START LOCATION: Abingdon Gap Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Damascus, VA
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 10.2
TRIP MILEAGE: 463.5
MILES TO GO: 1,715.6
Four of us sheltered last night... Moonpie, Little Brown, Sticks and
I. The 3 were all in various stages of stirring and packing up at
6:15AM. I peeked my head out of the sleeping bag and said... "What's
with you guys? You're acting like there's beer at the end of this
trail or something." and Moonpie, in his thick southern accent said...
"Because there is." I responded... "Good enough for me!" and joined
'em. The 6 or so tenters weren't far behind. There's a different feel
around camp on the morning of a nero into town. There's an extra
spring in your step, there's very little breakfast cooked, there's a
lot more goofing around, a lot of silly nonsense spewn about and a
general giddiness in the attitude. It's all appreciated and
understood... Extra motivation nuggets this particular morning... 1.
Beat the forecasted afternoon rain, 2. Cross out of Tennessee and
into Virginia. It was town time.
We were all out in a 20 minute window flanking 7:30... One of my
earliest starts yet. We had dreams of chicken fried steak, coffee and
brewskies. The trail down to Damascus was pretty tame and smooth. We
were moved quickly, shaking off the congealed lactic acid in our legs
from yesterday's 22.
We reached the border, we took a few photos and basked in the glory of
crossing another milestone. But it was town time, so we rolled on. We
cruised into Damascus around 11:30 under brilliant sunshine. The town
common was a gorgeous emerald green... From the lawn right up to the
budding trees. A few of the homeowners nearby were mowing their lawns
and the smell of freshly mowed grass topped off the complete
springtime feel. Lots of familiar faces around town and the welcoming
storefronts all made mention of AT services and support. We felt right
at home.
We got our bunk at the Mount Rogers Outfitters and locked up our
stuff. We got sodas at the gas station for our wAit at the Dairy King
diner... And god bless them and their menu... Chicken Fried Steak, 2
sides a dinner roll and coffee... 8 bucks.
Everyone had various tasks around town, maildrops, laundry, resupply,
etc... All with the understanding that we'd meet at Quincey's Pizza
Joint to celebrate reaching "The Friendliest Town on the AT". Boy did
we celebrate. I caught up with Thrasher, Turkey, Cowgirl, Diesel and
Sheryl from Amesbury, Bama, Mikey Southbound, Scott the section hiker
and met a whole bunch of locals and even a cross country cyclist, Dana
who's recently begun her bike trip to Oregon. Dana was great. She was
very interested in our trek and asked a lot of great questions about
our way of life. She even got all of us together for a group photo
which was a really great one... She'll be uploading it to us on
facebook soon.
We had a great day & evening... Especially being able to watch the
Celtics dominate the Heat in Game 2. Looking forward to resupplying,
laundry, a library visit and my biggest must-do of the day... Lose
this scraggly, hot, itchy, stinky, crumb collecting beard... I'm so
over it. I'll let the mane grow for the duration... If I don't get
sick of that too. Ha.
-natedog
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