provided free foot massages, skin cancer checks, and medical help. Through the entire weekend I only spent thirteen dollars and I ate like a king!

One of my concerns about going to trail days was that I would get bored with being off the trail for four days. Gladly, that was never the case. There was always some kind of an event going on. They had presentations from past hikers (the second person to hike the AT was there), presentations on other hikes including the Annapurna circuit, live music, and about one hundred different booths set up with various vendors. The biggest event of the weekend is the parade. For the parade the hikers all gather and walk down the streets of Damascus. Basically, it is a giant water fight between the locals and the hikers. This year there was about five thousand hikers that were present (less than past years). Sadly, this year the parade ended in tragedy. At the start of the parade an individual had a heart attack and drove their vehicle through the throngs of hikers. It ended up being complete chaos as the ambulances that were in the parade were now trying to get turned around and make their way back through the packed street while the hikers and locals were ambushing one another with water guns and garden hoses. Needless to say, it was not a fun sight and it quickly put a heavy tone over the rest of the days events. Two helicopters and about six ambulances rapidly carried away the injured hikers. One of the hikers I knew. She was extremely lucky; ending up underneath the car she came away with only a broken foot. Sadly, her hike is over, but in eight weeks her foot should be healed. I never did hear who was in the helicopters or the extent of their injuries. I wish them all the good luck I can muster!

On a happier note Gumby and I had to find a way back to the trail. Again, I had nothing planned. Sunday morning came around and one of the vendors offered to drive us; however, there was a catch. He was leaving in ten minutes and I had no idea where Gumby was. Unfortunately, I was unable to find Gumby and we lost our ride. We decide we'd go for breakfast and then figure something out. After breakfast we stood at the main intersection in town with our cardboard sign and hoped. Within five minutes a truck stopped and offered us a ride to I-81, sixteen miles away, but we had to sit on the back on the truck. Only in rural places can you get away with riding on the back of a truck for that distance. Once at the interstate we stood on the on ramp next to ten signs stating "no stopping", "no standing", "no hitch hiking". I've never seen that many signs on a single onramp before! Two guys, who were going to Ohio, stopped. They planned only on going to hwy 77 and dropping us off there. Again, luck was on our side and with the offer of gas money we were able to convince them to drive three hours out of their way and take us directly to the trail head. It was pretty amazing! Gumby and I were back on the trail by two o'clock, giving us enough time to put in eleven miles!

Overall it was a great time. I'm very glad I went and I am amazed how everything worked out. It was great to meet up with people that I hadn't seen on the trail in quite a while. It was a great reunion. I'm also amazed at how easy it was to hitchhike on the interstate...


Pictures: part of tent city; Nova cutting my bangs; my resupply box that I picked up in Damascus - customs opened it and did a poor job at closing it; Momma goose and I ,with goggles in hand, getting ready for the parade.

Happy Mother's Day - May 11 and 12

Randomly along the trail you can stumble across old tombstones and the remains of old buildings. Today was no different. The trail found its way through farmers fields and at the edges of the fields there were old chimneys standing alone and there were a couple grave sites from the early 1900s. I find the grave sites the most interesting because depending on the local you talk to you can get quite the story about the people who use to live there and how the government came to acquire the land for the trail.
Today The terrain was quite undulating, providing me with a couple 1500 foot climbs. At the top of one climb I followed the ridge line for about five miles. The ridge had these interesting rock structures on top of it. There must have been about thirty of them. Most of them had collapsed with the weight of time but some of them stood strong; standing in a circular construction with the centre filled in with rocks. I can only guess what purpose they held and everyone that I talked to was as perplexed as I was. The best suggestion was that at one time they were hollow in the middle and were used during a war to ambush the opposing soldiers while providing protection... Who knows??
The trail also passed by a memorial for the most decorated American soldier of world war II. The soldiers name was Audie Murphy and earned 24 decorations including three Purple Hearts. He died close to the site of the memorial in 1971 in a plane crash.
That night I ended up out running another thunderstorm. However, I was able to reach my destination in time and find refuge in my tent! Another success day of keeping my feet dry!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!
Today was a day full of interesting sites. One of which I have been looking forward to since I decided to hike the trail. The first one that I came across was Dragons Tooth. Dragons tooth is a stone monolith on the side of a mountain. It provided me with boundless entertainment as I scrambled along its surface. It turned out to be the perfect spot for an early morning snack as it had excellent views of the valley below. The trick was following the trail down off of dragons tooth. This was the most "technical" section of the trail I had crossed yet; requiring the use of both hands to help lower myself down over the rock. In some places they installed mental rods to provide foot placements/hand holds.
Once further along the trail I decided to reward my body with real food. I hadn't had a real meal in quite a while and there was a family style all you can eat restaurant about a mile off the trail. On my way there I met Finder and Sugarbombs. We decided to get a table together. However, we were not prepared for what we saw once we arrived. We had all remembered that today was Mother's Day but we never thought that would influence our ability to get a home cooked meal. Man were we wrong! We arrived to a 2.5hr wait for a table (there were A LOT of hungry families there). The place was absolutely packed! Luck was on our side and a hiker had arrived about an hour ahead of us and we were able to join him and as a result we only waited an hour :). The meal was a typical southern meal: deep fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, beans, green beans, gravy, etc. and BISCUITS!!! The biscuits were amazing! I probably ate at least six of them. After eating as much as we possibly could we waddled back to the trail and hiked the last four miles to McAfee knob. This is the place I had been waiting to see. I will try to post pictures of it. Basically it is a piece of rock that juts out into space off the top of a mountain and below it is about 1000' of air. It's a truly beautiful place. You can actually sit on the edge of the rock and let your feet dangle with nothing but open air below them. I took some photos with the classic yoga poses and watched the sun retire for the evening. It was a great way to end the day.

Total miles: 708
Total days: 46

Going solo May 9 and 10th

I have been travelling with the same group for a full month now (I met Sleeping beauty, Puddin and Patty cakes on April 8th as we left Fontana Damn and entered the Smokies). We all get along great but I had an urge to carry on solo. The group was planning on hanging around Pearisburg for the majority of the day and then head out on the trail in the late afternoon. The sun was out and the sky was blue. My spirits were high and my feet dry so I said my goodbyes, with the promise of meeting back up at Trail Days, and decided to take advantage of the sun. I headed back onto the trail alone.

I had been craving the "me time" for a while now and it was an enjoyable change of pace. It is quite amazing how beautiful and lush everything appeared after so many days of rain. For lunch I stopped at a gorgeous lookout where I met Fig (a girl also hiking solo) and Novy (a guy from Bedford NOVA SCOTIA... The province is well represented out here!). After the lookout the trail ran along a ridge (remember there is no alpine terrain so the term ridge is used loosely) with spectacular views of farm land. The colours were impeccable with different hues of orange and red being the most prominent overlay.

I didn't stop hiking for the day until 7:30pm as I made more of an effort to slow down and absorb the scenery around me. I even joined Fig and Novy for a 20min meditation session. That night I also met Hot Dog (an aspiring psychologist), All The Way (a 65yo veteran), Garbage Man (a college graduate of marine biology) and his girlfriend (who sadly I cannot remember her name but is a college graduate of biology), and Oatmeal (unfortunately I didn't catch her story).

This morning I gave myself permission to sleep in. I awoke at 6am but rolled over and went back to sleep until 7:30. It was so nice to have a relaxed morning. Puddin and Patty cakes were early risers (they like to be on the trail for 7am) and my competitive side had a hard time letting them go ahead of me. As a result, I usually found myself racing to try and get on the trail before them. So, this morning it was nice to have a break from competitive Jenna :-).

Today was a great day for the starving hiker. I stumbled upon two stashes of trail magic. One was a mixture of greens (tomatoes, bread, avocados, spinach, sandwich meat, and yellow pepper) which I gladly used to make myself the most amazing sandwich. I guess I forgot the golden rule of not taking food from strangers or not to eat random perishables found along the roadside :). The other was a pleasant surprise. Halfway up a 1300 foot climb someone had stashed cans of pop and the most delicious treat ever - oatmeal cream pies. It ended up being a much needed sugar rush as the sugar gave me the power to outrun an approaching thunderstorm and I was able to hike the last five miles to the shelter and pitch my tent before the rain started.

Today I met numerous other hikers (most of the people I am catching started hiking around the first or second week of March). For the majority of the day I chatted and hiked with Gumby (an ex marine). Tonight as I write this there are five people sleepily dozing in the shelter and eight tents set up around it. The names that I remember are Novy, Fig, Oatmeal, Gator, All the Way, two section hikers: Emily and John, Two thru hikers who didn't have trail names and preferred to keep to themselves, Big Foot, Raisin Bran Kid, and Big John.

Total miles: 668
Total days: 44

Picture is from a sign I passed today. I thought I would share just in case people forgot what the wilderness was. Too funny! I will try to post more photos in the future. They are currently all on my camera and not on my phone.

Smiles!!!!

Rain rain and more rain

Rest days are great however, when you leave town you end up in a hiker bubble (high concentration on hikers). Leaving Damascus was no different. The first night out there were nine hikers, in addition to our group of seven, who stayed at the same campsite. To help us get away from the bubble our group pushed on and completed twenty miles. It was an interesting day as the trail took us through Grayson highland park. The park is home to a large number of wild horses and we were actually fortunate enough to get close enough to pet them! I offered ten dollars to anyone who would ride one but sadly no one took me up on my offer. Nova did however take the prize, sighting eight horses! The day ended with more trail magic consisting of hotdogs and pop...yum!

Trail magic always seems to stop us in our tracks so we (sleeping beauty, nova, puddin, patty cakes, night rider, spanky, and etch-a-sletch) decided to pitch our tents there for the night. That night the wind gusted and the rain fell. Unfortunately, night rider and sleeping beauty both had rain get into their tarp tents and soaked all of their stuff. As a result, they both high tailed it to the next road so that they could hitchhike into town and dry off. I waited a couple of hours to see if the rain would die off (which it never did) and then worked up the courage to brave the elements.
I managed to put in twenty miles that day and was happy to see nova, puddin and patty cakes come up the trail and join me for the night.

I left the group to head into Marion, VA to make some phone calls and pick up a package. To my surprise, and the groups, I was able to catch back up that day putting in another 14miles after 2:30. The terrain in VA is a little more flat and we often find ourselves hiking through farmers fields (with cows in the field). It's a welcome change in scenery.

For the past four days we've had rain every day! Yesterday I arrived in Pearisburg after hiking, sometimes calf deep, through mud, overflowing streams and low lying branches. It was definitely type two fun. Sadly, I am regretting my decision to forgo rain pants. I fully expected the temperatures to be much warmer by now and with all this rain I am officially freezing my butt off. Hopefully, the sun will come out and the rain will disappear....right...the forecast for the next two days is...RAIN! :-)

Well...I am back on the trail this morning. I hope everyone is doing well back home.

Total mileage: 630
Total days: 42

Ps - the picture is what your feet will look like after 550miles. Enjoy! :-)

Rest Day(s)

I spent 2.5 days in Demascus. It was nice to be off of my feet but I was ready to get back on the trail. Everyone thought i was crazy because on the last day in town I borrowed a bike and went for a hour long ride. I guess people aren't use to my craziness :). The bike ride was exactly what I needed. It was amazing to move that fast. After averaging approx 2.5mph for the last month my senses were on overload as I sprinted along the creeper trail laughing like a little kid.

After struggling with my 40lb pack coming out of Hot Springs I elected to send half of my food ahead to another town. This time I left town with only 25lbs on my back. I am going to require huge amounts of personal control so that I don't bust out 25+mile days with such a light pack. I guess time will tell.

Spring is starting to reach the higher elevations now and it is quite interesting to watch the world morph into a new season. The birds are more active and the smells from the blosums are quite strong. Coming into town is also an interesting experience as all of my senses are heightened. The noise from cars and other machinery, the smell of fresh cut grass, and speed at which vehicles rush by are all much more noticable. It is going to be interesting returning to a large city after sending another 4 months living like a nomad in the American woods.

Day 31 April 26

This morning I woke feeling fully rested. It is a rare occurrence for me to wake and be up and ready to take on the world. However, this morning I woke at 6:30 and I had my bag packed, breakfast ate and was on the trail by 6:50. The hiking came easy for me today and I found myself zipping along at 3+mph. The trail followed a "ridge" today with views of watauga lake for the majority of the day. It was quite beautiful. The trail is also quite quiet now. Today I only saw six other people while hiking. I figured this had a lot to do with me starting so early so I took a mid day siesta and then stopped to make a hot lunch and still no one caught up to me. It was actually quite nice to have the trail to myself. That evening I stopped after 25miles at double spring shelter. There six other hikers caught up to me, however, none of them were anyone I knew.

Rain is in the forecast so I think I will try to make my way into Damascus tomorrow.

Day 29 April 24

After drying out our gear we decided to take an easy day. This proved to be an excellent decision. Today the trail took us by three major waterfalls. They were absolutely beautiful and we all took full advantage of mother natures natural shower. It had been almost ten days since any of us had showered so off we went with the camp soap and bandanas in hand. The water took your breath away but man it was extremely refreshing to get some of the grime off and a lot of fun to splash around in the water.
We also crossed another milestone today. We have now hiked 408miles!!! Only 1777 more to go :)