I camped out last night at a shelter. It got a little chilly early in the morning but not too bad. I ate a quick breakfast, packed up and hit the trail. As usual it warmed up pretty quickly as I got moving.
I crossed over hwy TN 91 into a big green pasture. I could see a barn just up ahead. Even from far away I could see a huge AT logo on it. Needless to say the owner of the barn and land was hiker friendly. I made it to the barn and snapped some pics and captured some video of the view of the surrounding area. It was beautiful. Rolling hills, mountains, and there was an old truck parked there as well. “Parked” as in it looked like it had been there for years and hadn’t been moved. Someone told me this was the only part of the AT that was wheelchair accessible. What about the part of the AT that goes down the sidewalks of Hot Springs I thought.
The terrain and elevation throughout the day was fairly easy. It was cloudy with a light breeze so it never go too hot or too cold. Cows mowed as I crossed through the pastures, woodpeckers were pecking, birds were singing. It was a very enjoyable hike. I crossed over the Tennessee – Virgina border…. my 4th state! As I started down the mountain into Damascus, I could hear the sounds of cars revving their engines as they started and stopped in town. Also the roaring sounds of the river as it made its way through the city.
Damascus is the home of the annual Trail Days celebration. Current thru hikers, past and future, all come together to celebrate this hike. It used to be a week long celebration. Now it’s just 3 days. There’s a parade and vendors come from all over to setup booths to market their hiking / camping related products. They plan this event every year when they believe the most people will be in the area as they hike northbound up the AT. Since I started a little early, I was ahead of the “bubble,” and this Trail Days.
The trail came down out of the woods and crossed between two homes. It’s like it went through their yards into town. There’s a big AT welcome sign I went through and took a sidewalk to check out the Wheel of Freedom memorial. There’s a really old AT shelter in the park I guess to show visitors what shelters along the AT look like. The trail follows alongside a beautiful river until you get to a bridge which you cross to head into the downtown area. It was like a ghost town though. No one was really out and most stores were already closed. It was later in the day and on a Sunday too. I could only imagine what this place would look like during Trail Days.
I had some work I needed to catch up on so I decided to book a room at Wood Chuck Hostel. They had private rooms for a very reasonable price. I arrived and immediately ran into Tom, Spirit and Sookie. The section hikers I ran into during the past few days. The women that was working at the hostel took me to my “room”… or the shed out back I should say. Yes it was literally a shed with a window, bed and a plug in ac / heating unit and a tv. Wow, well I guess I’d have some privacy, but geez.
I threw my stuff down on the bed and headed back into the house where the others were. They mentioned grabbing some dinner. So we all walked down to a local pizza place and ordered some pizza and drinks. We ate while we got to know each other a little better. When we got back to the hostel we sat in the house where the bunk beds were and talked some more. I wish I had just gotten a bunk bed instead. It was half the price and everyone seemed really cool.
The lady working at the hostel came into the room and told us the owner was sick and said we could all leave and she’d refund our money if we wanted. We all kind of looked at each other strangely thinking the same thing. Seemed a little dramatic we thought. We found out later why. But at that time we decided to stay.
I finally wished everyone goodnight and went out to my “he shed” for the evening. I was able to catch up on a few hours of work before finally passing out in bed. So I guess the extra money for the privacy was well spent.
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