Damascus, Virginia

Greetings from Damascus!

Good gracious it's been a while! Glad to see if anyone reads this and is thinking about me. The last few days have been a major adventure and I've had a pleasant time.

I'll start off with where I left off-- Erwin, Tennessee. I got out of Erwin and did a short resupply at one of the convenience stores and made my way out of town. It wasn't quite that simple though, for the fact rides were tough to get within town. I had a ride from a woman in a very old pickup truck and she was on her cellphone much of the time-- on the floor were a pair of children's shoes, super tiny converses and it made me smile.

Second ride was from an older woman, I'd say 60's who was heading to the trail anyways. She dropped me off amid some conversation on a trail name for me (she recommended peanut butter jelly to me seeing as my initials are PJ but I wasn't sold on it). I went the five miles or so up from Erwin to the first shelter leaving Fozzie and Phil at the Super 8-- it was quite an incline up to the shelter and I stopped near the top to give my sister a call-- we talked for about 30 minutes and then I got in for the night. There were numerous people at the shelter already-- mainly section hikers and they all were partying to some degree. I had space in the shelter to sleep  and even though it was rainy, it wasn't full, even with one of the section hiker's dogs taking up about two spaces.

It rained during the night and I didn't get much sleep-- it down poured for a solid hour and there was a great deal of lightning around midnight which began to wake me up every few minutes. Thankfully, the lightning sufficed and I got a few hours of sleep before the snoring incident.

The snoring incident went as follows: the guy to my right in the shelter started make a noise equivalent to the sonorous sound of logs being cut-- a guy about four over to my left couldn't stand it, poked everyone until they got to me and I asked "should I shake him or something?"
"Yea, shake that motherfucker, he's snoring like a freight train."

I shook the guy mildly until he stopped, he rolled over and we had a few minutes of repose before he began another noise entirely different-- more of a long V like at the beginning of Valkyrie type of noise. I poked him again and he turned to his side facing me where he proceeded to take deep breaths and blow them out through his cheeks-- this was good for everyone but me so I had to keep poking him throughout the night. At first I felt bad having to touch another human being but after a while, probably because of the dark conditions, I felt as much respect for him as a child feels for a whack-a-mole machine. I didn't sleep well and the next day left me groggy.

The next day I was again solo, not really knowing anyone that was out there but I felt okay being ahead-- it gave me room to ruminate and take a long day of hiking. I settled my pace and wound up pulling a 20-mile day all of the way to greasy creek gap near a hostel. That's really about all I remember of the day, sadly, there just wasn't much to it other than seeing some fascinating rock faces and literally going without saying more than 20 words the whole day. I did eventually get to the gap and I could have gone to the hostel but an extra .6 miles just didn't sound very good to me-- I began setting up my tent when a man approached me from the hostel and mentioned everything that was down there. I can't guess if it was my tired face or if I was really not in-tune with my words but the guy said he was sorry if he bothered me and I told him that he hadn't bothered me one bit and he was very kind. He proceeded to go down to the water source and bring back a few handfuls of wild lettuce which I thanked him for and began to eat-- they had a really good flavor, kind of like spinach. We started talking a little, I came a bit more to my senses and we had a discussion about the hotel's neighbor who keeps taking their signs down and sabotaging things for hikers-- it made me a little wary of sleeping at the gap but I decided to anyways.

For my first night sleeping alone, it went rather well. I slept like a baby and only woke up three times in the night. Once because a random bird started up, another because I heard something rustling in the woods and once more because I heard something on my tent string that made it twang loudly for a second. All-in-all, I wasn't scared and I had a few long dreams that made for an interesting night.

I left early and found Byline (Josh) hiking out from a shelter a short bit away-- we talked for a long while, about relationships and his ex, about my attraction to Bridgette and while talking about her, we actually came very close to her so I'm not sure if she heard any of the conversation. We started walking with Bridgette and I thought it might be my chance to get to know her better and flirt a little bit-- it didn't go as planned as I found through the next few days she just really isn't my type. Anyways, we all hiked together to Overmountain shelter which made for a pretty long day-- it's a converted barn that holds about 20 people and we slept there with a troupe of boy scouts. The evening went on, I talked to Mitch on the phone, my best friend from back in Sioux Falls and it was great to hear from him and know he is doing well-- told him my plans to hopefully move back to Sioux Falls when I finish and work up enough to have money again and my phone died shortly after. 
Night went on well until about 1am-- i woke up, as I often do in shelters and a mouse ran from Bridgette (she slept next to me that night) and went over my sleeping bag and across my head to the side of the barn. I got up and yelled "fuck me" and started slamming everything in sight with the palm of my hand... I didn't sleep well the rest of the night.

The next day, I waited until Bridgette was ready and we hiked up Roan Mountain-- a gigantic, treeless mountain with several false summits, a whipping wind and a bunch of cows. It felt awesome to summit and as I reached the top, Honey Badger came by and had a break with us on the top of the mountain. He went ahead at his quick pace and we came across a set of cows (one of which was a male cow, looking at us menacingly) and I noticed Honey Badger's phone laying in the mud. I picked the phone up and carried it with me the rest of the day.

Made it to a road crossing for the town Roan Mountain and went to town, hitchhiked on my own (Bridgette and Josh went ahead to the next shelter), got subway and a brief resupply and then went on my way. As I was heading back to the trail, I saw Fozzie and Phil hitchhiking into town, I realized they were very close behind.

Got to the trail, hiked on and saw three waterfalls and a vast change in terrain-- it went from mountains and streams to big, dry fields and close rocks with snakes. I saw a copperhead cross the trail while I was hiking and let it pass on, I really don't have a problem with them as long as they don't go near me. It's amazing the stuff I used to be afraid of and I now just don't care about-- I am afraid of bumble bees usually because they buzz so loud and act like stray dogs that want to come bite your leg... err sting it, now I see at least 20 a day and I don't give a shit what they're doing, I'm on my own path.

Side note on one of the waterfalls, I hiked a back trail to the first one and took a shower-- the heat was stifling again! I had to take off my shirt and hike without it for a while as it dried in the afternoon but it was still sweltering. I passed a cemetery while I hiked and then stayed at one of the shelters where I found Bridgette, Josh and a kid from Texas named W, again. We stayed up and talked for a while, this was around the point I became less attracted to Bridgette and then I went to sleep. I also slept next to a massive bear statue, Josh told me it was our protector.

Can't remember much of the next day other than more hiking with Bridgette, more talking, less interest and we eventually got to Kinkora hostel. Stayed there for the evening and took the shuttle into town at 5-- I ate a pizza from Little Ceasar's, resupplied and then had a quart of chocolate milk. My stomach started acting up that night but I thought I'd be fine the next day-- everyone left but Josh who took a zero, another kid who took a zero, then I took off around noon because I thought i'd be alright-- I wasn't. I made it about 2 miles in after Kinkora hostel and I had to take a side trail back into Hampton, Tennessee because I began to vomit and get terrible stomach cramps. The rocks around the waterfall I passed didn't help-- they were sharp and I had to stop a few times because it made it feel like a bee was stinging straight through my shoes. Eventually took the side trail and got a ride into Hamptom by Subway, called the hostel and found out I wasn't in the right spot, the guy who gave me the first ride gave me another ride to the proper road and I stood there for 20 minutes in the hot heat, feeling miserable and nobody picked me up. The road wasn't frequented by cars, a few shady folks passed by and I wouldn't have wanted rides from them if they had offered. I eventually realized I was next to a hostel and I went to the grocery store to see if I could get a room but I wasn't willing to pay 25$ for a night's stay. I got a gatorade, sat in the shade and had to sum up a great deal of courage to get moving again-- it sucks to get up from being sick, I felt like a fighter that was down for the count and wondering if I should just lay down or get back up and slog on when I wasn't even sure if I'd make it to the hostel or not. I waited at the road again and finally, after 20 more minutes (and ready to give up) I got a ride from a guy who was oddly on the way to the hospital with a broken rib but he said he picked me up because "nobody should have to stand in the heat like that." I thanked him, told him god bless him and was pretty well ready to kiss the man-- I couldn't understand a word he said while he drove me up to the hostel but at least he was kind enough to do it. Thank god for such kindness.

I got to the hostel, took a bunk and then slept on the couch for two hours-- woke up feeling okay, Fozzie and Phil came in to stay for the night and I was back in my group again. I was grateful for the company but I began to worry when I'd get better, if ever. Giardias passed through my mind, hanta virus, all sorts of things... cytosporidum... if I'd catch back up with Bridgette again... I went into town for food and got some probiotic yogurt, some fruit and gatorade and took in all of the good nutrients I could-- it paid off greatly. That night, I saw Lumpy and a guy from Neel's Gap who came up to visit the hostel-- it was awesome seeing them-- they brought two beautiful German hitchhikers who they saw hitchhiking on I-26-- they stayed around the hostel and talked with us before Bob Peoples gave them a ride to the waterfall where they were going to tent for the night. Before they left, they sang Walking Down The Line, a Bob Dylan number and I couldn't help but smile-- little things like that remind me I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be and again that everything works out.

Slept well that night, woke up and my stomach was still a little iffy-- Phil gave me two Immodium and throughout the day, I began to feel better. We did a 16-miler to a campsite and the there wasn't much water on the way, even thought we passed a lake-- I ran out three miles before our spot and just wasn't feeling it-- started to get drowsy, bored, didn't want to do anything so I eventually crawled into my tent after drinking a liter at the spring and didn't leave it for about 12 hours. Next morning we woke up, yesterday morning, we hiked on and because the terrain was "easier", everyone did a 26-mile day to get close to Damascus aside from me as I did a 25 and a quarter (lol). While I felt better, I took many breaks and just took a slow pace until nightfall-- I didn't see many people during the day, ate a lot of special K cereal and missed out on some trail magic because some asshole drank three mountain dews and didn't leave me anything. It was from a church too so I wrote "empty" on the log for the cooler with a sad face, half a mile on I realized I should have wrote
"Boy, what has Jesus done for you?"
"He certainly didn't give me no mountain dew!"

Pressed on to  random campsite and slept alone again. This was a good idea and a bad idea-- the next shelter had a lot of people from what I learned today so I thankfully didn't have a lot of noise to deal with-- the negative side was that I slept under a tree that was dropping huge seeds and they sprang off of my tent like it was a trampoline during the night. The very bad part was that some large animal decided to walk through the brush around my campsite about 150 yards away-- coming closer and closer. The moon was rather bright but I couldn't make out what it was-- I'd say either a large deer (likely) or a bear (meh, not sure)-- it got close until I pulled out my phone, put on my "head of the state" ringtone (by Baracka Flacka Flames) and full blast and heard whatever it was run at full sprint away from my tent, snapping limbs and rustling leaves like crazy.

Woke up in the morning, made it the short distance to the shelter and saw everyone was already gone. I made it to the border of Tennessee and Virginia, passed it with ease and got down to Damascus in a single hour, feeling absolutely perfect like my stomach hasn't bothered me at all. So far in Damascus, I've eaten a Clif bar and I ate at a diner called "Dairy King" where I had some spicy buffalo chicken tenders, fries and some apple pie for under 9$ (and it tasted great). Hopped into the library after seeing Fozzie and Phil (Fozzie was on his way to get a haircut) and now I'm contemplating what to do for the rest of the day. Not sure whether to take a zero or now, the dorsiflexors on my left foot are tired from so much walking but we'll just have to see tomorrow. til then, much love and peace to you :)

Oh, I'm staying at "The Place" run by a Methodist church-- pretty neat so far!

Much love, take care!